This time we head back two-and-a-bit decades into the past to this very week in 1990, and take a look at Buster; the all colour comic, or so they claimed. Anybody who has ever looked or glanced into a copy of this 'All-Colour' comic will know it is anything but. Many pages, which I'll be showing later on in this post, used only two or three very basic 'pallet' colours, which are very bold and striking and, to be honest, don't look that good. Still, the slogan was enough to put Buster ahead of its main rival - The Beano, which didn't go full colour until Dennis sprayed his fellow characters with paint late in 1993 (a possible fatal blow for Buster, but one that was bound to come).
Buster's story continued on the back cover, where he comes up with an ingenious solution to help the mounted police and their smelly problem.
The first strip inside was printed in full colour, which it needed to be of course, as it was about a boy who could change colour. If you haven't already guessed that character is Ricky Rainbow, illustrated by Jimmy Hansen.
Next in the comedy line-up is Lew Stringer's Tom Thug. The conclusion is funny, I don't know what type of teacher would do that (or be carrying all those books with them), but it's all for laughs!
Melvyn's Mirror, which I covered the origin of a few days ago (here), was now drawn by Terry Bave, following on from the original artist Dave Follows. This is a very fun strip, there are so many story possibilities surrounding the idea!
Next up is School Belle, the first strip that was apparently in full colour, but isn't. I don't think I need to explain any further...
Vampire Brats isn't in full colour either, and is illustrated by Lew Stringer. I love the Ghoulfish, they have hilarious faces!
And Captain Crucial takes the centre pages to a whole new level of coolness. This is what I call Tom Paterson's "other" style; it's very weird but very good!
A few pages on and Terry Bave illsutrated something even weirder, a poem about a lad called Harry, who had a very long nose.
And finally, a comical mic-take of The Nightmare on Elm Street - The Nightmare on Erm Street. This Freddy however, illustrated by Vic Neill, wasn't very scary...
We get back in the time machine to take a look at another comic soon!
2 comments:
Just a suggestion, but for double-page spreads like your Captain Crucial there, try scanning each page then joining them together in MS Paint or something.
Means we get to read them then!
(Meanwhile, I have this issue, it's a good 'un).
I'm terrible with computers, and I have a Mac so I don't have paint - but I'll try my best. :)
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