Wacky Comics!: IPC

Showing posts with label IPC. Show all posts

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Every Whizzer and Chips Free Gift (Part 2 of 3)

First off: whoops! I know this post was promised for a quite some time ago but I got swept up in things and then it slipped my mind! I do apologise, but better late than never. I left off in 1975, with the Super Jet Joke Camera, and pick up again in 1979. That may seem like a long time to go without a gift, but until more recent years such a length of time was not unusual. A set of rub down transfers known as Kalkitos were given away with the 10th birthday issue. It's striking to see how different the comic looks from its first issue (see here for my post on the first issue), and of course it would look vastly different again in another ten years. Whizzer and Chips was absolutely a comic that continued to evolve with the times, surely a reason for its longevity.

A packet of Sweet Tooth drops were given away with issue dated 4th October 1980. These "fruit flavour drops", also available to buy in stores, were identical on the outside but had a Sweet Tooth comic printed on the inside. There were twenty different strips all up, here's a couple (and please email me pictures if you have any of the others!).

A Weetabix badge was the next gift given away. Obviously a promotional item, this badge was one of five, each of which were given away with a different IPC comic the week dated 12th June 1982. As you can see from this advert, they came with that week's Buster, Tiger, Whoopee, Tammy and, of course, Whizzer and Chips. The badges reflected an advertising comic strip that appeared in the comics at the time (and apparently a television advert too), with each badge depicting a different character - Dunk, Brian, Crunch, Brains and Bixie. Unfortunately I'm not sure who the artist was. Brains came with Whizzer and Chips, although the advert mistakenly calls the comic just Whizzer, perhaps mistaking Chips for a merged-in comic similar to Jackpot was with Buster and Jinty was with Tammy. Yikes! I'm not sure how that mistake made it past the editor...

Readers didn't have to wait too long for their next gift, however, with the Magic Messages Writing Pad given away with issue dated 10th February 1982. As the pad explains: "You can write secret messages with this magic writing pad. Using a soft lead pencil, write your message on the top sheet and when it has been read, erase the words by lifting both sheets together. The magic pad will then be ready to use again". Sounds perfect for passing notes in class without the embarrassment of the teacher reading it aloud for all to hear!

Next up is this Playmobil figurine. I"m not sure if a selection of characters were given away or just the one, but nonetheless this American-style Sheriff came with issue dated 4th June 1983. I always thought Playmobil was aimed at a slightly younger audience than Whizzer and Chips' target range of 8-12 year olds, but I could be wrong.

The 14th birthday issue dated 8th October 1983 had a free gift to accompany the celebrations, this time a Smurfs sticker book and a packet of stickers to help readers get started. I used to be into stickers as a kid, in fact I actually completed (but have sadly since lost) an Indiana Jones sticker book, so I bet a gift like this went down a treat. I know I'd have been happy with it anyway.

The next gift wasn't quite so exciting: a Heinz Invaders Badge given away with issue dated 12th May 1984. Basically, this was pasta that was shaped as spaceships. It certainly seems that by this point the free gifts were more of an advertising product than the toy that they had been in the comic's earlier days.

The next gift just further goes to illustrate this point, with another Weetabix-themed gift with issue dated 16th June 1984. This one was very simple, basically a picture of Crunch, one of the Weetabix gang, with the front cover claiming the reader could turn him into a badge, key fob or pendant.

The next gift was a set of Stinky Stickers, which came with issue dated 3rd November 1984. "As advertised on TV", these stickers could apparently be scratched and sniffed, with 88 flavours to collect ranging from skunk and old shoes to liquorice and popcorn.

I'll wrap it up there for Part Two to keep all three parts roughly even in length. As you can see above, most of the gifts around this time were paid promotional products, which I'm sure was all well and good for the financial situation at the Whizzer and Chips offices but aren't quite as fun for us to look back on. The final few years offers a bit more of a mixture and includes some original Whizzer and Chips themed gifts, so stay tuned! I promise Part 3 will be published soon.

Part 1: http://whackycomics.blogspot.com/2023/05/every-whizzer-and-chips-free-gift-part.html

Part 3: http://whackycomics.blogspot.com/2023/07/every-whizzer-and-chips-free-gift-part_3.html

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Meet The Winners

Launched on 5th May 1979, Jackpot was another addition in the long line of IPC comics and, although not well-remembered as a title that particularly stood out, it certainly had its moments. One such moment came about a year and a half into its run, when The Winners arrived in issue #75. As the first panel makes clear, "the Winner family decided to enter every competition going", and the lengths they would go to and the prizes they would win were the winning formula (pardon the pun) for this long running strip. In fact, The Winners proved very popular, surviving Jackpot's merger with Buster in February 1982 and continued, admittedly in reprint form, up until the last issue in 2000. Although The Winners later came to be drawn by Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen, this first strip is actually the work of Jimmy Glen.

Monday, January 31, 2022

Oink! No. 13 (1986)

Oink! is one title I've thus far neglected to cover much on this blog, but hey - better late than never! So let's amend that with a dive into what is probably my favourite issue of one of the weirder comics published by IPC - lucky number #13. Launched in May 1986, Oink was still a fortnightly comic at this point (it would later go to monthly). Many people actually seem to consider Oink as "a Viz for children", indeed that is a phrase I have seen thrown around a lot, but it is simply not a true statement. I asked Tony Husband, one of the creators of Oink!, some years ago for something I was writing (and never finished) about whether the creation of a "Viz for children" was the intention of Oink, and this is what he had to say:

"No that was never our intention. The three of us, Pat Gallagher, Mark Rodgers and myself all wrote for the IPC comics and we just wanted to take the piss out of the formulated but enjoyable mainstream comics. We spoke to Bob Paynter who was the head of children's comics and he gave us money for a dummy. Years later John Brown publishing and the Donalds came to us about doing a kids Viz bit it never happened."

Oink! certainly is a comic unlike anything else put out by mainstream British comic publishers before. Those of you who've read Terry Bave's 2012 autobiography 'Cartoons and Comic Strips' may recall him discussing Krazy as, well, a "really crazy comic", where "a number of artists and writers had been invited to submit 'crazy' ideas, many turned out to be too crazy for consideration", and by Oink's standards Krazy would be considered somewhat traditional! (Krazy is another comic a little overlooked on this blog too, that may have to be amended soon as well.) To illustrate my point, here's a bizarre photo strip entitled Snatcher Sam meets Young Frankenstein. I can only imagine how much fun this would have been to produce.

Issue thirteen is of course an unlucky number, well known to the Oink creators, and furthermore this issue was the very first Oink halloween issue - what a coincidence! For 30p readers got 32 pages, printed on nice glossy paper, 9 of those pages in full colour and a further 6 in partial colour with either a pink or yellow ink. That full-colour page count includes the poster on the centre spread, which is an absolutely stunning piece of artwork by the aforementioned Tony Husband featuring his popular character Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins, drawn in the style of a 1950s US horror comic cover. If it didn't mean taking apart an old comic I would definitely have this up on my wall. Perhaps a photocopy is needed...

Another interesting addition to this issue is this 3/4 page text piece Dennis Nifford's History of Horrors. Obviously, this is the pig alter-ego of famed comic historian Denis Gifford. I can only assume it was he who put this piece together, for as well as being a fan of comics he was very much involved with them.

-- UPDATE! Thanks to Lew Stringer and other good ol' piggin' pals over at the Oink comic fan page on Facebook for informing me that actually this page is NOT by Denis Gifford as he was not a fan of Oink. In fact being an old school guy he didn't like any comics that didn't seem to follow the traditional style, such as 2000AD. I was very surprised to hear this, to say the least! The artwork is actually by Steve Gibson and potentially written by Steve as well, although if not it may have been Mark Rodgers. --

So what are some more of these weird and wacky strips I keep going on about? Well, what about this one entitled Billy's Brain. About a young boy called Billy and his uncle, who exists only as a brain, it's certainly not a strip I could see appearing in Buster or The Beano. It's unsigned but I think this is drawn by David Haldane.

Monster Mash is perhaps the funniest story in this issue. Illustrated by Lew Stringer and written by Mark Rodgers, it is a short story filled with brilliant gags - my favourite is the "school dinner disposal unit" wearing hazmat suits as they dump the toxic dinners into the "hidden dump". This is the first appearance of Pigswilla, a character who would appear a few times throughout Oink's run, and Lew talked about the character's creation in a post on his art blog. Here's what he had to say:

"Mark had originally sent me an idea for a story called The School Dinner Monster and asked if I had any ideas to add to it. I added a few bits and bobs to the plot and dialogue, and thought that the title Monster Mash was catchier. I gave the name 'Pigzilla' to the giant robot pig, although Mark changed that to the much more inspired Pigswilla."

Anyway, here's the two-pager. I really wish this had been given full colour treatment, as I feel it would really have made use of some disgusting school dinner colours to add some extra effect! In fact, another copy of Oink (#66) I happen to have to hand contains a full-colour, nine (!) page Pigswilla comic which I might have to share in a post here sometime soon, just for fun, and you'll see what I mean.

The last strip I'll share is a silly page that is perhaps a bit more 'normal' as far as IPC comics go, emphasis on a bit - The Curse of the Mummy, illustrated by Jeremy Banx. I say this one is a bit more normal only because it reminds me of a strip from the early days of Whizzer and Chips called The Mummy's Curse, in which two unlucky explorers are chased around the world by an angry mummy whose tomb they disturbed. I've also shared an example of that strip, taken from Whizzer and Chips #2 (25th October 1969) and illustrated by Reg Parlett.

Oink ran for about two and a half years before folding in October 1988. Sadly its unique appearance also made it somewhat controversial and some newsagents allocated it to the top shelf, above the eyes of children, and sales ultimately slumped and the plug was pulled (although I'm sure this wasn't the only reason). For those who want to read more about Oink I highly recommend Phil Boyce's excellent Oink blog, which has moved to a new home on Wordpress and can be found here:

https://oink.blog

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Buster Comic - 25 Years Young!

Well, before I start this post I thought I'd quickly explain what brought it about. Here in New Zealand our country went into a total lockdown about a week ago as a result of the COVID-19 virus, meaning pretty much everything except supermarkets and pharmacies have shut and we are all confined to our homes unless visiting essential services. As a result of this lockdown, I have returned home to Auckland to be with my family and was reading the very comic this post is about when I thought hey, why not use this time to do some blogging.

This issue of Buster, dated 25th May 1985, is the celebratory quarter century birthday number for the comic, the first issue of which hit the shops in May 1960. This issue also brought about a new artist for Buster replacing Reg Parlett, who had drawn the strip since taking over from Angel Nadal Quirch in 1974, with Tom Paterson. Many, including IPC group editor Bob Paynter, later thought this change was far too sudden and dramatic and I am possibly inclined to agree - as much as I absolutely adore Tom's style he is so far from Reg Parlett that I bet many readers would have found the sudden change quite a shock. Here is Tom's full strip, printed in full-colour on the back page.

Not having the free gift attached to the front does look a little sad when the whole cover is almost devoted to promoting it. "Incredible... Amazing... Unbelievable!" boasts the big yellow arrow, pointing at an empty blue space. Still, a half page instruction from inside shows those of us reading now just what it was we are missing. The previous issue had hyped them us as 'Deadly Death-Rattler Eggs', but they are certainly not what I would have imagined.

Other than the back-page Buster strip, no other stories made mention of the occasion. The only other indication that this issue held any kind of significance was this mildly interesting comparison of kids 'then and now', comparing interests of children in 1960 and 1985. Personally, I feel dedicating the entire centre page spread to this is a waste of space and the pages could have been better used with something such as a history of Buster, a poster, or a celebratory strip, but each to their own I suppose. It almost seems like they forgot the anniversary was coming up and had to prepare the issue at the last minute.

Since so little of this issue actually celebrates the anniversary I thought I'd show a few pages from the previous week as well, which is also the final combined Buster and School Fun. Although School Fun isn't even mentioned on the cover, this issue still has the School Fun section inside, featuring characters from the now defunct title. A wonderful Reg Parlett front cover hints at exciting things to come next week - quite the build up for what was eventually a bit of a let down.

Of course, this being Reg's last time drawing Buster I have to show the full strip - printed in full colour on the back page.

Inside, a full page advert previewed the front cover of next weeks issue, including a picture of the rather exciting looking free gift! The thrilling death-rattler artwork would probably have gotten me to buy it, I'm not going to lie.

This issue also contains the final episode of The Leopard from Lime Street, a popular character that had been in the comic for almost a decade having first appeared on 27th March 1976. A sad loss to see this one go, it was the final adventure strip Buster ever featured, although it would return in the form of reprints in the 1990's. Artwork by the legendary Mike Western, I believe.

I hope this brought about a bit of happiness wherever you are in the world. Please stay safe everyone! I'll try keep blogging while I'm quarantined in Auckland with all my comics, so stay tuned.

Friday, April 18, 2014

I Spy in Whoopee!

A few days ago in the comments section of my previous post, Irmantas mentioned that I Spy, a D.C Thomson character from Sparky, appeared in a Scream Inn strip, in IPC's Whoopee comic, in the issue dated 26th October 1974! Here is that strange, inter-companies crossover in full, illustrated by Brian Walker.

Is it I Spy though? I'll leave that for you to decide...

This wasn't the only crossover mentioned. A few months earlier in the 2nd March 1974 edition of Shiver and Shake, Timothy Tester, a Whizzer and Chips favourite, leapt out of the pages of Whizzer to test Scream Inn, and to try his chances of winning the million. Here is the two-page strip. The menu boards in Scream Inn are always interesting, so be sure to take note of it in this strip.

Many thanks for Irmantas of Kazoop for informing me of these crossovers and providing the scans. As you may already know, Irmantas writes a very interesting blog that mostly focuses on cataloguing entire comics. He started off with Cor, then Shiver and Shake and is now beginning on Monster Fun. He covered Scream Inn's run in Shiver and Shake in four posts last year, the first of which can be found here:

http://kazoop.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/a-look-at-shiver-shake-strips-scream-inn.html

And whilst you're there, be sure to check out the whole blog - there's lots if interesting stuff!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Big One!

Before I get too carried off yapping on about a comic of which I have only one issue of, I thought I'd better put the facts out there first. Now, I was searching on Google the other day for some more information on Big One comic, and it seems that there is hardly any there! So I hope if anybody is after info on it that they find this! First of all, Big one was an experiment comic published by IPC and each page was just smaller that A2 (and I'm not talking about leaves, I mean each individual page!)It was launched on 17th October 1964 and ran for 19 issues, meaning that it ended on 20th Febuary 1965. It did have a 'Big One Birthday Club', just like Buster did at the same time! It was 100% reprints - save for Big One himself, drawn by Reg Parlett. Smiler was always on the front cover except for the last issue, which featured Big One. It had 1 Fireworks issue and one christmas issue. The first issue came with a free toffe bar, of which I'm guessing none exist any more. There was also a four page (?) flyer to advertise the Big One, as "Britain's Biggest Comic", the flyer was the same size as the comic itself.

Unfortunatly, I know little more of the comic, but I do have the last issue, so I hope that the photos I have taken will be of intrest to you, as this could be one of the last, and best condition, of it's kind.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Bye, bye Buster!

In 1960, IPC launched a new comic, called Buster. The comic was very successful, as you probably all know. Unfortunatly, in 1999, the comic came to a close. The reason for this is that Egmont (who owned the comics copyright, and still do) were putting their money into other things and couldn't be bothered with it anymore. It's sad really because maybe if they had hung onto it a little longer sales would have gone up again, and Buster would still be on our shelves today (well, it sort of was last year, with the hard-to-find special).

And so, as a final goodbye to Buster, here are some scans of the last ever issue...

Maybe if someone starts a petition with me too bring back Buster (and Whizzer and Chips, of course). Anyone......hmmmm.....