CHRISTMAS CAPERS WITH WHIZZER & CHIPS...

Images copyright relevant owner

Continuing our Christmas comic covers selection, here's a few from one of the last long-running great humour publications released by IPC - WHIZZER & CHIPS.  Ol' W&C lasted about 21 years before the plug was pulled and it was merged with BUSTER.  One of my greatest thrills was when BOB PAYNTER (who was then group editor of the IPC Humour Dept and the first editor of W&C) asked me - at the end of a busy day - to letter the SID'S SNAKE and SHINER strips of both sections of the comic when I was down in London on one of my regular visits back in the mid-'80s.  After an eight or nine hour journey without sleep and then working for eight hours, I was probably too fatigued to do my absolute best, but they turned out okay.  Anyway, soak up the atmosphere of these fab festive favourites from years gone by.

I lettered quite a few strips for Whizzer & Chips - in fact, my first published work (CAP'N KID & The PIRATES) for IPC appeared in the comic.  It wasn't the first strip I lettered for them (that was a THARG'S FUTURE SHOCKS story for 2000 A.D.), but because of scheduling, the W&C one (which was the second one I did) appeared first.  I recall once lettering a SAMMY SHRINK strip (drawn by TERRY BAVE) and being amazed at working on a character I had read as a child.  And I'm sure I did a fair bit of lettering for Annuals and Summer Specials, plus I was a regular re-size artist on the W&C comic libraries.  In fact, I remember seeing the very first issue of the regular title advertised in SMASH! back in 1969, and getting up about 7a.m. the following week to run over and buy it at the newsagents across the road.

 Ah, if only it were still with us - as well as a long list of other comics.

WHAM-A-LAM-A-DING-DONG...

Copyright REBELLION

Ah, memories!  Here's the last ever Christmas WHAM! (#185) from 1967.  Little did I know when I purchased this from my local newsagent 44 years ago that there would be only two more issues of this classic title before it was merged with its weekly companion paper POW!  LEO BAXENDALE's creation, The TIDDLERS (not sure if he drew this one though), adorned the Festively-themed cover, although they had evolved into more of an imitation of The BASH STREET KIDS (also by Leo) over the years since their first appearance in '64.  Bax, of course, was also responsible for The SWOTS And The BLOTS over in SMASH!, so he was no stranger to strips about riotous schoolkids and their teacher.

The above GREETINGS From The FLOOR Of 64 page was in all five POWER COMICS that year, which is why it features characters from all of them.  Wham!'s forthcoming merger had doubtless been determined weeks (if not months) in advance, but the text on the page gives no indication of its imminent demise.  And small wonder - why spoil Christmas for Whamsters by spilling the beans at this stage?  Best to leave it to the New Year, when there was a sense of optimism in the air with which to counter bad news.  I must confess to never being too impressed by the combined POW! & WHAM! (not quite sure why), and was actually glad to see it incorporated (as junior partner) with SMASH! around eight months later.

So... raise a glass of lemonade or soda pop to that classic Christmas comic of yesteryear - WHAM!