Today of course, our over-protective society has ensured that firework issues are a thing of the past. The anti-pc brigade may bemoan this fact, but were comics blameless in this? Or did they go over the top? Let's have a look at several examples (mainly from the 1960s when such stories were plentiful) to judge for ourselves...

On the back cover of the same issue, the action is a bit more violent. After a series of firework mishaps, Big Head (of Big Head and Thick Head fame) feels the brunt of an exploding dustbin. (Drawn by Frank McDiarmid, ghosting Ken Reid who had left the strip a few months earlier.)

The cover of the 1965 firework issue of Wham! (below) by Leo Baxendale has a lively scene of The Tiddlers running riot brandishing fireworks and scaring Teacher out of his wits. Leo Baxendale could always be relied on to provide this sort of anarchic fun, and had also supplied an excellent firework cover to Wham! the previous year. (Which I don't have, but it's shown in Paul Gravett's book Great British Comics.)

That same issue of Wham! featured another artist who excelled at firework stories, - Ken Reid, whose Frankie Stein ended that week's episode with Dad suffering the horrors of sitting inside a box of live fireworks. The typical Ken Reid black humour has the addition of a great punchline, - Dad's son wants the fire brigade to wait until after the firework display's over before they save him.

The 1965 firework edition of Buster featured a Guy Fawkes Mask as a free gift. A similar mask was also presented with Whizzer and Chips four years later.

Valiant in 1965 didn't feature a lot of firework strips as the content was mainly adventure-based. The few humour strips the comic contained did focus on Bonfire Night though, including Billy Bunter's Mr.Quelch getting a rocket up his hooter, illustrated by Reg Parlett.

That same issue of Valiant had Tim Kelly of Kelly's Eye shove his arms into a fire to prove his invincibility. The story (drawn by Solano Lopez) had nothing to do with Bonfire Night but perhaps it wasn't the wisest thing to show in the firework issue.


The same year (1966) saw Wham! present more chaos in the classroom with a cover by Mike Lacey. Here, a banger is thrown into some one's school dinner.

1966 also had a lively firework conclusion to a Nervs strip in Smash! Drawn by Graham Allen.

A year later, Ken Reid outdid himself with a wonderful Dare-A-Day Davy page for Pow! in which Davy plans to blow up Harold Wilson, the then Prime Minister of Great Britain. The plot backfires of course, literally, with Davy himself caught in the explosion, causing "multiple burns and a broken back". In Reid's hands, this strip was executed with skill and great humour, but it was probably one of the extreme examples that sealed the fate on firework stories.

A year later, in 1968, the merged mouthful of a title Smash! and Pow! Incorporating Fantastic featured more classroom anarchy with the Swots and Blots' teacher being chased by a rocket. Drawn by Mike Lacey.


However, by this time the comics were starting to include warnings of the danger of fireworks, as this Smash! editorial from "Mike" demonstrated:

The 1970 edition of new comic Cor!! not only featured five new strips, but it was also the firework issue, making it particularly special. With the Odhams comics now gone, the strips within these IPC funnies were notably less violent. Cover by Alf Saporito.


However, the current issue of Titan's Superman Legends reprints a Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely story that features Superman on the cover tied to a rocket that's powered by loads of fireworks, - blue touch paper and all. Whether this cover appearing at this time of year is by coincidence or planned schedule I can't say but as a "firework cover" it's bang on. (Pun intended. ;-))

3 comments:
BlOOMING excellent Blog as always, Lew, mate...
Hope you are well.
Best Wishes,
Tim...
;))
Did you ever get my comment on this, about Sid's Snake?
Mart
Not directly to this blog Mart, but I responded to one on the Comics UK forum about it.
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