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Friday, April 01, 2016

"The Laff of the Year!"

On Saturday 29th March 1975, Sparky No.533 hit the shelves with this eye-catching front cover. "Turn over the page for the laff of the year!" it boasted...

...so I did, and... it couldn't be done! The front cover had been printed upside down! 

A simple but effective April Fool gag! Made all the more unexpected by it coming out a few days before April 1st, but we'll forgive D.C. Thomson for that. (Even schedules wouldn't be changed just for a five second gag.) 

Sparky was D.C. Thomson's wild child amongst their comics at the time, often tapping into the dafter aspects of humour, and readers appreciated it. I couldn't imagine Dandy or Beano doing anything like this back then. Sparky is still fondly remembered by people today, and I'll take a closer look at some of its strips soon when I have more time. Until then, as Bo says on the cover topline: "Psst! Watch it!". Don't be fooled today! 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha! Very funny Lew. You nearly caught me out this time. Good photo shop!

Lew Stringer said...

It's genuine! Not an April Fool.

James Spiring said...

At least, not YOUR April Fool anyway. It was one when DC Thomson originally published it, lol.

The anon is right though, it IS funny. I'd be surprised if the same trick hasn't been pulled elsewhere at some point.

Lew Stringer said...

KRAZY comic had their trick back pages of course, which came close, but I don't recall any other comic doing a gag like this with its front cover. Unless anyone out there knows differently?

SID said...

I could see Cracker doing something like that, Lew. Of course it didn't.

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