On this day, 10 April 1976: Valiant joins Vulcan

Apr 10

Apr 10 On this day, 10 April 1976: Valiant joins Vulcan

On This Day, Valiant, Vulcan, Merger Issues

This one’s a funny sort of merger. Valiant was entering the final six months of its fourteen-year run, reinvigorated to an extent (but probably not enough) under the recent editorship of John Wagner. Vulcan had been running for only seven months (after a six-month trial run in Scotland) and was composed entirely of reprints from an earlier age of boys’ adventure comics. So, while Valiant was gamely attempting to get with the programme – harder-boiled, more complex characters scuh as One-eyed Jack, Soldier Sharp and tykish young footballer Wee Red were introduced as part of the streetwise new wave in both boys’ and girls’ comics – it was landed with a supplement of old-school action, fantasy and adventure just like one’s embarrassing older brother probably read.

The combined comic didn’t last for long. Vulcan was reproduced as an 8-page pull-out and fold-together mini-magazine in Valiant’s centre pages, running 6 stories, each a hastily-edited conclusion to what had been running in Vulcan. The stories were: Mytek the Mighty (which appeared first in Vulcan, 1964-65), Billy’s Boots (Scorcher, 1970), The Spider (Lion, 1965-66), The Trigan Empire (Look and Learn, 1965-70), Kelly’s Eye (Knockout and Valiant, 1962-67) and Robot Archie (Lion, 1968-70). It lasted just three weeks, although the name Vulcan remained an addition to Valiant’s masthead until just two weeks before its own final issue in October 1976.