Saturday 29 April 2017

DID YOU EVER WIN £1 BY DARING DAVY?


Image copyright relevant owner

I don't suppose I ever thought much about it at the time, but I do now.  You see, the fact that comics are produced at least 8 weeks ahead of seeing print, I now realise that the first 9 (at least) DARE-A-DAY DAVY strips in POW! couldn't have been from genuine readers.

Also, several of the stories were reused a few years later in VALIANT comic, in a Davy-type strip called CHALLENGE CHARLIE, so it's a certainty that the named 'readers' were fictitious and never received £5 (that's inflation for you) for alleged 'contributions'.

Were the publishers just trying to save a few quid by inventing readers' suggestions, or did they simply never receive enough to begin with?  I once won a £1 in 1973 for a contribution to SHIVER SHAKE, so not all invitations for reader-participation were fake, but it does cause me to wonder just how many were.

So, dear reader, did you ever win £1 for submitting an idea to Pow!'s Dare-A-Day Davy, or do you know of anyone who did?  If so, leave a comment and dispel the mystery.  And if you'd like to make a comparison between Davy and Charlie, I'll post some examples when I can.   

2 comments:

LeicesterJim said...

I sent in a letter to the Eagle in 1965 together with a cartoon that I'd drawn. The letter got printed, but my cartoon was re-drawn by a 'professional' artist. This ten year old was very annoyed that they hadn't used my original. Anyway, I won a ten bob postal order.

Kid said...

And ten bob in 1965 wasn't to be sniffed at. My Shiver & Shake drawing was embellished by Ken Reid (over my original drawing, or a tracing of it). I know that because the mistakes I made were still all-too evident, and if Ken had redrawn it, he'd have fixed them.



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