50 Years Ago This Week: Valiant's Humour Strips

Despite being a primarily adventure strip comic Valiant featured a good number of humour strips as well. We'll head back to the issue that was on sale fifty years ago this week to see what humour strips were on offer in its pages. The first appears on page five under the title The Nutts, about a family that lived up to their name. The artist is Angel Nadal Quirch.

The next character needs no introduction. He first appeared in 1908 and was still popular all in the 60's and even as late as the 90's. For Valiant he was illustrated by Reg Parlett - I speak of course of Billy Bunter.

Next up is a half-page Sporty strip, which is credited to Reg Wootton.

Next up is The Crows, which works out to be roughly a half-page strip but actually goes around the edge of the page, around an advertisement for the Royal Navy. This is another page by Reg Parlett.

The final humour strip is called It's A Dog's Life and it appears in full colour on the back page. This is a reprinted Belgium originally entitled Boule et Bill, illustrated by Roba.

One-Eyed Jack and The Death of Valiant

A new semi regular comic fanzine called One-Eyed Jack and The Death of Valiant by David McDonald is avaliable to buy or download now. The magazine features interviews with artists sich as John Cooper (artist of Thunderbirds and Judge Dredd), Kelvin Gosnell (editor of 2000AD) and Dave Hunt (editor of Battle), as well as complete comic strips, selections of comic covers and other things such as the creation of the 2000AD logo.

The publication goes into great detail about various titles, stories and behind the scenes of Valiant comic.

I hugely recommend this magazine, it is very well researched and a pleasure to read! Many congratulations to David and the team behind the title! 

You can order a paper copy of the comic or a digital version from http://www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia/. The paper copy cost £3.99 plus £1.50 postage, wheras the digital copy is just £1.50.