Knockout Magazine

This magazine started 4th Mar 1939, ended 16th Feb 1963. Merged with Magnet 1941, became Knockout and Magnet until 1945, then just Knockout again. Merged with Valiant. The first, published by the Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway Publications), was launched by editor Percy Clarke and sub-editor Leonard Matthews in 1939 to compete with The Dandy and The Beano, launched by DC Thomson in 1937 and 1938 respectively. Like its rivals, it featured a mixture of humour and adventure strips and illustrated prose stories. Matthews recruited Hugh McNeill, a former Beano artist, as the title’s main humour artist, and his strips “Our Ernie” and “Deed-a-Day Danny” were very popular. 

Two characters were imported from the prose story papers – Billy Bunter, formerly of The Magnet, initially drawn by C. H. Chapman, later by Frank Minnitt, and Sexton Blake, initially drawn by Jos Walker, later by Alfred Taylor, Roland Davies and definitive Blake illustrator Eric Parker. Also Jerry Spring (Jije) renamed into Slade, Spirou and Fantasio renamed into Dickie and Birdbath. After the Second World War the title featured more adventure strips, and Matthews, who was promoted to editor in 1948, recruited artists including Sep E. Scott, H. M. Brock, D. C. Eyles and Geoff Campion to draw them. The title lasted 1251 issues, from (cover dates) 4 March 1939 to 16 February 1963, absorbing The Magnet in 1940 and Comic Cuts in 1953, before being merged into Valiant. The second ran from (issues dates) 12 June 1971 to 23 June 1973, when it merged with Whizzer and Chips.

Jan Kordaat

The Adventures of Jan Kordaat (in Dutch or Jean Valhardi in Francais ) is a series of Franco-Belgian comics created in 1941 by Jean Doisy, scenario and Jijé, drawing in no.  40/41 journal Spirou. He staged an insurance investigator named Jan Kordaat/Jean Valhardi who travels the world for its investigations. The drawing will then be taken over by Eddy Paape then by René Follet, while in this scenario will succeed Eddy Paape, Yvan Delporte, Jean-Michel Charlier, Philip, André-Paul Duchateau and Jacques Stoquart. 

The series tells the adventures of an investigator insurance, named Jan Kordaat/Jean Valhardi, worldwide, ranging from his Belgian home to the most exotic countries. Thereafter his trade will gradually fade in profile than a pure adventurer and hard one. He is the prototype of cartoon heroes who do not know fear, are beautiful and strong. Arsene Stooges Jean Valhardi that appears mainly during the years Jean-Michel Charlier, this is a type of strong build, muscular and not boastful, just the opposite of the hero. Gégène, an extravagant will go from being a foil to debut than full featured Series.

Jerry Spring

Jerry Spring is a Franco-Belgian Western comics series created by the Belgian comics creator Jijé. Originally published in Spirou magazine, the series made its debut on March 4, 1954. It depicts a Jerry Spring cowboy who solves problems in the American West. The scenario will be successively provided by Maurice Rosy, René Goscinny, John Acquaviva, Jacques Lob, Dubois, Philip, Jean Giraud and Festin. After the death of Jijé, the design will be provided by Franz time to a story. 

The series is set in the era of the American Wild West. It depicts Jerry Spring, a cowboy humanist who does not hesitate to side with the most oppressed like the Indians or Blacks. Jerry Spring, the story of the hero. It has a horse red named Ruby and does not hesitate to pay in person to defend the oppressed. Pancho, a Mexican, Jerry Spring meeting from his earliest adventures, will become once his most faithful companion. He loves naps and tequila. The series will influence most of comic western as Blueberry of Jean Giraud, the latter will attend Jijé on the occasion of the album no.11, but Buddy Longway of  Derib and Comanche of Hermann and Greg.

Blueberry

Blueberry is a Franco-Belgian comics western series created by the Belgian scriptwriter Jean-Michel Charlier and French comics artist Jean "Mœbius" Giraud. It chronicles the adventures of Mike Blueberry on his travels through the American Old West. Blueberry is an atypical western hero; he is not a wandering lawman who brings evil-doers to justice, nor a handsome cowboy who "rides into town, saves the ranch, becomes the new sheriff and marries the schoolmarm." In any situation, he sees what he thinks needs doing, and he does it.
The series spawned out of the original comics series "Fort Navajo" in 1963, but after a few stories breakout character "Blueberry" got his own spin-off and the series continued under this title. The older "Fort Navajo" stories are available under the name "Blueberry" too. Other spin-offs, such as "La Jeunesse de Blueberry" and "Marshall Bluberry", were created too.
It has been remarked that during the 1960s, Blueberry "was as much a staple in French comics as, say, The Avengers or The Flash here [in the USA]."

The story follows Michael Steven Donovan, nicknamed "Blueberry", a name he chooses when fleeing from his Southern enemies (which is inspired when he looks at a blueberry bush), starting with his adventures as a lieutenant in the United States Cavalry shortly after the American Civil War. He is accompanied in many tales by his hard-drinking deputy, Jimmy McClure, and later also by Red Woolley, a rugged pioneer.
Donovan is the son of a rich Southern farmer and starts as a dedicated racist. He is framed for a murder he did not commit, flees and is saved by an African-American. He becomes an enemy of discrimination of all kinds, fights against the Confederates, and tries to protect the rights of Native Americans.

Redbeard

Redbeard (French: Barbe-Rouge) is a series of Belgian comic books, originally published in French, created by writer Jean-Michel Charlier and artist Victor Hubinon in 1959. After their deaths the series was continued by other artists, including Jijé (Joseph Gillain), Christian Gaty, Patrice Pellerin, Jean Ollivier, Christian Perrissin and Marc Bourgne.

The series was very popular in France, Belgium and The Netherlands, but has not yet been published in English. In late seventies and early eighties, most of the classic episodes were also published in Yugoslavia (in the Serbian language) under the name Demon s Kariba (Demon of the Caribbean). In Croatia, the series was first published under the name Crvenobradi but later under the name Riđobradi (in the Croatian language). In Germany, the series is known under the name:Der rote Korsar, and in Denmark 5 albums have been published under the name Rødskæg. In the seventies two episodes were published in Finland, under the name Punaparta, and in Portugal 5 Barba Ruiva albums have been published.