BUDDY No.1 (1981)

It's been 37 years since D.C. Thomson launched Buddy No.1 on Friday 6th February 1981. Clearly intended to be a step away from the "grittier" style of comic such as Warlord, Bullet, and Crunch, that Thomsons had previously moved into, Buddy was a return to a more traditional type.

The cover was reassuringly friendly and non-aggressive. Even the design of the masthead looked more like that of a humour comic than the battle-damaged style that Warlord and Crunch had used. The comic's mascot and pretend-editor was Buddy himself, the toothy, blonde, freckled-faced boy shown using the free Pop Pistol. (Note to those who complain that modern UK comics value gifts over content; that first issue of Buddy is all about selling the comic on the basis of the free toy. No stories are even mentioned on the cover.)  

To put Buddy into context we must remember that by 1981, the sales of traditional weekly comics were well past their glory days. Children were becoming more attracted to brands, and even more distracted by television than ever. Comics based on licensed properties would soon become ever more dominant in newsagents. With Hornet, Bullet, Crunch, and most recently, Hostspur, having folded, it seems that Thomsons felt that the way to attract readers was to revive and revamp some of their older successful characters for a new generation, and Buddy was the vehicle in which to do it. 

Buddy's 32 pages were packed with new, updated versions of top D.C. Thomson heroes, leading with the football story Limp-Along Leslie, originally a Hotspur character, and now drawn by Neville Wilson...

The Wolf of Kabul was next. Originally a text series in The Wizard from 1922, later a picture strip in Hotspur, and now in Buddy, drawn by Mike Dorey...

Deep-Sea Danny's Iron Fish was of course a revamp of The Beano's Iron Fish. Danny Grey now replaced by Danny Boyle, and drawn by Alfredo Falugi...

Tuffy, A Boy All Alone was a revamp of The Wizard's Scrappy, A Boy All Alone. The concept of a homeless boy against all odds was always popular in Thomson comics. (Does anyone know the artist's name?)

I'm not sure if Hammer! was based on a previous strip or was all-new. Great artwork by Denis McLoughlin...

Jonah was the only reprint in the comic, but if you have to reprint something, there's no better strip. Ken Reid's classic Beano hero, reprinted from the very start...

Billy the Cat was another popular Beano hero, now updated (and slightly older) for brand new adventures for Buddy. Here's the full episode, drawn by Pete Foster...

Rounding off issue 1 was Boy on the Run, a gripping thriller drawn by Carlos Cruz. Again, I'm not sure if this was a revamp or new, but I'm betting it was an updated version of some strip...

The back page revealed the forthcoming free gifts. We don't get free whistles in comics any more (in case they're mis-used I believe) but this week's Beano does have free balloons similar to the Super Zoomer!

In later weeks, other old characters would be revived for Buddy, such as General Jumbo, Starhawk, and more. Overall, Buddy was a very good adventure comic but it didn't last. The time for such comics was sadly ending. Despite gaining a new look and new logo with issue 99, it merged into Victor in 1983 after 130 issues. 

Here's a small selection of Buddy covers. For a major part of its run it featured strips starting on the covers. While that's a technique I've always liked, it must have looked quite dated to kids of the 1980s...

...and finally, here's the advert for Buddy No.1 from The Dandy No.2046, dated Feb.7th 1981...

All artwork and characters in this post are ©D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

The IRON FISH becomes reality!

© Seabreacher

My favourite Beano adventure strip as a child in the 1960s was The Iron Fish, the mini-submarine steered by Danny and Penny Grey, getting them into all kinds of exploits. The strip was later revived for Buddy comic, with the vehicle now piloted by Danny Boyle. 

The strip seemed too fantastic to ever happen outside of a comic, but now it's a reality! The Seabreacher is a range of submersibles that look and perform very much like the craft in the comics. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, as they both use a fish design as a template, but it's still a thrill to see an "Iron Fish" in the real world. 

You can find out more about this amazing craft at the Seabreacher website here:
https://seabreacher.com

Here's a classic Iron Fish episode drawn by Albert Holroyd for The Beano No.1126, February 15th 1964...

My thanks to Stephen D. Quirke for bringing the Seabreacher to my attention.

The IRON FISH

The Beano of my childhood always ran one or two adventure strips in its pages every week; General Jumbo, Danny on a Dolphin, The Q Bikes, Billy the Cat... and one of my favourites was The Iron Fish. 

It had begun as a prose story in 1949 titled Deep Sea Danny's Iron Fish, with illustrations by Jack Glass, but by the time I first saw it in 1964 it was a two page strip drawn by Albert Holroyd. Here's one of the early episodes from The Beano No.1126 (Feb,15th 1964)...

To be frank I found the characters of Danny and Penny Grey to be rather wet, if you'll pardon the pun. The big appeal of the strip for me was the wonderful design of The Iron Fish itself. It had such a distinctive look, and the 'eyes' of the craft seemed to give it an intense personality even though The Iron Fish was just a sophisticated submarine and not sentient in any way. (I liked the design so much that I remember making a little model of it out of Plasticine when I was five. I'm sure that if an Iron Fish toy had existed for Christmas 1965, myself and thousands of other kids would have gone bananas over it.) 

By 1966 The Iron Fish had a different artist; Sandy Calder. There was also a development in that Danny and Penny now had an Iron Fish each and the craft had the ability to fly. Here's an example from that series (The Beano No.1246, June 4th 1966)...

Below is an example from the next series (The Beano No.1282, Feb.12th 1967). By now, The Iron Fish design seems to have lost some of its striking appeal, particularly with the 'eyes' now drawn so small. It now looked less sinister and less dangerous than it had when Jack Glass and Albert Holroyd had drawn it, and perhaps that was the intention, but it was that original dark edge to the design that made it compelling, in my opinion. 

The Iron Fish faded from The Beano after that, but the strip was revived and revamped for D.C. Thomson's new adventure weekly Buddy in 1981. Danny Grey was now Danny Boyle and the strip went back to basics with a modern look. (I understand the scripts may have been updated ones from the old text stories.) This example is from Buddy No.61, April 10th 1982...

I still think The Iron Fish is a great little concept and a fantastic design, and in the right hands could work today as a strip, cartoon, or even a movie. No chance of that on the horizon unfortunately but maybe one day...