The Victor number one appeared on 25th February 1961 and
lasted for 1558 issues. The first issue saw the appearance of "I Flew with
Braddock" (George Bourne). "I flew with Braddock" was the story of war
hero, Sergeant - Pilot Matt Braddock whose wartime exploits had won him
the Victoria Cross and Bar amongst many other medals. With the aid of
pictures, the Victor brought to life the famous story of Matt Braddock as
told by his flight navigator, Sergeant George Bourne. The story of Matt
Braddock had originally first appeared in Rover no. 1414 (2nd August 1952)
as a text story. Although highly decorated for his valiant deeds, Braddock
was only interested in getting on with the war and winning it.
The use of Rover text stories as strips in Victor was not
just confined to "I flew with Braddock". Rover (1949) saw the appearance of
"The Tough of the Track" in serial form. Alf Tupper (Pete Sutherland), as he
was better known, was a welder's apprentice who loved to run. Alf, who came
to Victor in 1962, would often go running in odd running shoes which he
would buy out of his meagre earnings. Alf's prowess at running soon made
itself apparent when he won the mile for Greyshire in the Inter Counties
Contest at the White city.
Alf Tupper
The Victor had numerous war and sport related
stories and a number of humorous stories including "Cecil the
Stone-age Scrapper" (Bagnall) which told the story of Pete
Pringle who found a stone - age man frozen in a block of ice. Pete thawed
out the stone - age man, named him Cecil and taught him to box. Yaroosh!
