The DEMISE Of The VALIANT...

Copyright REBELLION

You know the sense of sadness one feels on learning that an old friend died a good while back, but only just hearing about it?  I suppose that's similar to how I felt when I eventually discovered that VALIANT was no more.  As it was no longer on my list of comics reading during this period, I was probably unaware of its merge into BATTLE until some time after the fact - but even though I'd only bought it when it had subsumed first SMASH! and then TV21 in the early '70s, it still felt like I'd just heard about the passing of an old pal.

I said some time ago that I'd get around to posting some pages from the final issue, so here they are, from a comic I acquired only a few years ago, long after it had bitten the dust.  Making their final appearances in a weekly comic were PACO, STRYKER (with some lovely IAN KENNEDY art), CAPTAIN HURRICANE, and ADAM ETERNO, with CHALLENGE CHARLIE, and The NUTTS taking their last bow too.  BILLY BUNTER would eventually resurface (in the form of reprints) in, I think, WHIZZER & CHIPS, so it's good to know that future readers weren't deprived of REG PARLETT's hilarious and sublime cartooning skills.

The Challenge Charlie strip was a bit of a con in that old scripts from POW's DARE-A-DAY DAVY were often reused, making the offer of a fiver in prize money (absent in the last episode) for accepted suggestions a total lie!  Didn't enough readers respond, or was it a deliberate subterfuge from the outset?  Either way, it's a disgrace that they got away with it.  I wonder if such things still happen today in the meagre selection of weekly (or perhaps that should be weakly) humour comics available in newsagents.   (I can only think of The BEANO - are there any others?)

Still, Valiant can certainly be considered a success, as it lasted from 6th October 1962 until 16th October 1976, which was practically my entire childhood right up until just before I officially (and allegedly) became an adult.  I wish all the comics that I bought (or knew of) as a boy were still around today.  Now that would really be something!  Maybe now that REBELLION owns the copyright to a plethora of old comic titles and strips, we may yet see their return.  I hope so.

Were you a reader of Valiant at any stage during its 14 year run?  Feel free to reminisce in the comments section.

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One other thing: Look at the absolutely awful typeset lettering with badly-shaped balloons in some of the strips, reputedly the result of a dispute between IPC and the lettering artists it used - probably over the page-rate.  It really hurt the look of the strips, and I for one wouldn't mind at all if it were to be replaced with either modern computer or hand-lettering should they ever be reprinted.  What think the rest of you?

     

EXIT TV21, STAGE LEFT...

Copyright relevant owner

Believe it or not (as the famous LEROY ROBERT RIPLEY would say), the above comic is rather significant in its own humble way.  Y'see, this was the very last time that the esteemed name of TV21 appeared on the cover of a British weekly periodical, after around two and a half years of sharing space (as junior partner) with the VALIANT masthead.  For the final four months, the partnership had been in name only, as the last surviving TV21 strip - STAR TREK - had ended in the December 29th 1973 cover-dated issue, The TUFFS Of TERROR ISLAND having preceded it into retirement around a year and a half earlier.

It's true to say that, even before the merger in 1971, TV21 hadn't resembled its original incarnation for quite a while, but its title in some shape or form had been a familiar sight on newsagents' counters since 1965.  Five issues later, the host comic found another partner and a new double-act appeared on the scene, with the name of LION taking the place that TV21 had occupied.  The previous four issues had returned Valiant to solo status during those intervening weeks, but it was sad to see TV21's logo absent after its years of faithful service.  It had been a feature of my childhood in three houses from 1965 to 1974, which seemed a long time to me back then.  (Or does it just seem like that now?) 

Anyway, below are some internal pages to give you a taste of what it was about (excuse the 'bleed-through'). Note the ad which advises readers to place a regular order for Valiant & TV21, even though the latter's name would be absent from the masthead the following issue.  (Looking at the covers for the four 'in-between' issues on eBay, I note that there's still space in the title box for TV21's logo, which suggests it was originally included but removed before publication.)

I sometimes wonder if GERRY ANDERSON or ALAN FENNELL even noticed or lamented TV21's demise, or had it already faded from their day-to-day consciousness long before the curtain came down for the final time?

And thus a legend passed into history.

I wonder if Valiant & TV21's name remained in the indicia 'til the merger with Lion, or was absent once it van-
ished from the cover.  If you have the issues between April 20th & May 25th, check and let me know, will you?