Jonah spot-the-difference

When Buddy reprinted Ken Reid's Jonah strip in 1981, there were a few changes made from its original appearance in The Beano. The most obvious one being the change from hand-lettering to machine lettering for most of the dialogue. To my mind, this immediately deadened a lot of the humour. It just didn't "sound" right in such dull looking font. So why did they do it? 

Well, I'd imagine it's because some of the dialogue was rewritten for various reasons best known to them. Compare the two pages here. The original is from 1960. The reprint from 1981. "Cap'n" becomes "Captain", Jonah's "WE'VE HAD IT!" is redone in a quieter less effective size, the German's dialogue changes a bit, and that's just for starters. 

One glaring change is in the caption above the airship. The humour of "...the days of the airship are not finished - YET!" becomes "...the days of the airship are not yet finished". Someone may have thought that was more grammatically correct, but the emphasis on Jonah's impending damage to it has been totally lost. 

Note also, the absence of the dinghy going POP! in panel 7 of the Buddy reprint. The implication in the original was presumably that the crew met a watery grave. None of that downbeat stuff for the reprint! Sheesh. The black humour of Ken Reid's work was what made it popular!

Anyway, compare the pages and you'll no doubt find other changes too. It also happened in other weeks throughout the reprint run. Perhaps one day, they might reprint Jonah complete and uncensored in a nice book, but I'm not getting my hopes up. 

BUDDY No.1 (1981)

It's been 37 years since D.C. Thomson launched Buddy No.1 on Friday 6th February 1981. Clearly intended to be a step away from the "grittier" style of comic such as Warlord, Bullet, and Crunch, that Thomsons had previously moved into, Buddy was a return to a more traditional type.

The cover was reassuringly friendly and non-aggressive. Even the design of the masthead looked more like that of a humour comic than the battle-damaged style that Warlord and Crunch had used. The comic's mascot and pretend-editor was Buddy himself, the toothy, blonde, freckled-faced boy shown using the free Pop Pistol. (Note to those who complain that modern UK comics value gifts over content; that first issue of Buddy is all about selling the comic on the basis of the free toy. No stories are even mentioned on the cover.)  

To put Buddy into context we must remember that by 1981, the sales of traditional weekly comics were well past their glory days. Children were becoming more attracted to brands, and even more distracted by television than ever. Comics based on licensed properties would soon become ever more dominant in newsagents. With Hornet, Bullet, Crunch, and most recently, Hostspur, having folded, it seems that Thomsons felt that the way to attract readers was to revive and revamp some of their older successful characters for a new generation, and Buddy was the vehicle in which to do it. 

Buddy's 32 pages were packed with new, updated versions of top D.C. Thomson heroes, leading with the football story Limp-Along Leslie, originally a Hotspur character, and now drawn by Neville Wilson...

The Wolf of Kabul was next. Originally a text series in The Wizard from 1922, later a picture strip in Hotspur, and now in Buddy, drawn by Mike Dorey...

Deep-Sea Danny's Iron Fish was of course a revamp of The Beano's Iron Fish. Danny Grey now replaced by Danny Boyle, and drawn by Alfredo Falugi...

Tuffy, A Boy All Alone was a revamp of The Wizard's Scrappy, A Boy All Alone. The concept of a homeless boy against all odds was always popular in Thomson comics. (Does anyone know the artist's name?)

I'm not sure if Hammer! was based on a previous strip or was all-new. Great artwork by Denis McLoughlin...

Jonah was the only reprint in the comic, but if you have to reprint something, there's no better strip. Ken Reid's classic Beano hero, reprinted from the very start...

Billy the Cat was another popular Beano hero, now updated (and slightly older) for brand new adventures for Buddy. Here's the full episode, drawn by Pete Foster...

Rounding off issue 1 was Boy on the Run, a gripping thriller drawn by Carlos Cruz. Again, I'm not sure if this was a revamp or new, but I'm betting it was an updated version of some strip...

The back page revealed the forthcoming free gifts. We don't get free whistles in comics any more (in case they're mis-used I believe) but this week's Beano does have free balloons similar to the Super Zoomer!

In later weeks, other old characters would be revived for Buddy, such as General Jumbo, Starhawk, and more. Overall, Buddy was a very good adventure comic but it didn't last. The time for such comics was sadly ending. Despite gaining a new look and new logo with issue 99, it merged into Victor in 1983 after 130 issues. 

Here's a small selection of Buddy covers. For a major part of its run it featured strips starting on the covers. While that's a technique I've always liked, it must have looked quite dated to kids of the 1980s...

...and finally, here's the advert for Buddy No.1 from The Dandy No.2046, dated Feb.7th 1981...

All artwork and characters in this post are ©D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

Christmas Cover Collection

Some Christmas comics had promising covers but didn't deliver much in festive stories inside, so I thought I'd group a few together in one post. We start with the Christmas issue of Diana from 1970, above. I don't know who the illustrator is (can anyone help?) but it's a fantastic piece of artwork. 

Inside, the only Christmas themed strip was a humour one; Up-To-Date Kate. Looks like the artwork of Michael Barratt to me.

On the back page, another festive strip; Rosie Red Riding Hood. 

A few years later, the issue of The Wizard dated December 25th 1976 promised a "ghostly tale for Christmas". 

Inside, the story the cover related to, The Lightning Tree, actually had no festive element, but telling a ghost story was an old Christmas tradition so it was quite appropriate.

The back page of that issue of The Wizard was certainly festive, with the Christmas Crackers feature illustrated by Andrew Christine (later to draw the popular newspaper strips Beau Peep and A Man Called Horace).

Three years later, the 1979 Christmas issue of 2000AD and Tornado sported a Carlos Ezquerra cover...

Seven stories in that issue, but only one relating to the season: Tharg's Christmas Tale, again drawn by Ezquerra...

In 1982 the Christmas issue of Buddy featured Billy the Cat in a Santa outfit, delivering presents. Despite this, none of the interior pages had a festive theme. By the way, if you're thinking the "great news" announcement heralded a merger you'd be mistaken. It referred to Buddy getting a new look and a couple of new stories with the next issue.

A year later, the 24th December 1983 issue of Spike featured Charlie 'Iron' Barr dressed as Santa but there was little in the way of festive cheer inside. (I'll be taking a look at other issues of this comic soon.)

Christmas Day is fast approaching but there's a few more old Christmas comics to feature yet. Look out for another post soon!