The Big New Year

I've blogged about The Big One before, quite a long time ago when this blog was just starting up, when I shared some pages from the last issue. A short-lived experimental comic published by Fleetway, The Big One lasted only 19 issues from 17th October 1964 - 20th February 1965 and, as the name suggests, is the biggest comic ever published in Britain (and maybe even the entire world). With the exception of the front cover of the last issue, the entire contents consisted of reprinted material from earlier Amalgamated Press comics. The front cover features Smiler illustrated by Eric Roberts. Smiler has originally appeared under the strip's original name 'Mike' in both Knockout from 1945 - 1957 and then in Sun from 1957 - 1959. 

Besides Shiner only a handful of strips had a new year's theme. Two of those appeared on the back page in full colour. Handy Andy at the top is an ex-Knockout strip illustrated by Hugh McNeill, and at the bottom Georgie the Jolly Geegee is from the pages of Radio Fun, illustrated by John Jukes. The layout of this back cover reminds me very much of the back of early Buster comics. It's bright appealing colours would be gone by the last issue though, replaced with nothing more than black and red ink.

The Big One Birthday Club is the only editorial feature inside and it offered readers the chance to win big prizes. The letter claims that "week after week hundreds of parcels leave the Club store on their way to members of the Big One Club", but I wonder how much of an exaggeration this is seeing as the comic lasted less than five months. The section also says members will receive a special red and gold club badge. I wonder if any still exist.

The idea behind the comic was that it's size would make it more noticeable than anything else on the newsstands, driving up sales. Of course no newsagent in their right mind would stock it as it is, and they were all folded in half then half again, making them the same size if not slightly smaller than other comics at the time. To get an idea of just how big an unfolded copy is, here's a photo of this issue next to a random issue of Buster (the closest comic I had). Now imagine having that open and trying to read it anywhere with even a slight breeze - it's next to impossible! It's big size was ultimately its downfall, it merged into Buster on 27th February 1965.

This Week In... 1971 - Knockout

It's time to head back to 1971 and take a look in to the issue of Knockout that went on sale this week 42 years ago. This is the second version of Knockout, the first was published by Amalgamated Press from 1939 through until 1963 but this second version was published by IPC from 1971 to 1973, a far less successful run compared to its predecessor. Knockout was bright, each of its 24 pages had colour, even if it was only simple spot yellow, red, green or blue. The front cover, as can be seen above, was filled by The Full House, a simple idea which took place in a house with something happening in each room, and each room affecting the other rooms!

Moving on inside and the strip that caught my eye is Pete's Pockets by Mike Lacey, a fantastic strip about a lad named Pete who has anything and everything hidden away inside his pockets - even an elephant, as you will soon see!

One strange strip had to be Moose, a story about a hunter trying to catch a moose, yet this particular moose always fights back. The odd thing about this strip is that Moose can use his antlers like human hands! I'm afraid I don't know the artist, but it looks like a style that comes from mainland Europe, possibly Spain but I can't be sure.

Another equally strange strip is Boney, which follows a similar idea to Moose. Boney is a skeleton who escaped from a ghost train and is ever on the run to evade capture from the owner of the ghost train, whose attempts end in failure week after week!

Knockout also had one adventure strip that went by the name of Barry and Boing, Boing being a robot under the control of Barry. Boing gets his name from the springs in his feet that allow him to bounce to incredible heights, which always seem to come in handy every week.

And finally, we finish with Fuss Pot, an easily dislikable character who somehow remained popular for many years, appearing week in week out in Knockout, Whizzer and Chips and Buster, right up until the last issue in 2000 (although to be fair, she did sometimes have some funny adventures)! Art by Norman Mansbridge.

This Week In... 1950 - Knockout

Let's head back to the newsagents shelf this week in 1950, and take a look at just one of the many comics that was on sale at the time - Knockout. The cover star of Knockout is the ever-popular Mike, who would be reprinted many times in the future, most famously under the name Smiler. This particular episode shows Mike offering a cigar to Sergeant Flopp, a scene that would never even get close to appearing today! Art by Eric Roberts.

Knockout's most famous character has to be Billy Bunter. First appearing in the Magnet in 1908, the bloated, loveable buffoon was so popular that at one point Knockout was even named Billy Bunter's Knockout! That hadn't happened yet though, and at this point Billy still appeared in black and white on an inside page, illustrated by Frank Minnitt.

Comic historian and cartoonist Denis Gifford also drew for Knockout, illustrating Steadfast McStaunch. This was McStanch's first appearance, and Denis later revived the character again, using the same storyline, when Whizzer and Chips was launched in 1969. Here are both episodes, the first one from (this issue of) Knockout, and the first one from Whizzer and Chips.

From this issue of Knockout.

From #1 of Whizzer and Chips (1969).

Freddie Frog is an interesting strip. Illustrated by Peter Woolcock, it's the story of a frog and his friends who, following an age-old idea, dress, talk and act just like humans! What doesn't make sense though, is why the horse doesn't, instead it acts like... well... a horse!

Sexton Blake also stars inside, which is a surprise to me but interesting to see nonetheless. His strip is the first one in the comic and takes up two pages. Art by Hal Meredith.

And finally, my personal favourite strip in this particular issue is Sporty, by Reg Wootton. This episode had me laughing out loud - and I'm sure it will with you too!

We'll be taking anyother step through the comics time portal soon, and who knows where we'll end up!

Knockout Annual 1978

Let's head back to the Christmas day of 1977, and all over the country kids would be waking up to find a bright, cheery Knockout annual wrapped up under the tree, stuffed into a stocking or hidden in their pillowslips.

Although there were no full colour pages inside, IPC did their best to make the annual as bright and colourful as possible, with pages printed in red, orange, yellow, blue and even green ink! There isn't a single page in the book that doesn't have some colour on it. 

The weekly comic had run from 1971 to 1973, so by the time this came out there hadn't been a weekly issue for almost four and a half years, so I'd doubt that there were very many of the original readers still buying or receiving the annual. Still, the characters were as popular as ever, and Knockout had famously created Joker and Fuss Pott, two characters who would survive for several decades to follow. 

The 144 pages that made up this annual were composed of a healthy mixture of jokes puzzles and comic strips. The strips were drawn by some fantastic artists, such as Terry Bave, Barrie Appleby and Tom Williams. Sadly, Mike Lacey didn't draw any stories inside, even though he was a key artist on Knockout, illustrating The Super Seven. Still, he did draw and sign the cover, so we do see some of his wonderful art!

This would have been a fantastic present to recieve on Christmas morning, although it was by no means the only annual of 1978; there were dozens of others that parents could have selected. Here is just some of the competition...

By the way, if you are wondering why most copies of this annual have the date '1978' written on them and mine doesn't, it's because this copy was made without one so that it could be sold overseas at a later date. Whether or not it actually was, I can't say.

The spine from my annual, also missing the date.

Another copy of the same annual, this one including the date.

I've shown a similar example of a missing date here:

http://www.wackycomics.com/2011/12/whats-date.html

And some copies of Buster that are missing their prices here (scroll down a bit):

http://www.wackycomics.com/2011/10/cheeky-annual-1980.html

Christmas Knockout - 1971!

Well, I was planning to be writing a full length post about the 1971 Knockout Christmas speacial, BUT - my scanner has gone mad and is scanning everything on an angle for some reason??? So I decided to take photots of the pages instead - and all of them came out blurry - save for the Super Seven centre spread by Mike Lacey. It's nice and colourful, so I thought I'd share it with you none-the-less!

Maybe I'll do the full comic next year?