I haven't done a Curious Comics post for a while now, in fact I've only done two others, and this will be the first 'proper' one. Anyway, whilst browsing through the big box of comics my local bookshop never seems to sell any of, I found issue #15 of The Best Of The Topper. Obviously I'm aware of The Topper, but I'd never come across this publication before.
Its format is very similar to that of Classics From The Comics, but this issue precedes Classics by four years, as it was printed in 1992. Going by the issue number, the earliest this series could have started is 1988, close to a decade earlier than Classics!
Also interesting to note is the advert inside the back cover, for issue #15 of The Best Of The Beezer. I'd assume that this was more popular since it was still running as a weekly comic, but it was called The Beezer and Topper, so I can't be sure.
I don't know how many issue numbers there were exactly, but the format was very popular, despite it only coming out quarterly (which is a long time in-between issues for a kid). Classics From The Comics replaced both The Best Of The Topper and The Best Of The Beezer in 1996, giving the opportunity for D.C Thomson to use characters from a wider variety of comics.
UPDATE!
The Best of The Topper and The Best Of The Beezer both ran from 1988 to 1996 and each had 31 issues, before being replaced by Classics From The Comics.
Thanks to Clive Huckstepp for this information.
2 comments:
Classics From The Comics isn't exactly "more of an opportunity to use a wider range of characters", as both The Best of The Topper and the Best of the Beezer featured several characters from the Beano and Dandy.
More likely it was just a slightly snappier title, and by combining the two it would make it easier to produce a monthly publication?
I think that since they were called The Best Of Topper and The Best Of Beezer, the comics had to feature a majority of characters from those comics, with one or two from others. Changing them both into one publication called Classics From The Comics meant that they could use as many characters from as many different comics as they wished, giving them more freedom.
Post a Comment