Hurricane was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 29 February 1964 to 8 May 1965. The title was billed as "the companion paper to Valiant" in reference to the weekly launched by Fleetway in 1962 that had rapidly become one of the company's best-selling publications. However, while Valiant would run until 1976, Hurricane was less successful and lasted just over a year before being merged with Tiger in 1965.
Creation
Amalgamated Press had been taken over by the Mirror Group in 1960, and the new owners reorganised the company's comics magazines under the banner Fleetway Publications. One of the major attractions for the Mirror Group had been AP's plethora of weekly comics with their six-figure circulations. Eager to stamp their own identity on the market, they had launched Valiant in 1962. Eschewing text stories in favour of picture strips and content based on the growing interest in World War II from young boys, it had gone on to be one of the company's most profitable publications. Looking to expand the line further, Valiant creator Jack Le Grand was assigned to create a 'companion paper' along similar lines to counter DC Thomson's successful Hornet.
Coming up with the name Hurricane, Le Grand commissioned a similar range of stories, typical of boys' comics of the era - war, sport and adventure. "Typhoon Tracy" (drawn by Mario Capaldi) echoed the format of "Captain Hurricane", featuring an oversized sailor and trouble-shooter roving the world, putting his superhuman strength to use for good causes; Tracy's low intelligence added a comic factor to proceedings. "HMS Outcast" plumbed similar territory, featuring a crew of Royal Navy misfits thrown onto an antique destroyer in World War II, while "Sword for Hire" starred another roving adventurer, the daring 'Prince of Swordsmen' Hugo Dinwiddie helping innocents during The Protectorate. Sport was represented by "Skid Solo" - featuring the title character's attempts to launch a motor racing career against the wishes of his old-fashioned Aunt Mabel - and 19th century boxing saga "Two Fists Against the World; boarding school antics were provided by tearaway Duffy as "The Worst Boy in School" and - while less popular than the previous decade - Westerns were still catered for by mysterious gunslinger Drago in "He Rides Alone". Humour was provided by the cartoon "Rod the Odd Mod", concerning the electronics-obsessed title character and his skittish friend Percy Vere, reprints of Italian Mark Twain adaptation "Un Americano alla Corte di re Artù" as "A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur" and "Just for a Laugh", featuring cartoons of reader-submitted jokes - those chosen would be rewarded with a £1 prize.
Educational content, still needed as readers were typically of an age where they required parental approval for their purchases, was provided by a back-page potted overview of a historical event. An unusual feature of Hurricane was that it did not have a front page strip - instead featuring a full-page painting, usually linked to the historical article. Like Valiant and its predecessor - the revamped version of Knockout - the comic was also notable due to the high percentage of material commissioned from European studios in Italy and Spain.
Publishing history
The first issue of Hurricane was released on 23 February 1964; it would be published every Monday as was Valiant, further emphasising the link between the two, and the title debuted with cover-mounted model of the much-anticipated BAC TSR-2 jet bomber. At the time it took around five to six months for useful sales information to be collated by Fleetway, and this revealed that sales were less impressive than hoped for. As with other titles, Hurricanes market research was conducted by reader's letters - children were encouraged to write missives listing their three favourite features, and to include such information with submissions for "Just for a Laugh" or reader competitions.