"Big Game" Bailey

Bursting onto the pages of IPC's Valiant in February 1971, "Big Game" Bailey is a Bronze Age British comics creation from the sharp creative partnership of writer Tom Tully and artist Jesús Blasco — a duo who knew how to make a character stick. Though the catalog records only a handful of appearances, this hunter-titled figure shares his adventures with a colourful cast including Mervin Small, Tony Steel, and Gloria Fanworth, suggesting a world as lively as any the weekly British boys' comics tradition could offer. The fact that his footprint stretches across reprints and archival collections like The Fleetway Files all the way to 2024 speaks to a quiet, enduring appeal — the kind of character that dedicated collectors of classic IPC material are always delighted to rediscover.