Buster Comic - 25 Years Young!

Well, before I start this post I thought I'd quickly explain what brought it about. Here in New Zealand our country went into a total lockdown about a week ago as a result of the COVID-19 virus, meaning  pretty much everything except supermarkets and pharmacies have shut and we are all confined to our homes unless visiting essential services. As a result of this lockdown, I have returned home to Auckland to be with my family and was reading the very comic this post is about when I thought hey, why not use this time to do some blogging.

This issue of Buster, dated 25th May 1985, is the celebratory quarter century birthday number for the comic, the first issue of which hit the shops in May 1960. This issue also brought about a new artist for Buster replacing Reg Parlett, who had drawn the strip since taking over from Angel Nadal Quirch in 1974, with Tom Paterson. Many, including IPC group editor Bob Paynter, later thought this change was far too sudden and dramatic and I am possibly inclined to agree - as much as I absolutely adore Tom's style he is so far from Reg Parlett that I bet many readers would have found the sudden change quite a shock. Here is Tom's full strip, printed in full-colour on the back page.

Not having the free gift attached to the front does look a little sad when the whole cover is almost devoted to promoting it. "Incredible... Amazing... Unbelievable!" boasts the big yellow arrow, pointing at an empty blue space. Still, a half page instruction from inside shows those of us reading now just what it was we are missing. The previous issue had hyped them us as 'Deadly Death-Rattler Eggs', but they are certainly not what I would have imagined.

Other than the back-page Buster strip, no other stories made mention of the occasion. The only other indication that this issue held any kind of significance was this mildly interesting comparison of kids 'then and now', comparing interests of children in 1960 and 1985. Personally, I feel dedicating the entire centre page spread to this is a waste of space and the pages could have been better used with something such as a history of Buster, a poster, or a celebratory strip, but each to their own I suppose. It almost seems like they forgot the anniversary was coming up and had to prepare the issue at the last minute.

Since so little of this issue actually celebrates the anniversary I thought I'd show a few pages from the previous week as well, which is also the final combined Buster and School Fun. Although School Fun isn't even mentioned on the cover, this issue still has the School Fun section inside, featuring characters from the now defunct title. A wonderful Reg Parlett front cover hints at exciting things to come next week - quite the build up for what was eventually a bit of a let down. 

Of course, this being Reg's last time drawing Buster I have to show the full strip - printed in full colour on the back page. 

Inside, a full page advert previewed the front cover of next weeks issue, including a picture of the rather exciting looking free gift! The thrilling death-rattler artwork would probably have gotten me to buy it, I'm not going to lie. 

This issue also contains the final episode of The Leopard from Lime Street, a popular character that had been in the comic for almost a decade having first appeared on 27th March 1976. A sad loss to see this one go, it was the final adventure strip Buster ever featured, although it would return in the form of reprints in the 1990's. Artwork by the legendary Mike Western, I believe. 

I hope this brought about a bit of happiness wherever you are in the world. Please stay safe everyone! I'll try keep blogging while I'm quarantined in Auckland with all my comics, so stay tuned.

Reg Parlett - 110 Years

Today is Reg Parlett's would-be 110th birthday. Reg is one of the all time greats and has illustrated thousands of pages in a career that lasted for over 60 years. I suspect he has drawn more pages than any other British comic artist ever. His first artwork appeared in Merry and Bright when he was 19 and he would go on to draw many well-loved and long running characters such as Billy Bunter, Buster and Ivor Lott and Tony Broke.

Sadly, Reg passed away on 18th November 1991 but I'm sure the love and appreciation for his artistic talent will live on for a long time yet. 

50 Years Ago This Week: Valiant's Humour Strips

Despite being a primarily adventure strip comic Valiant featured a good number of humour strips as well. We'll head back to the issue that was on sale fifty years ago this week to see what humour strips were on offer in its pages. The first appears on page five under the title The Nutts, about a family that lived up to their name. The artist is Angel Nadal Quirch.

The next character needs no introduction. He first appeared in 1908 and was still popular all in the 60's and even as late as the 90's. For Valiant he was illustrated by Reg Parlett - I speak of course of Billy Bunter.

Next up is a half-page Sporty strip, which is credited to Reg Wootton.

Next up is The Crows, which works out to be roughly a half-page strip but actually goes around the edge of the page, around an advertisement for the Royal Navy. This is another page by Reg Parlett.

The final humour strip is called It's A Dog's Life and it appears in full colour on the back page. This is a reprinted Belgium originally entitled Boule et Bill, illustrated by Roba.

Buster Enters 1982

Firstly, my apologies for not having blogged for a while but the reason for that was because I was moving house. But I'm back now and let's kick-start things again with a celebratory New Year's special Buster comic, celebrating the transition from 1981 to 1982.

Buster's story appeared just inside the front cover with terrific artwork as always by Reg Parlett.

The next page is home to Deadly Headly, who celebrates his New Year by going undercover at the circus! Artwork by Martin Baxendale.

Billy Blow was an interesting strip about a boy with the most incredible lungs in the world. Artwork here is by Rob Lee.

Next up is Master Mind, a fantastic strip by Jack Edward Oliver. I believe this is Jack's personal favourite strip, and it's not hard to see why - it's fun and interactive alongside good quality scripts.

And finally, here's the two-page S.O.S. Squad from this issue, with absolutely fantastic artwork coming from the pen of Mike Lacey.

That wraps up the look at this comic and probably also Wacky Comics for the year, seeing as we've only one full day of 2013 left. So I wish all of the readers of my blog a very happy New Year and I'll see you all again when normal blogging service resumes in 2014!

Reg Parlett's Last Christmas Buster!

What you are looking at is the very last Christmas Buster that was illustrated by Reg Parlett, who's first christmas edition had appeared ten years earlier in 1974! Buster's story, which has a very festive border, started on the back cover and ends with a great slap up feed!

Buster isn't the only person to enjoy the classic slap-up feed at the end of a story however, as there are five other strips which also have this classic ending! The first is Sid Burgon's Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, a strip which was always funny  week after week!

Dave Follows' Wonder Wellies is a weird one this week, as it involves a flying snowman (okay, it may have been down to a magic pair of wellies, but still...)! Written by Roy Davis, Wonder Wellies was a special strip because it won one the prize for 'Most Humorous Strip Of The Year' in 1983! This episode proves that it deserved that prize!

School Fun folded into Buster earlier in 1984, and when they merged the comic split into two parts, having a School Fun section in the middle of the comic (a bit like Whizzer and Chips, with a Whizzer section and a Chips section). The first page of this section was designed like a front cover, with a date and snow on the logo! The 'front cover' strip was School Team, the team who would try to win a trophy in any competition, illustrated by Doug Goodwin!

The centre pages were taken up with a superb Cliff Hanger board game illustrated by the brilliant Jack Edward Oliver! I've scanned the instructions so you can read them in order to be able to play!

Ken Reid did some amazing artwork over the years, and I'm a personal fan of his 80's version of Faceache. The style was so simple but yet so detailed! Only Ken could pull off something like this!

Does anybody else find that scrunge in panel three really funny?

The Five Greats - No. 5 - Reg Parlett

Well, here it is at long last - the final part of The Five Greats (sorry about the wait folks)! And for number five, I have chosen Reg Parlett, not only becuase he produced so many thousands of pages of work, but has a very individual style - just like the other 4 greats!

Reg was born in 1904 in London and came from a family of artists.  His brother George and father Harry both scribbled profesionally at some point in their lives.

Reprinted in Big Comic Monthly

His first work appeared in 1926 inside a comic caled Merry and Bright, which was launched on 22nd October 1910 and lasted quite a number of years ending on 19th January 1935.

Later on he moved to more popular comics produced by  both Amalagamted Press and of course, Fleetway! Perhaps his most famous work is for Buster comic, where he drew Buster himself every week for over 10 years! In 1984, to celebrate Reg's 80th birthday, Buster delivered a huge cake in person to this fantastic artist! Five years later, Big Comic Fortnightly also had a celebration issue, celebrating his 85th!

Sadly, Red passed away on 18th November 1991, leaving behind a treasure trove of excellent comics!

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!