Christmas Comics: ALLY SLOPER (1976)

Ally Sloper was the first recurring character in British comics, having originated in the paper Judy in 1876 before moving onto his own very popular title Ally Sloper's Half Holiday in 1884. That publication ceased in 1914 (due to the war perhaps) and was revived for 23 weeks in 1922. Another (quite poor) revival in 1949 only lasted one issue. 

Then, in 1976, cartoonist, writer, and comics historian Denis Gifford attempted another revival with his ambitious Ally Sloper magazine co-published by Alan Class. The original Sloper paper had 8 tabloid pages, but Denis' new comic had 32 pages plus a card cover and full colour on the outside covers. Priced at 20p it was considerably more expensive than other British comics, and considerably slimmer than any imported American comic at that price (such as Eerie or Monsters Unleashed for example). Unsurprisingly, it only lasted for four issues.

However, the third issue was the Christmas edition so I thought I'd show some pages from it here today. (As always click on the images to see them larger.) Veteran comic artist Walter Bell had been commissioned by Denis to produce a new Ally Sloper image on page three of every issue and the 83 year old didn't disappoint. You'll notice caricatures of several politicians of the day, including Harold Wilson, Enoch Powell, and Dennis Healey.

Denis managed to attract quite a bit of talent to produce pages for Ally Sloper, including the legendary Frank Hampson. Here's the first (and sadly only) appearance of Frank's new creation Dawn O'Dare...

The next legend to appear in the comic was Leo Baxendale, firstly in an interview conducted by Denis...

...and then producing a new page for the comic...

Ready for another giant in the industry? How's about Raymond Briggs, with this one off Father Christmas story for adults...

The middle 8 pages of this Ally Sloper series always featured a pull out 'Nostalgicomic' of classic material. In this issue it was the old Daily Mirror strip Pip and Squeak and the cover was taken from a 1921 newspaper supplement...

Artist Ray Aspden did his page as a mock up of a classic UK comic cover, and a very nice job he did too. Philpot Bottles Orfis Boys Own revived the old Chips feature character, deliberate bad spelling and all.

Cartoonist Ed McHenry, who produced a lot of work for various IPC comics including Oink!, had a regular strip in Ally Sloper about a hairdresser-come-superhero Kaptain Kween...

Bob Dewar, another artist known for his work in children's comics, gave us Copout and Mumble, with gags that, whilst not intentionally offensive, would definitely be considered non-PC today...

The back page featured another Leo Baxendale illustration, advertising his Willy the Kid book. Excellent stuff.

The 1976 version of Ally Sloper was a brave attempt at producing a variety comic for the adult British market, and it was sold in newsagents as well as comic shops, but despite containing some quality material there unfortunately wasn't enough support for it.