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It's always nice to look back on the familiar, isn't it? So, even though you've seen them all before, I thought it would be fun to do an 'omnibus' edition of some classic U.K. covers. Featured in their sequential order, any absentees this time around may pop up in a future post. Hey, that's something to look forward to, eh?
8 comments:
I bought Whizzer and Chips,Shiver and Shake,Warlord and Vulcan.
I don't have them now so that was nice.
And it was nice to read how nice you thought that was, Baab.
I think I mentioned this before but it's so interesting the 1938 Beano has the caricature of the black child with the watermelon. It just goes to show how certain cultural memes go viral. It's not like the artist of the Beano knew any black children in 1930s Britain but the meme came over the pond anyway. on the other hand superhero comics never really took off until the 60s, I don't recall a ww 2 British superhero comic book.
One wonders why some genres succeeded in the US but not Britain. In the US the boys adventure or Famous Five never made it to the comics successfully but boys adventure comics were a staple in Britain for decades.
While 'Peanut' (that's his name) was certainly a caricature, so were all the other characters in the comic, PS. I don't think there was any racism going on, and Peanut was always treated (as far as I know) with the same respect as the other Beano kids. In fact, as he was essentially the comic's mascot, he was accorded a rare privilege. (Although Dennis the Menace took his place on the masthead some years later.) As for there being no WW II British superhero comics, you're forgetting that British comics were mainly anthology titles - no single character ever had their own title back then. However, Desperate Dan and other characters regularly made fun of Hitler and Mussolini (who appeared in the strips) during the war, so Britain's comic characters were doing their bit. And war stories were a staple of U.K. adventure comics for decades, but they tended to focus on ordinary people as heroes, not super-powered beings. (With the much later possible exceptions of Captain Hurricane and The Steel Commando.)
I only bought two out of the above, Look-In and Warlord.
REALLY wish I'd collected the Vulcans!!
The Vulcan Annual pops up pretty regularly on eBay, JP - despite it usually being described as 'scarce'. It'd be a nice addition to your collection.
I had a few of these back in the day; Whizzer and Chips, Jet (both when I was still into UK comocs) and Shiver and Sahke and Warlord just because they were new - but by around 1972ish I had stopped buying most UK comics (except UK Marvels) but picked up the odd first issue. I also got Vulcan as I really liked that comic just a chame it wasn't popular enough to go on - is that the Scottish or UK version of Vulcan? I would love to get the 1st issues of both Buster and Valiant - 2 of my all time favourite comics ever.
That's the Scottish version, PM, but unfortunately I never kept them for too long. I've got the Vulcan Holiday Special, the Annual, and one issue, I think, but that's it. A pal sent me a scan of the 1st ish. It's possible to buy (or at least it was) a facsimile of Valiant #1, but I don't think Buster #1 has ever been 'replicated'.
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