In 1963 we saw the start of Spot The Clue With Zip Nolan Highway Patrol, a two-page story (later extending to three pages) drawn by the superb Joe "Charley's War" Colquhorn. Zip was a U.S. Highway Patrolman from Pensburgh who, each week, was involved in a 'whodunnit' type story that was similar to the Bruce Kent stories of a few years previous. The clues were contained within the story and you simply had to spot them to determine who the villian was. Zip Nolan survived all of Lion's incorporations and even made it into Valiant when the teo titles merged 11 years later. In 1964, we were introduced to Reg Parlett's comical feline Mowser - The Priceless Puss. The strip started as a half-page affair and progressed to the whole back page by 1966. Mowser was the moggy of Crummy Castle and each week we saw Moswer trying to get his cat-nap only for it to be disturbed by a member of the household, usually by the butler James. In fact, by 1966 James got his name into the title frame as the story became Mowser The Priceless Puss And His Enemy James The Butler. Both the characters survived the transition into Valiant in 1974. 1964 also saw the beginning of The Silver Colt, a story about the famous gun and all the exploits that it experienced. There were no stars of the strip other than the gun itself, the rest were just supporting cast. The story lasted up to the summer of 1965. For many, 1965 was the start of Lion's golden era. To come, we were to get Spider, The Waxer, The Spellbinder, Carsons Cubs, Maroc The Mighty, Vic Gunn, Law Of The Legion, Return Of The Stormtroopers and Oddball Oates amongst many, many other excellent stories.

In the summer of 1965 we were introduced to The Spider. Created and written by Superman creator Jerry Siegel and superbly drawn by Reg Bunn. The Spider was a brilliant criminal mastermind who desired to become the uncrowned king of crime. He pocessed some amazing gadgetry including his famous steely-web, the helicar and helium gas bubble. The story initially consisted of just two pages, but quickly increased to 4 and sometimes 5 pages. The layout of the frames was different as well. Instead of the usual 4 rows of drawings we had just 3, which meant that each frame was much more detailed thus accounting for those extra pages. The Spider, who looked a little bit like Star Trek's Mr Spock, started his Lion career as a villian. He was ably assisted by Professor Pelham, a crooked scientst, and Roy Ordini an ex-safecracker. As the story went on, the master of crime declared his intention of smashing Crime Incorporated, an organisation of gangsters, and with the help of the Exterminator they set about "tackling the individual gang-bosses, relentlessly pursuing them to wherever they have hidden their loot and taking it from them!". Although the Spider was a bit of a crook you was always willing him to be successful, usually because his foes were even more crooked. In the end, his two accomplices, Pelham and Ordini, turned against their boss and attempted to take over the organisation. The amazing thing about this story is that it only lasted up until the merger with the Eagle comic in 1969, after this he was only involved in reprints. A really excellent story that did manage to see the light of day once more when Vulcan reprinted his exploits from September 1975. Maroc The Mighty, which started back in October 1964, was set during the great crusade years of the 12th and 13th centuries and revolved around John Maroc and a magic armlet that gave him powers of super strength.....but only when it was exposed to the sun's rays. At night time and when he was in shelter he was just an ordinary warrior. The armlet belonged to the sun warrior Zar and was found by Maroc as he was returning from a crusade. We follow Maroc as he endevours to return home usually encountering the inevitable baddies along the way. The story lasted right up to the 4th June 1966, which was the last week before Lion incorporated the very short-lived comic Champion (just 15 issues).

Jimmi From Jupiter was about an alien, from Jupiter of course, who had stowed away aboard a flying saucer and got marooned on Earth. He had decided to make the best of things and become a normal earth-boy. Only his best pal, George Gilby, knew that Jimmi was from Jupiter and that he had strange 'gamma powers' which often landed them both in trouble but also helped in getting them out of it as well. The story lasted for less than a year. To give the reader a light-herted break, Lion gave us some wonderful humour strips, like the double-paged Lord Harry Of Hardupp Hall - The Last Of The Bigg-Spenders. He was a pennyless peer who tried to impress the local gentry but quite simply didn't have a clue, which was good for us, the readers. The Plants Of Peril were terrible living plants called hydrapods that stalked the English countryside destroying and devouring all they encountered. They looted farms, grocers and houses of all their food and they didn't care who they harmed in order to get it. It was up to Professor Paul Loder and his assistant Whitaker to defeat the hungry horticultural horrors. Secret Agent - come resistance leader - Vic Gunn and his assistant Barrel were involved in an excellent short-lived story which pitted him against the evil Emperor Rudolph. This modern day story had Rudolph ruthlessly seizing power from the rightful British government, who were in exile in Canada. Rudolph had a vast following and a vast array of fearsome weapons which he wasn't afraid to use. Vic Gunn certainly had his work cut out to stop this royal meglomaniac.

There were a few more short-lived stories, like Law Of The Legion which set English agent John Law in the French Foreign Legion on the trail of a traitor. Sir Munchkin - Have Lance Will Travel was a one-page comical relief set in the middle ages and had our hero, Sir Munchkin, assigned to a mission which he used to bungle at first but then, more by luck than judgement, became victorious - quite amusing. The Catapult Kid was William Caley, the schoolmaster of Tombstone, a tough town in the wild west and a town that had Chett Briscoe, the bullying nephew of the dreaded Briscoe gang outlaws. Chett liked nothing more than stirring up a bit of trouble in the knowledge that his uncles would back him up. Caley used his school subject teachings to good effect like when he used a chemical, smoke-screen, experiment to deter the outlaws, as well as using his catapult to assist in his efforts. The Whirlpool Of Weed story pitted newspapermen Bill Hanley and Rick Slade against Diodin, the ruler of a vast, strange continent of floating sea-weed that was sweeping its way along the atlantic to the east coast of the United States. Amongst its growth were sea creatures under the full control of Diodin who wreaked havoc whenever he gave the command. Andy was another one paged comic strip which had Andy picking up every item that wasn't nailed down and bringing it home just in case it might come in handy one day. His family weren't best pleased.

Issue dated the 11th June 1966 saw Lion merge with the very short-lived comic Champion. This first combined issue had 44 pages in it. This count later reduced to 40 for just 7d (3p), still excellent value. The stories running from this merger were Texas Jack's Rescue Ride and was on the cover on this first combined issue. Texas Jack was a US Cavalryman named Colonel Jonathan Morningstar and a close friend of wild Bill Hickok. A no-nonesense military type who led by example on his trusted steed, Fury. The story itself, which were usually complete stories, was quite unusual in that it consisted of 6 pages each week at a time when the going-rate for other stories was either 2 or 3 pages. The strip was well-drawn and well-written. Return Of The Stormtroopers came from Champion and was set in the year 2046, a hundred years after WW2 and General Von Stern and his German Stormtroopers had awoken from a strange frozen sleep, which was another German experiment towards the end of the second world war. When they awoke they discovered a world which had been long at peace and one where all weapons had been destroyed. Vowing that Hitlers long dead Third Reich should rise again, Von Stern struck at England. And because his Stormtroopers were the only people to have weapons, it didn't take him long to conquer a country that Hitler never did. The story continues by following the underground resistance and in particular our hero young Bill Churchill (nice name). Its also worth mentioning that a few months into the story, the year changed from 2046 to 2045. Danger Man was a change of direction in that it was the comic strip version of the Associated Television TV programme of the same name. John Drake, as played by Patrick McGoohan, was a modern day secret agent who often got captured in order to infiltrate unscrupulous governments and murdering gangsters. Another well drawn and well scripted story. Whacker was yet another strip from the Champion comic and a comical one as well. This two-page story had Whacker and his pal, Mac, moving away from the noise of Liverpool to a country house called Hardnutt Hall. However, they soon found that their new home was a diplapidated old building but in the garage was a vintage car, controlled by an electronic brain. After a few hectic adventures the pair decided that country life was too hectic and they eventually moved back to Liverpool where we presume they lived happily ever after.

At the beginning of July 1966, we were introduced to Sergeant Trelawny, in Trelawny Of The Guards. In the early days, this story was always preceded by a one-page historical tribute to the British infantry before the 'story-proper' got under way. It was always a complete four-pager and was, somewhat strangely, never told in chronological order either. So one week it was a story about the 10th Battilion Of The Grenadier Guards from 1945 and the following week if could be about the same regiment from 1941. However, each story always had the wise old Sergeant Trelawny on hand to lead the way. In 1967 the story got renamed to Trelawny's Mob. Lofty Lightyear was more comical relief from the Champion comic. This one-pager told the story of a lanky lad from outer space who was on the run from a mysterious flying saucer that kept on pursuing him. He was later ably assisted by his good friend, Professor Von Nutkaze. To give you some idea of how lanky Lofty was, one issue had some mountaineers scaling him because they thought he was a mountain! September 1966 saw the start of two very popular stories in the shape of Carson's Cubs and Code Name-Barracuda. Carson's Cubs was a football story about third division (that's the old third division) Newton Town and in particular, former star and now manager, Joe Carson. The team had been hit by falling attendances and loss of form and were in danger of folding up. This is when Joe decided to scour the town for talent and discovered three very skilful youngsters. Tiddler Smith, Andy Streak and Rocky Stone, all of whom were 15 or 16 years old. The reserve players had walked out on Joe because he had picked these youngsters ahead of them, which usually meant that all Joe ever seemed to have were 11 players to field. So, along with fighting off the scheming director Arthur Braggart, that's how the story continued with people from all unusual football backgrounds being selected for Newton Town. The story continued right up to 1973 but in true comic tradition, the kids didn't age, yippee!

Code Name - Barracuda started in the same issue as Carson's Cubs (10th Sept 1966)and was about the secret agent appointed by the United Nations, along with his accomplice Frollo, to fight the agents of WAM (a criminal organisation called 'War Against Mankind'). Being the mid-1960's and a time when James Bond was hot, this story was well timed and used many of the gizmo's that we expected a secret agent to have. The only difference between the two was that Barracuda never seemed to have time to find the girl. During the summer of 1966 a nice series of stories started entitled, Bravest Of The Brave. Each week this well-written, double-paged story told of real-life events from many walks of life that depicted true courage. Some had a Naval setting, pioneer setting and some had a dare-devil setting like this one from 1st October 1966. The Phantom Viking was Lion's dip into super-hero waters. Olaf Larsen was a meek and mild school-master who had discovered an ancient Viking helmet which gave him immense strength and the ability to fly whenever he placed it on hid head. He used it to good effect by catching crooks and gangsters. Jinks was a humourous France reprint strip about a chap who is only ever trying to have a peaceful life in his house but seems to keep getting set upon by the rule that says, "If if can go wrong, it will go wrong". Very popular and really quite funny.

Andy's Army belonged to schoolboy Andy Campbell who helped three desperste criminals to escape from a British Army WW2 prison camp that was commanded by his father. Andy led them into Germany to wage guerilla war on the Nazis and although he was only a schoolboy, the three convicts followed Andy's command and built up a bit of respect for the lad. The Day The World Drowned was one of those titles that immediately attracts the attention. A great undersea earthquake had created incredible devastation all over the world, causing land and sea to virtually change places! Our heros were Bill and Jamie Sterling who, not only had to contend with huge tidal waves and flooding, but also had to fight off the local bullies in the shape of the Drage family, headed by the father, Aaron, his sons were enslaving the local residents to build a type of ark in which they intended to escape and leave everyone else behind, but Bill had other ideas. The Mind Stealers started at an eerie mansion when students Steve Smith and Bob Jones saw a terrified man enveloped by glowing, shapless blobs which grew from the ground and attempted to 'take over' any body it came into contact with. The blob then atteptd to do the same to 'Smith and Jones' but for some reason, the lads didn't fall victim and managed to escape which enabled them to alert the village. Unfortunately, the villagers had already been 'got at'. The blobs were from another planet and didn't actually have any diologue, except through the body they had snatched. Swords Of The Sea-Wolves was about a sinister fungus which had menaced ancient Denmark. Anyone who ate it became slave of the unseen power called Helvud. An army of slaves led by the evil Veldi, besieged the Danish settlements at Krull. The artist was Don Lawrence, the creator of the excellent Trigan Empire stories from Ranger and Look & Learn. A closer examination of 'Sea-Wolves' revealed a definite Trigan Empire feel about it.

Issue dated 3rd May 1969 saw Lion incorporate the comic that it originally set out to challenge, Eagle. Eagle's popularity had started to wane since Hulton sold out to Odhams (aka Longacre Press) in 1960. From here until its final issue it became a little bit staid when compared to Valiant, Lion and D.C. Thomson's Victor. The new combined title gave Lion, Dan Dare in a reprint story and The Gladiators. Robot Archie, Zip Nolan, Carson's Cubs, Mowser and reprints of Paddy Payne - Fighter Ace were still going. We were also introduced to five brand new stories in the shape of Turville's Touchstone (later aka The Spellbinder), Lightning Stormm, Gargan, The Waxer and Oddball Oates.

The Gladiators were six Roman slave gladiators that were being hunted by Caesar, when they happened upon a mystic sourcerer who cast a spell over them so that they were transported through time into the middle of WW2. Here they encountered the wrath of the German army firing shells and bullets at them, which our poor gladiators thought were angered Gods sent by Caesar. Lighning Stormm was ex-motor-racing driver Dan Stormm, who had been crippled in a car crash and had now turned his hand to being a race manager. His team were called the Slambangers and he was ably assisted by his mechanic Cappy Ricks and his young protégés including Tommy Kidd, Rod and Pete Boyd. The youngsters used to be troublemakers until Dan put them on the straight and narrow. The team were due to set off for a return to England, when Tommy got caught behind the wheel of a car that was involved in a robbery and shooting, but who professed his innocence. The Waxer was Septimus Creech a waxworks artist for the now dilapidated Palace Of Villiany museum. He had created the figurines of history's wickedest men and he had also managed to buy the building that contained his creations. Each night at midnight his 'children' came to life and carried out acts of a criminal nature. Mike Martin was an ex-policeman who had been booted off the force because he claimed he had seen a highwayman rob a citizen and melt into a heap of wax, was attempting to thwart old Septimus. The Gargan story started in the Himalayas and centred on an old man called Reega The Wise, an orphaned baby called Rhurki and the huge Gargan, the sole surviving specimen of a breed of creatures that roamed the high Himalayas. For years Rhurki had grown up under the guidance of Reega and the companionship of Gargan, until one day a ruthless U.S. showman happened along the two playmates and decided that he wanted Gargan for his show. Cash Maddack was his name and after he fired a tranquiliser dart into Gargan, he thought the rest would be easy. However, he hadn't reckoned on the deep resolve of the creature who managed to stagger home. He was followed by Maddack and a fight ensued. Gargan managed to flip the rifle from Maddacks grip and it narrowly missed a hanging wall mirror. Rhurki warned Gargan not to smash the mirror because Reega would die. Upon hearing this, Maddack grabbed the mirror and threatened to smash it, unless both Gargan and Rhurki worked with him back in the U.S. The Mirror Of Life had been passed down to Reega and was said to give great wisdom and great length of life to use this wisdom, to the owner. If the glass was to break, the owner shall perish with it. Once in the U.S., Maddock welshed on his deal to return the twosome once he had made a million dollars, and threatened to destroy the mirror if the two ever attempted to escape. Oddball Oates was skinny Albert Oates, a scientist with a secret. He had been experimenting with herbs and had discoverd a formula which changed him from a pigeon-chested, sparrow-kneed botanist into a super athlete. Throughout the series he would often join a sports club, become their prized asset, then have to disappear for fear of being caught by the 'baddies', who wanted to use him or the formula to satisfy their own evil ways. Albert would excel in football, rugby and even tossing the caber. The story had a good comical content which made it very popular with the readers. It lasted upto 1971 but didn't survive the merger with Thunder.

By the 7th February 1970, the Eagle part of the title had been dropped and Lion was on its own again. This was also the issue where Turville's Touchstone became The Spellbinder. Illustrated by Geoff Campion, this was an extremely popular story that combined ancient sorcery with modern day life and crooks. Young Tom Turville had become sole heir to the Turville Estate, an eerie crumbling mansion in the heart of Suffolk. Built in 1458 by Sir Hugh Fitzroy Turville, it had additions made to it over the centries. Then, during the industrial revolution the family fell on hard times and eventually, the mansion had become derelict and a haunt for owls and bats. Local village gossip had also deemed it to be haunted. Tom Turville's solicitor was Mr Crabtree. He knew of a story that suggested that the mansion possessed a great treasure, and he decided to use Tom in an attempt to discover it. Crabtree had an assistant that did all his dirty work for him, Silas Manson. When Tom visited Turville Hall for the first time he was armed with just a torch and an inquisitive mind. As he was walking through the bat infested corridors he stumbled onto a rusty old iron ring that was attached to a trap door. After much straining he managed to heave it open and was met with a fantastic scene. Sitting there, in an ancient laboratory was what can only be described as an alchemist. Was he alive? As he climbed down into the room, this man was covered in cobwebs. Closer observation revealed that the man was sitting in front of an open book and seemingly pointing to something. Although written in olde English, Tom was able to read that this man had managed to discover the Philosophers Stone - a stone that could perform great wonders. When Tom looked at the man's left hand, he could see it glowing red. He managed to loosen the grip and the stone dropped to the floor, upon which, the ancient man sprung into life. This was Sylvester Turville who had accidently entrapped himself in one of his own spells over two-hundred years ago. The two quickly built up a bond of friendship and trust and the stories continued in the vein of someone either trying to steal the touchstone or own the hall. The Spellbinder story lasted right upto the very last issue of Lion And Thunder. It didn't make the transition over to Valiant, but it did have a very good run of over four years.

This 7th February 1970 issue also had the start of a cross-over story with Carson Cubs and Circus Wanderers from the Eagle. So smitten were some of the cubs with the Circus Wanderers ball juggling and acrobatic skills, that they actually wanted to give up football and join the circus. Stringbean And Hambone were two very average wrestlers. Hamish McBone was related to Angus, a seafaring thief that had managed to steal a jewel called the Magic Eye from a Chinese idol (statue). Unfortunately for Angus, this idol belonged to the dreaded Chinese secret society, The Chong Tong, who vowed to avenge this insult upon the Tong. Well, the Magic Eye didn't seem to do Angus any good because when the story moved to England, Hamish and Alfie Bean were contronted by a solicitor. He informed Hamish that Uncle Angus had passed away and as the only surviving relative, Hamish inherited everything, including an original Chinese Junk. Un-beknown to the twosome, the Magic Eye jewel had been hidden inside the mast-top lamp of the junk. It transpired that whoever the rightful owner of the jewel was, were granted all their wishes, but you had to be careful what you wished for. The Chong Tong often caught up with the duo by pretending to be wrestlers and accidently try to murder them unless they told of the whereabouts of the jewel. I suppose the one thing which spoilt the story a bit was the corny Chinese dialect, "We mlake fire-scleen!" ("We make fire-screen") and "No tly escape" ("No try escape"). Apart from this it wasn't a bad little filler. Flame O' The Forest was set at the time of the Norman invasion of England. King Harold had just been killed and the Normans were ransacking the villages and killing or enslaving its people. A wandering entertainment group, headed by Sarl The Saxon, visited one of these villages and realised that all was not well. Baron Corbeau, the most evil man to tread the soil of conquered England and his Knights Of The Raven, killed the whole entertainment troop except for Sarl and his nephew Hal. Sarl had been seriously injured in an escape attempt and managed to live an extra couple of years. He used the time wisely by training Hal with all the circus-type skills of his former troop so that he could seek revenge on Corbeau and the invaders. Sarl died and Hal set off on his quest. He started by firing a flaming arrow into Corbeau's castle which hit a wooden chair and spat out flames onto the wall. These flames spelt a message to Corbeau and Corbeau nicknamed the unknown attacker, Flame O' The Forest. In future issues, Hal would wear a mask and do his best to antagonize Corbeau by freeing slaves and killing his soldiers.

The Fugitive From Planet Scror was Karg, an Earth expert of a team of five who were sent from the planet Scror to destroy the Earth. In order for the destruction device to work, all five members had to insert their key into it. If all five were not present, the device could activate. When the ship was closing in on the Earth, Captain Groll decided to kill Karg and take his key, but Karg managed to flick a switch on the console he was standing next to, which temporarily blinded Groll. This gave Karg just enough time to board the escape module and launch it towards earth. Once on Earth, all the Scrorians were able to take on a human appearance, thus blending in with the local inhabitants. The plot was simple, Groll and his fellow officers tried to gain the fifth key, only to be foiled by Karg and his Earth accomplice Burt Billings. General Johnny was set in World War 2 and has a Field-Marshall being flown over the town of Angers in France. Below him he sees the Allied troops retreating in numbers and says to his accomplice, Paget, that only a military genius can handle this situation. Paget took him up on this and arranged a meeting with just that type of person. Once inside the meeting place, the Field-Marshall is confronted with with a 'war game' scene and after praising the benefits of such training, he is introduced to the genius - schoolboy, Johnny Quick. Johnny challenges the Field-Marshall to a war-game and beats him convincingly. The Field-Marshall then has no hesitation about making Johnny, 'a schoolboy general'. Johnny then sets about trying to foil the Germans at Angers using trickery and planning (and his catapolt).

The 20th March 1971 signalled Lion's fourth and final merger, with Thunder. A little bit unusual this one in that the majority of the strips (6 of 11) came from the smaller title. Four were from Lion and one was a brand new story. Lion readers were introduced to Black Max, Fury's Family, Phil The Fluter, The Jet-Skaters, Steel Commando, Adam Eterno and The Jigsaw Journey (the brand new story).

Black Max was the evil Baron Maximilien Von Klorr in a rare story set during World War One. Accompanied by the German scientist, Doktor Gratz, they had discovered the underground lair of the weird and terrifying bat-people. Black Max used these huge bat-like people to attack the Allied forces. Their main nemesis was Lieutenant Tim Wilson of the R.F.C. who knew of the existance of these duped bat-people but found it hard to prove it to anyone. Fury's Family, drawn by the late Denis McLoughlin, told how a young lad called Fury had left the circus that he detested and took his animal friends with him. They settled in a hidden valley deep in some African mountains but were often harassed by the modern world. Fury used his ability to communicate with his animal friends to get him out of trouble. Phil The Fluter was a rarity. It occupied the coloured centre pages. Yes, colour had finally came to Lion. It was very short-lived but was a very welcome addition. Phil Taylor had found an ancient flute which had strange powers. Whenever he blew into it, everyone and everything within ear-shot became rooted to the spot and they remembered nothing about it afterwards. The Jet-Skaters were the speediest gang on four wheels. Jimmy and Peter Clarke, Gordon Stone and Andy Jackson had each been given a pair of roller-skates by Andy's American uncle. The skates were jet-propelled, high-speed models which is why they called themselves The Jet-Skaters. The stories had the foursome on typical schoolboy adventure yarns, where they attempted to help people who had been falsely accused of a crime which they didn't commit. Of course, they were aided by their jet-skates. Steel Commando was a four-paged story set in World War 2 and had Lance Corporal Ernie 'Excused-Boots' Bates put in charge of a secret robotic weapon called the Steel Commando, who Ernie called 'ol Ironsides. The reason that Ernie was put in charge of the steel commando was because he was the only man in the British Army that the robot would obey. It was very similar in content to Valiant's Captain Hurricane in the way the robot would pick up tanks and throw them when it got annoyed. The story content lent towards humour/adventure and proved extremely popular. In fact, it successfully survived the merger with Valiant.

Adam Eterno - the man with the gift of everlasting life. Drawn by Eric Bradbury, it was the extremely popular story which started back in 16th century London when Adam was an alchemist's apprentice. The alchemist, Erasmus Hemlock had created a youth-potion which was meant for him, but had been quaffed by the aggresive Adam. A scuffle ensued and Erasmus was mortally wounded. He put the curse of 'Life Without End' on Adam and informed him that only gold will destroy him. But everlasting youth wasn't all it was cut out to be. Adam was spurned by the people of his village because they grew old while Adam remained youthful. In fact, everywhere he went fear and suspicion followed him and he got evicted from wherever he stayed. In order to escape his grim destiny, Adam sought refuge in the armies of the world. At the age of 263 he fought at the Battle Of Trafalger. A hundred years later he fought in the trenches of the first world war, but in 1970 he was crossing the road and got bumped into by a gold-plated limousine. However, instead of dying, the impact of the gold hurled him into a strange, spinning infinity. He had gained the power of time-travel. This was the moment that Adam made an inexorable vow, 'My gift of everlasting life belongs to humanity - a weapon to be used against tyranny and injustice wherever I may find it'. As he travelled through space and time he didn't seem to be able to control his destination, he just seemed to pass from the realm of time to the realm of reality. The story was so popular that it survived the merger with Valiant in 1974 and went on for another couple of years.

The Jigsaw Journey starred Doctor Wolfgang Stranger who prided himself on being the greatest explorer in the world. He had just finished his latest case and was heading back home because there was nothing that would challenge his powers as an explorer, when Tom Taylor, the person he had just helped, pulled out a jagged parchment which effectively was a piece of jigsaw. Tom told the story of how this 'treasure map' got divided into nine pieces and somewhere in the world, the other eight pieces were waiting to be found. The challenge to the worlds greatest explorer was on. Toward the end of 1971, Dr Mesmer's Revenge told how the mysterious Dr Mesmer resurrected a 5000 years old mummy and started a campaign of terror in England with a weird dust he had concocted from an ancient Egyptian formula. This dust had the effect of turning people into motionless dummies. Our hero was Police Constable Tom Stone, who quickly become the bane of Mesmer's life but whenever he was captured, was only kept as a prisoner and thus escaped to fight again. In 1972, Joe Harker was The Last Of The Larkers, the last surviving member of England's greatest sporting family. Ably assisted by Sir Stanley Harker, an ancestral ghost, Joe was trying to win back all the sporting cups and trophies which had been lost to other champions over the years. He was constantly being menaced by his deadly enemy Bert Swizzle, who would stop at nothing to ensure that young Mr Harker would lose but all his schemes would backfire and he would inadvertantly help Joe. This story had a surprisingly long run and lasted right up to the very last issue of Lion. The War Of The White Eyes was a U.S. type fantasy strip which had our heros, Nick Dexter and Don Redding, trying to thwart the evil meglaomaniac, Ezra Creech, who was baying for world domination by inhaling a deadly gas that transformed him into a 'White-Eyes'. A creature of superhuman strength and ferocity. At first, Creech wanted to destroy our heroes home island of Doomcrag and then go on to world domination, but guess who stopped him?

The Shadow Of The Snake was another fantasy story which had Professor Krait, an evil biologist, being able to turn himself into a reptilian creature known as 'The Snake'. Krait was able to slither down chimneys and through air-ducts. He was also able to render foes into a helpless hypnotic-like trace, where they would obey his every command. Krait also spoke with a pronounced lisp, so would often say something like, 'Exxxcellent, Bowen and his policcceman friend have walked ssstraight into my trap'. By 1973, we were treated to a spin-off story entitled Secrets Of The Demon Dwarf, a.k.a. Doktor Gratz, the evil German dwarf-scientist who assisted the Black Max two years earlier. During World War 1, Gratz had managed to put himself into a life-preserving sleep, from which he awoke 50 years later. He was still burning with a hatred for Britain and waged war with some fantastic weapons. Like a robot 'double' of Special Agent and nemesis, Bill Wilson, which was literally a walking bomb and heading towards New Scotland Yard. But in the end, our Bill got 'im!!

By 1974, Lion was coming to an end and a merger with Valiant was imminant. But IPC were having problems deciding whether to call the new publication Lion And Valiant or Valiant And Lion. Both camps thought their comic should be the main title and there had already been a couple of 'Specials' called Lion And Valiant, but in the end, an executive decision was made to make Valiant the main title. The stories which passed over were Steel Commando, Adam Eterno, Mowser and the ever-popular Zip Nolan.

Lion was a great little comic which had an excellent run of more than 22 years. During that time it created and inherited some wonderful comic characters like Captain Condor, The Spider, Robot Archie, Wiz And Lofty, Paddy Payne, Rory MacDuff, Karl The Viking, Zip Nolan, Mowser, The Spider, Texas Jack, Trelawny Of The Guards, Lofty Lightyear, Carson's Cubs, Code Name - Barracuda, The Waxer, Dan Dare, Gargan, Oddball Oates, The Spellbinder and Adam Eterno. Phew, no wonder it lasted so well.