Sun (comic)
# Sun (comic)

Sun was a British comic magazine focusing on adventure strips, published from 1947 to 1959. Sun featured such strips as Battler Britton, Billy the Kid, and Max Bravo; contributors included Mike Butterworth, D. C. Eyles, Geoff Campion, Don Lawrence, Eric Parker, Reg Bunn, and Gianluigi Coppola. Sun published 558 issues before merging with the Fleetway Publications title Lion.

## Publication history

Sun was launched by Cheshire-based publisher J. B. Allen in November 1947, sporting a mixture of adventure and humour strips. In May 1949, J. B. Allen — including their comics titles Sun and The Comet — was acquired by Amalgamated Press (AP), with AP continuing the titles essentially under the same names.

With AP's takeover, Leonard Matthews was appointed editor of Sun, increasing the publication's adventure content. Matthews hired Geoff Campion to draw Billy the Kid, and introduced new characters like Max Bravo and Battler Britton. Battler Britton first appeared in Sun #362 (January 14, 1956), becoming the cover feature with issue #490 (June 28, 1958) — in fact, from April to September 1959, Sun carried the tagline "Battler Britton's Own Weekly."

In 1959, Amalgamated Press was bought by the Mirror Group and renamed Fleetway Publications (after the name of AP's headquarters, Fleetway House). With the transition to Fleetway, in October 1959 the AP titles The Comet, Sun, and Tiny Tots were all merged into other AP titles; Sun merged with Lion. The merged title was called Lion and Sun for about six months before reverting simply to Lion.

## Strips

* The Adventures of Boy Colin
* Barry Ford's Western Scrapbook
* Battler Britton by Mike Butterworth and Geoff Campion
* Billy the Kid by Don Lawrence, Geoff Campion, and later Gianluigi Coppola
* Clip McCord by Reg Bunn
* Handy Andy
* Highway Days
* Ivanhoe (28 June 1952 – 15 November 1952) by Patrick Nicolle
* Jak of the Jaguars
* Lord of Sherwood
* Max Bravo, the Happy Hussar by Mike Butterworth and Eric Parker
* Moko the Mischievous Monk
* My Pal Wagger
* Ollie the Merry Mouser
* The Penguin Patrol
* Simon the Simple Sleuth
* Sinbad Sails Again
* Sun Car Spotters Club
* Swiss Family Robinson
* Tommy's Magic Whistle
