Buster Souvenir Special 2010!

In the previous post, I was saying how Egmont, who currently own all copyright to the Fleetway funnies, aren't using their material, save for a few specials produced a few years back. They produced four specials - Battle, Roy of the Rovers, Misty and Buster, and they all went on sale simultaneously throughout 2009. Buster was meant to be the third released, but after a few problems swapped place with Misty, and was sold on 9th December.

The series, titled 'Egmont Classic Comics', was exclusive to WHSmith and was sold all over the country for £3.99. Of course, that was if you could actually get hold of a copy.

Since Misty hadn't sold too well, WHSmith decided that Buster was going to go the same way, so stuffed their few copies wherever there was space, or didn't order any copies in the first place! I think this is a real dissapointment as Buster would probably have been the most popular title in the series and, given it's 40 year run, more familiar to reader's who had forgotten about it!

If children wanted to buy the comic, it would cost them £3.99, which is a lot of money to a 10 year old kid! But it was on sale for almost four months - plenty of time to save up for a copy! And anyway, £3.99 isn't bad for a 52 page comic with high quality material!

But what about the comic itslef? Lot's of great artists make up this fabulous special, including Reg Parlett (Buster, Kid Gloves, Rent a Ghost), Leo Baxendale (Snooper, Bluebottle and Basher) and Ken Reid (Faceache, Martha's Monster Makeup).

It wasn't all truly Buster material though, as Angel Nadal Quirch's Blarner Bluffer and Leo Baxendale's Bluebottle and Basher originally featured in the boy's action paper Vialant.

Egmont even threw a few old advertisements in there as well, and reminds you not to respond to them!

There is a downside to the publication however, and that's the cliffhangers. Several of the adventure stories are left unfinished, including Marney the Fox, The Leopard from Lime St. and Sammy Brewster's Secret Ski-Board Squad. Pete's Pocket Army is thankfully resolved, so at least there's one action story you can actually read!