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.

Oink! No. 13 (1986)

Oink! is one title I've thus far neglected to cover much on this blog, but hey - better late than never! So let's amend that with a dive into what is probably my favourite issue of one of the weirder comics published by IPC - lucky number #13. Launched in May 1986, Oink was still a fortnightly comic at this point (it would later go to monthly). Many people actually seem to consider Oink as "a Viz for children", indeed that is a phrase I have seen thrown around a lot, but it is simply not a true statement. I asked Tony Husband, one of the creators of Oink!, some years ago for something I was writing (and never finished) about whether the creation of a "Viz for children" was the intention of Oink, and this is what he had to say:

"No that was never our intention. The three of us, Pat Gallagher, Mark Rodgers and myself all wrote for the IPC comics and we just wanted to take the piss out of the formulated but enjoyable mainstream comics. We spoke to Bob Paynter who was the head of children's comics and he gave us money for a dummy. Years later John Brown publishing and the Donalds came to us about doing a kids Viz bit it never happened."

Oink! certainly is a comic unlike anything else put out by mainstream British comic publishers before. Those of you who've read Terry Bave's 2012 autobiography 'Cartoons and Comic Strips' may recall him discussing Krazy as, well, a "really crazy comic", where "a number of artists and writers had been invited to submit 'crazy' ideas, many turned out to be too crazy for consideration", and by Oink's standards Krazy would be considered somewhat traditional! (Krazy is another comic a little overlooked on this blog too, that may have to be amended soon as well.) To illustrate my point, here's a bizarre photo strip entitled Snatcher Sam meets Young Frankenstein. I can only imagine how much fun this would have been to produce. 

Issue thirteen is of course an unlucky number, well known to the Oink creators, and furthermore this issue was the very first Oink halloween issue - what a coincidence! For 30p readers got 32 pages, printed on nice glossy paper, 9 of those pages in full colour and a further 6 in partial colour with either a pink or yellow ink. That full-colour page count includes the poster on the centre spread, which is an absolutely stunning piece of artwork by the aforementioned Tony Husband featuring his popular character Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins, drawn in the style of a 1950s US horror comic cover. If it didn't mean taking apart an old comic I would definitely have this up on my wall. Perhaps a photocopy is needed...

Another interesting addition to this issue is this 3/4 page text piece Dennis Nifford's History of Horrors. Obviously, this is the pig alter-ego of famed comic historian Denis Gifford. I can only assume it was he who put this piece together, for as well as being a fan of comics he was very much involved with them. 

-- UPDATE! Thanks to Lew Stringer and other good ol' piggin' pals over at the Oink comic fan page on Facebook for informing me that actually this page is NOT by Denis Gifford as he was not a fan of Oink. In fact being an old school guy he didn't like any comics that didn't seem to follow the traditional style, such as 2000AD. I was very surprised to hear this, to say the least! The artwork is actually by Steve Gibson and potentially written by Steve as well, although if not it may have been Mark Rodgers. --

So what are some more of these weird and wacky strips I keep going on about? Well, what about this one entitled Billy's Brain. About a young boy called Billy and his uncle, who exists only as a brain, it's certainly not a strip I could see appearing in Buster or The Beano. It's unsigned but I think this is drawn by David Haldane.

Monster Mash is perhaps the funniest story in this issue. Illustrated by Lew Stringer and written by Mark Rodgers, it is a short story filled with brilliant gags - my favourite is the "school dinner disposal unit" wearing hazmat suits as they dump the toxic dinners into the "hidden dump". This is the first appearance of Pigswilla, a character who would appear a few times throughout Oink's run, and Lew talked about the character's creation in a post on his art blog. Here's what he had to say:

"Mark had originally sent me an idea for a story called The School Dinner Monster and asked if I had any ideas to add to it. I added a few bits and bobs to the plot and dialogue, and thought that the title Monster Mash was catchier. I gave the name 'Pigzilla' to the giant robot pig, although Mark changed that to the much more inspired Pigswilla."

Anyway, here's the two-pager. I really wish this had been given full colour treatment, as I feel it would really have made use of some disgusting school dinner colours to add some extra effect! In fact, another copy of Oink (#66) I happen to have to hand contains a full-colour, nine (!) page Pigswilla comic which I might have to share in a post here sometime soon, just for fun, and you'll see what I mean.

The last strip I'll share is a silly page that is perhaps a bit more 'normal' as far as IPC comics go, emphasis on a bit - The Curse of the Mummy, illustrated by Jeremy Banx. I say this one is a bit more normal only because it reminds me of a strip from the early days of Whizzer and Chips called The Mummy's Curse, in which two unlucky explorers are chased around the world by an angry mummy whose tomb they disturbed. I've also shared an example of that strip, taken from Whizzer and Chips #2 (25th October 1969) and illustrated by Reg Parlett.

Oink ran for about two and a half years before folding in October 1988. Sadly its unique appearance also made it somewhat controversial and some newsagents allocated it to the top shelf, above the eyes of children, and sales ultimately slumped and the plug was pulled (although I'm sure this wasn't the only reason). For those who want to read more about Oink I highly recommend Phil Boyce's excellent Oink blog, which has moved to a new home on Wordpress and can be found here: 

https://oink.blog

The Tale Of Two Toms!

There was a special two-week story back in the pages of Buster in March 1991 in which there was not one Tom Thug, but two! For the residents of Bustertown one Tom were bad enough so just imagine having two around! That's like having two Dennis' in Beanotown! Find out how it was done, below...

It's good to see this crossover between two characters, especially in a fun twist like this. The artist here is Lew Stringer, who also drew Pete's Pimple and Vampire Brats.

It's Halloween Buster! (1994)

Yep, it's that time of year again - Halloween, which means that we dip back into a Halloween comic of the past, this time the 1994 Buster Halloween issue. One wouldn't really guess it from a quick glance at the front cover above, but this is really is Halloween issue! Sadly, Buster's strip isn't themed so for the sake of sticking to the subject I'll skip it and move on.

The first Halloween strip is X-Ray Specs, illustrated by none other than Mike Lacey. As always it's a well-drawn strip, but the colouring seems very cheap and lazy, it really doesn't look that good at all!

The colouring gets better over the page on Tom Thug's strip. As illustrated by Lew Stringer, Tom attempts to find or make a Halloween mask, but he isn't having much luck!

Speaking of masks, here is the free one that was included in the centre pages, illustrated by Jacula! (Geddit - Jack, and Dracula! Chuckle!)

Next up is Dozy Derek, who, like Smiffy from The Beano, really doesn't know what's happening! Art by Mark Bennington. 

Tom Paterson's Watford Gapp was in an entirely different art style, almost impossible to connect to his more common style such as the work on Sweeny Toddler. Fortunately, he leaves a smelly sock in one of the panels to ensure us it's still him.

And finally, although I haven't covered every spooky strip in this issue, I'll leave you with this two-page Lucy Lastic story, illustrated by Mark Bennington.

Tom Thug On The Cover

You might notice Sqworm in the first panel, a nice
additional touch to the strip.

During 1994 Buster stepped aside to allow the front cover to be taken up by various other characters, the first of which was Tom Thug, who appeared on the cover of issue dated 25th March 1994. Tom Thug normally took up one page, but this issue was a special two-page story as it took the place where Buster would normally appear, and was illustrated by Lew Stringer. I'm sure Tom was on the cover of Buster before at some stage but I couldn't find the issue I'm thinking of, so it might just be my imagination.

Buster still appeared inside though, in the slot where Tom would normally be found.

I'll be showing the rest of these front covers the next week or so, so stay tuned!

Other posts in this series:

Cliff Hanger

Chalky

X-Ray Specs

Captain Crucial

Lew Stringer Creates A Personal Blog!

There was much disappointment when Lew Stringer ended his comics history blog 'Blimey' at the end of 2012, but don't fear - he has returned with a new blog that will cover information about his own personal artwork! Lew has already said that it won't be as regularly updated as Blimey was, but hopefully he wont only update once a month like Terry Bave does! (But the two posts so far have been interesting!)

You can find the site at:

http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.co.uk

The Good and The Bad of 2012

It's almost the end of another year, and what a fantastic year it has been, comic-wise anyway! Why is it so fantastic? Read on...

1. The Phoenix

The Phoenix was launched in the very first week of 2012! Now, over fifty issues later and it is still going strong, selling out almost as soon as the stores open! Next week celebrates it's first birthday, let's hope they have a good one!

2. Comic History Books

Several fantastic books were released this year, the most noteable is The Art and History Of The Dandy, but let's not forget about The Sloperian (a fantastic look at early comics) or One Eyed Jack and The Death Of Valiant! We also had Alf Tupper, which collected some fantastic 'Tough Of The Track' comic strips all in one book!

3. The Beano Revamped

The Beano revamp in October was fantastic! We saw the comic get funnier, better drawn and the whole comic improved in general! With new looks to old strips such as Rasher (by Lew Stringer), Billy Whizz (by Will Dawbarn) and Dennis the Menace (by Nigel Parkinson), the comic is now bigger, brighter and better than ever!


So 2012 has been the best year in comics for a long time, and lets hope it continues to improve in 2013. Only two things have ruined this fantastic year, the first been the death of The Dandy. However, the comic lives on in digital form, and if you haven't yet read it I highly recommend you do, it sure is fantastic! Hopefully it will return in paper form, if the digital version is popular enough.

Secondly, Lew Stringer has decided to end Blimey, the greatest blog on British comics I've ever read. I've been reading his site almost daily since early 2009 and in the past six years since he started he has covered some truly fantastic stuff. I was truly honoured when he added this site to the side of his, and even more so when I saw him include a link to here on his final post! I'm sorry to see it go, as it was the inspirtation for Wacky Comics, but I can understand Lew's reasons. 

www.lewstringer.blogspot.com

Onwards To 2013

The final price will hopefully be lower than £3.99.

What can we expect to see in 2013? First thing for me is to get Atomic Comic, a comic fanzine Harry Rickard and I started back in March, published, and I'm hoping the first issue will be avaliable in late January! 

I've read a lot of blog posts arguing that the British Comics Industry will be picking up again, and certainly after all the media intrest, but wether it will happen in the upcoming year, I can't say. Fingers crossed though!

That's just two things to look forwards to, there should be loads more!

See you in the new year!

Christmas Headers!

A fantastic one by Lew Stringer! Even the snowman looks like Prat!

One of the many great things about Christmas comics is that the title boards for comic strips become decorated and festive, and even more so if colours are avaliable!

Here is a selection of Christmas headers from various comics old and new!

I'm not going to finish this post without a comic strip, so enjoy this Christmas themed Tom Thug strip by the brilliant Lew Stringer!

Have a great Christmas readers!

Buster on Tornado Street

In an early Buster comic Buster walked over from the front page and onto the second page, to the final panel of The Terrors of Tornado Street. The Terrors had begun back in issue one, and were very popular with readers. Every week, somebody in the final panel would say: "What's the use? It's safer to let them play!

Buster on walkabouts!

In issue dated 20th August 1960, he joined the Terrors! However, instead of an adult saying the famous line, it was the only time the Terrors themselves said it!

Unfortunatly my copy is missing part of the first panel.

Artist Martz Schmidt did a great job with the rough characters! Here are a few more early examples (the later strips were just half a page and were pretty much just one big picture with lots of things going on).

In 1994, as a celebration of 34 years of Buster comic, Lew Stringer sent Tom Thug to Tornado street, where he met the Terrors for himself! Unfortunatly, the final panel was missing the classic line!