Ranger, published by Fleetway Publications, ran for 40 un-numbered issues before joining 'Look and Learn'.

The first issue published on 18th September 1965 had 'Space Dust' as it's free gift and with it would be worth around £20.00 today.

Great content included colour comic strips like 'The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire' and 'Space Cadet', historical and geographical information and 'boys toys' of the day.

An 'Astrix' type figure also appeared in this boys weekly in a strip titled 'Britons Never,Never,Never Shall be Slaves'.

Other cartoons in Ranger included Rob Riley (a school story set in Westhaven-on-Sea) and Dan Dakota (a western cartoon). The Asterix type figure was actually Asterix but under a different name - he was called Beric and Obelix was called Son of Boadicea. They reprinted Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix and Cleopatra in Ranger and then Look and Learn. The story was changed to make the heroes ancient Britons rather than Gauls, and sometimes the text was pretty different too, but the artwork was identical to the original (though at the end of Asterix and Cleopatra a map of Gaul became a map of Britain!). Ranger also included an ongoing series on 'The Story of the Soldier' which later became the 'Scrapbook of the British Soldier'. This was by Eric Parker. W E Johns, who wrote the Biggles books, contributed a series on lost treasures and one of his novels was serialised as 'Champion of the Spanish Main'. The treasure stories, and 'Champion of the Spanish Main', were actually reprinted from the 1938 issues of the boys' story paper 'Modern Boy'. This had been printed by Amalgamated Press, which later became Fleetway and printed 'Ranger', and the editor of 'Ranger' wrote a letter in Ranger No. 1 stating that he hoped that Ranger could be like the old story papers like Modern Boy, Magnet and Gem but be more up-to-date (which meant printing comics).

Eric Parker had also worked for Amalgamated Press, illustrating 'Thriller' and later the 'Daily Mail Annuals'.

The main attraction of Ranger today (unless you are a W E Johns fan) is of course the 'Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire', which appeared in all 40 issues of Ranger and then went on to have a long life in Look and Learn until that magazine died in 1982. Don Lawrence, the artist of most Trigan Empire stories, also contributed some covers to Ranger and illustrations for an ongoing prose serial 'The Range Rider'. There were three and a half Trigan Empire stories in Ranger. The first three introduced the story and described early wars with Loka. They were later reprinted, but with some panels cut out, in the 'Look and Learn Book of The Trigan Empire' in 1973 and 'The Trigan Empire' in 1978. Both books had the first few panels of the first story redrawn and enlarged, and a somewhat different colouring scheme from the magazine. The final three issues of Ranger included the first three episodes of the Trigan Empire story 'Invaders from Gallas', which was concluded in Look and Learn 232-237. This story was reprinted, but with many cuts, by Look and Learn a long time later. I am not sure if it was reprinted in full in Vulcan! - Daniel Tangri

If you have any other information on Ranger please send it in.