Wizard #100 (1972)

Like The Hotspur, D.C Thomson also revived their long running adventure comic The Wizard for a second series in 1970. The original series ended in 1963 and had run for an impressive 41 years before folding, the second series, although not as successful, still ran for eight, folding in June 1978. Today I'm taking a look at an early issue from the second series, #100, dated 8th January 1972 and which cost 2 1/2p back then.

The original Wizard was a boy's story paper, meaning that its contents consisted mostly of text stories. These became less and less popular as the 1950's passed so it's no surprise that the paper folded soon after. This new Wizard though, bears almost no resemblance to its predecessor. There was, however, one text story within it, spread out over two pages just inside the back cover. It's entitled The Star of Stalag 13, and is about a football match within the walls of a German prison of war camp.

This particular edition of The Wizard is the "football special", and the last third (or thereabouts) of the comic is entirely football themed. Here's one example, a rather strange strip entitled Coote's Crocks, illustrated by Tom Kerr.

Of the rest of the comic there were two humour strips and four adventure strips. I just have to show this humour strip entitled Inspector Bonehead to wrap up the post, simply because it breaks the fourth wall more times than any other comic strip I've ever read, and probably ever will again!