Monday 3 August 2015

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - BUSTER #1...


Copyright REBELLION

Lasting nearly 40 years, BUSTER, in its heyday, was one of the most successful British weekly comics of all time.  The lead character was initially the son of ANDY CAPP, a daily comic strip by REG SMTHE which appeared in The DAILY MIRROR, but this connection was soon forgotten.  Not difficult to do, considering that Buster's mum looked little like FLO, Andy's beleaguered wife.  Were we to assume that Buster was the illegitimate son of Andy and another woman?  If so, how subversive!

Regardless, Buster was a hit - with or without Andy as a father.  However, all things have their time, and Buster the comic breathed its last at the end of December 1999.  By then it was a fortnightly, so it was dated into 2000 when the next issue - if there had been one - would've appeared.  It's hard to believe that it's been over 15 years since Buster comic's demise and, aside from one reprint special a few years ago, Buster and has pals haven't been seen since.  Could Buster one day live again?  It seems unlikely.

******

It appears that Buster was supposed to be Andy & Flo's kid after all, as announced on page 7 of The Daily Mirror on Saturday, May 21st 1960.

2 comments:

TC said...

The daily Andy Capp strip was syndicated in the US and appeared in several newspapers in major cities. There were also some paperback books that reprinted the strips. I never heard of the Buster strip before, though, and I don't know if it was ever carried in any American papers.

Kid said...

I don't think it ever was, TC. There WAS a Buster newspaper strip in the '80s as well as the comic, but I believe it only appeared in the U.K. (In The Sunday Mail in Scotland.)



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