15 August 1981: Victor

It’s hard not to suspect that comics such as Victor, with weekly reconstructions and dramatisations of British military heroics - such as this True Story of Men at War - had a formative influence on the over-inflated patriotism of the country we live in today. Artist unknown. Artist unknown.

This story seems typical: a briefly told tale of bravery (as Allied troops close in on German territory towards the end of WW2), but notable for the noble chat and swagger of the Brits against a feral and hapless collection of German troops.

‘Right chaps, let’s start something!’ vs. ‘Feuer! Cut them down!’ It’s all a bit pantomime.

Victor was more than just war stories. It was one of the last standing of a traditional boys’ anthology style of comic (such as Lion, Tiger and Valiant, Wizard, Hotspur and The Hornet) featuring wholesome and fairly unrealistic adventure stories, humour and sport.

It’s a different animal from ‘new wave’ 70s and 80s titles like Action, Battle, the new Eagle or even Roy of the Rovers: more innocent, less challenging. But it was still a popular comic, and many of the stories are fun romps once you adjust your expectations.

The ‘great new football story’ starting in this issue was a good example of this simpler style of strip. Mister Roly-Poly followed the unlikely exploits of a 4th division team playing in Europe, led by an overweight defender who scores the winner while playing as goalkeeper. The artist was Charles Roylance.

A reader favourite was Alf Tupper, The Tough of the Track, who ‘ran’ (geddit?!) for more than forty years in Victor (and previously, The Rover). Alf was a working class athlete who upset posh establishment types, and as such I think he was very good thing. DC Thomson had a good track record for creating this sort of character. Art by Frederico Maidagan.