Web Page  No 2246

18^th March 2016

It is good to welcome another school mate Phil Woods who now lives in Australia.

Next meeting in The George at Noon onThursday April 7th. Both June Blitz and Peter Sexton have confirmed their attendance.

Classic Comics

The late 1950s and early 1960s were the years when comics came to prominence. Here are just a few and they were all published by the same firm D. C. Thomson & Co..

BUNTY was a comic for girls published from 1958 onwards. The average issue consisted of several short comic-strip stories, letter pages, competitions, puzzles, promotions and adverts. The back page originally featured a cut-out doll with changeable clothes but this eventually gave way to a wall poster. The longest running of all Bunty's comic strips was "The Four Marys" which featured throughout the comic's run which ended in 2001. The four Mary's were Mary Field, Mary Cotter, Mary Simpson and Mary Radleigh - all were in the Third Form at St. Elmo's School for Girls in Elmbury. Bunty was aimed primarily at working class readers under the age of 14.

THE BEANO first appeared as a weekly publication in 1938 although during the War years it alternated with The Dandy due to the government paper and ink rationing, but publication was maintained to keep up the morale of the children. Its main characters were Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Little Plum, The 3 Bears and Billy Whizz, each of them passing into comic strip legend. The Beano was so popular that for a while it had its own section in the Chessington World of Adventures theme park called "Beanoland" which opened on the former site of Circus World, bringing two new rides to the park: Billy's Whizzer and Rodger the Dodger's Dodgems but in 2010 Beanoland closed and the new Wild Asia area replaced it. The comic is still published today.

THE DANDY was first published in 1937 and is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics in the USA and Il Giornalino in Italy. It was published weekly until September 1941, when wartime paper shortages forced it to switch to fortnightly, alternating with The Beano. It returned to its weekly schedule on July 1949. From 17^th July 1950, the magazine changed its name from The Dandy Comic to just The Dandy. Its characters were Desperate Dan, Keyhole Kate, Smasher, Winker Watson and Korky the Cat. The original editor was Albert Barnes who, according to The Legend of Desperate Dan (published 1997), Dan's famous chin was modelled on. He stayed in the role until 1982. The last edition was published on 26^th  June 2013 and the final edition coincided with the title's 75th anniversary and  included a pull-out reprint of the very first edition of the comic from 4th December 1937. An online version was launched but this proved not to be popular with The Dandy’s readers.

THE TOPPER was published from February 1953 to September 1990, when it merged with The Beezer. Despite the closure of the Topper as a standalone title, The Topper Book continued as an annual, separate from The Beezer Book, until the 1994 annual. Vintage stories from the Topper appeared alongside stories from other D. C. Thomson publications in Classics from the Comics, a compilation magazine series which ran from 1996 to 2010. Its characters were Beryl the Peril, Send for Kelly, Desert Island Dick and Mickey the Monkey. Unlike most other comics at the time, which were A4 paper size, this was double the size at A3. In issue 1260 on 26^th March 1977, "Big News" was announced on the front cover redirecting the reader to page 7 of the comic. The Big news was that starting from issue number 1261 the comic would include a "Special Pull-out section" that brought back classic Topper Characters such as Splodge and Big Uggy. These reprints didn't last long as in issue 1276 the pull out section was used for the Sparky comic, creating the "Special Sparky Pull-Out". The Sparky Pull out section was continued until the change to the A4 format.

THE BEEZER ran from January 1956 to August 1993. Like its sister comic, The Topper, The Beezer was an A3 (tabloid) publication, twice as big as most other comics. It shrank to A4 paper size in 1981. In September 1990, D. C. Thomson decided to merge The Beezer with The Topper. Whereas most previous comic mergers saw the name of one of the 'absorbed' comics disappear, the Topper was considered significant enough for its name to be retained despite the merger, and as such the comic was renamed Beezer and Topper following the relaunch. Its main characters included Calamity Jane, Ginger, Pop Dick and Harry and The Numskulls.

As mentioned at the beginning all of these comics were published by the same publishing firm D. C. Thomson & Co. But until you read the list of their publications I am sure you will be amazed at the number of different comics produced; all helping to fill our juvenile minds.

Here is the list:-

The Beano, BeanoMAX, Commando, Adventure, Bullet, Buddy, Champ, Commando, The Crunch, The Hornet, The Hotspur, The Rover, The Skipper, Spike, Starblazer, The Vanguar, The Victor

Warlord, The Wizard, Bunty, Judy, Mandy, Nikki, The Beezer, Buzz, Cracker, The Dandy, Hoot, The Magic Comic, Nutty, Plug, Sparky, The Topper, Bimbo, The Magic Comic and Twinkle.

How many do you remember?

Keep in touch

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

Gill writes re the Paris trip photos on the photo page

Miss Blitz would remember that exchange in Paris because French boys broke into the dormitory and caused a lot of trouble for her and Miss Pipe and Mr Greer seems funny now but sixty years ago it was very serious!,!!

News and Views:

A bit of a shock to hear that both Cliff Michelmore and Paul Daniels both died this week.

On this day 18^th  March 1960-1965

On 18/03/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was The Explosive Freddy Cannon - Freddy Cannon. The top rated TV show was The Larkins (ATV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Plans for Thames Barrier.

On 18/03/1961 the number one single was Walk Right Back / Ebony Eyes - Everly Brothers and the top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was The Dickie Henderson Show (AR).

On 18/03/1962 the number one single was Rock-a-Hula Baby/Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 18/03/1963 the number one single was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 18/03/1964 the number one single was Anyone Who Had a Heart -Cilla Black and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 18/03/1965 the number one single was It's Not Unusual - Tom Jones and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.