In truth, Buster and Cor!! was a solid comic with some great talent working on it. At 15, I was too old for it of course, but in retrospect, looking at it from a creative viewpoint, it was one of the best comics around at that time. Let's take a look at a few of the strips from this first merged issue...
One of the significant things about this issue is that the Buster strip itself saw a change of artist from Angel Nadal to Reg Parlett (who also drew the front cover). I'd grown up with Nadal's version and wasn't too keen on the change, but it can't be denied that Parlett was ideally suited to the strip and its fast paced slapstick situations...
The merger also saw some new strips starting that week that hadn't been seen in either Buster or Cor!! before. One of which was Snooper, by the always-wonderful Leo Baxendale...
Whenever comics merged, it was always a concern that some favourites would be pushed out. Thankfully, Ken Reid's excellent Faceache strip had proved popular to survive. (A collection of Faceache strips will be published by Rebellion in November.)
Another new strip was Marney the Fox, written by Scott Goodall and drawn by John Stokes. It was rare for strips in Buster to tug on the emotions as much as Marney did but it made for compelling reading. (Marney the Fox is another collection coming from Rebellion this year, and the one I'm looking forward to the most.)
Val's Vanishing Cream was one of the strips that had transferred over from Cor!! and was drawn by Mike Lacey. A typical IPC humour strip in that it featured a kid with a gimmick. That could restrict the humour somewhat but this is a good episode...
This issue gave the comic the opportunity to fill in new readers with the backstory of Fishboy before he embarked on a new adventure. A kind of British equivalent to Aquaman, this is another strip by Scott Goodall and John Stokes that deserves collecting.
There was a lot of good material in this issue and this was just a sample of pages. Rebellion now own a lot of classic material ripe for reprinting so I hope that readers support the Treasury of British Comics books so that we see more!
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com
Lew, as a kid, I needed my head examining. In 1974, my loyalties were with DCT and I only got IPC comics when I discovered Donald and Mickey and Goofy. Why I didn't like Cor!! or Buster I don't know. They were great comics - especially at that time.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the DCT comics felt more comfortable?
Anyway, if I had access to the TARDIS I think I would go back and have a quiet word.
We all do stuff we regret in hindsight. In 1966 I dropped TV21 because I didn't like Frank Bellamy's work! (Although I did start buying Smash! instead, so that balanced out.) I've been fortunate enough to complete my set now though.
ReplyDeleteI discovered Buster when I started buying some old issues of Buster and Monster Fun at a flea market that was held at my local strip mall on Sundays. I was probably 29 or 30 at the time. I enjoyed the title and even picked up new issues when I could find them, which was difficult. The local W.H. Smith (stores are now called Smithbooks and are part of the Indigo/Chapters empire) didn't carry British comics at all.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't reading it when it was Buster and Monster Fun but I'm sure it must have featured good stuff. IPC had some great talent working for them.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first issue of any comic that I distinctly remember buying. I'd bought and read a shedload of comics before, of course, but have no memory of any particular issue.
ReplyDeleteI got it because six year old me needed his Ivor Lott & Tony Broke fix.
They were certainly popular characters! Great puns in the names too.
ReplyDeleteGreat memories of busters as a eighties comic..it was bigger than the Beano and the art work was wonderful and grotesque..I loved it...chalky.x ray spec..melv mirror..X ray spec.buster...face ache ..I was delighted to buy a recent copy by the tressury of British comics in my local comic shoo..hioe it's not a one off..great memories
ReplyDeleteWorld Wide Weirdies coming next, Steve.
ReplyDeleteBuster absorbed 12 comics in it's time, it is a shame they all bit by bit merged in to each other til just Whizzer and Chips and Buster was left then they merged
ReplyDeleteYou 'grew out' of comics just when they were getting 'great!' Too bad. You stopped just before the best IPC comics of all time were launched - specifically Krazy and Cheeky Weekly.
ReplyDeleteIPC wasn't the same by the early 80's and even l couldn't save them during the late 80's and mid 90's. I wish Alan Cummings had listened to me more and given me more freedom with my ideas. I'm certain IPC would be thriving today if he had.
Yeah, I'm sure they would, Steve. Dream on! What was stopping you submitting ideas to other comics? The comics industry didn't die with Buster. That was 20 years ago! Most of us found work drawing strips for other publications. The nature of being a freelancer is that you look around for other options.
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