British Comic Characters

[Clare]

Re: British Comic Characters

I was also a Whizzkid. There was a rivalry between the characters in Whizzer and those in Chips, and characters from Whizzer would sometimes sneak into Chips, and vice-versa. I know you could seperate the two sections to make individual comics but that is something I never did.

Neither did we. As I recall, Whizzer was led by Sid's Snake, and Chips by Shiner.

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

I was a Whizzkid!

I was also a Whizzkid. There was a rivalry between the characters in Whizzer and those in Chips, and characters from Whizzer would sometimes sneak into Chips, and vice-versa. I know you could seperate the two sections to make individual comics but that is something I never did.

[Clare]

Re: British Comic Characters

...
I also liked Whizzer and Chips...were you a Whizzkid or a Chipite?
...

I was a Whizzkid!

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

I've seen those Rollerball type comics mentioned earlier, futuristic blokes on skates.

I'm surprised if there was never a 'Big Daddy' Crabtree/Giant Haystacks comic. I do have four Madness comic papers titled The Nutty Boys from when they were building a fan club, so maybe Bad Manners could've done one starring Buster Bloodvessel.

I definitely remember Whizzer & Chips too. I'm assuming there was a Chips that was 'combined' with a Whizzer at some point. I think Beano and Dandy were/are the two longest running titles, but Beano gets the edge in cool for having Eric Clapton reading one on that '60s LP photo!

The rollerball strip I remember was in Action and was called Spinball, with the strip itself called Death Game 1999. It was played on an ice rink set out like a giant pinball table with those bumper bar things. The players had ice skates and sticks, and there were guys on motorbikes. It was a very violent strip and it caused quite a bit of controversy. In the first issue it was in there was a panel showing a player getting cut up by other players with their ice skates while a couple excitedly looked on. Another panel showed Al Rico, Spinball's star player, getting hit by one of those bumper bars and then being catapaulted into the glass wall of the stadium with blood spraying.

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

My brother used to get (and therefore, I read) Whizzer & Chips, Buster, Topper, and Beezer. I preferred Whizzer & Chips and Buster. My favourite character was Cliff Hanger, and I always looked out for the cartoonist (J. Edward Oliver)'s little motifs, e.g. the "Abolish Tuesdays" sign.

In Topper there was Figaro the Mexican bandit and Desert Island Dick who was trapped on a tiny desert island with a single coconut tree...I think there was sometimes an octopus with him as well for some bizarre reason.

I also liked Whizzer and Chips...were you a Whizzkid or a Chipite?

Around the same time was Cor!! with Gus the Gorilla.

[beccabear67]

Re: British Comic Characters

I've seen those Rollerball type comics mentioned earlier, futuristic blokes on skates.

I'm surprised if there was never a 'Big Daddy' Crabtree/Giant Haystacks comic. I do have four Madness comic papers titled The Nutty Boys from when they were building a fan club, so maybe Bad Manners could've done one starring Buster Bloodvessel.

I definitely remember Whizzer & Chips too. I'm assuming there was a Chips that was 'combined' with a Whizzer at some point. I think Beano and Dandy were/are the two longest running titles, but Beano gets the edge in cool for having Eric Clapton reading one on that '60s LP photo!

[Clare]

Re: British Comic Characters

My brother used to get (and therefore, I read) Whizzer & Chips, Buster, Topper, and Beezer. I preferred Whizzer & Chips and Buster. My favourite character was Cliff Hanger, and I always looked out for the cartoonist (J. Edward Oliver)'s little motifs, e.g. the "Abolish Tuesdays" sign.

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

In some Action comics the middle pages could be taken out and over a number of weeks put together to form a big poster of sharks eating people that was in colour.

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

There was Countdown from the early 1970s which printed various SF strips. I think Dr Who was in it as well as a strip of the Gerry Anderson TV series UFO. I think most of it was B/W but there was a strip called, I think, Countdown, about the crew of a spaceship fighting against a tyrannical world ruler that was in colour. The ship looked like the one in 2001: A Space Odyssey--the one that goes to Jupiter. The comic had its page numbering reversed so that the last page was page 1 and it was printed on that cheap newspaper type paper.

[beccabear67]

Re: British Comic Characters

I wonder if it's been mentioned, there was a Three Bears comic that was very sarky I guess you'd say. The creator of it died not too long ago. I thought what I saw of it was great and would buy a collection of them. Does anyone know these bears? Nothing like Rupert.

I got the Doctor Who Weekly comic from the first issues and kept them for awhile (including rub-on transfers with the first few) but then I got rid of them thinking I was too old for comics! I still have the Monthly issues that had less comics and more fact and old episodes stuff in a box someplace though (up to when Colin Baker started and I'd went off the whole thing then). They were British made comics in them though.

We had a combo paper and sweets shop here in Victoria that had some British comic papers, '70s-early '80s. Lots of Army and Footballer things and then a lot of zany Dennis The Menace and Beano types, but the oddest ones to me were all the ones with various girl's names for titles as there seemed to be so many. I was very disappointed there wasn't one with my name. Remember Tracy and Penelope and Judy I think. And another odd thing was the 'now combined with' ones with two titles. The best thing was they were cheap and you get two and a half for the price of a U.S. comic book. I also remember many that were just reprints of U.S. comics, but one had some wonderful colour airbrush superhero covers. Those were early '80s I think. Oh and there were the hardback annuals for various comic titles, I had an X-Men one with giant robots. Often the colours would be wrong on the costumes. I remember a green and white Iron Man painting cover. I'm sure I saw a Warlord comic from England too but it was a bit expensive.

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

In possibly Warlord there was a character who was an RAF pilot but his plane had lost its wings and he would drive it across the North African desert.

General Jumbo, who had an army of miniature robot soldiers he controlled with a remote controller on his arm--can't remember the comic.

[staffslad]

Re: British Comic Characters

The Wolf of Kabul. I think he might have started out in The Wizard in text stories then later became a comic strip in Hornet or The Victor. He had a side-kick in the shape of a big Indian guy who carried a cricket bat and was prone to bashingbaddies over the head with it--he called his bat Clicky-Ba.

Kelly's Eye--in The Victor? He wore a jewel around his neck which gave him invulnerability or something like that.

Al Rico in Action's Death Game 1999. He was a Spinball player who got splattered and came back as a brain-damaged zombie.

Can't recall the character name or strip title but he had a midget submarine in the shape of a floating sea mine and it was set in WWII.

Crazy Luigi in Action's The Running Man. He lived up to his name and carried a hatchet which he used to chop off a guy's hand in one strip.

[Twocky61]

Re: British Comic Characters

Puss'n'Boots
the Sparky People
Klanky
++Spunky ( I kid you not !) and the Spider++

Good old Spunky lol

Was he Beano or Dandy?

[Raymond Luxury-Yacht]

Re: British Comic Characters

Victor was kool, used to love the summer specials and the annuals, which I still have a large collection of, you had your moneys worth in those days comics aren't quite the same nowadays are they.

1. Hostspur -The Black Sapper, Red Star Robinson, Nick Jolly Highwayman, King Cobra
2. Hornet - Captain Hornet, Jonah
3. Lion - Robot Archie, Zip Nolan
4. Rover - Though not sure what character it had, but have an annual
5. Victor - Tough of the track, Alf Tupper, Morgan the mighty, Wilson
6. Tiger - Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar
7. Valiant - Captain Hurricane, Adam Eterno, Janus Stark, The Steel Claw, Spellbinder
8. Warlord - Union Jack Jackson
9. Scorcher - Billys Boots, Hot Shot Hamish
10. Jet - Fish Boy
11. Tornado - Wolfie Smith
12. 2000AD - Judge Dredd, Mach One, DR and Quinch
13. Starlord - Strontium Dog
14. Wizard -Again another I recall, but sure of characters or stories
15. Speed - Deathwish

Any more comics, and characters to match? How about someone remembering Rover or Wizard?

I used to get Scorcher every week. Not sure I remember Hot Shot Hamish, but Billy's Boots was about the lad who's talent came from wearing a pair of old boots that had once belonged to a famous old footballer. Also "Lags Eleven" about a prison football team and their nemesis warder "Bad News Benson" (Gawd, it all comes back to you, doesn't it?) and 2 separate strips about brothers playing for local rival teams; I think one was called "Jimmy of City" and the other something like "Jack of United" Also something like "Bobby of the Blues" who played for fashionable Everpool. Last but not least there was a text-only serial called (I think) "Goalkeepers Are Different" which I thought was clever in the way it mixed fact with fiction. Visit to eBay now, I reckon...

[amnesiac5]

Re: British Comic Characters

Thanks Daz, for confiming this strip did exist, although a couple of years earlier than I remember, also that it was Sparky, and I got the name of the aliens right, Vanaks. Does anyone know if they ever reprinted "Year of the Vanaks" anywhere else again, or is it available in reprint anywhere?