The Topper had a very long run, from 1953 to 1990, then was relaunched as The Beezer and Topper from 1990 to 1993. For most of its original run, The Topper was a large format, A3 sized comic, unmissable on the stands.
Here's a few pages from issue No.491, that was on sale this week in 1962. The Mickey the Monkey cover strip is by Dudley Watkins, albeit in quite a loose style for him. (Understandable, considering he was drawing at least half a dozen regular pages a week at this stage.)
In her usual position on page two was Beryl the Peril, drawn by Davy Law. The last panel may seem alarming to modern sensibilities but many strips ended with the child being beaten in those days. The humour came from the inventiveness of the deed but it happened so regularly it sometimes felt like a lazy solution to a story.
The Topper only had 12 pages a week in these (relatively) early issues. (It increased to 16 in 1964.) In the centrespread of this edition was the second chapter of the adventure serial The Last Warriors, drawn by Ron Smith. Stunningly detailed artwork...
One of the comic's most popular strips was Send For Kelly, drawn by the brilliant George Martin. Secret Agents were in vogue in the 1960s and this series was not only a great spoof of the genre but a superb strip in its own right.
For many years, The Topper ran Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy strip in its pages, reprinting the American newspaper strip. In 1962 it was also featuring another U.S. strip from the Sunday papers; The Katzenjammer Kids, renamed The Bustem Boys for British readers...
On the back page of this issue, Dudley Watkins' glorious adaptation of Treasure Island, - but this too was a reprint, as it had previously appeared in The Topper in 1953... and before that in The People's Journal in 1949... as well as being collected in book form in 1950 and 1959. A popular strip! (Source of that info: Topper Tales by Ray Moore.)
The Topper was a great comic, and a favourite of mine in the late sixties. Long gone now, but still fondly remembered by many.
Like the "Wagon Wheels are smaller now" myth, some people misremember The Topper as a broadsheet-size comic. It wasn't as large as that, but was still a big 'un at A3 size. Here's a few pages from the Christmas edition from 1967.
The Mickey the Monkey cover strip was by the fantastic Dudley Watkins, who was then drawing at least seven pages every week for D.C. Thomson. All of which were superb examples of illustration. How did he manage that output?
Inside, Davy Law's Beryl the Peril. Another great strip...
Nice to see Foxy have a happy ending for Christmas. Art by Charlie Grigg...
Not every strip featured a festive theme but here's another that did. The Inky-Top Imps was a sort of Famous Five type strip. Art by Sandy Calder...
Here's Big Uggy celebrating Christmas... in the Stone Age!?! Art by George Drysdale...
Finally, poor old Desert Island Dick isn't having much of a Merry Christmas at all. Art by Tom Bannister...
Another blog post soon.
Even though I spend most of my time writing and drawing them, I very rarely dream about comics. However there was one vivid dream a few years ago where I discovered that some cancelled comics of yesteryear were actually still being published and you'd find the latest editions if you rummaged deep enough into the displays in newsagents' shelves.
That's sort of what happened in reality today when I found The Topper and The Hotspur in Sainsbury's. Well, strictly speaking it's The Best of The Topper Annual and The Best of The Hotspur Annual, two of the newly published reprint books I mentioned a while ago.
I'd recently acquired The Best of Whizzer and Chips Annual and The Best of 70s Girls' Comics Annual too, thanks to the kindness of someone who sent them to me. These books are all exclusive to Sainsbury's, and not every branch is stocking them. The DC Thomson books have 80 pages and the Egmont ones have 72 pages. Yep, they've lost weight over the years!
I think the DC Thomson books win in terms of print reproduction and reprint choices. The Best of The Topper Annual has some very nice 1960s and 1970s strips, including a Dudley Watkins Mickey the Monkey page and what looks like a Davey Law Beryl the Peril strip. All the old favourites are there including Figaro, Big Uggy, and The Whizzers from Ozz. There are some later strips too, such as Tricky Dicky, but I'd guess at least half of the material is from the sixties and early seventies.
The Best of The Hotspur Annual is another goodie. I'm not too familiar with the DC Thomson adventure comics but from the styles and presentation it looks like the 70s and 80s are covered here. Possibly the 60s too. The only drawback is that as they're annual strips some don't feature the artists who did the weekly adventures, so although King Cobra is here, it's not by Ron Smith. (There is a great Ron Smith contents page though.)
The Best of 70s Girls' Comics Annual has a selection of stories from Misty, Tammy, Jinty and Sally. The reproduction isn't as good as the Thomson books but everything is legible. There's a few features too, for nostalgic reasons. The Egmont books have chosen to add a 'tanning' effect to the edges of the pages to make them look aged but it's an unnecessary addition really.
The Best of Whizzer and Chips Annual seems to be a random selection of strips. Some are reproduced better than others but overall they're sharp. Oddly, even though the back cover declares 'Chips is inside', the book does not use the 'Two comics in one' gimmick but mixes up the strips instead. There's a Chips cover, but it's on page 10. Thing is, that 'two in one' gimmick never looked convincing in the annuals anyway (and who in their right mind would tear out the middle section of a book?) so perhaps Egmont felt it wouldn't work here, especially with a book that's only 72 pages. Still, it's a pity they didn't simply make the second half of the book a Chips section.
There are other books in these retro series from Egmont and DC Thomson that I haven't seen yet. The Best of The Beezer Annual, The Best of Bunty Annual, and apparently The Best of Battle Annual and The Best of Roy of the Rovers Annual. Good luck finding them! The books have a RRP of £7.99 but Sainsbury's are selling them for the bargain price of £3.99 each. Alternatively, if you can't find them at your local Sainsbury's, you can buy the DC Thomson books full price from the DCT website:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/annuals-calendars/annuals.html
Just time for a quick news item. Thanks to members on Comics UK for spotting this. Comic titles we thought we'd never see again have been revived by DC Thomson in the form of four hardback annuals. The Best of The Hotspur, The Best of Bunty, The Best of The Topper and The Best of The Beezer are now available (in 'limited copies') from the DC Thomson shop:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/annuals-calendars/annuals.html?p=1
'Best of' no doubt means they'll be all-reprint, (even the covers are from old annuals) but this is still exciting news for collectors of British comics. Let's hope they sell well so more may follow next year!
