A Jackpot Easter (1981)

Yes, it's that time of year again which means we're going to take a look at an Easter themed comic! This time, we head back to 1981 for the slightly Easter themed issue of Jackpot. The strapline promises 'Easter Fun Inside' and it doesn't lie for we do, but not very much of it, as just four of the 21 strips are themed. The first of those four strips is Laser Eraser. For those of you unfamiliar with the strip, Laser Eraser is about a boy named Ernie who has a special laser that can make things disappear and reappear, but what he doesn't know is that he is actually zapping them up to the alien spaceship that dropped the laser, and then bringing them back again. Illustrated by Bob Nixon, Laser Eraser seemed a popular strip in Jackpot and survived the 1982 merge into Buster.

I was expecting 'It's A Nice Life' to be Easter themed but I was wrong, for the second of the four strips comes two pages after that in the form of Milly O'Naire and Penny Less. Along with their counterparts Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (who don't appear in this strip, but do in their own and combined strips), they are amongst the better strips that have a rich vs. poor theme, and, illustrated by Sid Burgon, they four of them proved very popular for many years.

Next up is Sporty, illustrated by John Geering. Sporty is about a lad who is good at all sports, in fact - you name it, he's done it. For an Easter theme I'm sure you can guess what sport he participates in this week.

Finally, the last Easter strip for another year is Sample Simon. Usually Simon will test free samples but this week's strip seems to avoid that, or perhaps he somehow found a free rabbit costume sample? Who knows - anything can happen in the world of comics! I believe the artist might be Mike Green, but I'm not sure.

And that rounds up this Easter post for 2014. All that's left to say is... Happy Easter!