I've covered the issue of Whizzer and Chips dated 21st February 1970 on this blog before, when I wrote about the free gift it was presented with (see this post here). It is time now to return to it once again, not for the free novelty but the strips inside it, for this issue gave birth to not one, not two but four new characters! Two of these characters appeared in Whizzer and the other two in Chips, and since Whizzer is the first half of Whizzer and Chips we'll look at those characters first.
And first up is Monkey Nutts, a half pager that followed Kings of the Castle. I'm unsure of the artist on this one, it may perhaps be Graham Allen but I'm not so sure.
The next new Whizz-Kid appeared on the other side of Chips, and was Jimmy Jeckle Master Hide. Illustrated by Terry Bave, I think the title is rather self-explanatory - it's about a kid called Jimmy who develops the potion and (for some reason) drinks it, which turns him into Master Hide.
The Chip-ites retaliated to the new Whizzer characters with two new full-page characters. The first would go on to be a very popular and long running strip - Super Dad. "The Kid" looks very much the same at the start of this run as he did at the end of it, but Dad changes considerably when Mike Brown illustrates the strip later on. This first strip doesn't look like Mike's work though, the background characters suggest it was drawn by Norman Mansbridge.
The other new Chip-ite(s) would endure an even longer initial run than Super Dad; The Scareys Of St. Mary's would last all the way until 1977. Illustrated by Terry Bave, the Scareys are a group of Witches that attend St. Mary's, a school of witchcraft - something like an early Harry Potter, in a way.
7 comments:
Super Dad does look rather like Norman Mansbridge’s work, but it was Graham Allen who created the definitive Dad. He did most of the original run until it was cancelled, but Les Barton did annuals - I don’t remember Mike Brown doing any?
Can’t help with Monkey Nutts, but it isn’t Graham Allen.
I had this issue back then, but I'd completely forgotten that Super-Dad looked completely different at the beginning of the strip's run.
This is one of my favourite early issues of Whizzer and Chips. The panels where Jimmy changes into Master Hide in his strip were usually really good - as here.
Whizzer and Chips outdid this issue with its first of 1971, which had *seven* new features! An interesting contrast with the big DC Thomson humour titles which seemed to stay more or less the same for years, W+C clearly wasn't afraid to continually keep refreshing itself from an early stage.
The Monkey Nutts strip does look like Graham Allen's work to me I must admit. He could change his style a bit, and this looks similar to the style he used when drawing 'Please Sir!' for Look-In around the same time. The lettering on the posters looks like Allen's style.
However this episode of Money Nutts looks somewhat rushed and sketchier in places, so perhaps he was up against a tight deadline, or ill or something.
@Andy - I was going b my favourite Super Dad image which was published in the first Whizzer and Chips Holiday Special and was illustrated and signed by Mike Brown. I also checked in Denis Gifford's Encyclopedia of Comic Characters and he also states that the artist was Mike Brown. I then checked through a few random issues and I couldn't find a single Mike Brown strip! I did find a number by Graham Allen though - so perhaps he was the main artist.
@Raven - that 1971 issue is now at the top of my 'to buy' list!
George, the issue is dated 2nd January 1971, and the seven new features were: Awkward 'Awk, Ringer Dinger, Alfie in Africa, Loser, Pursuit of the Puzzler, Who is Sandy? and Knight School. So yes, you must get that issue!
Yes, Graham Allen was the main and definitive Super Dad artist.
You're taking me back to my childhood here! I particularly remember the pantomime where Jimmy Jeckle's "stupid formula" wore off too early ("Ha ha ha!! It's Jimmy Jeckle! Funniest panto ever!"), and Knight School where Mr Knight's head comes off (I think the term "pipe-playing pupil-pilferer", the best epithet I've ever heard, originates from Knight School as well).
Mighty Boom Boomity Boom!
8 years on, thanks for the posts!
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