How The Amazing Three Became Amazing!

I've got a couple of posts about Jackpot characters in the pipelines and here's the first one, about a very unusual strip called The Amazing Three. The Amazing three first appeared in Jackpot in the late September/early October of 1979 (I don't know the exact issue number or date). Illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe it was a strip surrounding the adventures of Susan, Craig and Sam who were given magical powers to protect Earth, as you will soon see. Here is a special strip from Jackpot #27 that explains how and why the trio has their superpowers

It is a very unusual strip as superheroes in Britain are scarce, especially those that follow the American style of the good guy always coming out on top. An example of a typical British superhero would be fellow Jackpot character Freddie - the star of Full O' Beans. He often dealt with small situations such as getting the washing done or bringing the shopping home in the rain, never dealing with a terrorist attack or any other equally serious scenario you'd be likely to see in Superman. Here's the strip from this issue, with art by Tom Paterson.

I'm not going to go too in depth about either the Superhero genre in Britain or the difference in British and American humour but I think comparing Full O' Beans to Batman shows that the British sense of humour puts the subject (in this case Freddie) at or below the average person, in ordinary day-to-day situations, whereas in America the subject would generally be above the average person, always with the perfect line to say or whatever. I won't explain in any more detail here but it is definitely an interesting post for another time.

Wow! It's Christmas (1982)

It's about time to kick-start the festive fun this year so let's do so with none other than the one and only Wow Christmas issue. The front cover was illustrated by Mike Lacey and linked with the two-page Shipwreck School story inside, also illustrated by Mike. Mike is one of my favourite artists so seeing a front cover like this one by him is always a joy to behold.

I've already shown a few Creepy Comix pages and this issue also has one, but with a festive twist. Colin Whittock was the artist for this page.

The Bill and Coo page is absolutely amazing to look at; artist Trevor Metcalfe has done a superb job on it! Trevor is a brilliant artist who is still working today, though sadly not on comic strips but more on basic cartoons for colour in books etc. You can see more of his work at his website: http://www.trevortoons.com.

Nigel Edwards is another fantastic artist and for this special issue produced a lovely festive "When He Was Young" strip. And who better to put in the spotlight this week than Santa Claus himself!

As much as I would love to show you the entire comic here I won't so instead I'll wrap up the post with this full colour Barney's Badges strip illustrated by Terry Bave.

Junior Rotter Holiday Special (1986)

A fantastic, bright, well-drawn, attention grabbing cover!

The time has come to take another look at a holiday special. This one has a lengthy title: Whizzer and Chips Presents Junior Rotter Holiday Special, and it went on sale in the summer of 1986 for 65p. For sixty-five of your pennies you got 64 pages of comics, puzzles and posters and eight of those pages were in full colour. The paper is also of a much higher quality than other specials, printed entirely on smooth glossy paper throughout, similar to the type the Beano is printed on now (although I've forgotten what it's called).

As the name suggests, the comic is based around the popular Chips centre spread character Junior Rotter, who was illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe. Whereas most of the special is filled with reprints, there is some new stuff in there both from Trevor and Jack Edward Oliver. It starts of with a new strip by Trevor, revealing how J.R and his family went from rags to riches. As it turns out, it was all one of J.R's get-rich-quick schemes.

Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this character, Junior Rotter was a sort of American Roger the Dodger who appeared in the Chips section of Whizzer and Chips. J.R was based on the character J.R. Ewing from the television show Dallas, who also wore a big cowboy hat. Each week our J.R would try various schemes to get out of school, dodge work and win money in some crazy ways! He was a very popular character, appearing on the centre spread of Chips each week and even continuing in reprints through to the very last issue of Buster. He really was one of Fleetway's greatest characters, up there with Sweeny Toddler and Joker! Here are a couple of examples of his strips, reprinted in this holiday special.

One of the highlights in the comic is the centre spread, as it displays a wonderful full colour poster called "The Dreams Of J.R.", illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe. In a way, his first dream came true, as on the back page of the last Buster he turned good and became Prime Minister, although how that happened I don't know as he was born and lived in America. 

Jack Edward Oliver drew quite a few puzzles throughout the comic, but my favourite is this very attention grabbing board game, called J.R.'s Jet Race Game. It was very similar to most board games; the first player to get from the start to the finish wins; in this case a free ticket for a flight on Concorde (no, not really - just in the game!). It's very good fun and would definitely pass some time on holiday, which is what the special is designed to do!

This holiday special has always been one of my favourites and I've read it many times, and as a result it's beginning to fall apart, but that's really no surprise looking at the quality of the stuff that's inside.

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.

Fleetway Origins - The Ossies

The Ossies, as it's name suggests, is a comic strip all about a bunch of crazy people who lived in a stereotypical town in Australia! Illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe, the artist behind Sweet Tooth, Junior Rotter and Jasper the Grasper (after Ken Reid left),  The Ozzies began in the Chips section of Whizzer and Chips in issue dated January 21st 1989. Dingo Dog is the main character for the first episode, and he takes us round the tiwn introducing us to all the different characters who are to appear in the stories. Often, it would be continued into the following week, and sometimes one story would end and another begin in the same episode - just to keep you interested!

However, as the weeks progressed, less and less of the characters started to appear, and eventually it was focused on two main characters - Norm and Rick.

However, by early 1990 The Ossies had been reduced from two pages to just one, and by June of that year, it was gone.