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Tiger (British comics)
Tiger was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press, Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 11 September 1954 to 30 March 1985. The title was initially launched in a large tabloid size to mimic newspapers; while it featured some action-adventure stories Tiger contained a large number of sport strips. The most famous of these was "Roy of the Rovers", which debuted in the first issue and was the comic's most popular feature, eventually transferring to its own comic in 1975. Tiger would go on to become one of the company's longest-running titles, with 1,573 issues published before being merged with Eagle in 1985. Over the course of its run, Tiger featured columns by numerous famous sports figures, including Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott, Tony Greig, Trevor Francis and Charlie Nicholas.
Amalgamated Press had launched Lion - their first all-new post-war boys title - in 1952, in an attempt to outgun Hulton Press' acclaimed Eagle. While it was unable to match Eagle, Lion was a sizeable success in its own right. With paper rationing having ended and a growing market, AP decided to launch another new title. Reg Eves, managing editor of AP's children's division and instigator of Lion, assigned editor Derek Birnage to create the new title, which would be primarily sports-themed, and featured larger pages closer to the size of Eagle.
Since resumption of full football competition in 1947, the game had continued to grow in profile; Eves and Birnage quickly decided a footballer would make a suitable headliner for the new comic. They contacted the experienced writer Frank S. Pepper, who had created Captain Condor for Lion two years previously and had experience writing sports stories for story paper The Champion, including football tale "Danny of the Dazzlers". Pepper devised Roy Race, a gifted young English player spotted playing for Milston Youth Club F.C. by a talent scout of Melchester Rovers and being signed to their reserves. Whereas previous football strips had featured public schoolboys, Race was a normal boy turned professional, in keeping with footballers of the period. Pepper did not have the time to commit to writing the strip beyond the first four episodes, but instead sketched out what he felt was a realistic early career outline for strip artist Joe Colquhoun. The latter would take over script duties under the pen name 'Stewart Colwyn' - not being a fan of football himself, Colquhoun frequently sought out technical advice from other AP staffers. Placed on the full colour front cover, "Roy of the Rovers" swiftly became hugely popular with readers.
Early mock-ups of the paper used the title Champion before Tiger was decided on. As well as "Roy of the Rovers", the first issue also featured racing driver Len Dyson trying to clear his name after an unwarranted jail term in George Forrest's "The Speedster from Bleakmoor", Edward Home-Gall's backwater prize-fighter "Young Hurricane" and Brian Leigh's young cyclist Rick Howland in "The Two-Wheeled Whirlwind" (initially a prose story before graduating to a picture strip in 1956). Other genres included two takes on the boys' comic perennial of school antics - strip "Dodger Caine", written by Ted Cowan and text serial "Tales of Whitestoke Hall" by John Marshall - and more standard adventure fare in "Bulldog Bryant's Amazon Adventure" and medieval archer "Will Strongbow". Feature pages included the first of series on "Thrilling Stories of Sport" and "Daring Escapes", as well as a missive from the purported blazer and club tie-clad editor, known as 'The Skipper'. Another feature was cartoon quiz "Is Knowall Right or Wrong?", in which a binocular wielding self-professed export on sports tested readers on rulebook minutiae for football, cricket, horse racing, speedway, water polo, table tennis and more.
Priced at 3d and featuring 20 large newsprint pages, the first issue appeared on Tuesday 4 September 1954, subtitled 'The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly' and brandishing a 'Space Gun Novelty' at new readers. A string-pull roaring tiger toy was included with the following week's issue. Initially the title had a stable line-up as 'The Skipper' encouraged readers to write in with their three favourite strips, and in January "Speedster from Bleakmoor" was switched out for a different motor-racing story, "Rivals of Rocky Mountain Roadrace"; other like-for-like swaps were the replacement of "Will Strongbow" with more historical adventure in "The Swordsmith's Adventure" and "Young Hurricane" with boxing legionnaire "Lightning Lorant". "Roy of the Rovers" swiftly became the title's biggest star.
March 1955 had seen the first of six titles that would be merged into Tiger. The venerable Champion, as a story paper featuring no picture stories but only illustrated prose, was thoroughly out of fashion by this point and thus the only arrival it brought to Tiger was Pepper's pugilist pilot "Rockfist Rogan", which would continue until 1961. August saw Roy Race break into the Melchester Rovers first team (scoring twice in a 3-3 draw) as his following continued to grow - as early as 1957 the character had his own annual - while in November the first of several cases for "Police Dog Kim" appeared; the crime-sniffing hound appeared until 1959. Other notable debuts under the joint banner included long-running Ancient Rome saga "Olac the Gladiator" (drawn for a time by Don Lawrence) and 'frogmen daredevils' "Spike & Dusty".
No sooner had The Champion been dropped from the title than Tiger was merged with another fading AP title, The Comet, from 24 October 1959. The latter had built its success during the fifties on the back of Westerns and swashbucklers but suffered when these fell out of fashion. Science fiction story "Jet-Ace Logan" was the only permanent addition from The Comet Colquhoun meanwhile chose to leave "Roy of the Rovers" in 1959; Birnage himself took over writing the story (though from 1960 to 1962 it was credited to footballer Bobby Charlton as a result of an endorsement deal; the Manchester United star was however merely tapped for story ideas) while the likes of Bert Vandeput, Geoff Campion and Fred Holmes took turns on art duties.
In May 1960 the title reverted back to Tiger, and weathered the Mirror Group takeover that saw AP rearranged into Fleetway Publications. The next few years saw the introduction of the long-running wrestling character Johnny Cougar and deep-sea driver Louis Bernard. More fleeting were field athlete Paddy Ryan and World War II strip "The Suicide Six". Birnage meanwhile vacated the editor's chair in 1963, being succeeded by David Gregory. In early 1964 sales were beginning to flag, despite the ever-popular "Roy of the Rovers". In order to bring in new readers the front cover was rotated between Race's exploits and those of Olac and Cougar, but this initially saw little increase in sales.
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Tiger (British comics)
Tiger was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press, Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 11 September 1954 to 30 March 1985. The title was initially launched in a large tabloid size to mimic newspapers; while it featured some action-adventure stories Tiger contained a large number of sport strips. The most famous of these was "Roy of the Rovers", which debuted in the first issue and was the comic's most popular feature, eventually transferring to its own comic in 1975. Tiger would go on to become one of the company's longest-running titles, with 1,573 issues published before being merged with Eagle in 1985. Over the course of its run, Tiger featured columns by numerous famous sports figures, including Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott, Tony Greig, Trevor Francis and Charlie Nicholas.
Amalgamated Press had launched Lion - their first all-new post-war boys title - in 1952, in an attempt to outgun Hulton Press' acclaimed Eagle. While it was unable to match Eagle, Lion was a sizeable success in its own right. With paper rationing having ended and a growing market, AP decided to launch another new title. Reg Eves, managing editor of AP's children's division and instigator of Lion, assigned editor Derek Birnage to create the new title, which would be primarily sports-themed, and featured larger pages closer to the size of Eagle.
Since resumption of full football competition in 1947, the game had continued to grow in profile; Eves and Birnage quickly decided a footballer would make a suitable headliner for the new comic. They contacted the experienced writer Frank S. Pepper, who had created Captain Condor for Lion two years previously and had experience writing sports stories for story paper The Champion, including football tale "Danny of the Dazzlers". Pepper devised Roy Race, a gifted young English player spotted playing for Milston Youth Club F.C. by a talent scout of Melchester Rovers and being signed to their reserves. Whereas previous football strips had featured public schoolboys, Race was a normal boy turned professional, in keeping with footballers of the period. Pepper did not have the time to commit to writing the strip beyond the first four episodes, but instead sketched out what he felt was a realistic early career outline for strip artist Joe Colquhoun. The latter would take over script duties under the pen name 'Stewart Colwyn' - not being a fan of football himself, Colquhoun frequently sought out technical advice from other AP staffers. Placed on the full colour front cover, "Roy of the Rovers" swiftly became hugely popular with readers.
Early mock-ups of the paper used the title Champion before Tiger was decided on. As well as "Roy of the Rovers", the first issue also featured racing driver Len Dyson trying to clear his name after an unwarranted jail term in George Forrest's "The Speedster from Bleakmoor", Edward Home-Gall's backwater prize-fighter "Young Hurricane" and Brian Leigh's young cyclist Rick Howland in "The Two-Wheeled Whirlwind" (initially a prose story before graduating to a picture strip in 1956). Other genres included two takes on the boys' comic perennial of school antics - strip "Dodger Caine", written by Ted Cowan and text serial "Tales of Whitestoke Hall" by John Marshall - and more standard adventure fare in "Bulldog Bryant's Amazon Adventure" and medieval archer "Will Strongbow". Feature pages included the first of series on "Thrilling Stories of Sport" and "Daring Escapes", as well as a missive from the purported blazer and club tie-clad editor, known as 'The Skipper'. Another feature was cartoon quiz "Is Knowall Right or Wrong?", in which a binocular wielding self-professed export on sports tested readers on rulebook minutiae for football, cricket, horse racing, speedway, water polo, table tennis and more.
Priced at 3d and featuring 20 large newsprint pages, the first issue appeared on Tuesday 4 September 1954, subtitled 'The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly' and brandishing a 'Space Gun Novelty' at new readers. A string-pull roaring tiger toy was included with the following week's issue. Initially the title had a stable line-up as 'The Skipper' encouraged readers to write in with their three favourite strips, and in January "Speedster from Bleakmoor" was switched out for a different motor-racing story, "Rivals of Rocky Mountain Roadrace"; other like-for-like swaps were the replacement of "Will Strongbow" with more historical adventure in "The Swordsmith's Adventure" and "Young Hurricane" with boxing legionnaire "Lightning Lorant". "Roy of the Rovers" swiftly became the title's biggest star.
March 1955 had seen the first of six titles that would be merged into Tiger. The venerable Champion, as a story paper featuring no picture stories but only illustrated prose, was thoroughly out of fashion by this point and thus the only arrival it brought to Tiger was Pepper's pugilist pilot "Rockfist Rogan", which would continue until 1961. August saw Roy Race break into the Melchester Rovers first team (scoring twice in a 3-3 draw) as his following continued to grow - as early as 1957 the character had his own annual - while in November the first of several cases for "Police Dog Kim" appeared; the crime-sniffing hound appeared until 1959. Other notable debuts under the joint banner included long-running Ancient Rome saga "Olac the Gladiator" (drawn for a time by Don Lawrence) and 'frogmen daredevils' "Spike & Dusty".
No sooner had The Champion been dropped from the title than Tiger was merged with another fading AP title, The Comet, from 24 October 1959. The latter had built its success during the fifties on the back of Westerns and swashbucklers but suffered when these fell out of fashion. Science fiction story "Jet-Ace Logan" was the only permanent addition from The Comet Colquhoun meanwhile chose to leave "Roy of the Rovers" in 1959; Birnage himself took over writing the story (though from 1960 to 1962 it was credited to footballer Bobby Charlton as a result of an endorsement deal; the Manchester United star was however merely tapped for story ideas) while the likes of Bert Vandeput, Geoff Campion and Fred Holmes took turns on art duties.
In May 1960 the title reverted back to Tiger, and weathered the Mirror Group takeover that saw AP rearranged into Fleetway Publications. The next few years saw the introduction of the long-running wrestling character Johnny Cougar and deep-sea driver Louis Bernard. More fleeting were field athlete Paddy Ryan and World War II strip "The Suicide Six". Birnage meanwhile vacated the editor's chair in 1963, being succeeded by David Gregory. In early 1964 sales were beginning to flag, despite the ever-popular "Roy of the Rovers". In order to bring in new readers the front cover was rotated between Race's exploits and those of Olac and Cougar, but this initially saw little increase in sales.