Captain Condor

As part of Amalgamated Press' attempt to respond to the runaway success of Eagle by creating Lion, management identified the need for a space hero to compete with the hugely popular Dan Dare. Pepper, writer of the long-running World War II boxing pilot Rockfist Rogan for The Champion, also had little experience or interest in science fiction. As such he fell on the familiar adventure story trope of a wrongly accused hero and simply relocated it to outer space. Pepper mapped out an initial story arc while Lion editor Bernard Smith searched for an artist; with the launch looming he recruited Ron Forbes. ==Publishing history==

Condor started out – in Pepper's words – as "a non-character" As Lion had planned to undercut Eagle through cheap production values, The initial cycle of stories ran through to March 1955, featuring Captain Condor as an unjustly imprisoned hero leading a resistance against the Dictator of the Planets, later aided by sidekick Pete. Following the latter's defeat, the serial was reconfigured to a format closer to Dan Dare, with Captain Condor as a dashing commander in the heroic Space Patrol, with Pete replaced by Quartermaster Burke. A further shake-up came on 27 July 1957, when (midway through serial "Captain Condor and the SOS from the Stars") the feature was transferred to the black-and-white interiors, with World War II pilot Paddy Payne taking over the front cover. Forbes also left the strip, being replaced by Neville Wilson. The new artist redesigned the character, while Space Cadets Mike and Jason joined the strip in place of Burke. Meanwhile, Hulton Press had sold Eagle to another rival publisher, Odhams Press. They acrimoniously replaced Hampson's art studio with that of Frank Bellamy, leaving many of the "Dan Dare" art team out of work. As such both Keith Watson (1960 to 1961) – and ended abruptly after 4 April 1964. The following month "Captain Condor" returned as a series of self-contained text stories, still written by Pepper (who was by now also writing "Jet-Ace Logan" in Tiger) for a ten-week run, with a one-off return on 14 November 1964. Meanwhile, heavily edited versions two serials were issued in #6 and #8 of Lion Picture Library. Along with the rest of the Amalgamated Press/Fleetway/IPC characters created before 1 January 1970, the rights to Captain Condor were retained by IPC until being sold to Rebellion Developments in 2018. County Mayo publisher Hibernia Books, who had licensed various Fleetway/IPC properties before and after the deal with Rebellion, announced a collected edition in their Fleetway Files series featuring Captain Condor in 2022. The book compiled Brian Lewis' work on the character into a single volume for the first time. ==Plot summary==

In the year 3000, Inter-Planet Space-Lines pilot Captain Condor is banished to the uranium mines of Titan, outlawed by the Dictator of the Planets after refusing to transport slaves from Venus. With the aid of fellow prisoner Pete he is able to escape and begin raising a rebel force against the Dictator. The growing rebel army was able to escape the Dictator's huge military and establish a base on Zor, an uncharted moon. Under Condor's command, the rebels prepared to strike back against the Dictator while avoiding discovery by enemy spies. ==Collected edition==

Generally reception to both the character and adventures of Captain Condor has been mixed, typically viewing it as a derivative version of Dan Dare. Writing for Australian fanzine The Mentor in 1992, Andrew Darlington considered much of the early work on the character uninspired but suggested the character may have made a more lasting impression had either of Watson or Lewis remained on the series longer than they did. Graham Kibble-White was similarly unmoved by the early adventures of Captain Condor, but echoed Darlington by stating the arrival of Keith Watson gave the character "a new lease of life". Reviewing the Hibernia collection for Slings & Arrows, Frank Plowright felt the stories had "period charm" and praised Lewis' art, while being pleasantly surprised by the quality of Pepper's plotting. ==References==