Christmas Comics: WHAM! (1964)

It's the final festive flashback for this year as the Blimey-Timey Time Machine settles in 1964 for the duration of Christmas. This issue of Wham! was published exactly 50 years ago today, on Monday 21st December 1964. A smashing seasonal cover by Graham Allen (who put his initials in the last panel) with a sleigh-full of Wham stars on the masthead.

Let's have a look at a selection of some of its contents. Here are The Wacks, drawn by Gordon Hogg...

On the facing page was the regular pop feature, and who better to appear in this special Christmas issue than Britain's biggest popstars The Beatles? 

Kelpie the Boy Wizard didn't have a festive theme but I couldn't resist the chance to show two pages of classic John Burns artwork...

In these early strips The Tiddlers had a teacher who was on their side called Super Sir! After a while, the strip ditched Super Sir in favour of a traditional put-upon teacher warring with the kids, which was a shame. This episode looks like it might be the work of Terry Willers...

Only one strip by Leo Baxendale in this issue, but what a strip! Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy running across the centrespread in full colour. Some of the humour is of its time and might understandably give offence now, but the artwork is top quality funny stuff...

How's about a Christmas ghost story? Here's the short and spooky Vanishing House. And for lighter fare, It's a Crazy World drawn by Artie Jackson...

It wouldn't be Wham! without Frankie Stein and here's Frankie's first Christmas, drawn by the genius Ken Reid...

Finally, a lively Georgie's Germs strip which shows that Santa even visits germs! Several artists drew this strip over the years and this one is by the excellent Brian Lewis...

I hope you've enjoyed these visits to various Christmas comics of the past. Thanks for dropping by and may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Terry Willers 1935 - 2011

Sad news of another passing in the world of comics and cartoons, cartoonist Terry Willers died on November 9th, aged 76.

Although born in the UK, Terry lived and worked in Ireland for over 40 years. He began his drawing career aged just 15, working for a Disney studio in London. He went on to draw newspaper strips for various European newspapers including strips from the Dutch Toonder studios in the 1960s. It was also during the Sixties that Terry became an artist on Odhams' Wham! weekly as one of the people brought in to "ghost" the look of Leo Baxendale's work. Willers' own style was still evident in those pages though and he was allowed to sign his work. He also worked on strips for other comics, such as The Dandy and The Beano.

In Ireland Terry drew cartoons for The Sunday Independent, The Farmers Journal, The Evening Herald and The Wicklow People. He also worked in television, producing cartoons for Hall's Pictorial Weekly (for which he won an award) and The Mike Murphy Show. He was also a founder and chairman of the International Cartoon Festival in Rathdrum during 1992 - 94. (The 1992 event attracted over 30,000 people!)

Here are a couple of the strips he drew for Wham! General Nitt and his Barmy Army appeared in issue 86 (5th Feb. 1966) and Georgie's Germs appeared in issue 88 (19th Feb. 1966):





For more information on Terry Willers and a better sampling of his work visit these sites:

http://www.wicklownews.net/Post/2011/11/498/rathdrum-saddened-at-death-of-cartoonist

http://www.ecc-cartoonbooksclub.blogspot.com/2011/11/terry-willers-passed-away-1935-2011.html#!/2011/11/terry-willers-passed-away-1935-2011.html

http://lambiek.net/artists/w/willers_terry.htm