The Christmas KNOCKOUT (1950)

The original Knockout weekly ran from 1939 to 1963, and merged into Valiant, so this 1950 issue is from about halfway through its life. Published by The Amalgamated Press (who would become Fleetway, and later IPC), Knockout was conceived as a rival to Beano and Dandy and was an entertaining comic in its own right. 

By 1950 the cover strip was Mike, drawn by Eric Roberts (who would later work for The Dandy on Winker Watson and Dirty Dick, amongst other strips). I always liked Eric Roberts' bold brush strokes and clear storytelling skills and he deserved the cover position on the comic. Some of you may remember that Mike was reprinted and retitled as Smiler in Buster in the late 1960s. (Not to be confused with the Smiler character from Whoopee!)

Inside, one of the company's top adventure characters, Sexton Blake, was involved with The Hidden Enemy. I suspect this popular character may be revived now that Rebellion own the rights. Artwork by Roland Davies, who has put his initials in the last panel.

Billy Bunter was another of Knockout's favourites, lasting for the entire run of the comic and for many years afterwards in Valiant. (And originating back in The Magnet story-paper in 1908!) Bunter seems an archaic character and might be difficult to bring back for modern sensibilities, but... who knows? (Not me.) Artwork by Frank Minnitt.

Typical of British comics of the period, Knockout contained a nice variety of humour strips, adventure strips, and prose stories. Buffalo Bill was another of its regulars, with distinctive art by Eric Parker...

Our Ernie, Mrs. Entwistle's Little Lad was another long-running strip, with scripts as enjoyably barmy as the character. Each strip ended with his dad saying the punchline "Daft I call it!", a phrase that came into general use! So if you ever hear it, you'll know where it originated from. 

On the back page, - Sporty, by Reg Wooton. A newspaper cartoonist so respected he was allowed to have his name in the title. Wooton was another cartoonist whose style I really liked, and enjoyed Sporty when it was in Valiant years later. 

Had I been around back then I think Knockout would have been one I'd buy every week. A great comic! 

Coming up tomorrow: our final Christmas comic from the past, as we travel way back in time to... but wait and see on Christmas Eve! 

GIGGLE (1967)

Those of us who were reading comics in the 1960s will remember all the classics; TV Century 21, Sparky, Wham!, Smash!, Pow!, Valiant... and then there was Giggle. 

Giggle seems to be a comic that passed some of us by. I certainly wasn't aware of it back then, not until it had been merged into Buster for a few months. Giggle was published by Fleetway Publications Ltd and its first issue was dated 29th April 1967. Priced at 5d (2d cheaper than its Fleetway companion comics), it was evident that it was trying to directly compete with the D.C. Thomson comics. Even Giggle's logo, with the framed 'G' had similarities to the logo used by The Dandy at the time, and the character Giggle the Playful Cat (who soon became Giggle's cover star) was evidently trying to mimic the popularity of Dandy cover star Korky the Cat.  Despite some nice lively art, he was no Korky...

Unfortunately, the reason that Giggle isn't as well remembered as most other '60s comics might be because it wasn't very remarkable. Clearly having a lower budget than other comics, most of Giggle's content was either reprint from old UK comics or translated European reprint. I'm not sure of the sources of all the European strips but Buck Bingo was clearly Lucky Luke. His ever-present cigarette was erased from his lips for the UK reprint, turning it into an ever-present pout instead!

Herlock Sholmes was by Yugolslav artist Julio Radilovic...

Dim Dan, The Film Stunt Man was evidently European, and drawn in a nice style but I can't quite place the artist. It looks Spanish to me. Can anyone provide more info?

The reprints from old British comics included The Gremlins from Knockout retitled as The Chuckles (art by Fred Robinson I believe)...

Niblo Nibbs by Eric Roberts, was originally from Film Fun (I have the original art for this page from when it was renamed Nippy Nibbs for a further reprint in Cor!!)...

Castaways to Danger is a curious reprint from somewhere, but I don't know where. I'm guessing it may have originally appeared in a girls' weekly. Furthermore, I think the art has been altered to change the gender of the native who steals the necklace from a girl to a boy, perhaps to appeal more to Giggle's mixed readership. Can anyone confirm this?

I think a few of Giggle's strips were brand new. I don't know who drew The Wild Bunch but I'm positive it's written by Roy Davis, a prolific Fleetway/Odhams scriptwriter. As Roy was also a cartoonist he used to supply his "scripts" as rough penciled comic pages. He wrote many of The Vampire Brats stories I drew for Buster and I recognise the distinctive rhythm of his storytelling and style of dialogue in this page...

I think The Space Travellers was new too. The art looks a bit like Mike White's work but I don't think it is by him.

Helpful Hettie is either brand new or a reprint from a girls' comic. The art is definitely by Reg Parlett...

Giggle lasted for just 38 weeks before merging into Buster, so it wasn't a success by any means. Why did it fail? There was an increasingly crowded market for comics in the mid-sixties and inevitably not all could survive. Perhaps the mixture of European content and old-fashioned looking UK reprints didn't help, and the fact that, compared to its colourful rivals at D.C. Thomson, Giggle looked very dull with 28 pages and only the front cover in colour. I'm only judging it by my perspective as an adult, as I never read it 50 years ago, but it seemed to lack the excitement and polish of its companion comics such as Valiant and Buster. For a comic calling itself Giggle it simply wasn't a great deal of fun. 

This week in 1952: KNOCKOUT No.690

Knockout was a popular weekly from The Amalgamated Press / Fleetway that ran from 1939 until its merger into Valiant in 1963. (See the first issue here: 

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/knockout-no1-1939-and-1971.html )

Let's take a look at a few pages from issue No.690, which went on sale on Wednesday 14th May 1952, priced 3d (1p) for 16 pages. The cover feature at this time was Mike, drawn by Eric Roberts, who would later produce Winker Watson and Dirty Dick for D.C. Thomson's The Dandy. 

On page 3, a nice busy full page illustration by Reg Parlett featuring a Scout group called The Beaver Patrol...

Knockout featured a mixture of humour strips, prose stories, and adventure strips. Here's Tod and Annie, The Runaway Orphans, by Hugh McNeill...

A prolific cartoonist of the 1950s was Denis Gifford (who was also a noted comics historian of course). Here's his Steadfast McStaunch strip years before he revived and redesigned the character for Whizzer and Chips...

Our Ernie was a long running character in Knockout, with each surreal strip ending with the catchphrase "Daft, I call it!". The dated appearance of this strip makes me wonder if it might be a reprint. Art by Hugh McNeill...

Another popular adventure character, Sexton Blake. Artwork by Graham Coton I believe...

On the back page, the ever-enjoyable Sporty by Reg Wooton, one of the few comics creators back then allowed a credit. (And quite a predominant credit too, always beside the logo.)

Knockout changed quite a bit over its 24 year run. I'll show some pages from another issue soon.

Christmas 1964: The Dandy Book

Cover by Charles Grigg.

I said in my previous post that this blog would be staying in 1964 for the duration of Christmas and the reason is to have a look back at The Dandy Book that I had on Christmas Day 1964.

This is the earliest Christmas I can remember, and I have very clear, fond memories of receiving this, my very first annual. I was five years old and in my pillowcase was this marvelous book along with other presents such as a Supercar toy (see here) and a Chad Valley See-A-Show (see here). I'd been a regular reader of The Dandy weekly throughout 1964 but to my young eyes this was something really special; a thick hardback book full of my favourite strips. I was immediately hooked!

I couldn't wait to get stuck into the book, and I read the first story in bed before I got up. A one-off adventure strip called Diamond Dick. (No giggling at the back there.) Artwork by Paddy Brennan.

This story of diamond thieves in South Africa fascinated me and I still remember the excitement of reading these two pages with the hero hiding in the crook's car...

Then, a few pages on, suddenly a fantastic double-page spread. What an impact! I'd never seen this technique used in comics before and the great thing was that this book used the two-page spread in several stories as we'll see. 

The book contained all the Dandy regulars plus a few new faces. For years I thought The Beetles was by Leo Baxendale, but it's actually an excellent imitation of Leo's style by Ron Spencer. (George Martin's Sunny Boy on the facing page.)

Another feature that had an impact on me was The Nine Faces of Korky by Charlie Grigg. This 'Nine Faces' idea was used for several characters in this annual and was a uniquely entertaining way to tell a story and to show good cartoon expressions. 

Here's another; The Nine Faces of Desperate Dan, by Dudley Watkins...

The brilliant Ken Reid had several Big Head and Thick Head pages in this annual. Here's one of them, with the pair receiving a battering as usual. Ken was a master of comic violence in strips. And yes, the green spot colour really is that bright in the actual book!

As I said, the double-page spread cropped up in several stories and used very effectively. Here, halfway through a Winker Watson story by Eric Roberts...

Another spread in a Rocket Jock story by Charlie Grigg...

...and at the start of Joe White and the Seven Dwarfs by Bill Holroyd. I remember laughing out loud at this 50 years ago! Holroyd was a fantastic artist (and I understand he was Ken Reid's brother-in-law).

One of the many things I liked about The Dandy back then was that it featured adventure stories as well as humour. One of the most dramatic was The Crimson Ball, a giant indestructible metal ball controlled by a foreign spy (who lived inside it) intent on destroying British aircraft! Art by Jack Glass.

My favourite Dandy adventure strip was The Red Wrecker, - powerful fast growing weeds springing up and destroying anything in their way. In The Dandy Book it was destruction on a grand scale, and Charlie Grigg really outdid himself with this spread...

Time for one more 'Nine Faces' and here's The Nine Faces of Thick Head by Ken Reid...

Finally, on the back cover of the book, a full colour Desperate Dan strip by Dudley Watkins, with a punchline that still amuses me to this day.

All of the scans and photos in this post are taken from that very book I had 50 years ago today. A Christmas of happier and more optimistic times. The lad I was back then could never have imagined he'd be creating strips in The Dandy Annual 2015, and I can hardly believe it myself some days. I hope that some of today's children who are unwrapping their first Dandy Annual today will get similar enjoyment out of it as I did from the one my mum bought me half a century ago. Whether or not they'll be writing about it in 50 years time I'll never know, but I'd like to think so. 

I prepared this post a few days ago, scheduling it to go live on Christmas Day, so if you're reading it on December 25th thanks for dropping by and I hope you're having a good day! Merry Christmas!

A few more festive flashbacks of annuals from long ago, from older blog posts of mine:

Wham Annuals:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/wham-annual-cover-gallery.html

Smash Annuals:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/smash-annual-cover-gallery.html

Pow Annuals:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/pow-annual-cover-gallery.html

Marvel:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/road-to-marvel-uk-part-2.html

Daleks:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/happy-birthday-daleks.html

...and going way back, Film Fun:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/70-year-flashback-film-fun-annual-1938.html

This week in 1953: Coronation comics

  
As you might expect, British comics that were on sale this week 59 years ago in 1953 were full of celebratory strips for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Here's the cover of Knockout No.744 with its Deed-a-Day Danny strip which I think is by Hugh McNeill although other artists did often ghost it apparently...

Knockout carried a good balance of humour and adventure strips plus prose stories. Only the humour strips featured a Coronation theme though. Here's Billy Bunter by Frank Minnitt from the days before Reg Parlett put his own distinctive stamp on the character...

Apparently many families bought their first TV set so they could watch the Coronation. Those that didn't have a TV flocked to a neighbour's house who did, as reflected in this superbly drawn Mike strip by Eric Roberts...

The often bizarre, always amusing Our Ernie used the theme of a street party to kick off this week's odd adventure. 

On the back page, the rubbery animated style of Reg Wooton illustrates Sporty. (Yes, the back page carried the Knockout logo as well. A good move to possibly thwart any newsagent who carelessly placed it back to front.)

Over in Chips that same week in 1953, issue No.2983 had a specially illustrated logo for its 'Grand Coronation Number'. Good natured tramps Weary Willie and Tired Tim end up having a great Coronation day, no thanks to the efforts of the unfortunately named Dickie Diddler. Art by Percy Cocking...

 
Chips' 16 pages had several strips themed around the big day. Truth be told, some of the plots had a distinct similarity, - characters endeavouring (and succeeding) to see the Royal procession. Dickie Duffer the Dunce, by Albert Pease, was no exception. The other strip on that page, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Ranger (by Arthur Martin) was perhaps stretching things a bit by showing cowboys celebrating the occasion.

 
Casey Court, a long established favourite, showed a street party carrying on well into the night. Great work by Albert Pease who also drew Jimmy Joy the TV Boy beneath it...

 
Sammy Sprockett and his Pocket Rocket showed that even people on other planets were keen to catch the Coronation. Art (and probably script) by Denis Gifford. Smashing work. Below it, Sally Sunshine and her Shadow pre-dates Whizzer and Chips' Me and My Shadow by more than a decade, although Sally's shadow seems completely superfluous to the plot in this episode. Artwork again by the excellent Albert Pease...

A nice busy page coming up next featuring Pa Perkins and Percy and Homeless Hector and Moonlight Moggie, both by Bertie Brown, along with Philpot Bottles (Offis Boy) and the real editorial next to it. These editorials, one jokey, one straight, may seem outdated today but they served an important purpose in connecting with the readers and making them feel like they were being treated as equals. Stan Lee mastered a similar thing of course in the 'Bullpen Bulletins' pages of 1960s Marvel Comics, mirrored by 'Alf, Bart and Cos' in the pages of Smash! and other Odhams comics in the same decade.

Last but not least, Merry Molly Andrews 'The Pretty Girl Ventriloquist', although with it being a text story Molly could look like a bulldog chewing a wasp and we'd be none the wiser. Sharing the page is a short Peter Quiz strip by Arthur Martin and the only advert in the entire comic, promoting Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

A good edition of Chips, but sadly not enough to boost its sales as the comic ceased publication a few months later in September 1953. Although a run of 63 years is nothing to be sniffed at and deserving of a celebration in itself!