The Champion (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Champion | |
|---|---|
 The cover to The Champion, dated 5 March 1966 and featuring Jet Jordan. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | IPC/Fleetway Publications, 1966 |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 26 February – 4 June 1966 |
| No. of issues | 15 |
| Editor(s) | Gil Page |
The Champion was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 26 February to 4 June 1966. The series revived the name of the story paper of the same name printed by Fleetway's predecessor, Amalgamated Press; however, while the first version of The Champion had run from 1922 to 1956, the new title lasted little more than three months before being merged with another Fleetway boys' comic, the established Lion.
The original edition of The Champion had been merged with Tiger in 1955, and had been a more traditional 'story paper' largely focusing on illustrated text stories. In 1966, Fleetway announced the name would be re-used for a new "picture weekly", with a focus on comic strip stories.[1] Gil Page was assigned as editor, with the rest of the team drawn from Fleetway's successful Valiant weekly.[2] Both for this reason and to boost sales, the cover would proclaim "Champion is the companion paper to Valiant" - a tactic previously used on Hurricane (29 February 1964 to 13 March 1965).[3]
An unusual feature compared to Fleetway's other boys' comics was the title's high quotient of material imported from continental Europe - including "Dan Cooper" (as "Jet Jordan"), "Michel Vaillant" ("The Knights of Konigsfeld") and "Modeste et Pompon" ("Jinks") from Tintin, and "Lucky Luke" ("Boy Kidd") and "Starter" ("Whacker") from Spirou. These were heavily edited, with dialogue freely translated, names changed, panels resized and rearranged and - with the exception of cover feature "Jet Jordan" - printed in black-and-white. The origin of this material, which had not been previously published in Britain, was not made clear to readers.[4] Newly created material included Norse superhero "The Phantom Viking" (often considered to have been inspired by Marvel Comics' Thor[5][6][7]) and futuristic war drama "Return of the Stormtroopers".[8]
Publication history
Previewed by a flyer sent out to newsagents,[4] the first issue was published on Monday 28 January 1966[a] - as a new comic, it further tempted readers with a free cover-mounted gift in the form of a 'Jet Screamer Balloon' - a toy balloon with a graphic of a space explorer printed on it. The 40-page title was priced at 7d. The second would offer a plastic 'Cup Tie Whistle', while the third tempted potential readers with "The Champion Book of Football Stars", featuring Gordon Banks on its cover.[8]
However, the series would only last for 15 editions before being merged into Lion. "The Phantom Viking", "Return of the Stormtroopers", "Jet Jordan", "Boy Kidd", "Lofty Lightyear" and "Whacker" would all be continued in the renamed Lion and Champion; however, most of these were short-lived and by the end of the year only "The Phantom Viking" was still a regular. The first Lion of 1968 would see The Champion dropped from front page billing.[9] However - as with several cancelled titles - Fleetway continued to use The Champion name for hardbacked annuals, dated 1967 and 1968.[10][b] Despite not being intended as a science fiction anthology, The Champion was perceived as such and its failure reputedly put Fleetway off further such series until Star Wars' success led to the creation of 2000 AD in 1977.[2]
In 2018 the rights to the original material for The Champion were among the pre-1970 AP/Fleetway/IPC library purchased by Rebellion Developments.[11]