The New Year CHIPS (1941) ...and news about this blog

Here we are at our final destination in our travels through British comics history, and we've landed on New Year's Eve 1940 ready for the dawn of 1941! It's the original Chips comic (AKA Illustrated Chips) with a seasonal cover by Percy Cocking that's bursting with life.

They were grim days for kids back then, in the heart of World War 2, their fathers probably away with the forces, and themselves perhaps even evacuated far from home. Comics such as Chips played an important part in trying to keep their spirits up, as this editorial explains...

Chips would later be affected by paper shortages, reducing its size and appearing fortnightly, but at this point it was still in its original tabloid size, 8 pages, on pink paper, and weekly. Contents were typical fare from the publishers The Amalgamated Press, with a good balance of strips and prose stories such as Dane, The Dog Detective...

Here's a selection of the strips, starting with Professor Jolly and His Magic Brolly by Harry Earnest Pease (H.E. Pease), the younger brother of artist Albert Pease...

Pa Perkins and his son Percy drawn by Bertie Brown...

Homeless Hector, also by Bertie Brown...

Here's an advert for some early Disney merchandise!

Finally, on the back page, the brilliant Casey Court by Albert Pease, who also drew Alfie the Air Tramp beneath it...

...and now an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT about this blog.

We all know that nothing lasts forever, and after 12 years I feel that it's time to wind down Blimey! I will blog again, and the next post will be in about a week's time or so, but posts after that will be few and far between. Eventually they'll cease altogether. However, there'll be some exclusives as the year progresses.

Yeah, I know I said something similar 12 months ago, then carried on blogging practically every day "due to popular demand" as they say, but after all these years I'm finding it a bit of a chore. Also, I've felt that the last year has taken Blimey! off course a bit by focusing too much on current comics and not enough on the past. It was never intended to be a review site but it seems to have veered that way a lot. The whole point of Blimey! was to show old UK strips that modern readers may not have been aware of, although after 12 years of blogging I think I've done my bit. I'll be 60 in a few month's time, which feels like a turning point, and I intend to make some changes in my life.

In case you were wondering, yes, the old posts will remain on the 'net and you'll still be able to leave comments. Bear in mind though that all comments are subject to moderation (to deter trolls and spammers) so please don't post the same comment multiple times if it doesn't appear straight away. I can only verify them for publication when I log on.

For 2019 and beyond I need to focus more on my career, and Blimey! can sometimes be too much of a time-consuming distraction. My other blog, lewstringercomics.blogspot.com - the one about my own strips, - will continue, and I'll probably spend more time on that promoting my work, showcasing my old strips, and talking about my experiences and thoughts about the comics industry. You'll find that here:
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com

There are of course other blogs out there to keep you informed about the UK comics scene. The best by far, in my opinion, is John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog, where you'll find the latest news on 2000AD, Commando, and pretty much everything that's going on in British comics. It's also an ideal place to let people know about your new comics if you're self-publishing:
https://downthetubes.net

There's also Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog, for very well researched articles on classic material:
https://bearalley.blogspot.com

For the latest news on the Marvel Collectors Editions published by Panini UK the best place is from their official Facebook page:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/MarvelCollectorsEditions/

Likewise, the best place for news about the upcoming Treasury of British Comics collections is here:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/britcomics/

Official site for indie comics publisher Kult Creations:
http://kultcreations.blogspot.com

Official site for indie publisher Time Bomb Comics:
http://timebombcomics.com

Irmantas Povilaika's Kazoop! blog for lots of classics by Ken Reid and others:
http://kazoop.blogspot.com

Phil Boyce's Oink! Blog and Beyond for features on Oink! and other comics of the 1980s and beyond:
http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.com

Peter Gray's Comics and Art blog for classic comics:
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.com

Colin Noble's blog:
https://nothingbutafan.wordpress.com

...and you'll also find links to many other blogs and websites in the right hand sidebar of this blog (if you're reading this on a desktop computer).

I'd like to thank you all for following and supporting Blimey! over the years. I know some of you have been reading it since it began in 2006! We've seen off one or two silly troublemakers over the years but that was a while ago now and 99% of you have always been fantastic, posting positive comments and helpful info. For those of you who have come on board more recently, have a rummage through the archives to see what you've missed. There are over 3,000 posts here, so you should find something of interest! Simply type the name of a comic, a story, character, or creator into the search window on the right hand column of this blog and Bob's yer uncle. It looks like this:

As I said, I will post again, but very infrequently, and remember you can still find me at my other blog at http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com. 

For now though, I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year and hope that you enjoy the New Year's Eve celebrations with good company. I certainly intend to! 

The New Year DANDY (1965)

Let's head back to 1965 to see how The Dandy celebrated its New Year. Snow was still on the logo from the Christmas issue (obviously a cold spell in Dandytown) and the comic was on a high, with top class artwork throughout. Here's a few examples...

The cover above is by the great Charlie Grigg, who had redefined Korky the Cat from James Crighton's original version into a distinctive character loved by millions.  

Inside, Desperate Dan was in his regular place on page two with this cracking story by Dudley Watkins...

Dirty Dick was out on the snow-covered streets of New Year's Day wearing short trousers... as we did back then 365 days of the year! (It wasn't the done thing to wear long trousers until you started secondary school at 11 years old!) It may seem very strange now, but that's how it was and we just got used to it! Art by Eric Roberts...

Brassneck had only been running in The Dandy for a few weeks by the time this episode appeared. This is only the sixth Brassneck story, but it would run for many years afterwards. Art by the superb Bill Holroyd, a master of comedy adventure strips such as this...

On the back page, Big Head and Thick Head are off to a New Year's Eve party. Ken Reid had been the original artist but after he left to work for Wham! earlier in 1964, Frank McDiarmid took over the strip. As you can see, Frank could "ghost" Ken's style very well, whilst still retaining elements of his own style...

There'll be one last New Year comic tomorrow, on New Year's Eve! Drop by to join the celebrations! 

VALIANT celebrates the New Year (in 1965)

For my final post for this year, here are a few pages from the New Year issue of Valiant for 1965. Cover by the excellent Mike Western.

Valiant was mainly an adventure comic but it featured a healthy amount of humour strips too, and they were all celebrating the New Year. Here's Sporty by Reg Wooton (the only cartoonist at Fleetway back then to have a credit in the title box)...

The Nutts, drawn by Angel Nadal...

Billy Bunter, with art by Reg Parlett...

The Crows, also by Reg Parlett, next to one of the many ads back then trying to encourage readers to join the armed forces when they left school. Thankfully such adverts were phased out as British comics became increasingly aimed at a younger audience...

The adventure strips in this issue didn't bother shoehorning New Year into the ongoing storylines but it wouldn't be right blogging about Valiant without showing a taste of the dramatic strips. Here's that week's episode of The Steel Claw, drawn by Jesus Blasco...

Mytek the Mighty, drawn by Eric Bradbury...

Finally, the back page featured It's A Dog's Life, a European reprint of the Boulle and Bill series by Roba. You can read more about this strip in an older article I did here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/boule-bill-billy-buddy-or-pete-larry.html

All that's left to say is to wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year, and to thank you for following this blog. Here's to good things for 2017!

The BEANO is back!

Cover by Nigel Parkinson.

Returning after its three-week Christmas break, there's a new issue of The Beano in the shops today! As you can see from Nigel Parkinson's great cover above, it's the New Year edition, celebrating the onset of 2017.

All your favourite strips are included, and I'm very pleased to say that I'm back in the comic this week with the start of new runs for Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible! It's great to be back on these two classic strips which are fun characters to draw. Pup Parade was a favourite of mine to read back when it started in the late 1960s so it's an honour to be writing/drawing their adventures today.

Don't miss Beano No.3865, on sale now for just £2.50.

Wham! It's New Year 1966

Here's the issue of Wham! that would have been on sale 45 years ago. As one would expect it's the New Year celebratory issue which gets off to a fine start with The Tiddlers on the front and back covers. Leo Baxendale was initially the artist of this strip but this week's is definitely not his work but that of one of the several "ghost" artists that Odhams encouraged to imitate Leo's style. I'm guessing that this might be early work by Mike Lacey.


Inside, the New Year theme continued, but in some cases only in a tenuous way. Here for example The Wacks merely use New Year as an excuse to write a song, but it's a funny script so worth showing here. Artwork by Gordon Hogg.


Wham! ran a regular pop page every week for readers to win an autographed record, and this issue saw the turn of The Moody Blues. Here they are reading an issue of the comic...


As ever, the centre pages saw another chapter in the Eagle-Eye Junior Spy serial. Artwork by Leo Baxendale. Once again Eagle-Eye is pitted against Grimly Feendish. Soon, Grimly would graduate to his own strip on the back page of Odham's new Smash! comic, but that was a month in the future at this point...


This was the period when Ken Reid was producing flawless slapstick comedy-horror and Frankie Stein was the triumph of his Sixties strips.


We all know that corporal punishment was the norm in British comics of this time but this issue of Wham! seems to relish in it. No less than three characters receive a beating from their parents...

Biff (artwork by either Artie Jackson or Graham Allen)...


The Humbugs (possibly Mike Lacey art)...


Danny Dare (Artie Jackson artwork)...


Wham! was mostly a humour comic but it did feature a couple of adventure pages. Here's a World of Adventure strip with artwork by John M. Burns (or possibly Eric Kincaid)...



*************************************************

On another topic, the polls I've been running on my sidebar are now closed. Thanks to all of you who took time to vote. Here are the results:

Which era of British comics would you like to see covered more often on this blog?

Prewar (1900 - 1939)	10 (5%)
Wartime/postwar (1940-1959)	20 (11%)
1960s/1970s	105 (61%)
1980s/1990s	25 (14%)
Recent years 2000 - present	10 (5%)

Total votes: 170

What would you like to see BLIMEY! cover in 2011?

Only old British comics	22 (20%)
More features on old American comics	10 (9%)
Stay the same (Old & new UK comics)	75 (70%)

Total votes: 107

I'll be taking the results into account for future postings on this blog, so your input is appreciated.


Just for fun, I asked:

Which of the following has been your favourite new regular UK title of 2010?

Comic Heroes	38 (28%)
Clint	14 (10%)
The new look Dandy	83 (61%)

Total votes: 135

It's great to see The Dandy the outright winner, and Comic Heroes a reasonable second. Poor old Clint though. Not much love for that title, and issue 5 is currently running late having not been published this week as advertised.

For 2011 I'm hoping to update Blimey! on a weekly basis, possibly more often if I have time (or important news breaks). I hope you'll continue to follow the blog and enjoy it. Once again, a Happy New Year!

The Old and the New

In the late 1960s I used to visit a second hand bookstall after I'd been to the Saturday morning ABC Minors matinees at the local Ritz cinema. Rooting through the stall for American comics was a perfect way to follow up a weekly fix of Flash Gordon serials and classic MGM and Warners cartoons. One day I found a comic I'd never seen before; Fantastic Tales No.4.

Fantastic Tales was in fact a British title; a 68 page "shilling comic" published by Top Sellers, the company who would later publish various full colour reprints of Tarzan, Korak, Laurel and Hardy and more. I think this particular issue was published in 1963/64, but on the second hand stall it cost me 6d back around 1968. Inside was a selection of various black and white short twist-in-the-tale supernatural stories reprinted from U.S. titles published by ACG (American Comics Group). Leading off the comic was an 8 pager that became one of my favourite stories of the genre, The Old and the New illustrated by Ogden Whitney. A story that originally appeared in ACG's Forbidden Worlds No.60, in 1952.

Now, for your New Year's Eve entertainment, you can read it too. Click on each image to see it larger, then you may have to click on it again to see it in full readable size..









Reading it now, the story isn't particularly shocking, but there's still something about it that fascinates me. Ogden Whitney, (famous for his work on Herbie for ACG) illustrates it superbly and right from the start there's an air of impending danger and something "not quite right". Whitney uses effective composition to pull the reader right into the story, such as page 4 panel 6, as we become helpless onlookers with the couple, and page 7 panel 2, where the girl turns directly to us as though we are in the back seat of the car.

Reading it for the first time in 2010 you might think it's a bit cheesy by modern standards, but I hope you enjoy it. These are the kind of stories that inspired The Twilight Zone and if you like those wonderful old Rod Serling shows you should enjoy this.

The same story was reprinted again several years later in one of Alan Class' comics, Suspense but the reproduction was poor. This time they used the actual cover too, although it ruins a major part of the story somewhat:


Here's the cover in its original form on the 1952 comic Forbidden Worlds where the story first appeared:


Wherever you're heading this New Year's Eve have a safe night, and if you end up at a party at a house you've never visited before, be sure to check the date.
Happy New Year 2011!