Sunday, December 15, 2019

A Cluster of Christmas Covers

Art: Charlie Grigg.
It'll soon be time to run the traditional daily Christmas comic covers but first, as Blimey! will be ending soon, I thought I'd gather together a bunch of seasonal covers that I've featured here over the years. Some you'll remember seeing before, some you might not. 

I've featured more than this but these are amongst my favourites. I thought I'd cover 100 years, so we can see how the styles and designs of comics changed from 1898 to 1998. Ready to plunge into the Festive Time Vortex? OK, scarves on, climb aboard the time sledge and here we go....


ALLY SLOPER 1898. Art: W.F. Thomas

JOKER 1934. Art: John L. Jukes


COMIC CUTS 1935. Art: Possibly John L. Jukes


CHIPS 1942. Art: Percy Cocking

COMIC CUTS 1947. Art: Alert Pease

The first Christmas EAGLE, 1950. Art: Frank Hampson and team.

BLIGHTY 1952. A joke / glamour mag rather than a comic but a great cover by Arthur Ferrier.

MARVELMAN 1954. Artist unknown. Perhaps Ron Embleton?

WIZARD 1960. Art: Bill Ritchie

BEEZER 1960. Art: Tom Bannister

TV EXPRESS 1961. Art: Mike Western

WHAM! 1964. Art: Graham Allen

EAGLE 1965. Art: Not sure.

DIANA 1965. Artist unknown.



BEANO 1966. Art: Dudley Watkins

SMASH! 1967

TOPPER 1967. Art: Dudley Watkins

BUSTER 1969. Art: Angel Nadal

SPARKY 1970. Art: Vic Neill

BEANO 1970. Art: David Sutherland

KNOCKOUT 1971. Art: Joe McCaffery

LION 1971. Art: Geoff Campion

2000AD 1977. Art: Kevin O'Neill

WHOOPEE! 1984. Art: Robert Nixon

ACTION FORCE 1987. Art: Jeff Anderson, Simon Coleby, Lew Stringer

WHIZZER AND CHIPS 1989. Art: Jimmy Hansen

DANDY 1998. Art: Keith Robson

...and there you go. A selection from 100 years in a few minutes. A new set of Christmas covers begins tomorrow and will run for a week! Don't miss it!

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9 comments:

  1. What a great selection! Thanks Lew. That Sparky Cover is a particular favourite, but the Lion cover, among others, sparked fond memories. Information on the artists involved much appreciated, too

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  2. Very nice collection. I recognized a few but others were new to me. Loved that Action Force one.

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  3. I think that 1970 Sparky cover is the one that brings back most memories for me too John, out of that collection, and then the Beano one to compliment it that followed a few days later. There was something magical about all the characters gathering in a festive scene.

    Thanks John K. I still remember drawing my third of the page for that AF cover. John Anderson had done his part first, then it was sent to me to fill the space on my side, so I thought I'd mirror his idea with another sledge.

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  4. Thats sSmtrange as the Sparky cover was the one that brought back the strongest memories for me as well (and I wasnt a regular Sparky reader), next was Lion then Beano 1966 then 1970. I'll miss your regular Xmas covers etc when Blimey closes Lew its one of my favourites on the web.

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  5. Still this year's daily covers to go yet, Paul! As for 12 month's time... it doesn't bear thinking about yet.

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  6. The blog's staying online even though it'll no longer be updated, right? Paul, you can just look at the archives.

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  7. I always thought that, on the whole, the older comics caught the Christmas spirit the best. Your covers prove it. Some of them are a work of art.

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  8. Yes, the older comics were more ornate in design but I suppose comics reflect the contemporary design of the times. It is nice when they make more effort though.

    Yes, Blimey will stay online until Blogger eventually closes down or whatever will inevitably happen. (Nothing lasts forever.) Paul's been a follower for years so he's probably read everything anyway James.

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