Archie. The early stories from the Pages of the Lion - Compiled and edited by H. C.

The Jungle robot - Robot Archie

The First Adventures

from the Pages of the Lion

 Invented by Professor CR Ritchie

and given to his son Ted and his best end Ken Dale

for various expeditions into jungles to loot old temples

for treasure and fend off understandably irate. 

Natives who weren't altogether keen on the pals 

looting said treasures.

For about a decade the strip provided such four-square

 adventures but by the sixties Archie (his name always 

emblazoned on his chest 

in big letters in case the pals mistook him for some poor

 Peruvian tribesman who crossed their path)

 was freed of remote control

and given a voice box; becoming: more-or-less sentient.

The personality he was granted was that of a boisterous sat

always ready to tell everyone how great he was, always ready

to cannon through a wall instead of using a door,

always ready to dupe some local tribe into

 thinking he was a god

and always ready to just thump anyone 

and anything that got in his way.

The result was brilliance. 

"In the adventure "The Jungle Robot" Lion issues 0001-0025 

(1952-02-23/1952-08-09) George Cowan was the scriptwriter while 

the artist was F. A. Philpott.

Five years later the story came back to Lion with the name 

"Archie - The Robot Explorer" issues 0257-0278 (1957-01-19/1957-06-15) 

with a new scriptwriter, Mark Ross and the art of F. A. Philpott again. 

This story isn’t included in this compilation.

Onward the issue 0299 (1957-11-09) we got George Cowan back 

in the script and the new artist was Ted Kearon (the permanent artist 

from now till the end), the story then was called "Archie the Robot" 

and continued until issue 0376 (1959-05-02).

The H.C. compilation ends in the Lion issue 0337 1958-08-02 plus 

a The Jungle Robot story from the 1964 Lion Annual.

Later in the issue 0377 (1959-05-09) the comic obtained its definitely 

name “Robot Archie” but this is another story that you 

can read in the blog, Aquellos Inolvidables Tebeos with 

all the complete stories 

from Archie in English and in Spanish".

Texte: Luis Miguel

139 Pages

Compiled and edited by H. C. 

We thank H. C. for his courtesy in offering our reader 

this magnificent compilation.

Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid from the Pages of the Lion - Compiled and edited by H. C.

This collection comes from the pages of Lion issue 839 (1968-05-04)  

to issue Lion 864 (1968-10-26) 94 pages 

 Lion Annual 1970 (p. 004-008)  5 pages (Not included in the compilation)

The artists were CarVic that is, Carlos Pino & Vicente Alcázar

Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid were a crime fighting duo

who used a variety of improbable items

of technology to battle foes such as

the Taunting Titan (a giant robot on waterskis), 

King Zombie and the Mad Mummy,

as well as alien invaders.

97 Pages

Compiled and edited by H. C. 

We thank H. C. for his courtesy in offering our reader 

this magnificent compilation.

Sinister Island - Bill Hanley and Rick Slade from Lion. - Compiled and edited by H. C.

 Sinister Island - Bill Hanley and Rick Slade  

from the pages of Lion 

Year 1965

Art by Bill Lacey

 34 Pages

Compiled and edited by H. C. 

We thank H. C. for his courtesy in offering our reader 

this magnificent compilation.

The Phantom Viking from Lion & Jet - Compiled and edited by H. C.

The Phantom Viking is a British comic character, appearing in strips published

 by Fleetway Publications. The character's alter-ego was weak-willed school 

teacher Olaf Larsen, who gained the ability to turn into the Phantom Viking 

when he dons a Norse helmet. The character first appeared in the debut 

issue of the short-lived boys' anthology title The Champion on 26 February 1966, 

and continued in Lion when it was merged with Champion a short while later.

Publishing history

The Champion was even less successful than Hurricane, only lasting 15 issues - the

 shortest run of any of the company's weeklies up to that point - before being 

merged into the established Lion, with Nevio Zeccara taking over on art duties 

shortly afterwards.

 The strip would run in the renamed Lion and Champion until 3 August 1968.

 Due to Fleetway's policy of continuing to issue annuals for cancelled titles 

(in order to have as many books as possible on shelves for the lucrative 

Christmas market), parallel to the Lion run further adventures 

(both in picture strip and text stories) appeared in the two Champion Annuals

 issued, and then transferred to the Lion Annual until the 1970 edition, 

despite having finished in the weekly. The character would then make one

 final outing in the 1973 Jet Annual.

Since 2018 the rights to the Fleetway-originated contents

 of The Champion and Lion,  including the Phantom Viking, 

have been owned by Rebellion Developments.

Publication date: 26 February 1966 – 3 August 1968

Creative team

Writer Donne Avenell

Artists José Ortiz, Nevio Zeccara

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Viking

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/p/phantvik.htm

Lion and Champion #16 December 1967       Lion and Champion #23 September 1967

   

288 Pages

Compiled and edited by H. C. 

We thank H. C. for his courtesy in offering our reader 

this magnificent compilation.

Flame O' The Forest from Lion (1970) - Compiled and edited by H. C.

 

Lion was always a good solid adventure comic and 

it produced some memorable

 characters such as Robot Archie, The Spider, and The Spellbinder. 

Some strips are less well remembered, but in some cases that was

 due to their short runs not for any lack of quality. 

One such serial was Flame O' The Forest, 

an excellent strip which ran in three page chapters from Lion 

dated 7th February 1970

to the issue dated 7th November 1970. 

(In addition to Annual 1972 and Annual 1973)

Flame O' The Forest was set in Norman England after

Harold's defeat at Hastings. 

The hooded Saxon hero of the title fought against the invaders

 by using kills including magic tricks and archery. 

For an IPC strip of the time 

it was notable in its body count, with the Flame disposing of evil Baron

 Corbeau's men one by one. (Although any true violence happened off panel.)

 The artwork was by Massimo Belardinelli, several years 

before he'd be drawing Dan Dare, 

Inferno, Meltdown Man and Ace Trucking Co. for 2000AD. 

Belardinelli often poured a lot of time and energy into his work and 

Flame O' The Forest was no exception; dynamic and crammed

 with detail, dripping with atmosphere.

https://comiconline24h.blogspot.com/2015/04/flame-o-forest-1970_29.html

https://comics.bournemouth.ac.uk/story.php?title=Flame+O%27+The+Forest

#20 June 1970                                          #26 September 1970

114 Pages

Compiled and edited by H. C. 

We thank H. C. for his courtesy in offering our reader 

this magnificent compilation.

The Monster Of Manako Deep from Lion (1960) - Compiled and edited by H. C.

 Lion (IPC)

from July 16th, 1960 [432] to September 17th, 1960 [441]

Artist :  Pat Nicolle 

There was a reprint in Smash called "Devil of the Deep",

 published in 1968.

 32 Pages

Compiled and edited by H. C. 

We thank H. C. for his courtesy in offering our reader 

this magnificent compilation.