Valiant (comic)
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For the U.S. comic publisher, see Valiant Comics.
Valiant was the title of a British boys adventure comic which ran from 1962 to 1976. It was published by IPC Magazines and was one of their major adventure titles throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
It contained a mix of conventional action stories such as Captain Hurricane, a humorous strip set in World War II as well as humour strips such as Billy Bunter, but it had new heroes such as Kelly's Eye, Adam Eterno, The House of Dolmann and The Steel Claw in particular who would have a long lasting influence on comic creators such as Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
However it began to be seen as old-fashioned when the first of a new type of comic was launched with the first issue of Battle Picture Weekly in 1975. The title suffered further when Pat Mills launched Action in February 1976. Attempts by John Wagner to update the title were initially successful but it struggled to find a place in the market against these tougher adventure titles. Valiant limped on for a few more months but merged with Battle Picture Weekly in October 1976.
Several of Valiant's characters have made appearances since the comic's cancellation. Alan Moore and Alan Davis used several (renamed) characters during their Captain Britain run. Quality Comics also released a four issue mini-series featuring The Steel Claw in 1986 featuring recoloured reprint material, as well as new material drawn by Garry Leach which acted as a framing device. The Steel Claw and several of IPC's 1960s heroes were also featured in Zenith in 2000 AD. This was followed by a one-off special featuring the old Valiant and IPC characters.
In 2005 many of IPC's characters have been featured in a mini-series called Albion published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics and is plotted by Alan Moore.
