Blunder Girl! (Penny, 1979)

Jack Oliver (or J. Edward Oliver as he signed his strips) was an excellent comic artist. He created his own characters, and not only wrote his own very inventive scripts but lettered his pages too. You may be familiar with his Master Mind and Cliff Hanger characters for Buster, but here's one that appeared in the IPC girls' comic Penny. 

At the basic level, Blunder Girl was a parody of Wonder Woman, but Jack Oliver gave us more than that, creating a funny, well crafted strip in its own right. Here are the few examples I have, from Penny Nos.6, 11, and 14 from 1979. 

Jack Oliver's work was one of the inspirations of my own material. Master Mind was a direct influence on Brickman for example, and for years I only drew characters with three fingers and a thumb because that's how Jack drew them. I only met Jack once briefly, at the Buster offices back in the King's Reach Tower days, but I was glad I had that opportunity. He passed away in 2007 but his website is still active as a tribute to his work:
http://www.jeoliver.co.uk

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.