Christmas comics: THE BEANO (1970)

Featuring one of its most fondly remembered covers, this Christmas issue of The Beano was published this week in 1970. Cover art by Dave Sutherland.

Here's a small sample of its 16 page content. The Nibblers haven't been around for a long time now but the strip was very popular back then. Art by Ron Spencer...

The Bash Street Kids in a nice festive story by Dave Sutherland...

Here's a character some of you have asked to see again. Billy the Cat, with art by Sandy Calder. This is an example of Billy wearing his special all-white winter costume, as opposed to the black one he usually wore...

Roger the Dodger, with great art by Bob Nixon...

...and on the back page, Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, drawn by Dave Sutherland, doing an excellent job of ghosting the style of Davy Law...

Another festive time-trip to another year tomorrow!

Christmas comics: PLAYBOX (1950)

A few things occur to me about this 1950 nursery comic. One, it looks very old fashioned, even for 1950. Secondly, although the artwork is of a superb standard, it seems somewhat creepy and sinister to modern eyes, especially for a comic aimed at five year olds. Thirdly, the racial caricatures in some stories are alarming by today's standards. Kids were really being conditioned at an early age to normalise racial slurs and ideas. (I've decided not to show them.)

Playbox was published by The Amalgamated Press from 1925 to 1955, so it was entering its last few years by this 1950 issue. I suspect readers of the day were finding it outdated too. According to the research by the late Denis Gifford, the cover strip was by Freddie Crompton. That's a wonderful Christmassy title banner there, and worth posting on this blog for that alone.

Inside, its 8 pages were the usual (for then) mixture of prose stories and strips. I don't know who drew Chums of Jolly Farm but the line "I'm going to take this young dandy off to Fairyland" must have been written tongue in cheek even then.

Again, using Gifford's research, it appears that Sidney Pride was the artist of Wendy...

Artist unknown on Brave Joe...

...and on Hippo Girls...

Flips is by Freddie Atkins...

I don't know who drew Skipper Dan on the back page, but Tuffy is apparently by Arnold Warden (although this one looks like George Wakefield art to me, but I could be wrong).

More vintage festive pages soon!

Star Wars!

I went to see Rogue One this morning and really enjoyed it , - and I'm not even a Star Wars fan. It fills in some gaps very nicely and is a tougher, grittier movie than some in the Star Wars franchise. (No daft Ewoks or muppets thankfully.) I recommend it. Plus apparently it's being boycotted by American white supremacists so that's definitely a reason to support it. (Racists are a bit slow. It's taken them 40 years to spot the analogy between Nazis and Stormtroopers.)

Anyway, I've just received the PR from Titan Magazines that the latest issue of Star Wars Insider is out now, with a choice of two covers. I'm even tempted to buy a copy myself. 

Find out more info here:
http://titanmagazines.com/t/star-wars-insider/uk/170/

Christmas comics: THE DANDY (1966)

This Christmas issue of the much-missed Dandy was published exactly 50 years ago today. (Despite its cover date it was published on Monday 19th December 1966.) Full of traditional festive fun, the cover star was of course Korky the Cat, drawn by Charlie Grigg. That final panel covers a lot of the sort of presents that children would have had back then, although for commercial reasons the biggest toy of 1966, Action Man, isn't amongst them. Perhaps Korky was holding out for an Action Cat instead. 

The Dandy only had 16 pages a week in the 1960s, but it made the most of it, with Desperate Dan for example having 19 panels on one page. Artwork by the legendary Dudley Watkins...

D.C. Thomson always did compelling adverts for their annuals, as this one proves. A simple but lively layout that made the book a must-have Christmas present. The price of 8/6d (42 and a half pence) seemed expensive then...

The centre pages at this time were always taken up by Corporal Clott, drawn by Davy Law. Genuinely funny stuff...

The Smasher, by Hugh Morren. (For the Smasher's latest exploits, which I've drawn, see this year's Dandy Annual.)

Finally, in this selection, the popular Brassneck, illustrated by Bill Holroyd, one of the best (and often underrated) artists that worked in comics...

The sad thing is that all of the artists who drew these strips have passed on now, but at least they leave behind a legacy of laughs and wonderful artwork we can still discover and appreciate. 

Tomorrow; a journey even further back in time! See you on Tuesday!

Preview pages: Judge Dredd Magazine No.379

Here's a preview of Judge Dredd Megazine No.379, on sale this Wednesday. It's not a Christmas issue, presumably as it'll still be on sale for three weeks after Christmas, but with the overindulgence of festive stuff around right now some of you might appreciate that. 

Here's the PR and sneak peeks direct from the publishers...

• UK & DIGITAL: 21 December 2016 £5.99
• NORTH AMERICA: 21 January 2017 $13
• DIAMOND CODE: OCT161749
• COVER: ALEX RONALD
• UK & DIGITAL: 21 December 2016 £5.99
• NORTH AMERICA: 21 January 2017 $13
• DIAMOND CODE: OCT161749
• COVER: ALEX RONALD


In this issue:

Judge Dredd: Psicho by Peter Milligan (w) Jake Lynch (a) Tiernen Trevallion (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Blunt by TC Eglington (w) Boo Cook (a) Simon Bowland (l)

Angelic: Home is The Hunter by Gordon Rennie (w) Lee Carter (a) Simon Bowland (l)

Anderson: Judgement Call by Alec Worley (w) Paul Davidson (a) Len O'Grady (c) Ellie De Ville (l)

Features: Thrill-power Overload, Four Colour Classics: Action, New Comics: Hook Jaw

Bagged reprint: Sinister Dexter - Life Is An Open Casket

Available in print from: UK newsagents and all good comic book stores via Diamond 

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app