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.

A Jackpot Easter (1981)

Yes, it's that time of year again which means we're going to take a look at an Easter themed comic! This time, we head back to 1981 for the slightly Easter themed issue of Jackpot. The strapline promises 'Easter Fun Inside' and it doesn't lie for we do, but not very much of it, as just four of the 21 strips are themed. The first of those four strips is Laser Eraser. For those of you unfamiliar with the strip, Laser Eraser is about a boy named Ernie who has a special laser that can make things disappear and reappear, but what he doesn't know is that he is actually zapping them up to the alien spaceship that dropped the laser, and then bringing them back again. Illustrated by Bob Nixon, Laser Eraser seemed a popular strip in Jackpot and survived the 1982 merge into Buster.

I was expecting 'It's A Nice Life' to be Easter themed but I was wrong, for the second of the four strips comes two pages after that in the form of Milly O'Naire and Penny Less. Along with their counterparts Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (who don't appear in this strip, but do in their own and combined strips), they are amongst the better strips that have a rich vs. poor theme, and, illustrated by Sid Burgon, they four of them proved very popular for many years.

Next up is Sporty, illustrated by John Geering. Sporty is about a lad who is good at all sports, in fact - you name it, he's done it. For an Easter theme I'm sure you can guess what sport he participates in this week.

Finally, the last Easter strip for another year is Sample Simon. Usually Simon will test free samples but this week's strip seems to avoid that, or perhaps he somehow found a free rabbit costume sample? Who knows - anything can happen in the world of comics! I believe the artist might be Mike Green, but I'm not sure.

And that rounds up this Easter post for 2014. All that's left to say is... Happy Easter!

This Week In... 1950 - Knockout

Let's head back to the newsagents shelf this week in 1950, and take a look at just one of the many comics that was on sale at the time - Knockout. The cover star of Knockout is the ever-popular Mike, who would be reprinted many times in the future, most famously under the name Smiler. This particular episode shows Mike offering a cigar to Sergeant Flopp, a scene that would never even get close to appearing today! Art by Eric Roberts.

Knockout's most famous character has to be Billy Bunter. First appearing in the Magnet in 1908, the bloated, loveable buffoon was so popular that at one point Knockout was even named Billy Bunter's Knockout! That hadn't happened yet though, and at this point Billy still appeared in black and white on an inside page, illustrated by Frank Minnitt.

Comic historian and cartoonist Denis Gifford also drew for Knockout, illustrating Steadfast McStaunch. This was McStanch's first appearance, and Denis later revived the character again, using the same storyline, when Whizzer and Chips was launched in 1969. Here are both episodes, the first one from (this issue of) Knockout, and the first one from Whizzer and Chips.

From this issue of Knockout.

From #1 of Whizzer and Chips (1969).

Freddie Frog is an interesting strip. Illustrated by Peter Woolcock, it's the story of a frog and his friends who, following an age-old idea, dress, talk and act just like humans! What doesn't make sense though, is why the horse doesn't, instead it acts like... well... a horse!

Sexton Blake also stars inside, which is a surprise to me but interesting to see nonetheless. His strip is the first one in the comic and takes up two pages. Art by Hal Meredith.

And finally, my personal favourite strip in this particular issue is Sporty, by Reg Wootton. This episode had me laughing out loud - and I'm sure it will with you too!

We'll be taking anyother step through the comics time portal soon, and who knows where we'll end up!