Today's selection of Christmas covers begins with the festive Sparky from 1973 and it's a great job drawn by Bill Ritchie. Unusually for a D.C. Thomson comic, it's a wraparound cover. Sparky always had its own identity and was the more experimental of the Thomson "funnies" of the period.
TV21 never really bothered with celebratory Christmas issues, perhaps thinking they were too juvenile. However this 1967 edition (or rather 2067 edition as the cover date would have us believe) did feature a Christmas message and a photo of a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle on a snowy mountain so that's close enough to be included here.
Girls comics are an area that this blog has tended to neglect, mainly because, like nursery comics, I never read or collected them. As small compensation, here's a couple of Christmas Tammy covers from the Eighties. The first is from 1980 and cover features the popular Bella ballerina strip drawn by John Armstrong. The second cover is from 1983, by veteran Spanish girls’ comic artist Purita Campos. Both covers are taken from the excellent mistycomic.co.uk website, a fan site dedicated to the highly regarded supernatural weekly Misty.
The Nutty cover drawn by John Geering is from 1980, cover featuring Bananaman in his early days. (Note that the character is not only stockier here than he later became, but his colour scheme has a dash of red instead of the basic blue and yellow.)
The Valiant cover from December 1966 features another of its regular speculative articles on future technology. Here, a home under the sea is proposed, complete with a visit from Santa! Over 40 years later and we're still waiting. Artwork by Mike Western, one of Fleetway's finest.
Jimmy Hansen draws a lively party scene for the Christmas Whizzer and Chips from 1989.
Twenty years earlier, another party cover for Smash! from 1969, drawn by Mike Lacey.
Finally in this gallery, the Action Force cover from 1987, one of the Marvel UK weeklies of the time. The split cover features artwork by Jeff Anderson and Simon Coleby on the left, whilst the Combat Colin part on the right is by me!
Next time, the penultimate Christmas Cover gallery!
Fab series of features Lew, I've plugged it over on downthetubes: http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2008/12/comic-christmas-covers.html
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the original Bananaman and Eric again. The font for Nutty always put me right off though.
ReplyDeleteDid John Geering used to draw Smudge in the Beano?
The effort you've put in with these covers has been a real highlight in the run up to Christmas. Cheers
Thanks John, much appreciated. If anyone hasn't checked out John's Down the Tubes site yet it's well worth looking at for regular updates on the UK comics scene.
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Hi Chris, Yes John Geering drew Smudge, along with many other pages for Thomsons and IPC. He even designed the Diddymen for his pal Ken Dodd!
It's amazing to see that cover for the Christmas Nutty again. A huge wave of nostalgia washed over me on seeing it! It must be one of the first comic covers I can remember, and I can remember every frame and detail like it was yesterday. This is the Bananaman I knew and loved...pre the animated makeover.
ReplyDeleteAlways loved Nutty...slightly more madcap than the Beano and Dandy.
Thanks again for this great series of posts!
Jim
It maybe a nightmare to put together copyright wise, but this would make a great stocking filler nostalgia book. The same size and format as Paul Gravatt's wonderful little book.
ReplyDeleteThese are great. Now a book compiling Christmas issues of comics would be great eh? a trilogy of books on the 60's 70's and 80's would do me!
ReplyDeleteGreat feature, and feeling v nostalgic.
Piley
My thanks to Bryan Talbot for letting me know the identity of the artist for the Tammy cover (Purita Campos).
ReplyDeleteHi Lew, the second cover of the Tammy Christmas Special is not by Purita Campos but by another Spanish artist: Trini Tinturé. They have similar styles buut this is her main character Emma in the cover.
ReplyDeleteRuthB
Thanks for the correction, Ruth.
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