The Christmas CHIPS (1939)

Here's my final Christmas choice for this season, and indeed forever, as Blimey! will end on December 31st so there'll be no festive covers from me next year. Therefore I thought I'd make sure this last choice is a good 'un! We travel back in time 80 years to this week in 1939 where this wonderful edition of Chips was in newsagents across the UK. 

We all have our favourite eras for comics but there's no denying that the 1930s were a fantastic period for beautifully drawn Christmas logos. Percy Cocking has put everything into this title design; Father Christmas, decorations, stockings, holly, crackers, Christmas pud, the traditional slap-up feed, and even an appearance by the editor, Fred Cordwell, in the top left there hosting the event. And yes, characters were frequently shown smoking and drinking in kids' comics back then!

Percy Cocking was also the artist on the Weary Willie and Tired Tim strip. Two of the very earliest comics characters who'd been around since Tom Browne created them in 1896. They appeared on the front cover of Chips until its final issue in 1953. 

Tucked away on page two was the editorial, and a sad reminder of the era this comic was published in. It was 1939, war had begun, and the editor makes references to evacuees, and those in the forces...

Chips was in its usual 8 page tabloid format on pink paper and the centre pages had an array of tightly packed humour strips. Here's a sample...

Ivor Klue the Great Detective, drawn by Albert Pease...

Casey Court, also by Albert Pease (he was very good wasn't he)...

Pa Perkins and his son Percy, by Bertie Brown...

Homeless Hector... often by Bertie Brown but I'm not sure who drew this one...

There was also a small advert for that year's Radio Fun Annual. The price of half a crown (12 and a half pence) would have been quite expensive back then...

By the way, I don't know how many of you noticed, but I put Weary Willie and Tired Tim, and Homeless Hector, into the Cor!! Buster Humour Special as little cameos. I'm intending to do the same again in the Buster strip I'm drawing for next year's Cor!! Buster Easter Special. Gotta keep those old characters alive!

Copyright Rebellion Publishing Ltd.

I hope you've enjoyed this festive selection. I'll be doing a handful of posts after Christmas but the blog will cease to be updated after 31st December. See you soon and may I wish you a Happy Christmas!

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This week in 1942: CHIPS No.2,693

There's nothing significant about this issue of Illustrated Chips but it's been a while since I posted an old cover (and "old" to me is anything pre-1959) so I thought I'd select this issue which would have been in shops exactly 77 years ago this week. At that time, Chips (and many other comics) were fortnightly due to wartime paper rationing, so although it carries the date of Nov.28th it would have been published two weeks earlier.

The cover strip Weary Willie and Tired Tim was, as ever, by Percy Cocking, who'd draw it until the comic ended in 1953.

I thought I'd show the Casey Court cartoon from the back cover too, as I know some of you like these busy images. Art by Albert Pease.

Comics of this vintage and older are always the least popular on this blog and receive less views than others. I know most fans are only interested in comics of their own nostalgia but from my point of view if you're interested in comic art it shouldn't matter what decade they're from! These comics appeared 17 years before I was born and I think they're great!

The New Year CHIPS (1941) ...and news about this blog

Here we are at our final destination in our travels through British comics history, and we've landed on New Year's Eve 1940 ready for the dawn of 1941! It's the original Chips comic (AKA Illustrated Chips) with a seasonal cover by Percy Cocking that's bursting with life.

They were grim days for kids back then, in the heart of World War 2, their fathers probably away with the forces, and themselves perhaps even evacuated far from home. Comics such as Chips played an important part in trying to keep their spirits up, as this editorial explains...

Chips would later be affected by paper shortages, reducing its size and appearing fortnightly, but at this point it was still in its original tabloid size, 8 pages, on pink paper, and weekly. Contents were typical fare from the publishers The Amalgamated Press, with a good balance of strips and prose stories such as Dane, The Dog Detective...

Here's a selection of the strips, starting with Professor Jolly and His Magic Brolly by Harry Earnest Pease (H.E. Pease), the younger brother of artist Albert Pease...

Pa Perkins and his son Percy drawn by Bertie Brown...

Homeless Hector, also by Bertie Brown...

Here's an advert for some early Disney merchandise!

Finally, on the back page, the brilliant Casey Court by Albert Pease, who also drew Alfie the Air Tramp beneath it...

...and now an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT about this blog.

We all know that nothing lasts forever, and after 12 years I feel that it's time to wind down Blimey! I will blog again, and the next post will be in about a week's time or so, but posts after that will be few and far between. Eventually they'll cease altogether. However, there'll be some exclusives as the year progresses.

Yeah, I know I said something similar 12 months ago, then carried on blogging practically every day "due to popular demand" as they say, but after all these years I'm finding it a bit of a chore. Also, I've felt that the last year has taken Blimey! off course a bit by focusing too much on current comics and not enough on the past. It was never intended to be a review site but it seems to have veered that way a lot. The whole point of Blimey! was to show old UK strips that modern readers may not have been aware of, although after 12 years of blogging I think I've done my bit. I'll be 60 in a few month's time, which feels like a turning point, and I intend to make some changes in my life.

In case you were wondering, yes, the old posts will remain on the 'net and you'll still be able to leave comments. Bear in mind though that all comments are subject to moderation (to deter trolls and spammers) so please don't post the same comment multiple times if it doesn't appear straight away. I can only verify them for publication when I log on.

For 2019 and beyond I need to focus more on my career, and Blimey! can sometimes be too much of a time-consuming distraction. My other blog, lewstringercomics.blogspot.com - the one about my own strips, - will continue, and I'll probably spend more time on that promoting my work, showcasing my old strips, and talking about my experiences and thoughts about the comics industry. You'll find that here:
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com

There are of course other blogs out there to keep you informed about the UK comics scene. The best by far, in my opinion, is John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog, where you'll find the latest news on 2000AD, Commando, and pretty much everything that's going on in British comics. It's also an ideal place to let people know about your new comics if you're self-publishing:
https://downthetubes.net

There's also Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog, for very well researched articles on classic material:
https://bearalley.blogspot.com

For the latest news on the Marvel Collectors Editions published by Panini UK the best place is from their official Facebook page:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/MarvelCollectorsEditions/

Likewise, the best place for news about the upcoming Treasury of British Comics collections is here:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/britcomics/

Official site for indie comics publisher Kult Creations:
http://kultcreations.blogspot.com

Official site for indie publisher Time Bomb Comics:
http://timebombcomics.com

Irmantas Povilaika's Kazoop! blog for lots of classics by Ken Reid and others:
http://kazoop.blogspot.com

Phil Boyce's Oink! Blog and Beyond for features on Oink! and other comics of the 1980s and beyond:
http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.com

Peter Gray's Comics and Art blog for classic comics:
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.com

Colin Noble's blog:
https://nothingbutafan.wordpress.com

...and you'll also find links to many other blogs and websites in the right hand sidebar of this blog (if you're reading this on a desktop computer).

I'd like to thank you all for following and supporting Blimey! over the years. I know some of you have been reading it since it began in 2006! We've seen off one or two silly troublemakers over the years but that was a while ago now and 99% of you have always been fantastic, posting positive comments and helpful info. For those of you who have come on board more recently, have a rummage through the archives to see what you've missed. There are over 3,000 posts here, so you should find something of interest! Simply type the name of a comic, a story, character, or creator into the search window on the right hand column of this blog and Bob's yer uncle. It looks like this:

As I said, I will post again, but very infrequently, and remember you can still find me at my other blog at http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com. 

For now though, I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year and hope that you enjoy the New Year's Eve celebrations with good company. I certainly intend to! 

Casey Court Brordcasting Stashun (1932)

The wonderful Casey Court cartoon took up half of the back page of Illustrated Chips for many years, with the residents of the Court taking on different things every week. Here, they set up their own "Brordcasting Stashun", very topical back when this appeared!

This fantastic cartoon is by Albert Pease and appeared on the back of Illustrated Chips No.2198, dated October 22nd, 1932.

A look at JINGLES from 1949

I did a post on this title a few years ago, but that was a slightly earlier issue. Here are a few pages from Jingles No.571, dated July 25th 1949. Another tabloid-sized comic published by The Amalgamated Press from Fleetway House in Farrington Street, London. 

A.P. still dominated the UK comic scene at this time but their rivals in Dundee were proving to be fierce competitors and readers were preferring the more modern-looking Beano and Dandy to comics such as Jingles which were looking quite old fashioned by this time.

Nevertheless, Jingles is a nice lively comic and features some top class cartoonists of the period. The cover strip, Dreamy Dennis, is by Albert Pease I believe.

The adventure strip Strongheart, The Wonder Dog of the Woods, was one of several "heroic dog" strips in comics. (The best remembered being The Dandy's Black Bob.) However, Strongheart preceded Black Bob, and the strip was based on the dog of the same name that starred in films in the 1920s. Sadly, Strongheart was long gone by the time this strip appeared. The comic strip was drawn by Hilda Boswell, one of the few women working in comics back then.

Jolly Jingles, the strip sharing the page with Strongheart, was drawn by George Parlett, brother to Reg Parlett...

Jimmy Jolly and his Magic Brolly was drawn by the master of golden age slapstick comics, Roy Wilson. Other A.P. cartoonists of the time were instructed to mimic Wilson's style, which is why it's sometimes difficult to identify who drew what. Roy Wilson's style influenced the look of comics from A.P., and later Fleetway and IPC, for years, and elements are still noticeable today. (I've certainly absorbed some of his techniques into my style but I'd never consider myself in his league of course.)

On the back page, another adventure serial. Nicely illustrated, but I'm afraid I don't know who drew it. I feel I should, as the style looks familiar. Can anyone identify the artist?

Jingles ran from 1934 to 1954, then merged into TV Fun. The copyright to this material would now be part of Rebellion Publishing's recent acquisition I believe. It would be nice to see some strips from this period back in print, just for the sake of the heritage of British comics if nothing else. Roy Wilson certainly deserves a collection of some of his work. However, one has to be realistic and it's unlikely that many readers would actually buy such a book. People tend to mainly be interested in the sphere of their own nostalgia unfortunately. Personally, I've always found the whole history and development of comics to be fascinating, but there aren't enough of us to support reprints of material of this vintage. Or are there? What do you think?

CHIPS, this week in 1947

This time 71 years ago, Chips was still on a fortnightly schedule, a lingering result of wartime rationing. Still, its 8 pages packed a lot in for 2d. Let's have a look at a few of the strips, scanned from an issue from my collection. As always, click on the images to see them much larger.

On the cover as always was Weary Willie and Tired Tim, just as they had been every issue since 1896, and would continue until the final edition in 1953. Artwork by Percy Cocking.

The centre-spread of Chips featured a variety of short strips including these three examples. Peter Quiz is, I think, drawn by Arthur Martin...

Laurie and Trailer by Albert Pease...

Homeless Hector by Bertie Brown...

On the back page, Casey Court by Albert Pease, and Alfie the Air Tramp (by John Jukes I think)...

Sadly, these old comics and their creators are mostly forgotten now, but hopefully Blimey! can help to inform or remind the current generation of our UK comics legacy! 

Casey Court in 1932

Few places on the Internet cover British comics from this period so here's a selection of Casey Court half pagers that I've scanned from the back pages of six issues of Illustrated Chips in 1932. Artist Albert Pease at his finest! 

Billy Bunter's KNOCKOUT (1961)

Knockout had been around since 1939, and Billy Bunter had always featured in a strip inside the comic but presumably the success of the Billy Bunter of Grayfriars School TV series (1952 to 1961) encouraged Fleetway to revamp the weekly into Billy Bunter's Knockout for a while. Therefore, Bunter became the lead strip in the 20 page comic, with his story taking up four and a half pages. 

The artwork was by the superb Albert Pease, who had previously been known for his splendid Casey Court illustrations on the back of Chips for many years. The drawings are fantastic examples of top class cartooning, although the racial caricatures are uncomfortable to see today. Nevertheless, here was Fleetway giving a character plenty of room for a decent story. A pity that these sort of longer stories didn't become the norm in British humour comics, instead of the single page / double page (or less) format that most strips still have to this day. 

This example from Knockout dated 9th September 1961. 

ILLUSTRATED CHIPS of Easter 1937

Let's go back in time 80 years, to Easter 1937, when this issue of Illustrated Chips was on sale. Despite its limitations of only being printed in black ink on pink paper, the strips are bursting with fun and joy. The Holiday Antics of Weary Willie and Tired Tim is drawn by the ever-reliable Percy Cocking, the strip's regular artist. 

As with most comics of the period, the centre pages featured a busy mixture of short strips and cartoons. Here's a selection, starting with Ivor Klue, drawn by Albert Pease...

Again, as was the format of the times, only half of the comic featured strips. The other 50% being taken up by text stories. This page managed to fit in a prose story, the fictional office boy's weekly column, and two adverts...

The back page of this 8 page tabloid featured two very popular features; Casey Court, and Laurie and Trailer, both drawn by Albert Pease...

I hope you've enjoyed this Easter holiday trip back to 1937. Have a good weekend wherever and whenever you go! (Don't forget that the new series of Doctor Who starts on Saturday at 7.20pm.)

(This week's 2000AD preview will appear on Monday.)

"Throw us a copper!"

Here's a quickie from the archive. The cover of Illustrated Chips No.2,177 from back in May 1932, showing a crowd throwing a policeman off a pier. It's a scene you'd be very unlikely to see in a children's comic today. Artwork by Percy Cocking.

...and from the back page of that same issue, Casey Court, as I know a few of you like this feature. Artwork by Albert Pease.