Simultaneously disillusioned with contemporary children's literature, he and Anvil artist Frank Hampson created a dummy comic based on Christian values.

Featured in colour on the front cover was its most recognisable story, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, created by Hampson with meticulous attention to detail.

Although Eagle continued in various forms, a perceived lowering of editorial standards preceded plummeting sales, and it was eventually subsumed by its rival, Lion, in 1969.

In 1948 he employed young artist Frank Hampson,[6][9] a war veteran[nb 2] who had enrolled at the Southport School of Arts and Crafts, where he was described by his tutor as an "outstanding draughtsman 'prepared to go to endless trouble to get a thing right'".

[10] He worked as the illustrator on Anvil, and later became the full-time artist for Interim, a Christian publicity society formed during a conference of diocesan editors,[6][10] with ambitions to produce a strip cartoon magazine aimed at children.

Morris was impressed by the high standard of artwork in the US magazines, but disgusted by their content, which he described as "deplorable, nastily over-violent and obscene, often with undue emphasis on the supernatural and magical as a way of solving problems".

This intrigued local journalist Norman Price, and the following month he met Morris, and helped him express his desire to see such a magazine by co-writing with him "comics that bring horror to the nursery", published in the Sunday Dispatch.

[15] Morris envisioned a character called Lex Christian, "a tough, fighting parson in the slums of the East End of London", whose adventures would be told in strip cartoon form, illustrated by Hampson.

[17][18] It is a magazine with 175 flawlessly vivid drawings that start with gangsters shooting a girl in the stomach, having the heroine twice bound and gagged, finally dumped in a bath of cold water to drown ...

Morals of little girls in plaits and boys with marbles bulging their pockets are being corrupted by a torrent of indecent coloured magazines that are flooding bookstalls and newsagents.

[nb 3][22] Morris wanted to produce a comic the pages of which would be filled with role models whose behaviour and moral outlook he felt was socially desirable.

[23] These were innovative but somewhat risky ideas, as nothing similar existed in the market,[nb 4] and Hulton therefore commissioned extensive research into the new comic, which by then, inspired by the design of her church lectern, had been christened Eagle by Hampson's wife.

[28][29] Despite its relatively high price, the comic was an immediate success; released on 14 April 1950,[30] and despite government paper quotas,[nb 5] the first issue sold about 900,000 copies.

[6] Eagle was designed to entertain and educate its readers; although a typical issue might contain such characters as Cavendish Brown, Harris Tweed, Jack O'Lantern, Storm Nelson and Luck of the Legion, it also included a special news section, a sports page, and school stories.

While Morris (who by now had resigned from St James)[37] edited the magazine from Hulton's premises at Shoe Lane in London,[38] the comic was created in a converted bakery in the Churchtown district of Southport.

The building was described by Eagle artist Greta Tomlinson as "very basic, a flagstone floor and a tin roof; there was cold running water in the corner.

[38] Peter Ling and Macdonald Hastings were contributors,[41] as was Harris Tweed's creator John Ryan, who was also responsible for Captain Pugwash, printed in the first 19 issues.

[42] Children were encouraged to submit their good deeds to the comic; those that had their stories printed were called MUGs, a not-so-subtle dig at the "spivs" who made fun of them.

The club proved extremely popular, attracting within months a membership of about 100,000, but it also served as a research tool for Hulton; questionnaires were sent to a random selection of members, asking each to rate certain aspects of the comic.

Wolf Mankowitz proclaimed Dan Dare a "Hero of Our Time", and the Earl of Jellicoe was reported to have read the comic in the library of Westminster Palace.

Lord Mountbatten supposedly placed a subscription order for his nephew, Prince Charles, and on one occasion rang Hulton to complain that the comic had not arrived; a replacement was quickly despatched.

[48] At their 1957 AGM Hulton's Chairman reported a fall in profits, from £298,000 to £36,000, blaming reduced revenue from another of their magazines, Picture Post, and increased production costs.

Regular changes in emphasis, including an increasing number of features on contemporary music and sport, were not enough to ensure the comic's continued survival.

Drawn by Gerry Embleton, and later Ian Kennedy, and set 200 years after the original story, the first story-arc featured the return of Dan Dare's earliest nemesis, The Mekon.

[56][57] In an attempt to emulate the success that Fleetway had had with girls' magazines, the relaunched Eagle initially contained a large number of photo stories such as Doomlord, Sgt.

Eagle inspired several imitators, such as Valiant, Tiger,[64] and Lion (which featured a Dan Dare clone, "Captain Condor")[65] but such adventure tales were less palatable for girls.

Girl, a sister title to Eagle, appeared in November 1951,[6] and featured youthful capers in boarding schools, and tales of equestrian adventure.

In contrast to other, earlier publications, Eagle attempted to educate the reader with factual, text-based historical stories, such as the life of Winston Churchill, as presented in "The Happy Warrior".

A detailed account of the Second World War was given, while one strip lambasted German paratroopers, who on seeing British infantry below them, shouted "Donner und Blitzen!

He recovered from cancer to become a graphics technician at Ewell Technical College, and in 1975 at the Lucca comics convention was declared as the best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since the end of the Second World War.