Football in Comics (Part 2)!

It's time for part 2 of my football in comics post! This time we take a look at the 1965 Tiger annual! First up is the mystery of Chinese football! Bet you didn't know these facts!

Of course, Tiger is known for giving birth to one of comics most successful footballers - Roy of the Rovers! This story is about a goalkeeper who gets some ancient perfume for just 5 bob! This strip was printed on glossy paper, but sadly isn't in colour. Drawn by Paul Trevillion.

Suprisingly, that's all on the footy side of things in this annual - but fear not! I'll be back soon with some more footballing antics! If your a fan of humour strips - make sure you keep your eyes peeled!

Football in Comics (Part 1)!

Roy of The Rovers from Tiger annual 1963.

Of course, the big theme at the moment is football - since Euro 2012 has just kicked off! Football has always been a big theme in comics, since there are just so many great stories to be written around the game! We start off with the origin of Odd Ball. This crazy sphere first appeared in Whizzer and Chips issue one from 1969, when he was kicked from the planet Bounco right into the middle of Nobby Noodle's game! Illustrated by Mike Lacey.

School Fun's Coronation Street School were to get into some footballing action, when they challenge Daffodil Avenue to a game - but don't have a team kit! Art by Colin Whittock.

Going back to 1939, the first issue of D.C. Thomson's Magic comic featured Koko the Pup kicking a ball, but a nasty guard bursts it!

This early Joker strip from Knockout in 1971 was the story of our funny lad trying to get into the stadium to watch Knockout United F.C. Obviously, things don't quite work out for him! Drawn by Sid Burgon.

This Mummy's Boy from Monster Fun is all about cunning disguises - the old 'paint your face on a ball' trick! Art by Norman Mansbridge.

You may notice that it says 'Part 1' in the title, and that's because I plan to post some more football comics - including some Hot Shot Hamish and a cartain issue of a comic with loads of football themed strips! Stay tuned!

Judge Dredd Movie Posters!

 The movie poster for the Judge Dredd movie coming out later this year have just been revealed, over on joblo.com! With the Judge played by Karl Urban, 'DREDD' is due for release on 21st September.

120 Year Flashback - Ally Sloper's Half Holiday 1892

Linking in with a recent post about Ally Sloper (which can be found here), the above comic went on sale on Saturday 12th March 1892! Ally Sloper is an important character in comics, mainly because he is considered to be the first one! This paragraph is written by one of Ally's greatest fans, the late Denis Gifford, in his book 'Encyclopedia of Comic Characters':


"The concept of the regulary appearing character had been established well before the concept of the regulary appearing comic, however. The lesson of Ally Sloper was there for learning. Ally Sloper (the name is a Victorian pun: he sloped down the alley when the rent collector came acalling), the first true comic-strip hero of them all, made his debut in a full-page strip entitled 'Some of the Mysteries of Loan and Discount', in the weekly humorous magazine, Judy, on 14th August 1867. Sloper's artist was Charles Henry Ross, a regular cartoon contributor to Judy who soon became its editor. Instead of striving to create a new, different strip page every week, Ross decided there was more mileage in Ally than met the eye. So he brought him back in another page, then another, and another, until soon there were enough pages to be gathered into a book. Ally Sloper: A Moral Lesson, 220 pages of reprinted strips for a shilling, was published in November 1873 and became the first comic-book. The next step was an original Sloper publication: Ally Sloper's Comic Kalender No. 1 came out for Christmas in 1875, and Ally Sloper's Summer Number started in 1880. It was obvious that the public could stand for more Sloper than twice a year, and so, on 3 May 1884, No. 1 of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, the eminent's own weekly comic, was published. It was destined to run for forty years."


I think that sums up the character perfectly...

The above advertisement states that Half Holiday was the largest illustrated paper in the world (and was even avaliable in Paris!), which is true, as it is said to have sold as many as half a million copies every week!

There was a lot of text in this comic (much more than pictures, unlike today's publications!), but little of it is based on Ally Sloper himself! Despite this, the centre spread and back cover were mostly pictures, and a few, like the one above, are based on Ally.

Another intresting advert is for an Ally Sloper cabinet postcard. I think I may have seen this postcard once before - it features Ally Sloper standing on a box with somebody at either side, and on the box it reads the papers title. Or I could be thinking of something else!

And there were no free gifts taped to the cover back then either, instead you got £150 if you were found dead on a railway track, holding a copy of that weeks comic! That's right - £150!

I hope you enjoyed this post, I thought it would be nice to get out of the era that I usually cover on this site. If you like Ally Sloper and/or other Victorian comics, make sure you buy a copy of The Sloperian, avaliable from here for just £5!

Willy The Kid Book 2

Leo Baxendale's Willy the Kid was launched in the mid 70's and book two came out in 1977 (although it was probably 1976 when it first hit the shops). For £1 you got 66 part colour pages. That isn't as many pages as most annuals, but this was written and drawn by just one person! Willy the Kid ran for three years, and there was a 'Best Of' book published around 10 years ago. The '77 annual was advertised on the back page of Denis Gifford's latest revival of Ally Sloper - the worlds's first comic character. The ad below is from issue #3 (the christmas issue), and is a full page taken from the annual itself, with a few bits edited.

Here's the page that actually appeared in the annual. It looks like the Willy that appears on the ad is actually a new drawing not taken from the book, as I can't see it on any pages.

It wasn't all comic strips though, as there were a few text pages throuhout the book, the first was Going For A Walk With Grandad.

Willy the Kid's book wasn't based entirely around him, as a lad named Spotty Dick also got a story to himself! It was all about a kid named Dick (Richard) who was trying to get jobs, and either did really well (by accident) or failed miserably!

Now I bet you can't see where this is going...!

This really is a fantastic read, but one of the most interesting pages has to be the one where Leo Baxendale is listing all the characters he created and when he drew them from!

And finally, the back cover!

If you can, I highly recommend grabbing yourself a Willy the Kid book. Willy is one of my favourite comic characters