The Last Ever Buster (2000)

 

I can't believe I've never made a post about surely one of the most significant issues of a British comic - the final issue of Buster. Buster was the last survivor of a Fleetway comic, and for me this final issue is a sad marker for the end of an era. 

For 32 pages for £1.10, it was probably the price that killed it to be honest. It was more than twice the price of The Beano (which cost 52p) at this point, and the quality simply wasn't as good.

Credit where credit is due, I do like this front cover. The main Buster strip is a reprint by Jimmy Hansen, but that bar on the left showing Buster's different styles through the years is by Jack Edward Oliver. Oliver was the sole artist held on at Buster after the comic went full reprint. Mostly, he was responsible for lettering and adding drawings to things that couldn't be done with reprints. I think it would be fair to say that he was largely influential for Buster's unique feel over those final years.

As mentioned, the contents was full of reprints but out of interest and the fact that they're still fun comic strips, I'll show some of it anyway. Perhaps of most interest would be this Specky Hector Comics Collector page, illustrated by Lew Stringer. This was obviously chosen for this last issue as it discusses the launch of Buster back in 1960.

Here's an oddly interesting page - a competition with a whole range of Meccano sets were up for grabs. I say this is odd because it seems strange to me that you would have a competition in the final issue, especially so when there's no other comic they were trying to drive readers to. Perhaps there was simply a pile of Meccano sitting around the office that they needed to get rid of.

Moving on to this Sweeny Toddler strip, illustrated by Tom Paterson. I wanted to share this page to highlight the colouring style that was so prevalent in Buster throughout the 1990s. This strange block colouring was far from the prettiest colouring ever done, but it did give the comic a unique feel and allowed them to brand it as full colour.

Here's an example of a perhaps more well-coloured spread. Bobby's Ghoul is illustrated by Anthony Hutchings, and Watford Gapp by Tom Paterson in a completely different style. I interviewed Tom for issue three of Atomic Comic a few years ago and asked him about this style, this is what he said:

"Bob Paynter, the managing editor at Fleetway, asked me to come up with a few ideas for some strange, slightly weird strips, one of which was Watford Gapp, and I just thought that it needed an alternative style to give it a different, darker look from my other strips which were running at the same time. I've worked in a number of styles over the years, but I enjoyed the Sweeny Toddler/ Calamity James style, which was of course inspired by the legendary comic genius Leo Baxendale - and the Watford Gapp one, which was influenced by the amazing Robert Crumb."

And finally, it is of course the back cover that everybody remembers from this issue. Illustrated by Jack Edward Oliver, it's a wonderfully unique piece that wraps up all the remaining characters in a comedic fashion. Sad as it may be, it was a fantastic way to wrap up the comic.

Meet The Winners

Launched on 5th May 1979, Jackpot was another addition in the long line of IPC comics and, although not well-remembered as a title that particularly stood out, it certainly had its moments. One such moment came about a year and a half into its run, when The Winners arrived in issue #75. As the first panel makes clear, "the Winner family decided to enter every competition going", and the lengths they would go to and the prizes they would win were the winning formula (pardon the pun) for this long running strip. In fact, The Winners proved very popular, surviving Jackpot's merger with Buster in February 1982 and continued, admittedly in reprint form, up until the last issue in 2000. Although The Winners later came to be drawn by Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen, this first strip is actually the work of Jimmy Glen.

Whoopee Holiday Special 1992

It's a new month so I'm back and with the recent news of the 2000AD summer special (or Sci-Fi Special as they call it) coming out I thought I'd use it as an excuse to dive into my collection of summer specials and take a look at one here. The one I've decided to go with is none other than the 1992 Whoopee Holiday Special. As far as I am aware, this is the last of the Whoopee holiday specials. It cost £1.10 and, excluding the cover and the related strip, is completely reprint. That related strip is the Sweeny Toddler strip on the inside of the front cover.

For their £1.10 readers were treated to a beautiful (come on, that Jimmy Hansen cover is amazing) photogravure comic, 64 waxy pages, half of those pages in full-colour. I'm glad that Fleetway didn't give the whole comic full-colour; their attempt at full-colour on the recently folded Whizzer and Chips and Buster was, quite frankly, awful, and would have probably used the same stiff paper - I really like the paper they have used and the colouring is splendid.

The colouring in the Whoopee special, compared to the original. As you can see, it is far brighter and I think it looks a lot better.

Even with the return of the 2000AD special this year I don't think the summer special will ever really return; they simply don't feel... "special" anymore, in comparison to the full-colour comics. And with overseas holidays becoming more and more popular as they get cheaper it's harder to for publishers to get them seen, no longer can they be sold at the newsagents of various British seaside towns. It's a shame as they really were fantastic, and I will probably be looking at a few more over the coming months.

This Week In... 1987 - Nipper!

This week back in 1987 saw the first full-size Nipper! Until this point, Nipper had been, well, a nipper - printed on A5 paper. However, issue six changed all that, with it now appearing the same size as its companions - Buster and Whizzer and Chips.

The first strip was of course based around the comic's main star - Nipper, illustrated by Gordon Bell.

This was followed up by one of Mike Lacey's two contributions, the rather amazing Strong-Arm! Wouldn't it be great fun to have a command kart like this?!

Terry Bave was also to be found multiple times in the pages of Nipper, illustrating Double Trouble, a strip that would continue after Nipper for many years. The two twins did eventually become best friends - on the back cover of the last ever issue of Buster.

Another popular character was Ricky Rainbow, illustrated by the soon-to-become Buster artist Jimmy Hansen. Obviously, since this strip was about a boy who could change colour, the strip had to appear in colour, and whoever was in charge of that did a smashing job.

Vic Neill illustrated School Funds, a school in such bad shape that it constantly needed money for repairs, and was relying on the kids to get those funds.

Tom Paterson was also a part of the Nipper line-up, illustrating the hilarious adventures of a young lad and his pyjama case, a mixture which could save the world... or not. The title, Felix the Pussycat, is of course a spin-off of Felix the Cat, so there's laughs all round with this strip.

Another top-class artist to join in the fun was Trevor Metcalfe, who illustrated Big Game Hunter, a great story about a young lad who would go too far to organise a game for his friends!

And finally, Sid Burgon's strip Roy's Toys appears on the back cover. This superbly illustrated strip showed the adventures some toys got up to when nobody was around - a very similar idea to Toy Story in fact!

Despite it's short run Nipper had an amazing line-up of artists, and I've only mentioned a few of them here. I suppose that this proves that it's not just quality that's the key to a successful comic, but there is something else as well.

Chalky Draws Attention To The Cover!

The next character to replace Buster on the front cover was Chalky, who took over on issue dated 10th June 1994. My favourite version of Chalky is Dick Millington's, but this version is drawn by Gordon Hill. One thing I don't like about Hill's version is Chalky's ridiculous shirt, but apart from that it's quite good!

Chalky was a funny strip, how somebody could draw something so realistic so fast with just a few chalks is impossible, but the stories were creative and clever, so it's no surprise it survived for so long!

I'll also show Buster's strip, which appeared where Chalky normally would, and was illustrated by Jimmy Hansen.

Other posts in this series:

Tom Thug

Cliff Hanger

X-Ray Specs

Captain Crucial

Introducing Buster's New Friends

As you may have guessed by my previous post, part three of my Buster posts is about the introduction of some new friends for Buster. Nobody correctly guessed them all, so the characters at the top of the above issue, from left to right, are: P.C Percy, Brenda, Mister Blister, Jelly, Mr Crabbe, Delbert and Dozy Derek! 

They were fully introduced over Buster's two pages, all coming with a some sort of label label pointing them out.

Five out of the seven new faces were very popular - Brenda, Jelly, Mr. Crabbe, Delbert and Dozy Derek, and many of them even had their own strips!

Art by Mark Bennington.

For me, Jimmy Hansen drew the best versions of these characters, and also drew them for the longest (although the last few years were reprints).

Only a short post today, and there are 2 - 3 more posts (three max, depending on how long the blog posts are), and the next one will appear some time next week.

This is part three in the series. Other parts can be found by clicking on the links below:

Part 1:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/01/new-strips-for-buster.html

Part 2:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/01/sqworm.html

Part 4:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/02/nurks-nerds-and-nurkettes.html

Part 5:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/02/buster-gets-revamp.html

Roy Race in Buster...?!

As many of you may know, Roy Race from Roy of the Rovers played for a team called the Melchester Rovers, when he was first signed on in Tiger #1 in 1954. Then, in the 1970's he got his own comic, which was very popular - with sales figures of almost half a million a week! In 1990, the comic was still popular, and was occasionally advertised inside other comics, such as Buster, for example. This issue from 1990 doesn't feature an inside advertisement, but Roy does manage to star on the cover story, illustrated by James "Jimmy" Hansen.