In 1981, The Beezer had shrunk from a 16 page tabloid to a 24 page A4 comic (same size as The Beano) and in doing so had lost some of its charm. Nevertheless, it was still a good comic, as this Christmas issue from 1989 demonstrates.
The cover is by Robert Nixon, an excellent artist who had worked for DC Thomson in the 1960s, jumped over to IPC in the 1970s, and returned to Thomsons again in the 1980s. It was a time when some much sought-after artists such as Bob Nixon would work exclusively for one comics company or another.
Here's a handful of festive strips from inside. Firstly, Colonel Blink, drawn by the often under-rated George Martin...
A nicely designed Baby Crockett spread by Bill Ritchie...
Another Bill Ritchie page, Pam and Scratcher...
A wonderfully seasonal Pop, Dick, and Harry page by Brian Walker...
The bizarre Phoot and Mouse by Tom Paterson...
...and on the back page, Sting by Bob Dewar...
Another Christmas comic soon! Which year will the Blimey-Timey Machine end up in next? Hang on for the ride and find out!
In 1973 D.C. Thomson launched their first new humour weekly since Sparky eight years earlier. Its name was Buzz and it was in the 16 page tabloid format like Topper and Beezer. This seemed unusual at the time, considering that the tabloid size wasn't as popular as it used to be.
Perhaps its size proved to be a disadvantage, as Buzz only lasted for two years before merging into Topper. For today though, let's have a look at a few pages from Buzz No.1, published on Saturday 13th January 1973...
The cover strip, Hop, Skip and Jock, was drawn by Mal Judge, who had been the original artist on Billy Whizz for The Beano. The Buzz cover strip ended with a busy large panel every week in the style of Casey Court in Chips of decades earlier.
Buzz featured no adventure strips and was 100% dedicated to humour. Amongst its contents was Skookum Skool, a typical "naughty classroom" strip, drawn by Ken Harrison...
Like Topper and Beezer, Buzz had 16 pages consisting of 8 in full colour and 8 in red spot colour. The centre pages of the early issues featured The Twitz of the Ritz drawn by Bill Ritchie...
Another strip drawn by Ken Harrison was Jimmy Jinx and what he thinks, featuring a boy struggling with his conscience...
On the back page was Calamity Kate, drawn by George Martin, a master of visual slapstick...
I was 13 when it was launched so I was a bit too old for Buzz but I'm sure it had its followers who enjoyed it. The comic is barely mentioned these days and I suspect some collectors have never heard of it. If you have any thoughts about Buzz, leave a comment below...
Strictly speaking, this isn't a comic. The Wizard was a story paper, full of prose adventure stories, but it's worth showing this copy here if only for the excellent cover by Bill Ritchie. (As most of you will know, Bill was the artist of Baby Crockett in The Beezer and many other strips.)
Inside this 28 page story paper there are several short text stories with various adventure themes and some contained a festive theme, such as this complete story, with art by Fred Sturrock...
Peppered throughout the paper were a few cartoons and a couple of small strips. Christmas Capers is by George Drysdale, and Rocky is most definitely Bill Ritchie's work again. Ah, the old 'holly on the chair' gag. Still used in comics today. (I drew a recent version as part of The Bash Street Kids story in this year's Beano Christmas Special.)
This issue also featured an advert for that year's Black Bob book as an incentive for a last minute Christmas present...
On the back page, another seasonal story; It Looked Like A Cold, Cold Christmas with art by George Drysdale...
All images ©D.C. Thomson and Co. Ltd.
UPDATE: Phil Shrimpton showed me this cover of a 1953 Christmas Topper (the comic's first Christmas issue) by Dudley Watkins which had the same theme as the Wizard cover.
Phil has loads of British comics for sale on his eBay page and it's always worth a visit:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/phil-comics/m.html
There'll be another vintage festive comic in my next post. Any guesses as to which year I'll be visiting?
Sparky No.466, dated 22nd December 1973 kicked off with a marvelous wraparound cover drawn by Bill Ritchie.
Turn the page, and there's The Sparky People, a great strip set in the Sparky office. (Although as far as I know, none of the characters were based on actual people.) Art by Jim Petrie...
Sparky had its own distinct style, often wittier and more modern than The Dandy and The Beano at the time. Here's the Christmas episode of the popular L Cars with art by Bill Hill...
Snip and Snap had a very distinct art style that I liked. It was drawn by Mike Green, who later went on to do Weedy Willy for Oink!...
Ali's Baba made good use of spot colour by having the guardian angel Ali only appear in red line. Art by Malcolm Judge...
By 1973 Puss an' Boots had proven so popular with the readers that they now occupied the full colour centre pages. Not bad for a strip that began as a half pager in black and white. Artwork by the excellent John Geering...
Dreamy Daniel was about a boy with a vivid imagination, very much a forerunner to Les Pretend from The Beano. Art by Gordon Bell...
Where will the Blimey-Timey Time Machine land next? Find out soon!
Here's another Easter classic for you to enjoy. It's Bimbo No.59 from 50 years ago with Tom Thumb drawn by Dudley D. Watkins.
The skill of Dudley Watkins was astonishing, particularly when you consider how prolific he was at this time. As well as producing two pages of Tom Thumb every week, his other weekly output was Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty, Ginger, Mickey the Monkey, The Broons, Oor Wullie, plus numerous pages he contributed to annuals. Over eight pages a week on a regular basis! I really find it incredible that he could manage such an output and maintain such high quality. What a remarkable artist he was.
Bimbo was a 20 page glossy comic for very young children, published by DC Thomson. This was a time way before "activity magazines" replaced comics for pre-schoolers and the main activity encouraged was the art of reading. How depressing that such wonderfully crafted comics as Bimbo (and others such as Jack and Jill and Playhour) that introduced children to the pleasures of reading for fun have been supplanted by cheap magazines with pages to colour or simple puzzles. It's no wonder that less 7 to 10 year olds are buying comics today, because they haven't already developed the skill of reading comics from titles such as Bimbo.
Bimbo also featured one of The Beezer's stars, Baby Crockett, in brand new strips drawn by his regular artist Bill Ritchie...
This issue was full of Easter themed strips but I won't feature them all. Here's one more though; The Teddy Bears. Interestingly, although all the other strips in Bimbo had the dialogue as part of the text beneath the panels, The Teddy Bears used the standard convention of word balloons. The final panel of every episode was a full page splash which served as an activity page. See if you can find all the hidden objects. Go on. You know you want to.
For more Easter comic fun pick up the latest issue of The Beano. Out now with 44 pages and a cover mounted catapult for £2.50.
