BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)

Subject: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Fiolar
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:35 AM

Anybody remember the good old days of the comics "Hotspur"; "The Wizard" ; "Rover" and "The Champion" with such characters as "The Wolf of Kabul"; "Strang the Terrible"; "Rockfist Rogan" (I'll never forget the phrase 'blue gun muzzles spat flame.'); "Roy of the Rovers" and of course "Wilson" to name just a few. Happy days.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:47 AM

You forgot "Victor" The "wizard" if I remember right, was for girly swots only, as it didn't contain any pictures.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:53 AM

Its true isnt it - Nostalgia isnt what it used to be !

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:56 AM

I saw the thread and had a bet with myself that it would take no more than two replies to get the old chestnut about nostalgia not being what it used to be.

Leadfingers, you made my day !!! :0)

Elfcall

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:59 AM

Hey, what about the "Eagle"....Dan Dare...pilot of the future? The "Beano" and the "Dandy"...and "Topper". Lot of memories coming back..nostalgia at its best. Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: muppett
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:01 AM

What comic had Tupper of the track. He used run races and win them on a diet of fish n chips.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:05 AM

yeah! Wasn't he called Alf, "tough of the track"

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:11 AM

Heard on the radio yesterday that the Dandy is having a makeover! They are becoming more glossy and introducing new characters. The only new one I could remember was 'Dreadlock Holmes' - a streetwise kid. Nice to hear that Desperate Dan is being kept even if he does no longer smoke his pipe!

The Bash Street Kids in the Beano were my favourites. Plug is still my hero:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:34 AM

Bunty, Judy, Mandy, Twinkle.....cut out and dress dolls....the Christmas annuals that smelt gorgeous.

We never ice skated, rode horses or went to boarding school, which seemed to be the mainstay of the stories? But 'The Four Marys' did all three. I wished I was the fifth Mary.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:38 AM

Tammy, Jackie, oh.... I'll get my coat.... I should have been reading boys comics shouldn't I. Who could forget "Look in"

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:48 AM

Look in! Haven't thought of that for eons. I think Ed Stewpot had a weekly column. And Disco 45...you too could singalong to the top 20.

Fess up you read Jackie for the problem page....always the same, 'How do I kiss?' and variations on acne.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: MBSLynne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:59 AM

Milk monitor, my daughter (aged 9) got a Bunty summer special this year and it still had "The Four Marys" in!

I started with Sunny Stories went on to Playhour then Bunty, Judy and Princess. In between I sometimes got Beano, Dandy and Beezer...anyone remember that? From there I went to teenage mags......Fab 208 and 16, though I think 16 was an American one (I lived in Australia by then.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 10:08 AM

The Four Marys still exist!!!! Great, that's the Christmas stocking sorted and I can read it first. FAB 208 rings a bell, but I have it connected in my head with Kid Jensen, maybe it was a radio show here? Or maybe Radio Luxembourg was on 208?

Yes, Beezer was the broadsheet of the comic world, but I think it had an army centefold story, that was too khaki coloured....oh the mists of time have me struggling.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 10:30 AM

Aaaarrrrggghhh..... the Eagke centrefolds of cut-away drawings of ships etc were fantastic. Was it the less-gkossy Beano that had PC49? I can't remember.... Yup... We got'em in NZ in the 49s and 59s - alomg with some Yank ones - like Mickey Duxk...

Mind you, the thing I drooled over most was the adverts - especially those for Honby Trains and Hobby Fretsaws....

Take me back to 395- === I'm lost.....

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 10:51 AM

The Adverts in comics - What was the bubble gum you could get with a little comic in them and if you saved up vouchers you get all manner of toys such as spy kits or water pistol cameras

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 10:54 AM

Bazooka! I was the sad owner of not only the invisible ink kit, but also the Bazooka Joe T.Shirt, the cartoon boy had a chheky smile and a black eye, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:05 AM

Stuff bazooka joe! The best sweets were "black jacks" and "fruit salad"

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:10 AM

You couldn't blow a bubble so big that it entailed having to have your fringe cut off, with a Black Jack.

Chocolate tools.......don't go there superted.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:10 AM

NAY Flying saucers were even better and who collected Land of the Giants cards (with Bubbly)

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:13 AM

Chocolate tools!!!! I remember them well, the chocolate used in them was SHITE! it was about 2% cocoa. flying saucers used to make my eyes water they were so acidic. God I feel old!

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:23 AM

Then there was the barley sugar twists and the chocalate version of it and the toasted coconut shreds that were made to look like tobaco and fruit polos and bar 6 and lucky bags.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:26 AM

I'm a silver member of the beano club, become a gold member next March, but by eck haven't they messed up the Beano & the Dandy.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:29 AM

Spanish Gold! That was the coconutty baccy? Be like your Dad and roll real fags!
Lucky bags were never my forte, I always got a sherrif star or one of those lethal plastic darts that didn't do anything.
Chols.....chocolate covered orange lollies, brought shite chocolate to new levels. Rosy apples, Tom Thumb drops, Glees...........

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:31 AM

Spanish Gold it was!! I ate tons of the stuff! Never realised until today that it was made out of coconut... errrh..... Shouldn't we be talking about Bush and Kerry or Iraq or something?

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Jeanie
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 12:18 PM

Milk monitor: "Fabulous 208" started out being called just "Fabulous" and some time or other became connected with Radio Luxemburg and added the "208" to its name. I've still got some copies of it in my shed - I wonder if they are worth much ?

I'd completely forgotten about "Sunny Stories" ! As I remember, it was quite a thick, small format magazine - was it the one that used to have stories about "Winnie the Witch" ? The first comic I used to get was "Robin". Anyone remember that one ? They used to give away really good prizes in their competitions (I won a "Doodlemaster" - like etch-a-sketch) and they used to hold an annual Christmas carol concert for their readers in St. Paul's Cathedral.

My magazine-reading history: Robin - Princess - Jackie - Fabulous 208 - International Times - Cosmopolitan, from its first issue. Goodness, that dates me !   Sadly, I recently caught myself buying the "Essex County" magazine to read an article about a garden I'd visited. Not yet succumbed to Saga magazine, although now eligible. It can only be a matter of time ....

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 12:36 PM

Jeanie thanks for the memory jog, so it wasn't just a figment.
I reckon there is treasure in your shed, and don't worry about gardens, they are timeless.

I too cosmo'd, but had to close it up if parents were nearby!

I recently bought Ideal Homes and Gardens, not that I have one, I just like to look at other peoples.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: MBSLynne
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 04:52 PM

I used to have all the posters out of Fabulous and Fab 208 on my bedroom walls! Yes, I went onto Cosmopolitan too, and Cleo to be followed by Practical Parenting and Family Circle! You can chart the course of your life by the magazines you read!

Yes, I remember all those sweets...and I loved the aniseed balls with a real seed in the middle, and gobstoppers, sherbet dipdabs, sherbet fountains...... In Australia the sweets were different. We had mint leaves, ripe raspberries, minties and spearies, jaffas, fried eggs, milk bottles.......

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Fiolar
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 09:44 AM

I only mentioned "Hotspur etc because they hardly contained any pictures and were mainly text. Of course there was also "Knockout" (with "Our Ernie - Mrs Entwhistle's little lad" and his caterpillar. The last frame frame always had his dad saying - "Daft I call it" not forgetting "Stonehenge Kit - the Ancient Brit"); "Film Fun"; "Radio Fun" with "Jack Keen - 'Tec". If I remember correctly the Knockout used to run a series of Sexton Blake adventures as well as Billy Bunter. Comics today cannot really measure up. I remember one fantastic series in one of the "text" comics about a mountain which really was a gigantic monster who had slept for millions of years and finally came awake. Also a series in which Earth was invaded by aliens who rendered all guns and missiles unusable and fought like the Roman army. Great stuff. Don't know if any one remembers the above.
Incidentally it's worth getting hold of a book called "Boys will be Boys" which traces the history of British comics.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 12:27 PM

PC49 was in The Eagle - and before that on the radio, but it was only in the Eagle that he started running a Boys Club for reforming young hoodlums. "Oh my Sunday helmet" was the strongest language he ever used in a crisis, but he always able to deal effectively with the villains and the spivs.   We could do with him today.

The "Wizard" if I remember right, was for girly swots only, as it didn't contain any pictures. You don't remember rightly. Proper adventure comics didn't have more than a few pictures in those days, mostly tiny grey print, but great stories. Only baby comics like Beano and Dandy had much in the way of pictures. That was until The Eagle came along and changed everything.

There were some brilliantly daft serials - there was one about this lawman in the Wild west who got on the wrong side of some Medicine Man, and was turned into a centaur. He still had to do his job, without letting people know about the change. And the boy who bought some strengthening exercise equipment by mail order, but they sent him the ones meant for elephants, so he got incredibly strong.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 01:09 PM

Muppet, thanks for reminding me of "Alf Tupper - tough of the track".
Like you I remember the cartoon but not the comic.
I seem to recall the storyline being similar each week, involving our hero Alf, being forced to spend the night prior to the "big race" doing some urgent welding repair in his workshop and then, possibly due to the lack of decent public transport in his locality, having to run all the way to the track meeting, arriving with seconds to spare, and going on to win the race!!
What a guy!!
Now what was the comic?

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 01:13 PM

As my Dad was a VERY heavy duty Typographical Associatio Union man we were not allowed to have the Beano and dandy in the house - The Publisher (Thomsons) were Non Union so totally beyond the pale . We had the Eagle right from issue 1 - Gawd what that lot would be worth today !!!

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Les from Hull
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 01:27 PM

Here's a link to one of my heroes (and I don't have many), the creator of the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Little Plum, the Three Bears and lots of characters who were a bit after my time. Yes DC Thompson were (are?) very non-union, and also gave no credit to their writers/artists. Leo Baxendale was the first of their artists to write the stories as well, and drew lots of amazing detail in the drawings.

leo baxendale

But the best thing ever in the Beano was 'Jonah'. Arrghh, it's 'im!

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 04:50 PM

does anybody remember Biff Bailey the boxer? The Tiger I think it was

There was that borderline transexual in the fetching little leopard skin number was that on the front of the Robin - Tana, the jungle boy.

One of the compensations of being ill was reading my cousins comics - he used send me a big load about six months worth all at once.
winters seemed worse in those pre-car owning, pre central heating days andsometimes half the street was down with colds and pleurisy and stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 05:09 PM

Thanks for that Leo Baxendale link. The man was a genius.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Megan L
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 05:18 PM

You can still get Spanish Gold try this site for a walk down sweetie heaven
Old sweets

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 05:57 PM

"Tough of the track" was in "The Victor"

And yes, I always read "The Four Marys". None of the rest of that girl's comic (June, or Judy?). It was on the back page and I read it on my paper round.

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 08:38 PM

okay we believe you!

I seem to remember The Pretty Things Claimed to read Schoolfriend before going onstage '....to increase the sexual frenzy!'

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 04:39 AM

I think some of you might like this site.

Muppet, if you scroll down there's an episode of "Tough Of The Track" to read!

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 05:16 AM

Was it the Eagle that used to have a page of adverts for very strange objects? The one I always remember was for the 'Seebackroscope' which was a device to enable you to see behind you whilst looking forwards, and it cost about 1s/9d plus 4d P&P. I plagued my dad for one, but he just said it would be rubbish and wouldn't stump up that huge (by those days' standards) amount of money. I thought it would be very useful for when I was doing my paper round. :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 05:24 AM

Billy the bus mentioned the cut-away drawings of ships in The Eagle.

Apparently they did one of a nuclear submarine based purely on guesswork as to what it looked like.

However, they did such a good job that they got a visit from the secret service demanding to know who had leaked the plans to them!

Oh, and Superted, they used the same foul tasting chocolate in the Junior Smoker's Kit as they used in the tool kits you mentioned. I think I thought I wouldn't bother smoking if that's what it tasted like!

Talking about comics, there was also the Beezer (very much like the Topper).

In the sixties Buster started up. If I remember rightly Buster was supposed to be Andy Capp's nephew. He even wore a cloth cap like his famous uncle! The first issue had a free cardboard and brown paper thunderclap. The racket in the playground when loads of these were being used was quite something - they soon got banned.

Anyone remember any other first issue "sweeteners"?

LFF

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 05:55 AM

Junior Smoker's Kits - I'd forgotten them! How un-PC can you go?? Those were the days, when normal people were normal! Wish we could get them back.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 06:57 AM

The Topper was very up market as I remember with Oliver Twist on the back - terrific illustrations (when sykes and fagin came after Oliver in his sick bed it gave me nightmares!) - the beezer was more fun.

your dad was right about the seebackroscope - a small plastic cylinder with a mirror at the end and a hole in the side.

once bitten, my parents drew the line when I wanted the nose flute. I reckon I'd be the nasal version of james Galway or paddy thingy out of the chieftains - my parents didn't understand me.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 07:07 AM

Some of the give-aways were pretty lame, like the cardboard "bangers".
Two triangular pieces of cardboard with a folded brown-paper insert that would make a "bang" when drawn quickly through the air.
Simple times, simple pleasures!

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 07:15 AM

Nobody has mentioned the "Lion" and the "Tiger" yet. I can still remember the frisson of excitement as I tore open my membership package to the ""Lion Club". You got a gold badge with a Lion's head on it.

Also, there was the "Adventure" companion comic to the "Wizard" and the "Rover".

Doe sanyone remember "Wild Young Dirky", a kilted hero who used to wage a one boy war against the occupying Hanoverian forces in 18th century Highland Scotland, and used to make an airborne getaway with the help of his two pet eagles ?

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:13 AM

"Tough of the track" was in "The Victor"

He was also in "The Hornet" some years later along with another old "Victor" character, "William Wilson", a strange character who wore a black body stocking, and would compete, bear-foot, in various athletic events, before returning to his secret cave.

It's all coming back to me!

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: maggie
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 12:23 PM

I remember being bought the Robin, and my big sister getting "Girl" whilst big brother got "Eagle" can't remember anything in them though! Always wanted to be old enough to get "The Girl" - as to the old sweets - whatever happened to "Spangles"? I liked the minty ones, white with pink swirls through them! Could suck one til it had a hole through the middle - no comments please LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 12:46 PM

I wasa spoilt brat and got all the boy's comics. I also remember the Sun and the Comet with Apaches going "Aiyee". I got one of them whapping cardboard and paper things that you made a bang with. I frightened my Auntie Rena with ine and got a smack (yes, a smack !!) for that. In the Tiger you got a Tiger's head on a stirng with powder that you rubbed quickly down the string to create a "roaring" effect. It just made my fingers sore. I seem to belive the Tiger had something to do with Hull. Aiyee !!

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 02:38 PM

Pre-Eagle there were the adventure comics - Hotspur, Wizard and Rover, the ones C-flat linked us to (thanks!) - hardly any pictures, tiny print and great stories; and the funny comics, things like Knockout and Film Fun, which were pretty well all pictures, and Beano and Dandy which were mostly pictures but a few stories.

Then the Eagle came in with a quantum leap in picture story quality, and after that the print stories started to be replaced by strips, often of the same stories, I think. And Eagle put out a whole range of companion papers - Girl and Robin and Swift; and new comics like Lion appeared, copying some of the Eagle's ideas.

But now. when you look through the newsagents, the kids don't seem to have anything really, apart from Beano and Dandy in a watered down version, and stuff that really looks as if it's aimed at teenagers. They don't know what they are missing.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 04:47 PM

Here's a site eityh links to websites on just about every British comic over the years.

Ain't the Internet amazing?

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 07:31 PM

I used to walk from school to town to save the bus fare and bought boy's comics in the town bus station.

I remember the Victor, Valiant, Hotspur - I think I bought two more - then I graduated to DC comics.

When I left home I carefully stored all my still beautifully perfect comics in boxes and suitcases - and my mother gave them away.

When I visited I had discovered that the years had increased their value considerably - particularly the American ones, and it could have made a considerable difference to the rather straitened situation at home. I can still remember their faces when I told them.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:35 PM

Sherbert Dabs!!!! a packet of sherbet with a lolly to lick it out with.....
but fruit salads & black jacks were right up there too great for turning your tongue and lips black..... I remember chocolate tools..... and sweetie cigarettes...... and white mice.... and those chocolate circles with hundreds & thousands on the top.......... I'm getting hungry now

I remember reading the Jackie problem page, and before that it was Bunty & Twinkle.... Fab 208 started me listening to Radio Luxemborg were a little known DJ called Steve Wright was starting out ......

was it the Beano or the Dandy which had "billy Whizz" (who could run really fast) and the "Little Injun" (I think that was the title)?

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Gervase
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 04:52 AM

I remember the excitement at our local shop when Whizzer and Chips was launched - the great draw being that you thought you got two comics for the price of one, as Chips was inside Whizzer.
Viz that did a wonderful parody of the classic text-heavy illustrated strips with 'Black Bag, the faithful Border Binliner' after the one about the border collie that appeared in - I think - the Eagle.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 07:01 AM

No, Black Bob was Dandy.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Fiolar
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 08:26 AM

I think there was a sale recently in which number one of either the Dandy or the Beano fetched something like £20,000.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 08:28 AM

Black Bob!! That was bloody boring!

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 08:59 AM

Who remembers Kelly's eye, about a bloke who had a jewel round his neck and he could see danger through it, think it was in the Tiger or Lion.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 09:01 AM

What comic were the Jocks & Geordies in?

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 09:10 AM

Black Bob WAS boring. But I always thought it was because I wasn't rural enough to get it? Also wasn't it in black and white...maybe? At least the dog was black and the sheep were white anyway, and every box seemed to have a picture of either dog or sheep or old shepherd bloke...all in black and white. I skipped it.

I remember in Twinkle they gave away a plastic glove puppet of Sue from Sooty and Sweep. It folded up to nothing, and going to school I would shove it up my cardigan sleeve and then at dinnertime I would fill it up with gristly stew and wrung out greens, and tip the whole lot down the toilet. Happy days.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 09:34 AM

Yep, it was black and white and dull! Black Bob was also the only collie I have ever seen that wasn't continually trying to shag anything that moved.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 10:41 AM

How about Jimmy and the magic patch who kept whizzing back and forward through history - he had a magic patch on the seat of his trousers.

Also I first encountered the John Buchan story Prester John on the back of the the Topper. All about a scary black minister who turned out to be a homicidal Zulu chief on the quiet - don't think that would have got past the race relations folks these days.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 10:46 AM

True! When I was in infants school, the teacher used to read to us every friday afternoon from a series of books about a character called "Little Black Sambo" He lived in the jungle and was often chased up a tree by tigers. Anybody else remember that one?

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: muppett
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 10:54 AM

Yep I do

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 11:19 AM

No comics, but I sure liked my John Bull printing set. My cousin had the more delux version and I was very envious. I remember separating all the little letters with a razor blade. I don't think they allow small children to use razor blades while they play now....pity.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 03:46 AM

The "print" comics like Wizard, Hotspur & Rover in the 1950s all had stories about living under occupation and heroic resistance. One was set in WW2 and had "Men in Grey" as a resistance group who wore long coats, trilby hats and masks and were know by numbers. There were two others set in the present or future with Asian oppressors (thinly disguised Japanese called Kushantis or Klovanians)running the UK with a rod of iron and brave locals fighting back. Then there were the working class sportsment Alf Tupper, the scrap merchant goalie and Wilson the 100 (?)year old athlete.
Like other 'Catters of a certain age I moved from Radio Fun to Dandy & Beano then to Rover, Wizard and Hotspur, then the Eagle. Now it's Saga Magazine!

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 04:58 AM

Anybody remember Film Fun. There were some good stories -particularly enjoyed one called The Blackfriars Phantom.

In the very early 70's I came across it republished in compendium of of ghost stories for boys under the title The Phantom of Cursitor Fields.

As I was teaching in a sec mod school for boys at the time, and the school had sod all books that were actually usable. I read it to couple of my classes.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: MBSLynne
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 08:17 AM

My step-Auntie used to get Film Fun when I was about 4, but it was a bit above me! I have vague memories of what was in it, but nothing concrete enough to put into words.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,noody
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 08:20 AM

Oor Wullie and the Broons! Now we are talking.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Fiolar
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 08:41 AM

Film Fun as I recall used to have Laurel and Hardy on the front and other film comedians such as Abbott and Costello in other parts.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 09:02 AM

Having read all the usual comics as a kid I too thought I would try
the Saga magazine. Bitter dissapointment.I thought it stood for Sex And Games for the Aged. Ah well back to my latest issue of Amatuer Scientist (this week PTFE - fact or friction).

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 09:30 AM

Another fact has surfaced through the mists of time: the Men In Grey were known as Jacques One, Jacques Two etc. There was also an Australian Aborigine spin bowler in a cricket series. As the trad jazz revival started, one comic had the rise of a young orphanage trumpet player called "Louis Armitage"!!! Another had a drummer based on Jack "Kid" Laine with a story each week how he acquired each bit of his kit. I don't remember him ever getting a washboard...

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Daithi
Date: 29 Sep 04 - 08:05 AM

Anybody remember - or help out with these....

The Steel Claw - a hero who had an artificial hand. When he put his finger into a power source, he became temporarily invisible.

A "native! who wielded a cricket bat and whose catch phrase was "Clicky-ba crush many skulls!"

An invasion by a South American empire of Inca, who had a large weapon which directed the sun's rays and could melt enemy aeroplanes, tanks etc.
happy days...
Like others, i too then got hooked on DC comics, and still have about 250 in a suitcase in the loft. Most from 1962-1970.
D

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 29 Sep 04 - 10:53 AM

"Clicky-ba crush many skulls!"

That's Chung! from the "Wolf of Kabul"!

I'm still trying to remember who the steel claw was..........

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 29 Sep 04 - 10:55 AM

Found him here.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: C-flat
Date: 29 Sep 04 - 11:22 AM

A little exploration on google turned up the name of a long-forgotten strip.....
"Legges Eleven"
A football team made up of an odd assortment of circus-type characters including a French acrobat (Pierre somebody?) and the obligitary overweight goalkeeper. I can't remember the other nine but I'm sure someone here will!

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Daithi
Date: 29 Sep 04 - 11:23 AM

Brilliant C-flat..many thanks! Chung..of course!

That site also reminded me about Mytek the Mighty!

Actually I'd forgotten all about Valiant (which is where I read him in those early sixties) and thought he might have been in The New Hotspur or the Victor, which were my other reading of choice at that age! Thanks again.
Now, any takers for those pesky Inca with their sunrays??

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 30 Sep 04 - 12:53 AM

There was a great thread here a while back about Dudley Watkins the genius artist for D.C. Thomson. He drew just about everything including the Broons, Oor Wullie, Lord Snooty, Ginger (from the Beezer), Desperate Dan and many, many others.
Remember The Iron Fish, about the boy who had a mini-submarine that looked like a swordfish? (The Beano, I believe)
Or General Jumbo? The kid with the army of miniaturized robots which he controlled from an electronic wrist band. (Beano, too.)
Or Crackaway Jack - a '50's rip-off of Davy Crockett in the Dandy?
Or Big Boko - the wizard who alwayas got his spells mixed up? (The Topper?)
Oh God! You've got me started!!

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Sep 04 - 10:02 PM

baby Crockett on the back of the beezer - there was a parody of the davy crockett song - can't remember it.

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From:
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 06:54 AM

Hi from a fifty something lady in Australia. Does anyone remember the "Princess" and "Schoolfriend" annuals of the 1950's. In particular I have this recall of a comic strip series, I think called " The Day Family" and they had a daughter called Susan Day. Would love any info. Life was so simple then....or so it seemed.

Regards,
Barbara Denny,
NSW Australia

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: Cllr
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 07:07 AM

Look In (anyone remember the kungfu medallion?)
Battle with Leautenant Easy (based on Clint Eastwood)
2000 AD with Judge Dredd (also based on Clint Eastwood)
then graphic novels Watchmen, and Maus then my all time favourite Neil Gaimen's Sand Man series
Cllr

Subject: RE: BS: Nostalgia? (UK comics)
From: GUEST,Penguin Egg
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 06:26 AM

In the 60s, my sister use to work for IPC-or Odhams Press, as it was then called, and she use to bring home a copy of all their comics, which included The Eagle, which is famous, and a series of comics based loosly on The Dandy, etc, called Wham, Smash, and Pow. I have never met anyone who remembers these comics, but I use to love them. She also brought home Terrific, but what was in it, I cannot for the life of me remember. Being a spoilt little brat, my mother also use to have delivered TV21, the bestest comic ever, based around the Gerry Anderson tv programmes, such as Supercar, Thunderbirds, etc. The artwork in that was amazing. I also remember TV Tornado, based on contemporary tv programmes such as the Saint.

Ironically, I now work in the same building that use to print those IPC magazines, but now belongs to a govt. dept, for whom I work. IPC are just across the road.