Thursday, January 2, 2014

School Fun Holiday Special 1984


The heat and the actually sunny weather (for once) here in Auckland today has put me in the mood for a summer comic so I'll take a look at the first School Fun holiday special. This comic came out for the summer of '84, meaning that it was sold right at the end of the weekly comic's short run. When I first came across this in a pile of musty comics I was taken aback by the quality of the wrap-around cover - it's absolutely spectacular with artwork supplied by David Mostyn. School Fun had a lot of wrap-around covers for its weekly issues and they were usually, if not always, illustrated by David. 


Most of the content seems to be reprints from various other comics including early issues of Whoopee so we'll begin with the School Fun originated content, and where better to start than Dave Mostyn's E.T.T (Extra-Terrestrial Teacher). I've also chosen this strip because it has a seaside theme - a must in any holiday special!





Next up is Young Arfur. This episode doesn't have a seaside theme or even a holiday theme as Arfur is on a school trip, but the hand coloured artwork is a joy to behold so I thought it worth it to show here. The artist is Pete Dredge, who also drew the comic in the weekly and in Buster when the two comics merged.



And finally, here's an interesting piece by Nigel Edwards - Making A Success Of Your School Play. Nigel did a lot of interesting and somewhat quirky pieces for various Fleetway comics of the 1980's, which is just another reason for buying them!



1 comment:

Peter Gray said...

they are great those wrap arounds..I have the school fun holiday special with teacher about to be butted by the bull!