Friday, December 23, 2016

Christmas comics: COMIC CUTS (1947)

Our final destination in the Blimey-Timey-Tour through the Christmas comics of the past sees us land in the year 1947 and the issue of Comic Cuts that was on sale this time back then. It was a time of post-war rationing, and this was reflected both in the flimsy 8 page format and in the strips themselves. There's something very appealing about the orange and black cover though, which makes a change from the more commonly used red spot colour of other comics of the time. The cover strip, Sammy and Shrimpy, was originally by Arthur Martin according to Denis Gifford's reference books, but I'm convinced this one is by Albert Pease.

As always, the centre pages really packed in the laughs with a variety of strips. I usually select a few samples from spreads like this but as it's Christmas I thought I'd show the centre pages in their entirety. (In case you didn't already know, click on the pages, and click again to see them at full size.) I'm not sure who to credit for all of the strips but Big Ben and Little Len is definitely the distinctive work of Bertie Brown...
Here's one of the four text stories from this issue, along with an advert for Mars bars, then promoted as a healthy food! 
On the back page, Pinhead and Pete, and I must warn you that, typical of the era, it's quite racist. The two characters are shown as equals, and as friends, but... aagh, that caricature and the racist language mars an otherwise nice strip. Art by Bertie Brown. The mini-strip at the foot of the page looks like Cyril Price's work to me.


...and that's it for this Christmas! I hope you're enjoyed all of the classic festive strips I've shown you this year. By the way, today (23rd December) is the 10th anniversary of this blog! Yes, on this day back in 2006 I decided to start blogging and you can read that first post at this link:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/blogs-are-for-egotists.html

Over the past ten years I've written over 2,000 posts, shown thousands of vintage pages, previewed hundreds of new comics. I've also encountered a handful of trolls and sociopaths before realising they were best avoided, but the thousands of comments from decent folk have made blogging worthwhile. My thanks to everyone who has supported Blimey!, including readers, publishers, and fellow creators. 

Where does this blog go next? Well, I never planned to be blogging forever, so I'm taking a few days off to think about it. My main intention for Blimey! was to focus on old comics (and creators) to help prevent them falling into obscurity. Hopefully I've achieved that in some small way. It's likely I'll be blogging less in 2017. I'll still be showing previews of new comics but the vintage stuff may be scaled down a bit in the future as I focus on work and other matters. Don't be too disheartened though. With over 2,000 posts over the past ten years it's likely there's some you've never read (or may have forgotten about) so use the search facility to see if your favourite UK comic or creator has been covered.

I'll be back before the end of the year with previews of my new Beano strips and more, but until then, I wish you a very Merry Christmas! 

11 comments:

  1. I wonder if I count as a sociopath ^_^
    either way, nice look back as normal, with great quality copies you have managed to get.
    In the future, don't post cause you think you owe people anything. Do what you enjoy and what you want.. though sometimes do what you have to cause you need some money to live on.
    Enjoy christmas

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  2. What a great cover strip and lovely art throughout I really do enjoy some of the vintage comics from the 1940's (and the 1950s - 60s classics of course) as you say a pity about the language in "Pinhead and Pete" . That would be a shame if you stop the blog (so hoping it will just be reduced posts) but I totally understand (I'm still working my way through the earlier ones) Have a great Christmas and New Year Lew hope to "see" you on here in 2017, if not all the best it's been fun.

    For any Broons and Oor Wullie fans out there, I heard on my local radio station ( Radio Clyde) that the Sunday Post will be on sale on Saturday with a big Broons and Oor Wulli" fun section (I think the advert said it was 32 pages long)

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  3. Happy Christmas and Happy New Year glad work is good and also good fun to do..

    Thanks for your blog and all your time you put into it...

    and what a great blog to look through again and again...

    Thanks.

    I find facebook a quick way to blog..anyway whatever you decide to to..
    all the best to you.

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  4. Thanks folks. I doubt I'll stop blogging altogether, but will blog less. Mind you, I've said that before and ended up blogging more! Seriously though, I'll see how it goes and will probably cut back to a couple of posts a week, as originally intended. I forget sometimes that most people don't check it out every day, so they sometimes miss posts if there's too much to catch up on anyway.

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  5. Always loved your blog Lew, a couple of times a week would be great. Best wishes.

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  6. Lew, I look at your blog every night, loved the look back at vintage comics and more importantly the look ahead to new comics. Some I would never have found, got if it weren't for this blog (Rok of the Reds, Flintlock to name a few). I appreciate the hard work that goes into updating a blog so thanks and please keep it up at least a few times a week.

    Cheers and happy Christmas to you and yours.

    Andy Scott

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  7. Happy 10th anniversary and Merry Christmas !

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  8. Cheers, Colin.

    Thanks, Andy. That's good to hear. I must also recommend John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog for news on new UK comics. It's dedicated to new stuff so he covers more than me. Also, the Forbidden Planet blog run by Richard Bruton. And for classic material that's very in-depth and well researched there's Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog.

    Merry Christmas, all!

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  9. Happy Christmas Lew. I really the enjoy the blog, as we're a similar age I read many of the same comics as you so it's a real treat to see old forgotten issues again. Best wishes for next year, hope you get tons of new work. Cheers

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  10. ...as long as you write it - I'll read it - it's a great blog!

    Merry Christmas and a Happy 2017 Lew.

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