35 Year Flashback: SPIKE No.1 (1983)

D.C. Thomson launched a new weekly comic 35 years ago, when Spike No.1 arrived in newsagents on Friday 14th January 1983. Although Thomsons had attempted a few tougher styled boys' comics with Warlord, Bullet and Crunch a few years earlier, this new comic was playing it comparatively safe and was more of a mixture of traditional comics like Victor and Buddy. That said, Spike did have its own style and felt more casual than its companion comics, helped considerably by the comic's mascot, Spike himself. 

Under a nicely designed logo, the cover of issue 1 featured two proven methods to hook the reader; an exciting announcement that the comic contained a free gift, and the opening panels of the lead strip, Iron Barr (art by Mike White). The perceived wisdom at the time was that if a reader picked up a comic to read the cover strip, you were almost guaranteed a sale. Whether this worked in practice was debatable, as Spike only lasted for 67 weeks before merging into Champ.

Inside, the comic contained a nice variety of adventure strips, including sci-fi hero Starhawk (who had previously starred in Crunch) fighting the Powerbeast. (Art by Terry Patrick.)

A D.C. Thomson boys' comic wouldn't be complete without a war story, and Spike gave us The Ghost in the Cockpit (art by Gordon Livingstone)...

The main draw of Spike started in the centre pages. The Man in Black told the story of a mysterious, seemingly ageless athlete with extraordinary strength and stamina. The clues to the man's identity were revealed over the weeks that followed, eventually identifying him as William Wilson, the Wonder Athlete who had appeared in Thomson story paper The Wizard many years earlier, and in The Hornet in the 1960s. His revival in Spike acted as a sequel to those earlier stories but was also a retelling, using updated scripts as I recall. The artist of the strip was a Wilson too; Neville Wilson...

The Bleak Street Bunch was a traditional school strip, but with a contemporary setting. Art by Peter Foster...

Ticker Tait, the Man with a Time Bomb in his Heart, was also drawn by the very-busy Neville Wilson, and was the spy thriller of the comic's line up...

Spike also featured a few articles, a text story, plus a strip featuring Spike himself, drawn by Brian Walker...

On the back page of the 36 page first issue was an ad for future issues and the free gifts to come! 

...and if you wondered what the Ghostly Glow Badge in issue 4 looked like, here it is...

...and yes, it did glow in the dark!

Spike was a very enjoyable, well produced comic but sadly it arrived at a time when traditional adventure comics were on their way out. Had it been launched in the 1960s it might have stood a better chance, but not in 1983 when it faced so much rivalry from comics based on toys and tv shows. The comics industry was changing and publishers soon found they had to adapt to survive.

All of the images in this post are my own scans and photographs, but I'm indebted to Jeremy Briggs at Down the Tubes for his excellent article on Spike which you'll find here: http://downthetubes.net/?page_id=25672  which enabled me to identify the artists.

The Christmas SPARKY (1970)

One of the most fondly remembered covers for a D.C. Thomson humour comic, this Christmas 1970 issue of Sparky eschewed the usual Barney Bulldog strip to present this cosy festive scene with all the characters carol singing. The artwork was by Vic Neill, the Peter Piper artist of the time. (Peter being the one writing the message in the snow with his pipes.) 

There were plenty of Christmas strips inside this 24 page issue. I-Spy didn't have a festive theme but I know so many of you liked this strip (as did I) that it'd be remiss of me to avoid it. Brilliant comedy-adventure material of the type we should see more of in British comics. Artwork by Brian Walker.

Mr.Bubbles was a strip I never really cared for. It seemed too young, even when I was 11, but in retrospect this is a nicely told Christmas tale. I think the artist was Pamela Chapeau at this stage but I'm not too familiar with her work. Can anyone confirm this?

The Sparky People was the comic's brilliant sit-com set in the Sparky office. Although the staff were fictionalised it was an enjoyable strip about the behind-the-scenes antics. Art by Jim Petrie.

L-Cars (the name a spoof on TV's Z-Cars) was another great Sparky strip. The thing about Sparky was that it had its own identity and style of humour. When the Odhams comics ended, I jumped to Sparky as one of the closest equivalents. A genuinely funny comic, and L-Cars was one of its best strips. Art by Bill Hill...

The back page featured Puss and Boots by John Geering. Full of comic violence and frantic situations, it became one of the most popular strips in the comic. 

We're nearing ever closer to Christmas, but look out for another festive flashback on this blog on Christmas Eve!

Incidentally, the issue of The Beano that came out that same week in 1970 featured a cover that complimented the Sparky one, with its characters carol singing too. You can see my blog post about it from last year here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/christmas-comics-beano-1970.html

The Christmas BEEZER (1989)

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!

The Christmas BUSTER (1981)

We've arrived in the year 1981 and here's a nicely festive cover by Reg Parlett for the Christmas issue of Buster for that year. Back then the comic was still using cheap newsprint, and only the front cover had colour, but the contents were excellent as we'll see.

Inside, Deadly Hedley, Vampire Detective, written by the late Mark Rogers (later to be one of the editors of Oink!) and drawn by Martin Baxendale, son of the famous Leo Baxendale...

I know a lot of you are fans of The Leopard of Lime Street so here's the episode from that week. Artwork by Mike Western (possibly with Eric Bradbury inking, according to The Buster Index)...

The centrespread of this 32 page issue featured a fantastic Master Mind strip by Jack Oliver, combined with a board game...

A festive Faceache page by Ken Reid, along with illustrated borders...

An excellent Boxatricks strip by Brian Walker, one of the best comic artists in the business...

Finally, an ad for the IPC humour annuals for that year. Most of these comic titles were long gone by 1981 but they lived on as annuals for a long time.

SHIVER AND SHAKE No.1 (1973)

With the success of Whizzer and Chips as a faux 'two in one' comic, IPC tried it again with football adventure comic Score 'n' Roar in 1970 (see here) and once more in 1973 with Shiver and Shake. Neither proved to be anywhere near as popular as Whizzer and Chips but they did contain some worthwhile content. Here's a selection of a few pages from Shiver and Shake No.1, dated 10th March 1973...

The concept of Shiver and Shake was that 20 page Shiver contained funny horror/monster strips and 16 page Shake carried, well, humour strips without a horror theme. The cover (above) was by Mike Lacey, featuring the hosts of each comic, Shiver the ghost and Shake the elephant. 

The first notable thing about Shiver is that it kicked off with a revamp of Frankie Stein, a character last seen in Wham! in 1967 and a few Wham! Annuals that followed. However this version was a more subdued Frankie than Ken Reid's edgy original, and the comedy was much lighter in tone, as was the norm at IPC. Nevertheless, Robert Nixon did a very nice job on the artwork. 

Scream Inn, with distinctive, atmospheric art by Brian Walker, was a superb strip, and was later adapted into a board game! Walker used hatching, cross-hatching and Letratone to great effect here...

Shiver featured one adventure strip, and the prolific Tom Kerr was the ideal choice as illustrator. Who'd Kill Cockney Robin was a mystery serial, with a clue in every episode for the reader to deduce who was trying to kill the title character. 

The character who'd become one of the biggest hits with readers was Sweeny Toddler, who made his debut towards the back of the comic. Created by the wonderful Leo Baxendale...

The back page presented us with something marvelous. The start of a series of monster pin-ups by Ken Reid! Creepy Creations No.1 was The One-Eyed Wonk of Wigan, with readers invited to submit their own ideas for Ken to draw in future editions. 

The 16 page middle section featured Shake No.1, with the cover strip by Mike Lacey. 

Inside Shake, veteran artist Reg Parlett gave us the arrival of Lolly Pop, a character who would outlast the comic and survive in other comics.

On the back page of Shake was Moana Lisa with art by Peter Davidson. 

The first issue of Shiver and Shake took the unusual step of giving readers a choice of four different free gifts. The ploy to get people to buy more than one 
copy convinced me for one, and I went for the trick rubber pencil and the plastic 'chocolate' biscuit. I've mislaid the rubber pencil, but here's a photo of the trick biscuit and the free gift wrappers...

Shiver and Shake lasted for 79 issues before merging into Whoopee! in 1974, but it's still fondly remembered today by collectors.