Here we are at our final destination in our travels through British comics history, and we've landed on New Year's Eve 1940 ready for the dawn of 1941! It's the original Chips comic (AKA Illustrated Chips) with a seasonal cover by Percy Cocking that's bursting with life.
They were grim days for kids back then, in the heart of World War 2, their fathers probably away with the forces, and themselves perhaps even evacuated far from home. Comics such as Chips played an important part in trying to keep their spirits up, as this editorial explains...
Chips would later be affected by paper shortages, reducing its size and appearing fortnightly, but at this point it was still in its original tabloid size, 8 pages, on pink paper, and weekly. Contents were typical fare from the publishers The Amalgamated Press, with a good balance of strips and prose stories such as Dane, The Dog Detective...
Here's a selection of the strips, starting with Professor Jolly and His Magic Brolly by Harry Earnest Pease (H.E. Pease), the younger brother of artist Albert Pease...
Pa Perkins and his son Percy drawn by Bertie Brown...
Homeless Hector, also by Bertie Brown...
Here's an advert for some early Disney merchandise!
Finally, on the back page, the brilliant Casey Court by Albert Pease, who also drew Alfie the Air Tramp beneath it...
...and now an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT about this blog.
We all know that nothing lasts forever, and after 12 years I feel that it's time to wind down Blimey! I will blog again, and the next post will be in about a week's time or so, but posts after that will be few and far between. Eventually they'll cease altogether. However, there'll be some exclusives as the year progresses.
Yeah, I know I said something similar 12 months ago, then carried on blogging practically every day "due to popular demand" as they say, but after all these years I'm finding it a bit of a chore. Also, I've felt that the last year has taken Blimey! off course a bit by focusing too much on current comics and not enough on the past. It was never intended to be a review site but it seems to have veered that way a lot. The whole point of Blimey! was to show old UK strips that modern readers may not have been aware of, although after 12 years of blogging I think I've done my bit. I'll be 60 in a few month's time, which feels like a turning point, and I intend to make some changes in my life.
In case you were wondering, yes, the old posts will remain on the 'net and you'll still be able to leave comments. Bear in mind though that all comments are subject to moderation (to deter trolls and spammers) so please don't post the same comment multiple times if it doesn't appear straight away. I can only verify them for publication when I log on.
For 2019 and beyond I need to focus more on my career, and Blimey! can sometimes be too much of a time-consuming distraction. My other blog, lewstringercomics.blogspot.com - the one about my own strips, - will continue, and I'll probably spend more time on that promoting my work, showcasing my old strips, and talking about my experiences and thoughts about the comics industry. You'll find that here:
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com
There are of course other blogs out there to keep you informed about the UK comics scene. The best by far, in my opinion, is John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog, where you'll find the latest news on 2000AD, Commando, and pretty much everything that's going on in British comics. It's also an ideal place to let people know about your new comics if you're self-publishing:
https://downthetubes.net
There's also Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog, for very well researched articles on classic material:
https://bearalley.blogspot.com
For the latest news on the Marvel Collectors Editions published by Panini UK the best place is from their official Facebook page:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/MarvelCollectorsEditions/
Likewise, the best place for news about the upcoming Treasury of British Comics collections is here:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/britcomics/
Official site for indie comics publisher Kult Creations:
http://kultcreations.blogspot.com
Official site for indie publisher Time Bomb Comics:
http://timebombcomics.com
Irmantas Povilaika's Kazoop! blog for lots of classics by Ken Reid and others:
http://kazoop.blogspot.com
Phil Boyce's Oink! Blog and Beyond for features on Oink! and other comics of the 1980s and beyond:
http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.com
Peter Gray's Comics and Art blog for classic comics:
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.com
Colin Noble's blog:
https://nothingbutafan.wordpress.com
...and you'll also find links to many other blogs and websites in the right hand sidebar of this blog (if you're reading this on a desktop computer).
I'd like to thank you all for following and supporting Blimey! over the years. I know some of you have been reading it since it began in 2006! We've seen off one or two silly troublemakers over the years but that was a while ago now and 99% of you have always been fantastic, posting positive comments and helpful info. For those of you who have come on board more recently, have a rummage through the archives to see what you've missed. There are over 3,000 posts here, so you should find something of interest! Simply type the name of a comic, a story, character, or creator into the search window on the right hand column of this blog and Bob's yer uncle. It looks like this:
As I said, I will post again, but very infrequently, and remember you can still find me at my other blog at http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com.
For now though, I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year and hope that you enjoy the New Year's Eve celebrations with good company. I certainly intend to!
This time 71 years ago, Chips was still on a fortnightly schedule, a lingering result of wartime rationing. Still, its 8 pages packed a lot in for 2d. Let's have a look at a few of the strips, scanned from an issue from my collection. As always, click on the images to see them much larger.
On the cover as always was Weary Willie and Tired Tim, just as they had been every issue since 1896, and would continue until the final edition in 1953. Artwork by Percy Cocking.
The centre-spread of Chips featured a variety of short strips including these three examples. Peter Quiz is, I think, drawn by Arthur Martin...
Laurie and Trailer by Albert Pease...
Homeless Hector by Bertie Brown...
On the back page, Casey Court by Albert Pease, and Alfie the Air Tramp (by John Jukes I think)...
Sadly, these old comics and their creators are mostly forgotten now, but hopefully Blimey! can help to inform or remind the current generation of our UK comics legacy!
Whitsun was a bigger deal in years past than it is today, and 80 years ago the comics of the Amalgamated Press used it as the theme for that week's issues. I've previously shown the Whitsun issue of Jolly Comic for 1937 (click here) and now here are a few strips from The Funny Wonder of the same week. The comic is scanned from my collection.
Funny Wonder had 8 tabloid-sized pages, all printed in black ink on green paper for 1d. The wonderful holiday theme logo illustration and Pitch and Toss cover strip is the work of Roy Wilson I think. (Might be by one of his imitators but I'm sure it's a Wilson page.)
Inside, Merry Moments with Marmy and his Ma sees mum and son visiting a fair for the holidays. Note the "Fat Boy" attraction; a depiction of times when the "Freak Show" was a voyeuristic attraction at fairs. Art by Wally Robertson I believe.
Charlie Chaplin had appeared on the cover of the comic for years but by 1937 he was one of the centre-spread strips. Art by Bertie Brown.
Sally, the Sunshine of Our Alley, had a resourceful girl as the lead, and the title of the strip was of course inspired by the 1931 film Sally in our Alley starring Gracie Fields.
The comic included a cut-out badge for readers to become part of "The Funny Wonder Secret Society", but stipulated that only regular readers could wear it. (That excludes all of us then, unless we have a bound volume of issues to read.)
Fifty percent of the issue was taken up with prose stories and, on the back page, the only adventure strip in the comic; Tim McCoy. Those speech balloons are a bit shouty!
I hope you enjoy reading this summer issue from 80 years ago. If you have a laptop or tablet, why not sit in the sunshine and enjoy a good read? (22 degrees C here at the moment!)
Merry and Bright was a weekly comic published by The Amalgamated Press from 1910 to 1935. It was printed with black ink on green paper, and, like most A.P. comics, had just 8 tabloid sized pages.
I bought this issue from 1917 recently, in fantastic condition proving, as I've always said, that if comics are looked after they won't fall apart after a few decades.
The cover strip features Phil Ray, a music-hall comedian of the time. Decades before Look-In, it was a trend to feature celebrities in strip form. (A.P. would emphasise this even more when they launched Film Fun three years later in 1920.) Artwork by Swedish-born cartoonist Alex Akerbladh.
As you may have noticed from the cover topline, Merry and Bright was about to absorb The Favourite Comic. Page two went into more detail in an editorial tucked away in the corner. (As always, click on the pages to see them full size.)
It's refreshing how honest the editorial is about the reasons for the merger. Here's a larger version to save you straining your eyes...
Merry and Bright had the usual equal division of strip pages and prose story pages. Here's another page of strips. Corny Cachou is by Bertie Brown.
On the back page was Curly Kelly, drawn by G.M. Payne. I suspect that Curly may have been another real-life comedian of the day considering the strip uses a signature like the cover strip. Any info welcome.
I hope you've enjoyed this look back at what kids were reading a century ago. Please post your comments below if you're inclined.
Published in the last week of 1949, Radio Fun No.586 rounded off another successful year for the long running comic and heralded 1950 with a selection of strips. The cover strip, featuring Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris, was drawn by Reg Parlett.
The contents of the 16 page comic were, as ever, a 50/50 mixture of prose stories and strips but I've only selected some of the strips to show here. Just We Three was drawn by Bertie Brown. Although Amalgamated Press' humour artists were anonymous and encouraged to draw like Roy Wilson their own styles also became evident to regular readers.
The centre pages featured the thriller The Falcon, with excellent art by George Heath perfectly capturing the period. Those 1949 street scenes still looked very much like that in the early sixties when I was a kid.
Radio Fun packed a lot into its 16 pages, as you can see. The Derek Roy strip was by Bertie Brown, and the Archie Andrews strip was by Albert Pease.
I believe Albert Pease was also responsible for the Douglas 'Cardew' Robinson strip. An excellent humour style with some very fluid inking techniques.
Well, that's my final post for 2015. Thank you all for following my blog throughout the year. I know only a fraction of you post comments but I hope you've enjoyed reading it. May I wish you a Happy New Year of good health and prosperity!
Although Illustrated Chips (or simply Chips as it was commonly known) ran from 1890 to 1953 (when it merged into Film Fun) it only spawned three annuals. There would have been more if World War 2 hadn't caused paper shortages, so the books dated 1939, 1940 and 1941 were the only ones published. I took a look at the 1940 edition a while back (see here) and now here are a few pages from Chips Annual 1941 that I bought a few months ago. The book would have been published in Autumn 1940.
With the weekly Chips only having black ink on pink coloured paper, the readers must have felt that the annual was really exceptional with its brightly coloured cover showing the regular characters having sneaked into the editor's office to raid his cigars and cakes. Note the bound collection of Chips hanging on the side of his desk. The publishers used to bind the issues into 26 issue (six monthly) volumes for their own in-house files. These volumes now turn up on eBay since the current copyright owners sold them off years ago.
The contents of these annuals published by Amalgamated Press were similar in format: 96 pages comprised of text stories and strips. Most, if not all, of the content was made up of reprints from the weekly. Some stories combined text and strips, such as this Millie Mascot two pager, most probably a reprint that had been reformatted...
The book provided readers with plenty of reading material in the form of illustrated text stories. Here are just a few examples...
The entire contents of the 1941 annual were in black and white except for a colour frontispiece, a Laurie and Trailer strip in red spot colour, and this four page full colour Weary Willie and Tired Tim strip. Going by the way the first sequence of events reach a natural conclusion on page two it's evident this is two weekly strips reprinted and rewritten as a four pager. Artwork by Percy Cocking.
I don't know who drew the Eagle Men Patrol adventure strip but I find the use of hatching and cross-hatching quite atmospheric and effective, albeit very dated looking these days.
It wouldn't be Chips without long-running favourite Homeless Hector. In this story drawn by Bertie Brown, the stray dog gets revenge on cruel Gregory Gallop.
Another Chips favourite of course was Casey Court. Unless they've reformatted this from a half pager I think it may have been drawn specially for the annual. Art by Percy Cocking, who includes Willie and Tim as guest stars...
At the end of the book, the editor signs off with a plug for the weekly. Although it would soon become a fortnightly for the duration of the war and sometime afterwards. Sadly this was goodbye to the Chips Annual as no more were produced.
On the back cover, a nice extra in the form of a game.
These old annuals were nearly an inch thick, giving the impression of much more content than modern annuals. In truth, they had 96 pages but the paper stock was far thicker than that used in today's 112 page Beano Annual.
