Tiger was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press, Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 11 September 1954 to 30 March 1985. The title was initially launched in a large tabloid size to mimic newspapers; while it featured some action-adventure stories Tiger contained a large number of sport strips. The most famous of these was "Roy of the Rovers", which debuted in the first issue and was the comic's most popular feature, eventually transferring to its own comic in 1975. Tiger would go on to become one of the company's longest-running titles, with 1,573 issues published before being merged with Eagle in 1985. Over the course of its run, Tiger featured columns by numerous famous sports figures, including Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott, Tony Greig, Trevor Francis and Charlie Nicholas.

Creation

Amalgamated Press had launched Lion - their first all-new post-war boys title - in 1952, in an attempt to outgun Hulton Press' acclaimed Eagle. While it was unable to match Eagle, Lion was a sizeable success in its own right. With paper rationing having ended and a growing market, AP decided to launch another new title. Reg Eves, managing editor of AP's children's division and instigator of Lion, assigned editor Derek Birnage to create the new title, which would be primarily sports-themed, and featured larger pages closer to the size of Eagle.

Since resumption of full football competition in 1947, the game had continued to grow in profile; Eves and Birnage quickly decided a footballer would make a suitable headliner for the new comic. They contacted the experienced writer Frank S. Pepper, who had created Captain Condor for Lion two years previously and had experience writing sports stories for story paper The Champion, including football tale "Danny of the Dazzlers". Placed on the full colour front cover, "Roy of the Rovers" swiftly became hugely popular with readers.

Early mock-ups of the paper used the title Champion before Tiger was decided on. As well as "Roy of the Rovers", the first issue also featured racing driver Len Dyson trying to clear his name after an unwarranted jail term in George Forrest's "The Speedster from Bleakmoor", Edward Home-Gall's backwater prize-fighter "Young Hurricane" and Brian Leigh's young cyclist Rick Howland in "The Two-Wheeled Whirlwind" (initially a prose story before graduating to a picture strip in 1956). Other genres included two takes on the boys' comic perennial of school antics - strip "Dodger Caine", written by Ted Cowan and text serial "Tales of Whitestoke Hall" by John Marshall - and more standard adventure fare in "Bulldog Bryant's Amazon Adventure" and medieval archer "Will Strongbow". Feature pages included the first of series on "Thrilling Stories of Sport" and "Daring Escapes", as well as a missive from the purported blazer and club tie-clad editor, known as 'The Skipper'. Another feature was cartoon quiz "Is Knowall Right or Wrong?", in which a binocular wielding self-professed export on sports tested readers on rulebook minutiae for football, cricket, horse racing, speedway, water polo, table tennis and more.

Publishing history

Priced at 3d and featuring 20 large newsprint pages, the first issue appeared on Tuesday 4 September 1954, subtitled 'The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly' and brandishing a 'Space Gun Novelty' at new readers. A string-pull roaring tiger toy was included with the following week's issue. Initially the title had a stable line-up as 'The Skipper' encouraged readers to write in with their three favourite strips, and in January "Speedster from Bleakmoor" was switched out for a different motor-racing story, "Rivals of Rocky Mountain Roadrace"; other like-for-like swaps were the replacement of "Will Strongbow" with more historical adventure in "The Swordsmith's Adventure" and "Young Hurricane" with boxing legionnaire "Lightning Lorant".

Tiger incorporating The Champion

March 1955 had seen the first of six titles that would be merged into Tiger. The venerable Champion, as a story paper featuring no picture stories but only illustrated prose, was thoroughly out of fashion by this point and thus the only arrival it brought to Tiger was Pepper's pugilist pilot "Rockfist Rogan", which would continue until 1961. August saw Roy Race break into the Melchester Rovers first team (scoring twice in a 3-3 draw) as his following continued to grow - as early as 1957 the character had his own annual His adventures were largely written by Fred Baker and drawn by John Vernon, and later featured Stirling Moss as a guest star. The combined Tiger and Hurricane title itself would last until February 1969. Other new stories in the sixties attempted to cash in on other fads - the vogue for spies led to the creation of "Nelson Lord, T.I.G.E.R. Agent" while the boom in superheroes that followed the Batman TV series saw a run for crimefighter "The Black Archer"; however, Tiger would always gravitate back to sports. Colquhoun meanwhile had been tempted back for two more years as "Roy of the Rovers" artist, and would also help launch "Saber, King of the Jungle" in July 1967. Paul Trevillion and then Yvonne Hutton would take over from Colquhoun on "Roy of the Rovers", and Race scored his 300th club goal in 1968. Taking advantage in the massive boost in interest in sport that followed England's 1966 World Cup win, Tomlinson also strove to learn the new web offset printing method IPC were bringing in to replace letterpress, allowing Tiger to take full advantage of the advancements - including running front cover photographs of sports stars. He also initiated the Tiger Sportsperson of the Year award, voted for by readers; the first winner was tennis star Ann Jones.

The company's desire for new titles saw the loss of "Roy of the Rovers" in 1976 when Barrie Tomlinson was ordered to set the strip up in its own title. Roy Race appeared in both comics until 1978, when he was waved off to Roy of the Rovers full-time with a testimonial featuring World of Sport presenter Dickie Davies as master of ceremonies. Despite the loss of its iconic star, Tiger continued to sell steadily even as the market for boys' comics contracted going into the eighties. The successful launch of Roy of the Rovers saw Tomlinson promoted to IPC's Group Editor for Sport and Adventure in 1976, passing the baton of Tiger editor to long-serving assistant editor Paul Gettens.

Tiger

While the likes of Lion and Valiant had folded in the seventies, Tiger continued as the grandee of IPC's comics. In 1981, Tigers circulation was an average of 149,912 - around half of the 300,000 it had commanded in its heyday, but enough to make it the company's biggest seller. However, by 1982 saw it drop behind Buster, Tammy and Whizzer and Chips, losing around 25,000 readers.

Sales continued to fall; by the second half of 1983 they had dipped to 96,101 - behind ten other IPC weeklies. Six months later it was down to being the company's 13th best seller, dropping below 90,000 readers;. but the end was now inevitable for the title and the 30 March 1985 issue announced to readers that Tiger would be absorbed into the relaunched Eagle.

Legacy

Roy Race continued his own adventures in Roy of the Rovers until May 1995, while Johnny Cougar made a short-lived return as host of IPC's wrestling mag

Johnny Cougar's Wrestling Monthly, an attempt to cash in on the huge popularity of WWF in 1992.

Tigers status as the birth place of "Roy of the Rovers" has ensured it a place in British comics history. In 2012, a stamp featuring the first issue and Roy Race was among those issued by Royal Mail in honour of notable British comics. In 2018 the rights to the original material for Tiger were among the pre-1970 AP/Fleetway/IPC library purchased by Rebellion Developments. Since then the company have issued collections of some material in their Treasury of British Comics range.

Stories

Titles

  • Tiger - 11 September 1954 to 19 March 1955