Following on from @Black_Celebration’s splendid Spangles and White Dog Poo thread, how about a discussion of the UK comics of our childhoods?
Nothing against the DC and Marvel titles, but once kids of our generation started reading more adolescent-focused titles like Spiderman, Batman, etc, the Beanos and Dandies tended to go the way of Puff the Magic Dragon when little Jackie Paper first “woke up sticky”.
Like probably everyone else here, I started out with those old DC Thomson warhorses the Beano and the Dandy, eventually working my way through Victor, briefly the Hotspur (too much bloody writing and not enough pictures), and later Valiant and Tiger. If my reading habits taught me one useful skill set it’s a rudimentary knowledge of German (Kamerad! Donner und Blitzen!, etc)
Always used to amuse me how aside from the big two (the Beano and Dandy) all the other titles generally ended up merging.
Presumably competing for the same share of our pocket money, fairly lightweight titles like Topper were simply krill for larger selling titles such as first Beezer and then the Beano.
Come the inevitable Saturday you’d head down to the newsagent only to find Topper’s masthead now only existed as a sickly sidekick to Beezer’s more robust big brother. Within a few weeks your former favorite weekly read would be languishing in the drawer marked “where are they now?” with washed up former big names such as Corky the Cat and Jonah.
Everything changed when IPC launched 2000AD in 1977 and in blooding talent like Alan Moore and Brian Bolland pretty much redefined not only UK but also US comics beyond all recognition but that’s a subject worthy of a thread on its own
There was also this without colour just black and white drawings from Marvel comics. The free pennant/ wallet was made of some plastic which had a perfectly foul smell. I think there were some transfers with a later edition.
Don’t remember that one – looks like it probably ended up getting eaten by TV21 (a Fleetway title IIRC)
Just checked on wiki, it didn’t and it wasn’t
I subscribed to Fantastic for a while. I preferred the look to the coloured in American originals. There was also Terrific, in a similar vein.
The main reason why Viz is so good is because of its clear affection for these comics.
I collected my weekly Beano and for around 10 years and kept them in ring binders. Punching two holes in each copy probably decreased the value to zero, but I didn’t keep them to sell – I kept them because I wanted to read them again and again. I gave them to my best friend’s little sister when I was about 17. I even won a T-shirt in a competition and my name was printed in the comic which, in all seriousness, remains in the top 20 moments of my life.
The strip I liked the most was Minnie the Minx. Wonderfully drawn, very funny with often quite surreal stories. The Bash Street Kids also contained solid gold comedy e.g. the cadaverous teacher having a wife that looked exactly the same as him – but with a bow in her hair and a dress.
I never really got on with The Dandy, it simply didn’t have as many laughs – but I did enjoy Whizzer and Chips from time to time – particularly Faceache, Grimly Fiendish and Thingummyblob. I also remember Shiver and Shake, but I don’t recall if that was a whole comic or just two characters (they were ghosts).
It was the Eagle for me in the 50s, and probably into the early 60s. I just loved Dan Dare, and I bought all the books in later years to revisit the stories. The art work and production values were terrific. The centre spread was always a cutaway drawing of something like the Queen Mary or The Royal Scot, and there were historical stories in strip form too which I remember to this day. Maybe I was a bit nerdy, but the Beano and so on weren’t really for me, although I’m sure I had them occasionally.
They weren’t really ‘comics’, but I remember having a lot of those small ones featuring war stories..Commando?
Later on I was a DC comics fan, particularly Batman. I actually once had some really early 30s/40s Batman comics inherited from my uncle, but they got chucked out when I left home. They would be worth a fortune now.
Was Alf Tupper, the tough of the track, in Eagle, the athlete from “the other side of the tracks”, who trained on fish and chips?
In the Victor I think..?
I was a Sparky kid. They often had free gifts as I recall, one of the best of which was a balloon that was jet propelled by an attachment on its end so that it flew around the room. Sadly it burst on its maiden flight and I cried for hours. Hey, I was five!
Well @Boneshaker I’m not the only one who read Sparky. Quite an inappropriate name as I remember it being conspicuously less fun and more miserable than the other comics even though I stuck with it ’til the end.
I was on Team Sparky too – and still have a box full of my old comics stashed away in the loft! Didn’t they end up merging with someone a bit crap at one point? Topper? Not much room for Baron von Reichs-Pudding by that point, sadly.
No Christmas was complete with a Beano and a Sparky annual and the highlight of every summer was always the summer special.
I loved the summer specials – each character gets up to their usual antics in a seaside town under a blazing sun and cloudless sky.
Deckchairs, Donkeys, sunglasses Kiss Me Qwik hats, sticks of rock, candy floss, swimming costumes fashioned in the same colours as the characters normal clothes, crabs with a determined expression nipping on toes (Ooyah!)….
Plus, of course, that other great summer phenomenon – the annual appearance of the Eyeballs in the Sky in The Perishers in the Daily Mirror.
Huzzah!
The Fleetway publications of the 1960s were great. Loads to read. I liked “Lion” and “The Valiant”. Captain Hurricane, Nathan Flintlock, Zip Nolan, Kelly’s Eye … made me the man I am. Though Cap’n Hurricane was a tad insensitive to multiculturalism, given the insults to the Axis enemies dispatched in a ‘ragin fury’.
I later moved onto ‘Coutdown’, then Science Fiction Monthly. Then the NME. And here we are.
What was Captain Hurricane’s faithful batman’s name? Can’t for the life of me remember.
But I do remember the “Jerries” or “Bosche” forever shouting “Achtung!” “Schnell!” “Donner und blitzen!” and “Hande hoche!”.
Maggot Malone. The ‘Jerries’ were usually referred to as Sausage Munchers, Squareheads, etc.
Another ‘hero’ in another comic (nope, no idea about names) had a faithful accomplice, maybe with a turban or similar, who used what he called his Clicky Ba (his cricket bat) on the enemy. Wrong on so many levels nowadays, but seemingly harmless fun back in the day.
That @the-simmo-kid would have been Bill Sampson the Wolf of Kabul and his sidekick Chung… I had to look it up. The Wizard was one comic I’d forgotten about that I don’t think had been mentioned. Another I only remembered today was Lion that ultimately joined with Valiant.
https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Wolf_of_Kabul
Thank you. That’s the blighter! I had Eagle delivered as a lad, but somehow acquired a few of the older annuals such as Wizard, Lion, etc, from jumble sales or the like. I also seem to remember some bloke with a motorbike and a bathtub (in lieu of a proper sidecar). Alf Tupper? Those were the days, eh!, when villains were proper villains and heroes were square-jawed.
For a couple of fantastic years my Big Brother and me, mostly down to him having a paper round and therefore being very rich, managed to have a comic delivered Monday through Friday. Memory, which is usually Wrong, says Beano on a Tuesday and Eagle on a Thursday. Dandy, Beano and Tiger who knows? I expect I could look all that up on Google but no way am I shattering that illusion.
Do you think my brother with his connections to the Paper Shop Mafia arranged to have a comic a day delivered? I’m going to cling dearly to that thought (sadly Big Bro no longer capable of verifying this).
Beano was published with an every Thursday date, but came a day early if you had a subscription.
The paper shop mafia was not without its efficient and beneficial sides.
Mr. Franklin, the Caporegime of Franklins Newsagent at the top of Harris Road where we lived was the only employer for whom I have ever (unsuccessfully) applied for a job to actually keep my details on file until a suitable vacancy arose.
What I remember from the 70s is how much of the output was still about the Second World War: Warlord, Victor, Commando (the last is still going). The UK was surely the only country where this was the case. I think one of the reasons why 2000AD was successful was that tastes had changed and there was a demand for UK Sci Fi or Superhero comics.
I always liked the Viz satires of the War comics with German soldiers shouting “Liebfraumilch!”
Similar to Commando there was Battle Picture Library, of which we still have a lot. Once my Dad passes, I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my wife.
I used to get Look and Learn every week for years and also Victor and (a bit later, I think) Warlord.
I seem to remember that these all came on a Thursday.
Not that it’s related, but Thursday was always good on TV, with Tomorrow’s World followed by Top Of The Pops.
Look at my diary for Thursday 1965 – “500 lines from Wags Wilson. Liver & Onions for tea. Watched Top of the Pops then Man From Uncle. Went to bed. Masturbated.”
If you’re hankering to revisit those distant days, head for here…
https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/
(PS It’s been some time since I looked this site last, I’m presuming all the links still work)
Beano and Dandy for me too but also Buster which is not mentioned much these days. I remember getting a free Thunderclap with Buster once, which was basically a triangular piece of cardboard which made a noise when you flicked it. Scared the hell out of my Mum and Dad.
Then it was The Lion and The Hotspur, followed by Eagle which I loved as a nerdy 10 year old.
Just realised that the comic I misidentified as Buster was, in fact, The Beezer – another D.C. Thompson publication.
Boy’s World, Eagle, TV21, Hornet, Victor, Look & Learn, a decade and more of excitement and thrills and a little education. Even Look & Learn, otherwise quite serious, had the Trigan Empire. Mum went into town to ‘do the shopping’ (a.k.a. get out of the house and away from the domestic weekday grind) once a week on a Thursday. We raced home from school to grab our latest instalments. Simpler times, simpler pleasures, arguably a better balance of delayed gratification and thankfulness for simpler mercies. Great memories. These days I have the complete runs of all of the above available on this PC; it’s nostalgic as heck, but cannot hope to compete with the joy of reading first time around.
Look & Learn, issue 14, 21st April 1962. This is why we are all here:
I think that should surely be the next issue of L&L, the infamous “Birds and Bees” special
Arf!
The Beano, then Look and Learn for me.
I liked the Beano – good drawing and funny stories, but my sister had Twinkle and Bunty, the latter of which had far better and more memorable plotlines.
My classmate had Look-in which was an ITV tie-in and seemed much more fun. I hid my jealousy and pretended to prefer the ‘intellectual rigour’ of Look and Learn, though what i remember most apart from the Trigan Empire (Romans with earth-moving machines) was trying to work out pictures of usual objects from unusual angles – usually a comb or a thimble.
I was an avid reader of comics, first The Beano (or The Dandy if I must, but I never liked the characters as much). After that Topper and Beezer were mid-week treats (though of course I would read my older sister’s Jackie too, the Weekend and Titbits magazines my parents bought for themselves). On Saturday morning I would pick up Cor, or Knockout, or Whizzer and Chips, or Shiver and Shake with some sugary treats. The war comics never appealed to me but I did read Roy of the Rovers for a while. I’m not sure why as I wasn’t much more interested in football than war, but the habit of regular magazine buying was ingrained and then transferred to the music press.
There is a thread from childhood comics through the weekly music indies to the Dad rock monthlies, isn’t there? I wonder for how many that ends up with an Oldie subscription, which must be the Punch de nos jours.
Starting point as a nipper was various The Beano, The Dandy, Topper, Whizzer & Chips. They all passed through my hands at some point, but I don’t ever recall regularly getting my own copy.
First proper “must get” was Tiger & Scorcher, followed by Roy Of The Rovers.
Comics became magazines (it sounded more grown up – regulars (in rotation) were Shoot, Match, and Scoop, with Smash Hits & Number One on the side.
I recall a glossy music mag called The Hit (which I think ran for 3 issues) in 1985, but it’s not an easy search term to see if it was actually a dream.
Of course I read any comics I was given eagerly, but I only became enthused with the dawn of Krazy Comic, which had a more anarchic sensibility (a sort of Tiswas to all the others’ Edmonds and Philbin properness), which in turn spawned Cheeky which was a bit post-modern, weaving its strips into the narrative of the titular character’s Joycean daily perambulations.
2000AD was the real game changer. I still think there’s a better movie in Flesh than all bar one of the Jurassic Park efforts.
One thing I really liked to do, though, was cut up the back page of the Bunty and put the dresses and assorted outfits on the “model”. I think my Mum feared this was leading a particular direction, but, rest assured Mum, it turned out much worse than anything you might have been thinking.
Right now I’m trying to remember the players from the 70s Melchester Rovers line up (before the Kemp Brothers and before the “cinematic universe” of a Nipper Lawrence, Johnny Dane or Kevin Mouse being transferred from another strip): Charlie Carter, Duncan McKay, Geoff Giles, Lofty Peak, Blackie Gray..
Which further reminds me of Scoop, with its futuristic computer-simulated super league, where London North (the best players from Arsenal and Spurs combined – yes it used to be possible to do that without just picking Arsenal – would play, say, the midlands’ finest (Forest in those days, plus Villa, WBA and Trevor Francis)..
Other Melchester Rovers players I recall: Mervyn Wallace (or was it Melvin?), Noel Baxter, and Vernon Elliot. They also went into the European market signing Spaniard Paco Diaz
In that Roy of the Rovers universe, Roy also plays for England but that side of his footballing life is never really mentioned in the strips.
Roy’s “voice” was all over the comic, particularly in the pages containing news and interviews with real players as if Roy had written the entire thing himself. There would be the odd photo too – often a celebrity posing next to a cardboard cut-out of Roy.
It really stretched the credulity. There was a strip called “YOU Are The Star!” where we never see the ace footballers’ face because it’s actually YOU! You fill in blanks in the dialogue “Oh! What a wonderful volley by Black Celebration!” and if you’re feeling particularly creative you could glue on your own photo in a special place in the masthead.
Wasn’t there a storyline where Roy got kidnapped by oily Johnny Foreigner types out to derail England’s chances?
I don’t remember that. I know it got all dramatic in later years but when I was reading it, Roy was happily married to Penny and Melchester won every game. I vaguely recall a terrorist incident though – I would say that the action would have been on one of Melchester’s summer tours or if they were drawn against some shady Soviets in the European Cup. Otherwise, they’d have had to draw actual England footballers, which I suspect would have worried m’learned friends.
Vernon Elliot was also a bassoonist and composed for Smallfilms especially for The Clangers and Ivor the Engine.
Much worse? Are you a lumberjack?
@sewer-robot the thing is (like many classic strips) Flesh was insanely violent and had no sympathetic characters. It would surely have ended up like the first Dredd movie.
@moseleymoles But the main characters were called Reagan and Carter, so they would have had the star power of John Thaw and Dennis Waterman to ensure maximum box office pull..
If someone got bitten but not killed by Old One Eye, Reagan/Thaw could
Have uttered “you’re nicked!”
I used to subscribe to Bullet.
Like Warlord but with a wider range of topics beyond WW2.
Made me look sophisticated vs the Warlord only subscribers in 1977.
More details here:
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/bullet/4050-51394/
I used to read pretty much all of the above. Our granny used to visit around once a month and would be laden with the collected comics from the family of 9 cousins that lived near her even Action and Battle which my mother refused to buy for us as they were so violent. My gran read everything but favoured pulp fiction and racing thrillers by Dick Francis. She would also have those weird American horror comics like Eerie which had some great art and mildly erotic artwork. There would be the Commando and War Picture Library mini comics and some American Marvel and DC comics from the local market with their crazy small ads. I often think she’d love the modern ultra- violent and slasher horror films.
My kids are 5, 8 and 9 and reading the Beano has been a part of their bedtime routine since before they could read. In fact it really helped them learn to read as the Dandy did when my mother read it to me and my siblings. They still gather around every evening so we can read it together. Funnily enough I didn’t like the Beano as a kid but it’s the only traditional comic left.
Our home has Beanos everywhere. Whether they’re eating or on the toilet, they usually have a Beano to hand. In the absence of other comics, they devour kids comic graphic novels which seem to be in plentiful supply in our local library. They also draw their comics which are usually cat based and are quite inventive and funny. I’ll introduce them to the huge stash of 2000ADs stored in the attic some day!
Ah seventies comics.
First question – who else has the comic they first read aged 12 in 1977, still delivered weekly. Just me then who is still a squaxx dek thargo.
I first encountered 2000AD at a charity sale at school,where kids would take the desks out into corridors and sell things they no longer wanted. For probably a couple of pennies per issue I snagged a whole batch of progs from 1 to around 11. Taken home I was smitten. I bought it religiously from newsagents up to around prog 28, when I persuaded my parents to get it delivered weekly.
Leaving home seven years the question was asked ‘do you still want it delivered?’ . Of course I do. And through Uni, early career steps at Easter, the summer and Christmas a stay at home would be accompanied by ‘catching up on the ADs’ At some point I stopped catching up and once I’d got a house, kids etc. my final step into adulthood was marked by taking the sub over and getting it delivered. Which brings us up to date. 2400 progs (around 50 I would guess are missing) all stacked up in an Ikea case. I’m ready in December to take the plunge and go digital sub only. Then I will contemplate what to do with all that paper.
I think the spirit of the post is about the seventies, so onto my thoughts on its early years. The first two hundred and fifty progs set introduced Dredd (pub quiz: prog 1 the only one without a Dredd story), Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors, Bill Savage and Nemesis The Warlock – the most enduring characters. I loved the artwork – Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland and Kev O’Neill, the violence and the complete avoidance of any whiff of costumed superhero. From very early on Dredd was given Dirty Harry-style quips and very British ideas (the invasion of the UK by the USSR – sorry Volgans) abounded in the comic. A sense of humour has been a constant. Its easy to see how Fleetway ripped off the prevailing ideas from TV and film: Dredd = future Dirty Harry; Ro-Busters = International Rescue with robots; MACH1 = six million dollar man etc. etc. But the writers and artists were able to put a unique spin on derivative source material and make it fresh. Within fifty progs Alan Moore would come along and do things with British comic scripts no-one else had thought of – first with Skizz, a mash-up of ET and Boys from the Blackstuff with a final pay-off at Spaghetti Junction, then with Halo Jones, before departing for fame with DC.
The basic MO has been remarkably unchanged. There were Tarantino-inspired strips (Sinister and Dexter); a slew of X-Files unexplained phenomena strips but the thing has proved so damned resilient. There’s 4-6 strips in each issue, from one off Future Shocks to epics lasting up to year and a bad prog sees only Dredd and one other hitting home. I’m digging Brink and Proteus Vex at the moment, while really hoping Brass Sun returns. Cut off before its natural conclusion. To the next fifty years.
I don’t have issue 1 and our collection is far from complete. I gave up buying 2000AD in the mid-90s when I was in college and couldn’t afford it. In an effort to catch up on the ones we’d missed in our teens, a friend linked me to someone he knew who had lots of the early issues. Through buying them off him, I made one of my best friends for the last 40 years. I think 2000AD peaked between issues 100 and 130 or so. That will always be the classic line up and greatest artwork for me. I bought my brother an original Ron Smith page in the early 90s; the title page of Judge Dredd (prog 110, Citiblock 1 or 2) for around £60 in Forbidden Planet. It must be worth a fortune now.
For the record, my all time favourite stories were the Zenith series. I just loved the artwork and the character development.
@Bamber
I started buying 2000AD when it came out in – IIRC – Feb 77 – and kept buying it til the mid-80s. After I left the UK in 81, I used to get my sister to send me big care packages of NMEs and 2000ADs to first Saudi Arabia and later Bahrain. While might extend it by 20 or 30 copies either side, pretty much agree with your evaluation of the classic era
When I moved back to Ireland in 2013 and had my big collection of early copies shipped over I was surprised by how little the mags were selling for online.
While wasn’t expecting to retire on the proceeds, the fact individual copies hadn’t been sealed in separate plastic bags and no longer had the giveaways was a real wake up call.
Eventually gave them away to the son of a friend who absolutely loves them.
Correction to the above before someone else corrects me, it was prog 118 that featured Citibloc 2 to which I was referring.
On a very Afterword tangent that I had forgotten until googling to check the above, I had forgotten that prog 118 featured my favourite ever Strontium Dog story “Journey to Hell”. Now many will be aware that the Teardrop Explodes got their name from a Marvel comic panel. Well this particular episode features a demonic dance led by the Devil himself* Spoiler Alert (actually Ronald Fiveways). Tormenting our heroes he utters the words “they have defeated hell world . Now they must have their reward….One Step Beyond”.
A month later in October 1979 this happened…
One Step Beyond was Madness’ seminal debut album, recorded in just 3 weeks and originally released in October 1979.
Yes the same Madness who called their record label Zarjazz Records. I can’t prove the link of course but that doesn’t make me wrong. Anyone got Suggs’ phone number to check?
But
“One Step Beyond” is a tune written by Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster as a B-side for his 1964 single “Al Capone”. It was covered by British band Madness for their debut studio album of the same name.
There may have been something in the ether and it gave them the idea to record it so yes they must have read 2000AD.
Pop inspired by 2000AD is a rich seam: Splundig Vur Thrigg and Panic, The Uncle Umpty Dance, OK Compu-Puncture Hyperpower, What’s The Frequency, Call-Me-Kenneth? Mek-Quake Me Up Before You Go Go..
I could go on..
I remember figuring out where your name came from in a thread about our Afterword handles @Sewer-Robot so I’m not surprised at your familiarity with some of the classic minor characters, Mek Quake in particular.
@bamber @jaygee I’m under no illusion that my collection will enable me to retire – the early issues are all ripped, incomplete and so on. Later issues seem to be worth very little. I think if I have a plan it’s to finish the currrent read-through – up to prog 1600 – and then start again at the start and as I read again sell them in small lots. Or give them away in small lots.
Slaine was the last enduring character introduced, prog 330 in 1983 wikipedia tells me. 500-1000 is definitely a low period, but finding it picking up. They of course during that time also managed to kill off Johnny Alpha, only to have to bring him back later.
For Fleetway/IPC comics there was always the dreaded issued that had “Important news for all our readers inside!” on the front cover. This meant it would be the last every issue before it merged with another one of their titles, usually Buster, but occasionally Whizzer & Chips or Whoopee!
I had an idea that was going to happen to one of my weekly titles, as by then they’d starting re-printing old strips, including a Here Come The Double Deckers strip hasitly re-titled The Gang. I knew it was a re-print, as our local ITV region had been airing repeats of Here Come The Double Deckers during the school holidays.
Whizzer and Chips was an interesting case it had already merged with itself before production.
The format of Whizzer and Chips presented the comic as being divided into two separate parts — a novel idea at the time. One part was called Whizzer and the other was called Chips, with Chips existing as a separate pull-out section in the middle. The slogan “Two comics in one, double the fun!” was used. In the offices of publisher Fleetway, Whizzer and Chips was always regarded as one comic.
I think the letters page had readers declaring which one was their favourite out of the two thereby building up a rivalry of sorts.
As a tangent, it makes me think of the cartoon Bully Beef and Chips in The Dandy. What the hell was going on with Bully Beef’s shorts and what the hell was going on with Chips’ hair?
IIRC you were either a ‘Whiz-Kid’ or a ‘Chip-ite’.
My Mum was a school librarian so comics, along with Enid Blyton, were verboten in our house.
HOWEVER, we were allowed Tintin, which I loved, and still do, and she gave her scholarly tick of approval to Boys Own Paper and my sister got Look and Learn. In one of those the then current English football captain – Bobby Moore? – had a column, he played for West Ham so that’s who I “supported” as a kid.
Also in Look and Learn was an epic graphic series about the Trigan Empire with people dressed like ancient Romans flying fighter jets and stuff. Both my sister and I loved it.
I would read comics in doctors’ and dentists’ waiting rooms, and at friends’ houses. I remember Mickey Mouse and The Beagle Boys, maybe Dennis the Menace, they all made a big impression despite the fact that I hardly had a chance to experience them.
My parents, being teachers, were also on the side of worthiness. So although I dearly wanted the Beano (or Dandy, or anything really) it was The Children’s Newspaper. To be fair, it was where I first read Jennings stories, so it wasn’t all bad. There was also The Elizabethan, which was kind of the comics equivalent of Puffin books, high standards but lacking the anarchic fun of the Beano etc. From there I graduated to Swift, which at least was in colour. By the time I was ready to move on to Eagle I was more interested in NME.
But what I loved best when I was a kid was a bound volume of Chums (a Boys’ Own competitor) that had belonged to my dad. It must have dated from about 1925, and there must have been 500pp of serials, exciting news about films stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery, things to make and do and jokes. I still remember one joke: ‘For sale, one dog, eats anything, especially fond of children.’
My favourite thing was a serial about a ghost Zeppelin doomed to roam the High Arctic for evermore, crewed by dead Germans in coal-scuttle helmets. (It’s only just occurred to me, all these years later, that it was a skeleton crew…) To my absolute fury my mother gave the book to a jumble sale after I left home. She promised she’d pay for it if I found another one, but I never have.
@mikethep Delving into the WordPress British Comics site, mentioned above, there is a section of Story Papers – including a page for Chums. Is that red “Best of Chums” what you’ve been looking for?
https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/2022/01/20/chums/
Sadly not – that was a 70s best-of, presumably aimed at all those unfortunate folk whose mothers had chucked their original annuals out.
The originals looked like this – every one the same, every year. Plenty around in second-hand bookshops, but never the one I’m looking for. I sometimes wonder if I dreamt it!
That’s a shame. Hidden away on the “various Storypapers” page they’ve got the annual from 1941 (you’ll need to scroll down to near the bottom) and the guy seems to be fairly responsive, so it might appear or he could give you some suggestions – Which year are you looking for?
https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/2022/01/20/various-storypapers/
@mikethep Have a look at this link. Hard to tell but it seems to be similar books to the one in your photo.
This is all very JR Hartley isn’t it?
https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/1233480660/chums-annual-vintage-books-childrens
https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/656007156/chums-annual-1927-1928
Final edit: This bookseller aggregator site Abe Books suggests there might be one for sale from 1925
https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Chums-Annual-1925-Judd-Alfred-Horler/31514509687/bd
Best of luck.
Thanks lads! I don’t know the year, unfortunately. My dad was born in 1913, so the likely date range would be 1923-1930 – he was probably reading more grown-up stuff by the time he went to Cambridge. The one on Etsy isn’t the one, sadly.
Hi @mikethep Have you seen my later edits. That last link is for a UK bookshop Barter Books.
Further enquiries reveal that Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland (mentioned on here in the past on a thread about visiting Northumberland) have 8 out of 10 of the 1920s run in stock but have not been able to identify the exact one referred to above, citing the time it would require to go through them all as a legitimate reason. What we need is an Afterworder or an agent in the field to do the legwork and visit this here bookshop to solve the mystery. @mikethep is in Australia so that’s him out. C’mon Afterworders mobilise the troops and see if we can get a result.
I may have become mildly obsessed with this quest, possibly more interested in resolving it than the man himself.
If anybody does find the volume in question (assuming of course that I didn’t dream the whole thing) I will of course reimburse them for book and postage. There may also be some sort of Australian goodie as a bonus. (Not a spider.) It’s too late for my mum to reimburse me, sadly, but I forgive her.
I was lucky enough to benefit from my Dad’s collections, as well what I got as a kid.
The 1950s Dandy and Beano.
Jeff Arnold and the Riders of the Range
Eagle – including the annuals, 1-9
Assorted Superboy/Superman.
When I were a lad, the usual suspects
Beano
Dandy
Whizzer and Chips
The Beezer
Eagle
Victor
Warlord
Battle -> Battle Action -> Battle Action Force, home of Charley’s War, which might be one the best strips ever produced.
Then 2000AD.
To be honest, I think my Dad was buying them for himself as much as me.
Was thinking recently about the various ways Judge Cal (prog 86 onwards) resembled Donald Trump
https://judge-dredd.fandom.com/wiki/Cal
and came upon this article about how 2000AD predicted bizarre trends/social issues stuff that are now part and parcel of our everyday lives
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/judge-dredd-how-2000ad-predicted-the-future#:~:text=Judge%20Dredd%20stories%20predicted%20both,mutate%20into%20sentimental%20begging%20competitions.
I think one of the things I love about particularly Wagner and Grant’s writing for Dredd is how they would alternate year-long epics like the Judge Child, Apocalypse War, Song of the Surfer, Mecanismo, Necropolis etc. that would be very serious with the one-shot or few episode satirical strips about the fatties, Don Ugelino, Max Normal, PJ Maybe, etc.
Speaking of strips about disgraced politicians, one of the most curious strips was how 2000AD satirised the 1997-2000 national love-in with Blair by rewriting him as BLAIR 1, a mash-up of MACH1 and Tony to create a superhero prime minister. Private Eye are currently satirising the Tories (not a hard job) with Cleverley as Batshitman, Patel as Blunderwoman and Starmer as Supermajorityman.
Jings, just remembered this! Talking of compendia, who is familiar with The Broons and Oor Wullie. Staples of the Sunday Post, their weekly japes would be published as a volume, one for each, at Christmas. For anyone of the Scottish diaspora, they would be a fond glimpse of “home”, if through the retro-nostalgia lens of the Sunday Post, where it is still 1955. Published by D.C.Thomson, in Dundee, the Post had a lot in common with the Beano and Dandy, who were part of the same stable of titles. The Broons were drawn, originally, by the same artist who drew Lord Snooty, Dudley Watkins. He also drew Wullie. I have a foot of them in a bookcase, including an ancient Broons, without covers, from about 1962.
I know @lodestone-of-wrongness is an aficionado.
My sister and I used to get Broons and Oor Wullie annuals each Christmas, turnabout, from our granny. When she died, my auntie took over. Didn’t stop until we were both in our 30s. I’ve more recently sent my auntie a few at Christmas times (she’s in her 80s) – went down well!
My Afterword avatar gives away my own affiliation.
Dudley D Watkins
@retropath2
Remember a guy called Leo Baxendale used to draw a lot of the strips for DC Thomson including, I think, the Browns. He had a very distinctive style which you would instantly know if you saw it
DCT were universally reviled for being extremely poor payers and for also claiming copyright on everything that came out of their office
Not sure if it was LB, but at some point, a house artist who was aggrieved about the amount of money DCT was earning off his creations took DCT to court on the copyright issue. IIRC, the judge eventually made one of those Wisdom of Solomon-type judgements by ruling that while the artist owned the ideas, DCT owned the paper.
For anyone who’s got more than a passing interest in the history of the Beano/Dandy, strongly recommend this fabulous book
The Sunday Post – a simply dreadful rag full of puerile jingoistic nonsense which, if my paper round was anything to go by, every single household, council house slum or West End mansion, had delivered each and every week.
It’s only saving grace was the HON Man, I saw him once on the Beach Esplanade but didn’t have the courage to challenge him and claim my £5, and, of course The Broons and Oor Willie.
To be honest, never once was either strip actually funny but, hey, in 1950’s Aberdeen what else could a poor boy do except laugh …?
What rot! The Sunday Post was full of parochial, not jingoistic, nonsense (certainly when compared with a properly jingoistic rag, eg, The Sun…).
A funny Oor Wullie line, though I can’t find it online with a brief search.
Wullie wants to try his new toy boat, but the park pond has been drained, his father is having a bath, he is turned away from the swimming pool. He goes to the natural history museum to try his boat in a fish tank, but is thrown out by angry guard. ‘Ach!’, he moans as he trudges away with his boat under his arm. ‘It was a wee bit ‘o life they were wearied fur!’
I thought it was funny anyway.
It was ‘The Victor’ for me. Alf Tupper, the Tough Of The Track. As a little fatty I think I was drawn to the wiry working class mechanic training only on fish and chips. He also seemed to be late for every starting line, and being nobbled in some way. Yet victory was usually his by the final frame. Sticky-Up side parting and all.
And ‘Tiger’. Home of Roy Of The Rovers. And a series on formula one racing which I have only vague memories of now.
I collected a lot of War Picture Library and Commando comics too. I loved the smaller A5 size and the gloriously exciting colour cover illustrations. Probably more than the stories inside.
‘Achtung!’, ‘Gott in Himmel’. ‘Arrrgghhh!’, ‘Eiiiiooughhhh!’, ‘Jerry’s awake. That’s torn it’, ‘Banzaiiii!’, ‘Aiieeee!’ And so forth.
Indeed also collected these pre-2000AD days. Commando very superior to War Picture Library. In addition to all those ‘Englander pig dog’ and ‘Achtung Spitfire!’have become family phrases. Curiously, with no explanation, Commando also featured a black and white photo of a division one footballer on the inside covers. I can find no reference to this online but have vivid memories of say Stan Bowles or Kenny Daglish tucked in alongside the strips.
I still have my copy of “The Scarlet Sergeant” with a photo of Nobby Stiles on the inside cover.
@Beezer
The F1 hero was the splendidly named Skid Solo
That’s the man! God, yes!
Thank you @Jaygee
Hadn’t thought about SS in years. Odd how stuff lodges in your brain and lies there unnoticed for years
You’d think with all the money from winning so many races he could afford a bidet..
Won the World Championship every year. Red Bull dominance? Skid (and his number 2 driver, Mike someoneorother) had the whole decade sewn up (despite crashing nearly every race)
During the seventies you could buy books that had facsimile copies of the Magnet with the Fat Owl of the Remove aka Billy Bunter. Yarooh.
You see, I’m sure there was a time when Tiger was Tiger and Jag.
While don’t remember a comic called Jag, there was one called Lion whose sole memorable character was Archie the Robot.
Turns out you were right about Tiger and Jag
edit
April 1969 saw Tiger absorb another flagging title, the short-lived Jag. The merger brought Western bio strip “Custer”, World War II culture-clash actioner “MacTavish and O’Toole” and “Black Patch the Wonder Horse”, as well as another football strip. Written by Tom Tully, “Football Family Robinson” was less mired in realism than “Roy of the Rovers”, concerning a club whose players and staff were made up of a comically extended family. It proved popular with readers and would run until 1974, while Tully would also start writing “Roy of the Rovers” alongside it. A few months after the Jag merger, the title introduced beatnik swimmer Splash Gorton, who would cross over into Johnny Cougar’s strip. The merge also saw Tiger gain a portion of Jag’s high production values – the cover would be printed in photogravure, while as many as eight pages would be printed in colour.[10]
Around this time Fleetway and recently-purchased rivals Odhams Press were reorganised into IPC Magazines, leading to a takeover by Reed International in 1970. With competition from television growing, IPC management began to look at ways of boosting comic sales. They identified the clear appeal of “Roy of the Rovers” and thus Tiger soon included a second strip featuring the character in the form of prequel “Roy Race’s School Days”,[3] initially drawn by Selby Donnison. Gregory meanwhile was moved across to new football magazine Shoot, his place being taken by assistant Barrie Tomlinson.[15] Taking advantage in the massive boost in interest in sport that followed England’s 1966 World Cup win,[7] Tomlinson would strive to promote the series with numerous star contributions and photo ops (with Pelé and Peter Sellers among those persuaded to pose reading the comic).[16] Tomlinson also strove to learn the new web offset printing method IPC were bringing in to replace letterpress, allowing Tiger to take full advantage of the advancements – including running front cover photographs of sports stars. He also initiated the Tiger Sportsperson of the Year award, voted for by readers; the first winner was tennis star Ann Jones.[
Thank you @jaygee
I will sleep well tonight.
There was a magazine (an actual proper magazine!) I loved back in the dim distant, aimed at high voiced 12 year olds as I then was.
‘Speed and Power’. What a superb name. I can’t remember if it was weekly or monthly, probably the latter. Filled with features and photos on racing cars, rally cars, military jets, tanks, airliners, naval vessels et al.
Can you imagine the joy this gave small boys? Not yet au fait with the lingerie section of the Freeman’s catalogue.
Like all perfect things it couldn’t and didn’t last, and eventually was tacked on as an afterthought series of pages in ‘Look and Learn’. Look and ******* Learn. Crushed, I was.
EDIT: this just in. There are swathes of them on eBay. Oh sweet bejabbers
I remember there was a version of that for older teens called Speed and Smack. Like its target audience, the mag was very short-lived
Ho ho!
Here’s a thing…
Vintage TV adverts for classic British comics found in basement
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeyq99ezdwo
Great find in both senses of the word, @fitterstoke.
While it usually featured parodies of US shows and movies, the UK version of Mad magazine served as a kind of gateway many of us would have passed through as we made the tricky transition from childhood to adolesecnce.
Amazingly, apart from their spot-on lampoons of leading ad campaigns of the day (probably the main reason I and a lot of friends/collegues ended up working as copywriters/art directors), Mad never carried ads of any kind.
A bit late to this thread, but there’s recently been almost a hundred DC Thomson adverts from the 50s and 60s added to the National Library of Scotland’s website – Dandy, Victor, and Hotspur among them. Here’s the Dandy ‘Thunderbang’ ad:
https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/13829?search_term=dandy&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes
And here’s an article about the project:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgeyq99ezdwo
It wasn’t at all apparent to me that the DC Thomson comics were Scottish. It’s only later when you piece things together. For example, hot pies left on window ledges to cool were of a certain design popular in Dundee.
Oh, and congratulations to @Jaygee, who will shortly receive a smashing Afterword hamper containing a slap-up feed.
Mrs Jaycee is studding the requisite mountain of mashed potatoes with sausage-shaped crampons as we speak
Coo!