"Robin Hood and Maid Marian", drawn by Frank Bellamy, from Swift, 1957
Robin Hood is an English folkloric character, an outlaw who, in most interpretations, robs from the rich to give to the poor. Stories of Robin Hood have been popular for centuries, paticularly with children; and the character has appeared in numerous media, including comics.
A Robin Hood strip run in The Magic Comic. In 1947 Knock-Out ran a 14-part story called The Adventures of Robin Hood; drawn by Mike Hubbard, it was adapted from the 1938 Errol Flynn film. Reg Bunn drew Robin Hood in The Comet and Reg Beaumont drew "Sherwood Outlaw" for Sun in the 40s.
Robin Hood was a recurring character in Thriller Comics, which ran from 1951 to 1963; his first appearance in this comic was in issue 4. He was drawn by many artists, including Guido Buzzelli, D. C. Eyles and John Millar Watt.
Clifford Makins and Frank Bellamy's strip "Robin Hood and his Merry Men" ran in Swift in 1956, and was followed by "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" in 1957.
Paddy Brennan drew a Robin Hood strip in The Dandy in 1958.
In 2007 a short-lived magazine called Robin Hood Adventures was launched; it was based on the contemporary BBC series and included comic strips.
Writer Tony Lee and artist Sam Hart collaborated on the graphic novel Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood, pubished in 2009.
A number of comics have expanded on the legendary outlaw's life story. "Robina Hood", a strip which ran in Bunty, depicted Robin Hood and his band as elderly men who had retired, their daughters becoming heroic outlaws in their stead.
There have also been plenty of parodies over the years. "Robin Hood's Schooldays" from The Dandy put the Merry Men into a Bash Street Kids-style knockabout school setting; while Tony Robinson and Paul Cemmick's Maid Marian and her Merry Men, adapted from the children's BBC series, burlesqued the legends with lashings of anachronistic humour.