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.

Buster Vs. The Dandy

Occasionally Fleetway mentioned their rivals (The Beano and Dandy mostly) in their comics. I recently found another one from a 1991 issue of Buster. Here in a X-Ray Specs strip Carl the Creep decides not to "waste his time" on The Dandy! And yes - they actually wrote 'Dandy', which surprised me as I'd have expected them, if they were to include it, to call the comic something along the lines of 'Dondy' or 'Dundy'. I don't think D.C Thomson ever retalliated to any of Fleetway's mentions to them, I don't recall ever seeing Buster or Whizzer and Chips mentioned in The Beano or Dandy, but I could be wrong. Anyway, here is the full strip, as illustrated by Mike Lacey.

I covered a similar incident to this one last year, when Bernie Banks accidentally walked into The Beano! Here's a link:

http://www.wackycomics.com/2012/12/bernie-in-beano.html

Mike Lacey - A Keen Gardener

Time to head back to 11th October 1986, and take a look at the X-Ray Specs strip that appeared on the back of the Buster comic with the same date. This particular episode, as well as being special for appearing on the back cover and in full colour, stands out for a very different reason - it stars Mike Lacey. To view it in maximum size click on the image, and then click it again!

Of course, it doesn't actually say anywhere that the artist is Mike Lacey, but Mike did draw X-Ray Specs, and the artist does look like a more cartooned version of his self-portrait that appeared in Buster in 1990:

Plus, if you look closely at his drawing board in the panel below, you can just about make out X-Ray Specs written on it!

Although it wasn't too common, artists did sometimes draw themselves in strips. Over on Kazoop Irmantas did cover a good selection of these, but one of my favourites in Tom Paterson in Buster. One panel shows the editor of Buster knocking Tom's wage off the table - about three or four coins, followed by showing him in a tiny, messy house. If I can find it I'll post it.


In the meantime, if you haven't already checked out the self-portraits over at Kazoop, do so now! All you have to do is search 'portrait' in the search bar and you're away! Here is the web address:


http://kazoop.blogspot.com

And if you're going to try and hunt down this issue, here's the front cover you should be looking for!

X-Ray Specs Sees The Cover!

The next character to take over Buster's glorious front page is none other than X-Ray Specs, an all time favourite of mine, illustrated by the wonderfully talented Mike Lacey. Ray took over on issue dated 15th July, and despite the fact that the front cover is supposed to be the most attention grabbing part of a comic, the colours are all a bit dreary, as though one yellow suits all. Ray's skin for example, is the same colour as the box in the corner, which is the same colour as the pink sail of the boat in panel three.

But that aside, it was a wonderful cover, and led to one of the longest X-Ray Specs strips ever produced in a weekly comic - two and a half pages! The strip could easily have ended with the final panel on page two, but instead the script writer (or maybe even Mike himself) decided to extend it, and add in an extra joke at the end!

There's one more cover take-over left, and I'll be showing that very soon, so stick around!

Other posts in this series:

Tom Thug

Cliff Hanger

Chalky

Captain Crucial

X-Ray Specs by Mike Lacey

Some time around November of last year I was asked which comic characters were my favourite, and up in that list was X-Ray Specs, which was illustrated by the fantastic Mike Lacey. Shortly afterwards, I was overwhelmed to receive some original artwork for one of the strips as a Christmas present from my dad! This is my first, and currently only, original artwork that appeared in a British comic that I am lucky enough to own!

Original art is huge and there's no way I could scan the full boards in my A4 scanner, so I've scanned it panel by panel instead. The numbers at the top of the board reveal the size the page was printed at - 209mm across, but the actual artwork is about 38cm x 52cm. I'm not sure what the 66.3 in the bottom right corner is.

Here they are, and as always, click on the images, and then again, to view in full size!

Although I don't own the issue it appeared in, although I have tried to hunt down a copy, you can find it in Buster dated 6th August 1988.

Fleetway Firsts... Martha's Monster Makeup and X-Ray Specs

Monster Fun brought us some great characters when it was launched in 1975. Amongst others Ken Reid started out on another of his brilliant horror comics, this time about a girl called Martha who was the star of the strip Martha's Monster Make-Up! However, with strips like this one sometimes you can't help but wonder how they came across the item such as Martha's make-up in the first place! Well, here is Martha's 'Fleetway First'...

Mike Lacey's X-Ray Specs had a very similar beginning, and only appeared one page before Martha! Here it is:

X-Ray Specs was much more popular than Martha, and he survived in Buster comic right up until the very last issue, where Jack Edward Oliver sent him off with a single panel, on that famous back page.