WHEN LEO & SAM GOT HITCHED...

Copyright relevant owner

Looking at the above cover, it's difficult for me to believe that it's over 41-and-a-half years old, and that I was a secondary school pupil when I bought it.  It somehow seems to slot in more with my memories of primary school than my teenage years, though I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's simply because it's typical of the kind of comic I read as a primary school pupil and is therefore a more comfortable fit with that particular period of my life.  (Whatever.)

The above comic was the first 'great' combined issue of LION &THUNDER, and as I had been an avid reader of all 22 issues of Thunder in its solo incarnation, it was only natural that I would continue my association with it in its 'double-act' form.  Looking at the comic now, it seems a tad peculiar just how predominantly 'Thunder' it is, with the Lion contingent consisting of only 4 strips totalling 9 pages.  Thunder, on the other hand, is represented by 7 strips, totalling 19 pages in all.  More a case of 'Thunder & Lion' than the other way around.

On the Lion side, we had CARSON'S CUBS, ZIP NOLAN, The SPELLBINDER, and MOWSER - with the Thunder team of BLACK MAX, FURY'S FAMILY, PHIL The FLUTER, The JET-SKATERS, STEEL COMMANDO, ADAM ETERNO, and The JIG-SAW JOURNEY.  (Also, Lion's LEO, and Thunder's SAM - formerly BIFF from WHAM! - each make a brief headshot appearance, offering £1 for jokes and letters, and inviting readers to "SEND 'EM IN!")

The preponderance of Thunder strips strikes me as curious, because when two weeklies merged (due to declining sales of one of them), the subsumed title was traditionally the junior partner in the page stakes.  It makes me wonder if Lion and Thunder were merged because the former was in trouble, rather than the latter.  If so, Lion, as the much older title by about 20 years, was obviously accorded top-billing, even though not much of its content remained.

However, this is mostly speculation on my part and there's no real evidence to suggest otherwise in this case.  It just seems odd that Thunder, presumably being the comic in decline (indicating that readers hadn't taken to it), would be so prominently represented in its new home.  Of course, perhaps the publishers were simply using up an inventory of already completed strips, for, within a few short weeks, the number of Thunder characters diminished as the stories reached their conclusion and were replaced by old and new features.

Regardless, Lion & Thunder managed to hold out for another three years, before becoming VALIANT & LION in May of 1974.  (A case of "what goes around, comes around" it seems.)  Enjoy the selection of pages from the first combined issue and relive your own memories of the time.  (If you have any.)  As always, feel free to share any thoughts in the comments section.