Christmas comics: BUSTER (1967)

By 1967, Buster had reduced its size from its original tabloid format down to 32mm x 23mm (the same size as Smash!, Pow! and Wham! were at that point) but this was still larger than most comics. With 36 pages for 7d it was good value, even though only the front cover was in colour. Speaking of which, Angel Nadal provided the cover strip shown here, although I'm not sure if it was him or a staff artist who did the larger picture. 

Inside, we were treated to some nice material by Leo Baxendale, who had quit the Odhams comics a year earlier to freelance for the better-paying Fleetway titles. Here's The Cave Kids, avoiding the anomaly of Christmas in prehistoric times but still cleverly managing to do a seasonal story involving a sledge and snow...

A sledge also features in the Charlie Peace story, drawn by Jack Pamby. It seems bizarre now that one of Buster's longest-running strips was based on a real-life murderer, although for the purposes of the strip, Charlie is just a loveable rogue and bumbling thief. All the same, it was a very strange inclusion in a children's comic...

Andy 'n' Fred was drawn by veteran artist Cyril Price. I've always liked his work. Price also drew many episodes of Georgie's Germs at this time for Wham!

Running across the centre-spread was The Pirates, another strip by Leo Baxendale. Nice work, and a pity it wasn't in full colour.

Attempts at doing British superheroes didn't always meet with success. Thunderbolt the Avenger isn't as well remembered as Billy the Cat or Marvelman, but he had a run of just over two years in Buster...

This Harry Secombe strip from the back of this issue of Buster was actually a reprint from Film Fun, and the artist, Roy Wilson, had passed away two years earlier, but any work by Wilson is worth showing...

I hope you're enjoying these Christmas classics! Click on the images to see them larger. More soon!

BUSTER HOLIDAY FUN SPECIAL (1969)

In the late 1960s, to compete with D.C. Thomson's superb glossy tabloid summer specials, IPC launched their own 'Holiday Specials'. While not as large or luxurious as Thomson's photogravure specials, the IPC titles instead boasted more pages.

The Buster Holiday Fun Special was the first of that weekly's holiday specials. A whacking great 96 pager for 2/6d (12 and a half pence). The cover featured a fun roller coaster scene with a bunch of Buster's current characters drawn by Reg Parlett, IPC's top humour artist. 

Inside, the content was mostly black and white and mostly reprint, not that the young readers it was aimed at would care of course. This value for money package would entertain its readers for hours. One of the new stories was Fishboy, but not drawn by its regular weekly artist John Stokes. Again to save money, the specials (and annuals) often used different artists at a lower page rate. 

This wasn't the case with the Freddie (Parrotface) Davies strip though, with regular artist Reg Parlett turning in a new two pager. Freddie Davies had risen to fame on TV via the talent show Opportunity Knocks and appeared on various TV shows at the time. (You can find out more at Freddie's website here:
http://freddiedavies.com/)

One of the reprints in the special was Red Scarlet and the Seige of Stowford, which was actually a collected Ginger Tom serial from Knockout of the late 1950s. IPC had a knack of re-naming characters for reprints in a vain attempt to convince readers they were new stories. The artwork was by Pat Nicolle (1907 - 1995), a superb illustrator. The story took up many pages in the special but here's the first two...

Another reprint was a classic Dick Turpin story, with early artwork by Eric Bradbury...

The Galaxus strip was new, but not by its regular artist Solano Lopez. I'm not sure who drew this...

One odd strip in Buster at the time was Charlie Peace, based on a real-life Victorian murderer! In the comics, Charlie was revamped as nothing more than a 'rough diamond' anti-hero type and common thief, and by this point in the strip's history had been transported to modern-day London. This new story in the special stretched to six pages but here's the first two, drawn by regular artist Jack Pamby...

Summer Specials often featured a board game in their centre pages but this opportunity was lost here, with Buster's Dream World appearing instead. Art by Angel Nadal...

The Cruncher strip by Frank McDiarmid featured a plot inspired by a huge event of 1969; the Apollo moon landing...

On the back page, a reprint from the old Eagle comic, with Fidosaurus renamed as Pongo, The Prehistoric Pooch! Art by Reg Parlett...

I hope you've enjoyed this small selection of the 96 pages of this special. Happy Bank Holiday Monday! 

Valiant and Smash! Summer Special 1971

Although not as slick or colourful as DC Thomson's Summer Specials, the rival products by IPC in the early 1970s were great value for money. Here's the evidence in the form of the Valiant and Smash! Summer Special published in 1971; 96 pages packed with strips old and new, with a striking cover by the great Mike Western. Let's look at a selection of pages...

Inside, there were extra-length stories of favourites from the weekly, such as a six page strip of His Sporting Lordship. Douglas Maxted was the artist on the weekly strip but specials often used replacement artists and in this case Jack Pamby turned in an excellent job... 

Similarly, on The Ghostly Guardian, regular artist Julio Schiaffino was replaced by Bill Lacey (father of humour artist Mike Lacey)...

One original artist who did draw the Summer Special version of his strip was Ken Reid, producing a nice two page Banger and Masher...

For budgetary reasons the IPC specials contained a lot of reprint, but readers didn't mind if we hadn't seen the stories before. A 1960s Karl the Viking serial from Lion was edited and recycled as a 16 page Erik the Viking epic. Artwork by Don Lawrence...

The specials also stretched out the budget by including features and prose stories. Here's the first page of a one-off story entitled The Radar Men, illustrated by Eric Bradbury...

A new Raven of the Wing six pager was included. I'm not sure of the specific artist but it looks like it may be by the Solano Lopez studio but possibly not by Lopez himself. (The kids in the bottom left hand corner don't look like his style.)

Only 8 of the 96 pages were in colour, two of which were given to The Swots and the Blots. Although the header (taken from the weekly) was by Leo Baxendale the strip itself in this instance was drawn by Les Barton...

The Special concluded with a nice lengthy 18 page Kelly's Eye strip by Solano Lopez. This was a revised reprint from a serial that had run in the weekly in 1964/65.

This edition and numerous other IPC specials provided hours of entertainment in the school holiday periods back then. Over the years the page count reduced from 96 to 80 then to 64... and even down to 48 in some cases, with the cover prices getting higher. That initial period of 96 page Specials certainly provided the best value for money. Happy times!

Christmas Comics: BUSTER (1969)

This was one of my favourite Christmas covers as a child. Firstly, the logo was a different colour than the usual red-on-yellow background design, then it had a large image as opposed to just a full page strip, and thirdly all that snow! It's a simple illustration, but very effective. Artwork by Angel Nadal, who was the regular artist on Buster's Dream-World, with Buster being a sort of backstreet Little Nemo for the duration of the strip.

There were many Christmas themed strips in this issue. Here's just a few of them, starting with an episode of Crabbe's Crusaders, a sort of powerless British X-Men. Art by Carlos Cruz...

Over the page, it's The Twitopians, drawn by Gordon Hogg...

A few pages further on and here's Big Chief Pow Wow by Leo Baxendale...

I was never a fan of Tin Teacher but I know some of you liked it so here he is. Drawn by Peter Davidson...

Finally, The Astounding Adventures of Charlie Peace with art by Jack Pamby. Charlie's exploits usually backfired on him (and the character was an inspiration for my Tom Thug strip years later) but, as it's Christmas, Charlie has a happy ending this week...

I hope you're enjoying this dip into the festive archives. Another one soon!