Welcome to the FEBRUARY 2007 issue

Lion was a weekly comic book published by Fleetway from 1952 to 1974

Publishing history

Lion was first published on the 23rd of February 1952, and was a weekly boys' adventure comic designed to compete with Eagle, the popular weekly comic that had introduced Dan Dare. Lion's first issue contained a mix of text stories and comic strips; its flagship story was Captain Condor - Space Ship Pilot, a science fiction adventure in the Dan Dare mold. The premier issue also contained the first adventure of Robot Archie (called The Jungle Robot in early adventures) who would go on to become one of the title's most popular characters.

By the 1960s Lion had settled into being one of the most popular British weekly titles of the time. It began to feature an increasing number of anti-hero characters such as The Spider and The Sludge (who would later battle Robot Archie in his own strip).

Lion merged with several other comics during its life, including Eagle and Thunder, but by the early 1970s sales were slipping and in 1974 it merged with Valiant. Several stories continued in Valiant but that title merged with Battle Picture Weekly in 1976.

In 2005 many of IPC's characters, including several from Lion, were featured in a mini-series called Albion published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics.

Notable stories

• Adam EternoA man who lived forever and could not be killed except by gold. He was transported through time each week.
• Battler Britton - World War Air Ace
• Carson's Cubs
• Captain Condor - Space Ship Pilot
• Karl the Viking
• Maroc the Mighty, about a returning English crusader whose magic armlet The Hand of Zar gave superhuman strength.
• Paddy Payne - Fighter Ace.
• Phantom Viking
• Robot Archie
• The Sludge.
• The Spellbinder
• The Spider
• Zip Nolan - Highway Patrol.

See also

• Albion
• Battle Picture Weekly

External links

• History of Lion at comicsuk
• 26pigs.com-British comics website

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_%28comic%29"

Robot Archie is the name of a fictional comic book character who first appeared in Lion #1 published in February 1952.

Publishing history

Robot Archie first appeared in the first issue of Lion, a weekly British boys adventure title published by IPC Magazines, who were at the time, the biggest publisher of weekly adventure titles in the UK along with DC Thompson. Lion was a science fiction action-adventure comic in the mold of Eagle and was a direct competitor to that comic.

Robot Archie appeared in the first issue but was known as The Jungle Robot in this first issue. the character was created by writer E. George Cowan and artist Ted Kearnon, who remained the main artist on the strip for much of its time in Lion. The strip lasted 25 weeks before it took a four year gap and returned in 1957, this time the strip was called Archie The Robot but eventually the strip became better known as Robot Archie.

The strip was one of the most popular in Lion during the 1960s but the character's adventures ended when Lion was finally cancelled in May 1974. However Robot Archie strips did appear in colour in Vulcan, a short lived weekly title which was cancelled in 1976. The series was published and popular in France and the Netherlands too. In the Netherlands the series was published in the magazine Sjors(for which Bert Bus made new Archie material -which was translated into French too-since 1971)and two or three series of albums which - like the Archie publication in France - stopped in the early 80's.

After this the character entered publishing limbo but remained well loved by fans. The character made a brief cameo appearance under the name Android Andy in Alan Moore and Alan Davis's run on Captain Britain for Marvel UK. The next appearance after this was in the pages of Grant Morrison's Zenith strip in 2000 AD. This portrayed Archie as a burned out acid casualty and part of a team of heroes called Black Flag. This was followed by an attempt by IPC to launch its old adventure heroes into a new title called 2000AD Action in 1991, but the title sold poorly and was not continued into a series.

In 2004 a new "Classic Archie" adventure by Bert Bus was published in Dutch.

In 2005 it was announced that Robot Archie, as well as all of IPC's adventure heroes, would feature in a new six issue mini-series to be published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics. Called Albion, the series is plotted by Alan Moore, and written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, with art by Shane Oakley and George Freeman. Robot Archie features on the cover of the first issue which was drawn by Dave Gibbons.

Character biography

Robot Archie was built by Professor C.R.Ritchie to be the worlds most powerful mechanical man. Originally he was called The Jungle Robot (due to his early adventures taking place in the jungles of Africa and South America) and was remote controlled by Professor Ritchie and his nephew Ted Ritchie and his best friend Ken Dale. Robot Archie's adventures started as conventional action thrillers with Archie and his friends battling criminals and jungle creatures, but eventually he began to fight more fantastic and dangerous villains and aliens, including The Sludge, a monster who had previously had its own strip in Lion.

When Robot Archie reappeared in the pages of Grant Morrison's Zenith, he was a burned out 1960's acid casualty (renaming himself Acid Archie) who helped Zenith fight the Lloigor. Archie apparently dies during this story but is later shown to have survived the battle in the one-off Zenith story called zzzenith.com in the special Prog 2001 edition of 2000AD. He is last seen in the story escaping on a bus after sexually assaulting popstar Britney Spears.

See also

• Albion
• Lion
• Zenith

External links

• Robot Archie at International Superhero
• History of Lion at comicsuk

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Archie"

The Spider is a comic book character who started out as a a supervillain before becoming a superhero. He appeared in Lion between 26th June 1965 and 26th April 1969 and was later reprinted in Vulcan. He was created by writer Ted Cowan and artist Reg Bunn. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel took over the writing of the character with his third adventure, and would write the bulk of his adventures.

Publication history

The Spider first appeared in The Lion from 26 June 1965 to 26 April 69, as well as in Lion Annuals. He would later be reprinted in Vulcan 1975-76. New material was also included in Fleetway's Super Stupendous Library series.

His adventures were also reprinted in other countries, such as Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and others.

2000AD published an "Action Special" featuring The Spider (as well as other characters from the same era) in 1992, but this version (written by Mark Millar) is ill-thought of by many fans, turning The Spider into a cannibal, and tends to be ignored.

An elder, now retired, version of The Spider has appeared in Jack Staff. Most fans feel this version a proper revival of the character. However, due to copyright issues its doubtful he will re-appear.

The Spider, along with other IPC characters, is appearing in the Albion mini-series from the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics.

Character biography

The Spider appeared in the 1960s in the United States with the aim to become King of Crooks. He broke out several other criminals to become members of his army of crime, and would clash with both the police and with other criminal masterminds.

No origin was ever given for The Spider, nor any explanation for his appearance: pointed ears and teeth, and upswept eyebrows. His base of operations was a Scottish castle he brought over to the US.

Eventually, he changed to fighting crime and for a brief time he was associated with the "Society of Heroes" (Captain Whiz; Mr Gizmo; Rex Robot.; Tigro the Wild Man; Rockman; Snowman (Professor Fred Storm)). All except The Spider died fighting the Sinister Seven.

An elder, now retired, version of The Spider has appeared in Jack Staff. This version does not seem to have become a hero, and instead was active as an undefeated thief from the 1960s through the 80s in the UK. Its unclear if this Spider ever put together an army of crime, or only worked alone.

Powers and abilities

It is unclear what powers, if any, The Spider has. He is physically fit, but probably not any more then most humans. He is also cunning and intelligent, and a superb hypnotist. He has trained himself to be immune to his own knockout/poison gas.

The Spider wears a black form-fitting outfit, along with a strange backpack/harness. The harness serves as a jetpack and webshoters, as well as the sources for his web gun and gas gun.

In his appearances in Jack Staff, the Spider states that his outfit serves as an exoskeleton, which increases his strength and agility.

Bibliography

His first appearances has been reprinted in: King of Crooks (2005, Titan Books ISBN 1-84576-000-X)

Other appearances

As well as appearing in his own series he has appeared in a number of other British comics as himself in figures crafted as an homage:

• In Alan Moore's run on Captain Britain a superhero called The Arachnid was killed by the Fury on Captain UK's world. Seen (on the 15th page of the reprinted graphic novel) only as a gravestone amongst a number of others all also referencing versions of famous superheroes.
• In the Nikolai Dante series The Romanov Job as "Abel Ganz. The Tarantula. Anarchist. Assassin and all-round master criminal" (first appearance 2000AD #1282, 13th March 2002) alongside other similar characters based on Janus Stark ("Janos Starak. Escapologist Extraordinaire"), Catwoman ("Selina Solaris. The Panther.") and Crusher Creel ("Grushko Kreel").
• Jack Staff as an aging figure and former adversary of the eponymous hero. He gives his name as "Alfred Chinard", but this may be an alias, as "A. Chinard" is an anagram for "Arachnid". He may not appear again due to copyright issues, unless under a different name.
• Albion which saw Alan Moore bring him back again, but this time as himself, along with the various other British superheroes of that era. Surprisingly, he is referred to as "Chinard", the name used in Jack Staff.

External links

• International Catalogue of Superheroes entry

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spider_%28comics%29"

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