Just a Couple of Books!

As well as picking up the intresting Black Bob book I mentioned about in the previous post, the same bookshop also had a few other intresting books on it's shelves. But since I had little money on me I decided to settle for just two of them. The first is Billy Bunter's Own, published by Oxonhoath Press in 1956.

The book cost 8/6 and for your money you got 132 pages, and, apart from the covers, only one was full colour. And there no comic strips in this book, either - what you get is an excellent selection of text stories! There are seven in total, six written by Frank Richards and one by Owen Conquest, and they are all accompanied with some excellent illustrations! The artist isn't credited, but Bunter's regular artist is Charles Henry Chapman, and his signature also appears on the front cover illustration.

Charles at the drawing board!

The second book is also a text story book! I hadn't heard of this book before, and since it was associated with I comic I decided to grab it. It's title was 'The Eagle Book Of Modern Adventures' and was published in 1952 by Hulton Press Ltd.

Unlike Billy Bunter the stories inside Modern Adventures are true, and I haven't read all of them yet, but the ones I have are very exciting! There were 17 stories in total, and all for just 6/-!

The stories inside were:

• The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams
• The Kon-Tiki Expedition by Ronald Syme
• Man of Mystery by Ronald Syme
• Attack on Everest by John Nance
• Super-Speedman by Dennis May
• The Past Comes to Life by Ronald Syme
• Grim Journey by A. M. McLean
• Men Against the Atlantic by John W. R. Taylor
• Three Thousand Feet Deep by Martin Chisholm
• Ten Thousand Miles on Horseback by Ronald Syme
• Special Mission of a Genius by Ronald Syme
• Wanderlust by Duncan Hall
• Twelve Years in the Heart of a Mountain by Ellam Hall
• The Farthest North by Ronald Syme
• The Forbidden Land by R. Motson Thompson
• Round the World on a Bicycle by Bernard Newman
• Adventure Walked Beside Him

It aslo has an excellent wraparound dustjacket!

A Real Life Black Bob Mystery!

The other day I picked up my first Black Bob annual - the 1961 book to be precise. However, there seems to be a bot of a problem with it - and not just a small one either. No, instead - one of the stories has been printed twice! Black Bob and the Shepherd Crook started on page 33, and what should be page 97!

Where the story should be.

After the second Sheperd Crook story the pages numbers go 45, 46, 47, 113 and correctly from there!

The same story - but on page 97!

Is this a one off mistake or did lots of these books have the same mistake? (I know not all of them did as I lookeed at the contents of another copy online). And if this is a one off mistake - how did it occur? It's a pretty big printing error and yet the book was still distributed.

Take a look at the page numbers here!

Buster Holiday Special 1997

Now, I've noticed that my previous few posts have been focused mainly on the 70's, and I know that you like this blog because I cover lots of different era's. So this time it's about the 1997 Buster Holiday Special, which we have seen very briefly before on this site here. Since this was published towards the end of Buster's life, the entire comic was reprints from previous issues - even the cover! But first of all I thought I'd give you a bit of a history lesson about the Buster Holiday Specials - The first one came out in 1969, six years after D.C Thomson released their first Beano and Dandy Summer Special. The final one came out in 1998, and the first (and only) Winter Special was published at the end of that year. All Buster Special's that came out for summer were called Holiday Special's, not Summer Special's.

As if to prove that this is a full reprint comic, here's a Faceache strip by the ledgendary Ken Reid, who had died just over ten years earlier than this publication was released!

Despite this been a Holiday Special, very few strips had anything to do with the summer holiday's. However, this Blub the Sub strip  showed that our pathetic pal really didn't get along with animals, especially this donkey at the seaside! Illustrated by Meryvn Johnson.

Of course, the main character would have to have a seasonal strip, and that's exactly what Buster gets on this two page centre spread!

A nice little summer feature was this Summer Smiles jokes page by Paddywack artist Jack Clayton.

The final summer strip appears on the back cover in full colour, probably to make readers think theres lots of stories inside based at the beach. Well, that is what summer is all about isn't it?! The character in question is Chalky, by his final artist Gordon Hill.

Sadly there weren't "52 Pages Full Of Summer Fun" as promised on the cover, but a great comic none-the-less!

Monster Fun Summer Special 1976

It's coming up to the summer holidays, and it would be around this time that the Summer/Holiday specials would be hitting the stores (well, back when they were making them anyway)! This is the second and final Monster Fun special, coming out in 1976 for 25 pennies(the title, which cost 8p at the time, would fold a few months later, in October). The cover starred Gums (a parody of Jaws, obviously), by the excellent Robert Nixon! The cover was a frame of a Gums strip inside redrawn by Nixon, although I can't identify the artist of the original strip as it looks like a ghost artist. 

The cover star if the previous special was Kid Kong (also based on a famouse movie monster), and he was still a popular choice with readers, appearing as the first strip inside the comic. In this episode, all Kid want's to do is cool down, but is that really too much to ask? Well yes, if your a 50ft tall gorilla! Illustrated by his regular artist - Robert Nixon!

Also movie based is this three page advert for Monsters From An Unknown Planet! It was put in comic strip form, and wasn't brilliant, but was pretty funny to read! Has anybody seen this movie?

Sometimes in summer specials you can find a board game across the centre spread, sadly not in this one though, instead there is a two page Teddy Scare strip by a ghost artist, but the usual artist for this strip is Barry Appleby.

Inventors from the stone age are a bit of a common theme in comics (I might even do a post about this soon), and Monster Fun had Stoneage Brit - Ancient Nit (I still think this would sound better as 'The Ancient Nit')! Brit is actually a reprinted strip from Cor!, where it was illustrated by Tony Goffe.

A nice holiday feature in the comic were Frankie Stein's wish you were here Postcards! Illustrated by Sid Burgon, these were cards sent to people who were probably more than pleased that Frankie had gone. The postcards seem normal enough, but the images show that everything is not quite as it seems!

I'll be looking at some more Summer/Holiday Specials soon! 

This Week In... 1971 - Whizzer and Chips!

It's time for another 'This Week In' post and this time we go back to 1971 to this issue of Whizzer and Chips! Inside we get a special note from the editor, who reveals the most popular characters in the comic.

At the top of that list is Harry's Haunted House, and this one I agree is very good, but not my favourite strip in the comic (my favourite is probably Champ - which makes me a Whizz-kid!). The Chip-ites were very proud to have the most popular character, but that would change in the 80's when Joker was almost always at the top, along with Sweeny Toddler!

But before we start on the strips, lets see the ad's! This one is for Cor! comic, which came out in 1971 (for a super detailed history of Cor!, visit Irmantas' blog here - http://kazoop.blogspot.com/)!

This next ad which appeared under Tiny's strip is for Smash! ice lollies, which cost 2p and came in either Orange or Strawberry! Mmmmm....

1971 saw the second Whizzer and Chips holiday special come out, 96 pages for just 15p! That sounds incredibly cheap, but I don't know what that is in today's money. I'll be taking a look at this special in an upcoming post.

The final advert is for TV21 (the comic, not the band), which was quite possibly the best selling comic of the time!

Now it's time for the strips, and I'm going to post the top 10 strips in the comic. Number 10 - Super Dad by Mike Brown!

At number nine - the back cover star of Whizzer - Belle Tent by Reg Parlett!

Wear 'Em Out Wilf appears at number eight - and this fantastic strip by Norman Mansbridge certainly shows it deserves that place!

Number seven is reserved for my favourite - Champ! This strip could either be by Colin Whittock or Leo Baxendale.

Loser certainly didn't lose this competition - coming in at number six!

Number five featured the only advernture strip, and the only serial in the countdown - Pursuit of the Puzzler! Artist unknown.

Number 4 appeares at the top of the post - Sid's Snake! So number three stars Jimmy in Jimmy Jackle and Master Hyde by Terry Bave!

The silver winner in second place is... tied - between Shiner and Odd Ball! One Whizz-kid and one Chip-ite!

And the winner is... Harry's Haunted House, illustrated by Reg Parlett!

That's it for this post - don't forget to come back next week for another 'This Week In' post!