Those of us who were children in 1966 were spoiled as some comics celebrated Christmas not once but twice! Due to the peculiarities of publishing, mainly related to how comics would appear earlier in shops at Christmas because of the holiday times of distributors and retailers, Odhams decided to issue two Christmas issues of Smash! and Wham! that year. Here's the issues of Smash! from that time.
First up, issue 47, dated 24th December 1966. Snow on the logo and the festive topline are the only indications that this is a seasonal cover, as the Batman strip was a reprint of the American Sunday newspaper material. Inside, as this was more of a warm-up to Christmas issue, not all of the humour strips had a festive theme, but The Swots and the Blots did. Artwork by Ron Spencer...
On the back page resided Grimly Feendish, one of the most memorable characters of the Odhams comics. I'm not sure if the artwork is by Mike Brown or Mike Lacey...
The next issue had slightly more of a festive look to its cover. Snow on the logo again (which seems to have melted a bit since the previous issue) and a little Christmas corner box promoting the contents.
Inside, on page three, the reader was greeted with a full page seasonal message from the editors and a bunch of Marvel superheroes...
This time all of the humour strips had a festive theme. Here's a short selection. Firstly the Ronnie Rich strip by Gordon Hogg...
Even The Man from BUNGLE, despite being a serial, managed to include some Christmas references within the episode...
The theme of Christmas food was a natural plotline for Fatty in The Nervs. Artwork by the brilliant Graham Allen...
Finally on the back page again, Grimly Feendish in a strip drawn by Stan McMurtry...
For a flashback to the 1968 Christmas issue, see here for a blog post I did two years ago:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-comics-smash-1968.html
6 comments:
I'm really enjoying the Christmas comics collection, Thanks for posting them Lew.this is my favourite entry so far, never get tired of looking at the style and design of comics from the 60/70's.
great fun :-)
On a slightly unrelated note,
i've noticed that when some people post a comment on your blog they have a little picture icon,
Do you happen to know how they get it there??
I've tried getting mine to appear but to no avail!
thanks Pete
Thanks Pete. Another Sixties one about to go live any time now!
I'm not sure about the icon. I'd have thought the image from your blog's profile would appear, as it does with others.
I missed all the Odhams excellence by being born too late but I used to come across odd issues and annuals in junks shops and jumble sales (and once on an old dump) when I was growing and they were like distant, musty treasures from a bygone age to me. Just like this post is.
I know what you mean Jasper. I feel the same way about comics of the 1950s. A decade that feels like it was just outside my reach (as I was born in 1959) whereas comics of the 1940s seem really ancient.
From the posting dates it looks like this blog has become dormant but I'd like to thank you Lew for the undoubted effort in constructing this window to the past. As another born in 1959 I vividly remember many of the '60's comics featured. In fact a family friend at the time worked in the industry and regularly supplied my brother & I with huge boxes of back-issues - Buster, Wham, Pow, Lion, Valiant, Beano, Topper, Dandy... you name it, hundreds of 'em. Sadly these and most of my almost-complete collection of TV21's fell victim to a spring clean whilst I was at school one day. But the images here bring it back, in particular Ken Reid's fantastic work on Queen of the Seas. The script and dialogue are also marvellous. I now recognise the Parker-like (Thunderbirds) speech defect where "h's" are sounded and absent inappropriately. Great stuff!
The blog isn't dormant, Steve. You're just looking at an old post. Click on the Blimey logo to be taken to the latest posts.
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