Cover date 28 March 1970: Lion

Here’s a Lion, cover date 28 March 1970, and things are heating up in a motorcycle workshop for Karg, Fugitive From the Planet Scror.

‘Karg was trying to save Earth from destruction.’ Which was probably his first mistake.

‘Disguised as a human, he reached London with one of five keys needed by space captain Groll to explode a deadly bombship hidden in Scotland.’

Cat-whispering, skinhead-nobbling, force-ray-fingered Karg sits in a tradition of inhumans arriving on earth to save the world (Jesus, Superman, Doctor Who etc.). We love pinning our hopes on fantasy figures from beyond, and are a bit crap at choosing real-life heroes of our own.

Art for The Fugitive From Planet Scror was sourced from the studio of Argentinian illustrator Solano Lopez – a familiar signature style in British comics in the 60s and 70s. See also Adam Eterno, Galaxusand Nipper.

This issue of Lion carried a full-page ad for the launch of World of Wonder, the latest IPC educational children’s magazine, which would run for over 250 editions before being merged into Look and Learn in 1975.