Wacky Comics!: Buster Comic - 25 Years Young!
Well, before I start this post I thought I'd quickly explain what brought it about. Here in New Zealand our country went into a total loc...| whackycomics.blogspot.com
Well, before I start this post I thought I'd quickly explain what brought it about. Here in New Zealand our country went into a total loc...| whackycomics.blogspot.com
Today I thought I’d share a few pages from the 1986 Shiver and Shake annual. Other than being the last S+S annual to hit the shelves, there’s nothing particularly significant about it. But I thought I’d share some pages because it is simply a fantastic and beautiful comic, really showcasing the talent of the day. Artists inside included Martin Baxendale, Tom Paterson, Terry Bave, Sid Burgon, Jack Edward Oliver — I could go on.The full colour pages were also stunning, and among the be...| Wacky Comics!
Time to take a look at one of the absolute best comics the United Kingdom has ever produced - Smash. When Smash launched back in 1966, top artist Leo Baxendale was already overworked thanks to its sister comic Wham, which he was essentially illustrated cover to cover. | Wacky Comics!
Following on from the Ken Reid post the other day, here's an interesting piece of comic history that Fleetway editor Dez Skinn shared to Facebook recently. It's a letter from Ken to Buster editor Len Wenn, in which he complains that somebody has been changing Faceache's sound effect from 'scrunch' to 'scrunge' when he changes his face.| Wacky Comics!
The owner of a local bookshop gave me this for free (yep, free!) last week - a copy of the very first Fudge the Elf book by the wonderful Ken Reid. This book, titled The Adventures of Fudge, came out in 1939 when Ken was just 20 years old. He would eventually publish seven Fudge books, the last of which came out in 1951. | Wacky Comics!
Here's an interesting glimpse into the production process of comics from back in the days before computers. This piece shows how Whizzer and Chips issue dated 25th September 1982 made it from the art stage to the final product. Before this step, of course, the lettering would have been added on to the strip, either written onto the board itself or more likely glued on top.| Wacky Comics!
Here's a little piece of comic history that shows there's always more to learn - well for me at least anyway! Buster comic, it seems, was not confined to the English language, but Norway, Finland and Sweden also had their own version. The first issue (seen on the left of the image above) came out in Sweden on 5th January 1967. Norway got its own edition in 1972 and Finland in 1978.| Wacky Comics!
I have written about the Willy the Kid badges before (link here) and am pleased to say that, only 10 years later, I have finally completed my set with the badge 'Willy the Kid a bit of a twit'! I do, however, have one question about them: does anybody know the order?Before he passed away in 2017 I did speak several times with Willy's creator Leo Baxendale. Although he confirmed no badge was made for the special edition book in 2002, titled The Worst of Willy the Kid, I foolishly neglected to ...| Wacky Comics!
I can't believe I've never made a post about surely one of the most significant issues of a British comic - the final issue of Buster. Buster was the last survivor of a Fleetway comic, and for me this final issue is a sad marker for the end of an era. | Wacky Comics!
The very first Funny Wonder book came out for 1935, a super-sized edition of the popular weekly comic published by Amalgamated Press. The comic began life in 1914... sort-of, and would continue until 1953. It was actually the second comic to have the name, the first of which was published in the 1890s by Harmsworth Brothers. I'll leave it at that as it's a long and confusing history that I am still wrapping my head around and is probably more deserving of its own post - all you need to know i...| Wacky Comics!
These beautiful signs sold last week at auction, and I simply couldn't resist sharing them here. Made of tin, such signs were common in the first half of the 20th century and were often tied up outside newsagents - it's not rare to see them in the background of old photos.| Wacky Comics!
Dennis the Menace must have been hugely popular right from the very beginning if he was to get his very own book less than five years after his first appearance in The Beano in 1951. Yet that's exactly what happened, with the 1956 Dennis the Menace book coming out in time for Christmas 1955. I love the front cover of this book, with the entire town, including no less than three policemen and even a cat, cowering in fear as Dennis strides along with a big bucket of bright red paint. Wonderfull...| Wacky Comics!
While doing some research for my series on the free gifts given away with Whizzer and Chips (link to part 1 here) I came across the above image from Phil-Comics of a Whizzer and Chips hat, apparently a competition prize from 1974. Whizzer and Chips gave away all manner of clothes throughout its 21-year run, most notably t-shirts that depicted various designs throughout the years promoting either Whizz-Kids or Chip-ites, depending on which half of the comic the prize was from.| Wacky Comics!
What you see above may look like any other old 1960s Beano cover, but it is in fact the last page illustrated by legendary artist Dudley Watkins. Watkins was working on the page at his home on the morning of 20th August 1969 when he suffered a fatal heart attack and collapsed over his desk. The Biffo the Bear strip was only part-done, and was later completed by David Sutherland for Beano #1423, dated October 25th 1969.| Wacky Comics!
As we move into the final years of Whizzer and Chips, the free gifts became a little more frequent. I left off in 1984 (there's a link to parts 1 and 2 at the bottom of this post), and the next free gift came with issue dated June 11th 1985. It was another badge from Heinz, this time of a Haunted House! Although I'll be honest in saying that I quite like the artwork of this badge (halloween is probably my favourite comic theme, when done well), the fact that it's promoting spaghetti is a litt...| Wacky Comics!
First off: whoops! I know this post was promised for a quite some time ago but I got swept up in things and then it slipped my mind! I do apologise, but better late than never. I left off in 1975, with the Super Jet Joke Camera, and pick up again in 1979. That may seem like a long time to go without a gift, but until more recent years such a length of time was not unusual. A set of rub down transfers known as Kalkitos were given away with the 10th birthday issue. It's striking to see how diff...| Wacky Comics!
For those of you who were following my blog in the early days, you may remember me saying more than once that Whizzer and Chips is my favourite comic. This may come as a surprise to many, but the reason is simple: although my first comic was a copy of the Beano, my first "old" comic (i.e. not from the newsagents) was Whizzer and Chips, purchased probably from a junk shop or a car boot sale.| Wacky Comics!
Any title that reaches 1000 issues is impressive and Look and Learn achieved such a feat on 9th May 1981. The celebrations began a week earlier in #999, with a full page advert promoting the big number. As you can see, the issue came with a free chess board, now long absent from my copy. It's also interesting to compare the cover shown in the advert compared with the finished product - a lot more writing was added including the subtitle 'With World of Knowledge' - which had folded and merged ...| Wacky Comics!
Dennis the Menace is, of course, one of the most successful and popular British comic characters of all time. Created by Beano editor George Moonie and the wonderfully talented Davey Law, Dennis first appeared in a half page black and white strip in Beano #452 in 1951 and had his very first book released in 1956. In the early days the Dennis the Menace book was actually a bi-annual affair, meaning today's venture, the 1960 book, was actually the third issued. It cost 5/6 and was a good 80 p...| Wacky Comics!
Launched on 5th May 1979, Jackpot was another addition in the long line of IPC comics and, although not well-remembered as a title that particularly stood out, it certainly had its moments. One such moment came about a year and a half into its run, when The Winners arrived in issue #75. As the first panel makes clear, "the Winner family decided to enter every competition going", and the lengths they would go to and the prizes they would win were the winning formula (pardon the pun) for this l...| Wacky Comics!
Oink! is one title I've thus far neglected to cover much on this blog, but hey - better late than never! So let's amend that with a dive into what is probably my favourite issue of one of the weirder comics published by IPC - lucky number #13. Launched in May 1986, Oink was still a fortnightly comic at this point (it would later go to monthly). Many people actually seem to consider Oink as "a Viz for children", indeed that is a phrase I have seen thrown around a lot, but it is simply not a t...| Wacky Comics!
Some of you might remember back in the days this blog published a bit more frequently I also put out a comic fanzine called Atomic Comic. Fanzines are a LOT of hard work and issue three was certainly the hardest, especially as we decided to print physical copies of this one. Anyway, it was always something I was proud of and I recently came across my copy of it when going through a stack of comics and remembered the interview I had with the great Tom Paterson. Since most people don't have a ...| Wacky Comics!
"Hey kids! Look! The FIRST ISSUE of a Brand New Comic just for you - DON'T MISS IT!!" boasts the front cover of this comic in a fashion typical for the launch of a new title. Indeed, these days it's not often I come across a comic I haven't heard of before, but on a recent trip down south to Dunedin I was lucky enough to come across a couple of issue of Kidzone, a bit of a mysterious New Zealand comic from the early 1980s that is as brand new to me as it would have been to its original young...| Wacky Comics!
After an absence of almost half a century, the much-loved British comic Monster Fun is making a comeback under its new owners Rebellion. Admittedly, the nostalgia for the title is probably stronger than the love for comic itself during its initial run, only 73 issues of the weekly edition were printed until it merged with the far more successful Buster comic on 6th November 1976. I certainly find it interesting that not a more popular title was chosen for the first Fleetway comic to make a c...| Wacky Comics!
The front cover of Scoops #1, from Compal Comics | Wacky Comics!
