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Missing the comics of your youth? Longing for the happy, innocent, carefree days they represent of a 'timeless' time in your life? Then here's the post for you! By no means comprehensive, but with enough covers of famous first issues from the past to allow you to relive those halcyon days of your childhood and bask in the glorious, golden glow of yesteryear!
Just how many did you have, and what memories to they stir in your heart? Go on, tell us about it in the comments section. Your nose will fall off if you don't. (And I'd never I lie to you about something like that.)
I had the following comics: 2000AD, Thunder, Whizzer & Chips, Giggle, Shiver & Shake, Super DC and Cor!. I remember that the free drink from Cor! , even to a ten year old was awful. My favourite comic from that list was Thunder I remember ( or seem to) that it was advertised on TV and I was so excited to buy it. Sadly I only have Shiver and Shake left which I think I picked up after 1973. I vividly recall buying Giggle and being so disappointed in it at the time. I was also underwhelmed by 2000AD thinking it would be merged with another comic in a few months, I may have gotten that wrong 😊
ReplyDeleteI remember buying an old issue of Giggle from an Oxfam shop in the early '70s (I think), McS, and wasn't too impressed by it. I've now got the Fleetway bound office copies of every issue, before it was merged with Buster. I wasn't blown away by 2000 A.D. either, and think I bought only the first three issues - although I bought a run of nine or ten issues around 1979. I'm surprised that Thunder didn't last beyond 22 issues, as when it was merged with Lion, the strips from Thunder predominated the comic for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly Giggle featured a few European strips like Lucky Luke ( possibly renamed). Yeah it was strange that Thunder got cancelled when most of the strips must have been popular enough to move to the merged in the combined Lion and Thunder comic. Then again characters like Adam Eterno, Black Max etc were brilliant. My favourite Thunder strip was Phil the Fluter, I just loved Tom Kerr art on that strip.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think a renamed Asterix was in it too, but I'd have to check. I suspect that they were expecting Thunder to be a hit and had quite a supply of strips already produced in advance, so when the comic didn't sell as expected, it obviously caught IPC off-guard. My favourite strips were Adam Eterno and The Gauntlet Of Fate.
ReplyDeleteNah, Asterix didn't appear in Giggle. He was in Valiant and also Ranger (at different times) and had a different name in each comic.
ReplyDeleteI had the issues of Countdown, Look & Learn, Super DC, TV Tornado and SOLO. I had completely forgotten about TV Tornado and SOLO, so thanks for tweaking the memory synapse!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I bought Solo at the time, B - at least, I don't remember doing so. However, I probably read a few issues belonging to friends on the odd occasion. The other comics you mention here I have replacement copies of, acquired a good number of years ago.
ReplyDeleteI never had any of them - in fact, I've never even heard of Giggle, Hurricane and Solo. Are all these comics from your collection, Kid, or just images from the internet?
ReplyDeleteI have 2000 A.D., Cor!!, Countdown, Giggle, Hurricane, Look & Learn, Look-In, Mad, Monster Fun, Shiver & Shake, Super DC, Thunder, TV Tornado, Valiant, Whizzer & Chips, and Whoopee! in my collection, CJ. (Mad and Valiant are facsimiles, Mad a professionally produced one). However, for convenience, I mainly used images from ebay, though a few of them MAY actually be mine, but not 'enhanced' according to my usual custom.
ReplyDeleteSo man goodies. The one I had forgotten was Shiver and Shake. Cor! I remember but can’t remember anything but the title! Those DC bumper books were always a bit of a mystery but I loved them. Mystery because the reprints in them were often a decade or more old. I loved the stories and art but often wondered why. I think they were on to something though. The readers of the DC comics were kids so they printed the more kid friendly stories. Look and Learn what a memory trip! If only we had known what the future held for that kid Charles eh.
ReplyDeleteFunny I was just posting on fb about Lion and how the choc bar looked suspiciously like it copied the font and Lion head from the comic. You should do a post on that!
That's an interesting idea, PS. I wonder if the Lion bar was meant to tie in with the comic in some way? (Like the FAB ice lolly being originally tied in with Lady Penelope.) I'll have to check when Lion bars first came out, and whether Lion was still around at the time.
ReplyDeleteThe picture on the Look & Learn cover looks like Errol Flynn but I assume it's meant to be Charles II. And the young Prince Charles looks uncannily like a young Mike Mercury from Supercar apparently.
ReplyDeleteI had my own comics-related memory this very morning. I received my second vaccine jab (no need for an umbrella after all) and as I was leaving the leisure centre I saw a plaque which said that the centre had been opened by the mayor on August 30th 1975. I know exactly what i was doing on that very day - it was a Saturday and I went to visit my friend Carl who lived about 3 miles away. He had just bought POTA No.46 which featured the final part of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and it had one of those painted covers from the US POTA magazine. I got my own copy on the following Monday. Seeing that plaque today brought back those memories from so long ago.
I'd say he looked more like Mitch the monkey, CJ. It's good when we get those little reminders like the one you describe, isn't it? I have experiences like that all the time.
ReplyDeleteCJ, I've now replaced most of the covers on this post with ones from my own collection.
ReplyDeleteThis question was spwaned by the references to humor books, so maybe it's off base-- but anyway, who are the British comics writers or artists whom you think as the best in coming up with funny stuff??
ReplyDeleteThat's a difficult question when it comes to writers, GP, because they weren't credited in the comics for decades, so I just don't know which ones wrote what in the main. Artists are easier to name - Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, Davey Law, Dudley D. Watkins, Reg Parlett, Terry Bave, Charles Grigg, George Martin, Dick Millington, etc., all had the knack of making things look funny.
ReplyDeleteBaxendale and Reid often wrote their own stuff, or added to it so significantly as to make it theirs. I suspect that Dick Millington wrote Mighty Moth, but I couldn't swear to it, and I find that quite a few TV Comic stories (especially Pink Panther) were very humorous. What's your own take on the subject?
I've got meager knowledge of most British comics outside of Fleetway, Modesty Blaise and a few outliers like Garth, so your list is all new to me. But I do pick up a few interesting tidbits hereabouts.
ReplyDeleteAnd long may it continue, GP. Thanks for dropping by.
ReplyDelete