Smash! No. 3 (1966)

I've never looked at an issue of Smash on this blog but today that changes as we dive into the pages of the third issue, dated 19th February 1966. It cost 7D, which seems like a lot of money, especially in comparison to The Dandy and The Beano that cost 3D, but then Smash did have eight more pages and was bigger in size. To add to the package was the free 'Flying Phantom Fighter', which Leo Baxendale's superb front cover piece promotes. I don't own the gift but here's an image of it:

Baxendale drew four pages in this issue and was drawing pages for Wham as well, so was a very busy man in 1966. His first strip inside is Bad Penny, an excellent two pages with lots of lovely detail.

Of course, I can't write about Smash and fail to mention Ken Reid's contribution. Queen of the Seas is a beautiful set with so much detail and depth that I'm sure I could feel the rocking of the boat as I read it!

Next up - Danger Mouse; no, not the animation but the comic strip version by Artie Jackson, which predates the television show by fifteen years!

To wrap up this post I'll leave you with the back page strip - Grimly Feendish by Leo Baxendale.

This Week In... 1971 - Cor!

This week in 1971 was Cor's 60th issue, and as usual the front cover featured Gus Gorilla drawn by Hot Rod's artist Alf Saporito. As usual at the end of every strip there is a mysterious man who always pops up saying the same line "You can't make a monkey out of Gus!' In all Fleetway comics all the speech bubbles are written in capitals (and they all end in either a question or exclamation mark), but instead this speech bubble is written in lowercase! 

The character on page two really deserves a spot on this blog! His name is Whacky, and drawn by Mike Lacey our fun chum always ends up getting a good whacking throughout the strip! Whacky began at the very beggining in issue #1 and, after a very good run, ended in issue #174. I like the way that in the first panel he uses the word "spanking" - it's as though he knows what's going to happen to him!

Hire a Horror was an excellently written and drawn strip, illustrated by Reg Parlett! In this episode two bank robbers hire a giant mole to help them transport all their cash, but of course it all backfires on them at the end (although unusually the last frame doesn't show them being transported to the cop shop by a slightly overweight policeman)!

The very first Chalky strip by Terry Bave!

Possibly one of the most successful characters to come out of Cor! was Chalky, and #60 was his very first appearence! As you can tell from the above page, he wasn't a fantastic artist at the start of the series, but he soon rapidly improved and was quickly producing sketches that fooled everyone! Chalky survived the merge into Buster and would survive their until the comic folded in 2000!

Cor's Danger Mouse beat the T.V. celebrity by over 10 years, although in this run he wasn't so popular, as he only had a few appearences in Cor! According to Kazoop, Danger Mouse was reprinted from Smash! comic. 

There were several adverts in this issue, including one for Super Mousse on the back page, but the most important one was the above ad for some 1971 Holiday Specials. Sadly the Whizzer and Chips one isn't there, as that is the special I'll be reviewing in a few days time!