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Annuals, Big Comic Book, Christmas

BiG COMiC BOOK 1990: NOW WiTH ADDED iNGREDiENTS

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How can I be four books deep into this read through already? That’s over 1,000 pages and half of my collection. Fleetway’s Big Comic Book 1990 strode into a new decade by visiting the past once more with 256 pages of classic strips from the pages of classic IPC comics. The cover no longer carries the logos of Buster, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee because just like its fortnightly counterpart the books now also contained reprints from Cor!!, Cheeky, Wow!, Jackpot, Monster Fun and Krazy.

Of course, these comics all merged into one another and eventually into Buster at some stage, so don’t be expecting a completely new cast. But still, there was a wider selection of strips to pull from. The book as a whole is probably the most enjoyable one yet, but I wonder if that’s more to do with how much I’m enjoying coming back to favourite characters year-on-year, so each one feels better than the last. The cover is the one that usually comes to mind when recollecting the series, that Frankie Stein panel in the middle standing out from the crowd.

Regular readers won’t be surprised to see the star of our first highlight. Again taking the Gums strips from his later John Geering era, I have to say I did let out a laugh when I saw the penultimate panel. There’s something very ‘Wile E Coyote‘ about the sheepish great white in that one. It perfectly sums up the character and why I love him so much and as such it’s the perfect introductory strip for new readers.

With John behind the pen I thought this would’ve been written by OiNK’s Graham Exton again but he’s confirmed it wasn’t. The real culprit is most likely Gums’ original writer Roy Davis who, after pulling back on Bluey and the other humans, introduced the more soap opera-like elements of the undersea cast I’m much more familiar with. We’ll have to assume it was Roy though because we can’t confirm. 

While gambling isn’t exactly something you’d expect to see in a children’s comic, Jack Pott’s compulsion to bet on anything and everything became so ludicrous, and the winner’s rewards so child-friendly, he might just be the only one to get away with it. Drawn by Jim Crocker, Jack originated in Cor!! before (fittingly) moving to Jackpot and then survived the inevitable merge into Buster where he stayed until 1988.

While this example doesn’t include any of his trademark gambling, I’ve chosen this particular strip because it reminds me of my dad. I don’t mean his father, I’m referring to Jack himself. I remember as a young boy my dad showing me how to do the household chores badly so as not to be asked to do them again! A perfect example of his sense of humour and reading this page made me chortle as I remembered times like that, so it’s a very personal choice.

Creepy Comix was surprisingly not a stablemate of Gums from Monster Fun but rather a later addition to the IPC lot in the short-lived Wow! which launched in 1982 and lasted just one year. Davey Doom owns all the editions of his favourite Creepy Comix, the large variety of characters in which can come to life to help their friend before disappearing back into their pages once more. Horror comics have frequently been frowned upon by the usual anti-comics brigade so it’s nice to see one of them get its own back in a way.

Drawn by Reg Partlett, the strip made the migration to Whoopee, then to Whizzer and Chips, then it joined the fun in (you guessed it) Buster, only succumbing in 1997 when Buster itself went all reprint material. Easily the most popular of all of Wow!’s strips, the page I’ve photographed for you spoke to many of the young readers I’m sure. It certainly would’ve raised a smile with me after years of horrible school uniform shopping.

The Winners is one of those strip series that’s stayed in the deep recesses of my ever decreasing memory all these years. The second I saw the faces of the characters in the title banner I could remember enjoying them in the pages of either these books or the fortnightly comic, so they must’ve been a highlight for me back then. Judging by this example I can see why. Of course, Mike Lacey’s always-funny collection of facial expressions could be a key reason.

This lucky family won every competition they ever entered. You’d think that’d make us dislike them if they got everything handed to them on a platter, right? Nope, not at all. For example, there could be a ton of fun to be had watching them practicing something they weren’t good at for their next competition. However, the best stories were always the ones when, despite all their preparations, they’d win only via some accident or mistake, such as here. Continuing with new strips all the way to the mid-90s in Buster, The Winners was by far the longest-running Jackpot strip of all.

Big Comic never had much in the way of small, quick gags. Unlike the variety in OiNK, the comics these books pulled from were all pretty stringent in their strip sizes. So when a page of Silent Funnies popped up it drew the attention when initially flicking through the book. Drawn by Jim Crocker I’ve no idea which comic it was pulled from although my sources (that’s Lew Stringer to you and me) suggested it could’ve been a good fit for Krazy.

As a kid I loved to draw. I drew all the time and on any thing. I was always bought drawing pads and yet the school books that had to be returned at the end of the year would still end up covered in tiny diagrams of things I loved from cartoons, comics and movies. I saw it as a service. I was cheering up the next poor soul who had to wade their way through them. Naturally then, Chalky always spoke to me when I collected Big Comic Fortnightly, even if the idea of using huge chalks already felt outdated to me. Although what else could he have used here?

Chalky first appeared three years before I was even born (and at my age I take that as a small win) in the pages of Cor!! in 1971 before transferring to Buster three years later. Some erroneous information online has Terry Bave credited as creating Chalky although “more regularly drawn by Dick Millington or Gordon Hill“. He was actually first drawn by Arthur Martin and, while we can’t be completely certain about this particular page, it was most likely drawn by Gordon.

The S.O.S Squad were a four man elite anti-terrorist task force originally comprised of Captain John West (don’t laugh), Sgt Thomas Mackenzie, Corporal Danny Lloyd and Henry ‘Fingers’ Malone, and later by the icy lady officer Captain J. W. Ironstead… oh hang on, wait. No, that’d be the Eagle strip of the same name from the second volume of that legendary comic. Instead, our S.O.S Squad is led by a kid in a box called Zed and stars others with such names as Skypole, Baby Boffin and the delightfully named Effel.

Drawn by Jimmy Hensen this spread is a perfect example of the high octane chaos that runs through all of their strips. So I was surprised to find out they didn’t last very long in the pages of Buster, just over a year as a matter of fact right at the beginning of the 1980s. There’s no accounting for taste, I guess. It’s a shame though, as their entries in this book are among the best this volume contains.

When I was young I was always encouraged to read. This began by collecting The Railway Series which my favourite early childhood TV show was based on. Then my parents bought me the Story Teller magazine and cassette partwork for two years. Soon, I discovered comics via OiNK and in later life my mum admitted she liked the fact I always asked for comics instead of sweets in the shop because they encouraged me to read more and improved my school work as a result. In contrast, our next character’s parents constantly wanted him to ditch the books in favour of what they saw as more “boyish” hobbies, which never made sense to me.

It wasn’t just me. All of my friends loved to read. So yes, it was always confusing why Bookworm was mocked by some of his peers for reading. Anyway, this particular favourite first appeared in Whoopee in 1978 and made the move to Whizzer and Chips in 1986. A bibliophile, Book Worm always has a book under his arm, normally one which just so happens to give him the right knowledge for whatever situation he finds himself in.

Here though, in this story drawn by Sid Burgon his peers appreciate his obsession and it’s also an example of how some strips could be edited for Big Comic’s audience. The year of the annuals has been changed, you can see a title has been erased from the one he’s holding in the shop and ‘Cor!!’ has been unceremoniously scribbled out in the last panel. I don’t think this was necessary, we all knew these were reprints, but I can understand why they did it.

What can I say? I couldn’t decide between two of John Geering’s Gums strips so I went with them both. There are more but this one stood out. Now we know where Bruce in Jaws learned his trick that took Brody and Quint by surprise! With our shark friend high and dry it’s time to close over another massive tome in the Big Comic Book series for another whole year. Next Christmas you can expect double the amount of classic humour strips.

That’s because in 2026 alongside The Big Comic Book 1991 we’ll also have our first annual for its companion title, Funny Fortnightly. Does that mean even more Gums? We’ll find out in a year. In the meantime, there are plenty more annuals to enjoy this season and of particular interest to fans of these characters and creative teams will be the Buster Book 1991. You can read all about it from Monday 8th December 2025. It’s certainly a Big Christmas this year!

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BiG COMiC BOOK 1989: REPRiNTiNG LiKE A BOSS

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As is traditional on the blog the first festive post after the Christmas introduction is the next volume in the Big Comic Book series from Fleetway, collecting together more classic strips from their flagship title Buster, as well as Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee, the latter of which had already ceased publication by the time this series began. This hardback 256-page whopper pretty much keeps to the same formula as before, which is no bad thing.

With all eight books on the shelf behind me as I read, it feels like a real event to finally be able to crack open another and see what’s been included this time. Of course, I grin from ear-to-ear as I flick through it and spot a certain toothless great white shark on several pages, once again drawn by John Geering from the pages of Buster. He may not have been the original artist but for me he was the first whose undersea world I saw and this strip is written by OiNK’s very own Graham Exton.

I just laugh so hard at how expressive John’s version of the character is. Despite a shark being somewhat limited in details, John’s expert way with Gums’ eyes can convey everything from sadistic humour to intrigued, self-importance or even fear! I adore his drawing of the white whale too. As for what appears to be some kind of distant, abandoned underwater city and a briefcase or petrol can in the first panel, I’ve no idea. I’ve even asked some experts and we’re none the wiser. It just seems too specifically drawn to be some random background detail. Perhaps it refers to something from a previous Gums strip.

This isn’t the last you’ll hear of Gums or the only highlight of his you’ll see this Christmas. If you’re a fan of the Jaws wannabe you’ll want to come back here on Wednesday 4th December 2024 to read a full review of Rebellion’s first Gums book! It collects together all of the original Monster Fun strips and I’m hoping it’ll prove to be one of the highlights of the holiday season on the blog this year (I haven’t read it yet).

This is the first I’ve seen Boy Boss., written by OiNK co-editor Mark Rodgers. According to Graham, “His experience of Big Business were working in a betting ship in Whitby, tending bar at his dad’s British Legion in Redcar, and packing tampons for the Christmas rush at Lewis’s department store in Leeds. So he was very much winging it.” (Thanks for commenting on the post with this, Graham!)

Originating in Wow! and merging into Whoopee, Boy Boss is the owner of a huge multi-national corporation but he’d rather be out playing with his mates. That’s the basic premise. He also has a put-upon assistant by the name of Jasper who tries to keep him on the straight and narrow and ultimately boring life that would serve the company’s bottom line the best. While there are funny moments, I can’t help but notice two of his strips make jokes of things we rightly scorn today, namely getting employees to work through the breaks and insisting they’re reachable on days off or even on holiday (which at the time of writing is a hot topic on social media).

I’m not for one moment suggesting artist Frank Diarmid (Roger the Dodger, Kid Kong, Frankie Stein) would’ve supported such things, it’s just a silly comic strip and they’re genuinely funny, especially the endings of both where Boy Boss is actually on the receiving end of his own ideas. I’m just making the point that these are examples of some the contents of these books showing their age a bit.

They were already classic strips from older editions of the three weeklies when this was published in 1988, never mind now. However, having read three of these mammoth books so far it’s comforting that they still read so well decades later. Although, there may be one character who could be seen as somewhat problematic today, who I’ll get to further on.

Just how big does a VCR need to be?!

I had to check on the artists for the next two strips with those friends of the blog, Lew Stringer and John Freeman. For (deep breath) Ivor Lott and Tony Broke with Milly O’Naire and Penny Less (phew!) I was quick to assume it was Sid Burgon but there’s no signature. While it was rare for cartoonists to be allowed to do so back then (OiNK very much broke that mould), Sid always did and his strips elsewhere in this book have his name written on them.

Originally appearing in Cor!, the original strip with just the two boys continued all the way through to Buster’s final issue. The girls had been stars of Jackpot and when it too merged with Buster they came along and the strips also joined together, although the girls’ names were dropped from 1985 despite continuing to appear.

[Speaking about a friend of mine], the similarities to Benny Bones couldn’t be ignored

Every week Ivor and Milly would boast about some material possessions they owned, usually things that were bigger and grander than those owned or coveted by Tony and Penny. Inevitably, in the end their boastful ways would land them in trouble and the two “poor” characters would have the last laugh. There’s a not-very-subtle lesson in there for us all, and I enjoyed seeing the imaginative ways the strip would lead to its predictable conclusion. Although, just how big does a VCR need to be?! Surely more expensive technology is meant to be smaller and sleeker, even in the 70s and 80s?

I haven’t forgotten about the issue of the artist responsible and below is the other strip I wanted to bring up. Whizzer and Chips star, Benny Bones was the ultimate in lazy children and would often put more mental effort into how to get out of doing something than it would take to do it, often falling asleep in the process.

On the day I read this strip my friend Vicki and I were watching the same TV show in our two separate houses. Over a text she asked me what time it was over at and I told her she could just press the button on her remote to find out. Her response was that she was watching it in bed and was too lazy to do that… despite the effort it took to ask me via text! The similarities to Benny couldn’t be ignored, but the fact this very strip contains a similar moment was such a coincidence it had to be included in this review!

So anyway, I found out Colin Whittock drew Lazy Bones until 1986 but there’s no information on who took over. This strip is likely to have been drawn before then but it’s somewhat looser in style than normal. As for Ivor et all, the same conclusion was drawn by the experts. Perhaps Sid was on holiday, for example, and someone had to ghost his style. We’ve no way of finding out so for now I’ll say they’re most likely by Sid and Colin respectively, but there’s a chance some unknown cartoonists were responsible.

Originally in Cheeky Weekly then Whoopee, the Paddywack mini-strips by Jack Clayton were basically about an idiot who made stupid mistakes. While it was never confirmed, there was an assumption he was Irish, back at a time when Irish people could be the butt of jokes in the playground. In these more enlightened times we simply wouldn’t do that anymore. Name aside, there’s nothing in any of the strips of his I’ve read that I’d have a problem with, and I live in Belfast.

I do remember as a teenager telling one of those Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman jokes to an English friend who had told many of them to us. But of course we changed it so the Englishman was the butt of the joke. He was greatly offended! He completely missed the point we were trying to make and continued telling us there was nothing wrong with the way he told those jokes, but ours was wrong. Take from that what you will.

Drawn by the always brilliant Mike Lacey, Kids’ Court only ran for a few years in Whoopee in the 1970s, but it was so memorable when I originally read it in these books and Big Comic Fortnightly. At its core it’s a basic role reversal strip but it’s done so brilliantly and so chaotically it feels highly original. In this world the kids are the cops, the judges and the juries punishing misbehaving adults. I particularly like the way the captured park warden is still in the letterbox when he gets his court date! That made me laugh.

On the very next page from Kids’ Court comes one of the double-page spreads for Jim Watson’s Store Wars, a strip of two halves for me. Originally in Whizzer and Chips, it was basically another version of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, with Mr. Superstore and his mega-store constantly trying to put the tiny, local Bloggs and Son shop out of business but constantly failing to do so, often spending huge amounts of cash in the attempt.

Having deleted my Amazon account last year I’m enjoying using smaller businesses online and across Belfast so this strip felt particularly relevant upon reading it, if in a highly exaggerated way of course. Why is it a strip of two halves? Because in every example in this book there’s a very funny outcome but there’s always a somewhat patronising statement from Mr. Superstore explaining the joke. They’d be much funnier without these.

Every year I’m trying to show you different strips than those I’ve shown you in previous Big Comic Books (apart from Gums, of course) and lastly for this year is a character I have no recollection of whatsoever from childhood, which is a shame because his pages are great. I did enjoy his inclusion in The Tom Paterson Collection though. From the pages of Whizzer and Chips and drawn by the hilarious Tom, here’s Guy Gorilla.

Transforming into a giant gorilla whenever he eats peanuts, he retains a modicum of awareness of who he is and doesn’t cause any real harm, just a lot of panic and mess. I think it’s a really fun set up and the more episodes I read in this book the funnier it got that no one knows it’s him! Everyone is very aware that there’s a random gorilla hanging around somewhere and Guy’s excuses about why he’s never there at the same time can be so silly, but they take his word for it every time. A great little strip that unfortunately only ran for about a year in total.

And that’s us for another year, folks! As you can see below there’s still a ways to go. With five more Big Comic Books (and two Funny Fortnightly/Monthly volumes) you can expect more classic highlights from some of the most renowned UK cartoonists of all time up until Christmas 2029 at least! That’s if you don’t all get bored of me in the meantime.

This year you can also expect reviews of Rebellion’s Gums collection on Wednesday 4th December and the Buster Book 1990 (released in 1989), the first to feature fan favourite OiNK characters after the merge, which you can check out from Thursday 19th December. It’s already shaping up to be the best Christmas on the OiNK Blog yet!

1988 BOOK < > 1990 BOOK

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BiG COMiC BOOK 1988: TOME FOR CHRiSTMAS

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I may have covered the first in this series of giant tomes last Christmas but as a kid this volume was the first time I discovered Big Comic. This book would also lead to the release of Big Comic Fortnightly in June 1988 which I also collected for a couple of years. Christmas 1987 was the first year I received my own comic annuals and I’ll admit it was a while before I read this that festive season because I’d also received The OiNK! Book 1988! Eventually I sat down with what felt like a humongous read at that age and got stuck in.

Once again it sticks to IPC Magazine‘s (taken over by Fleetway Publications) Buster, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee comics but it was all brand new to me. I’d been collecting OiNK for over a year by this point, a title that often took the hand out of these older comics. However, Big Comic Book 1988 contained a feast of goodies and plenty were still hitting the mark, producing enough smiles for me to see it all the way to the end over the New Year. There’s definitely a marked improvement over the choice of strips compared to last year’s book. With the hindsight of reading this in 2023 more of it holds up to the passage of time too.

I’d say let’s dive right in but that might be too on the nose given my first highlight. Yes, it’s the same as last year and probably will be again next year. Gums was always a favourite in these books and the fortnightly comic, so chances were John Geering‘s strip from Monster Fun and Buster was always going to get included here. Like last year (and as with other characters) he’s in the book several times but this one stood out for me. As obsessed with sharks as I am I’m used to documentaries, books or even Instagram accounts detailing how preparations are made behind the camera when filming these wonderful creatures, but we humans aren’t the only ones who have preparations to make.

What a fun start! Another character I always enjoyed was Toy Boy from the late, great Terry Bave. Appearing originally in Whoopee then Buster from 1985 onwards, it surprises me to find out we never knew his name. Obsessed with playthings of any kind whatsoever he’d often frustrate his well-meaning parents when toys got in the way of their day-to-day lives, or his playing about stopped him from doing something important. Sometimes the toys would help though, so we never knew how the strip was going to go.

OiNK writer Graham Exton wasn’t exactly a big fan of “that bloody snake”

Such is the case with this next highlight. Terry’s art style is just lovely and instantly recognisable from the round faces of all his characters. It’s sad to think he’s no longer with us. He was also one of the few whose signature appeared in these comics at a time when this was frowned upon by the publishers.

OiNK writer Graham Exton wasn’t exactly a big fan of writing for this next character (“That bloody snake”). According to Graham and others I’ve spoken to, Sid’s Snake was often used by the Whizzer & Chips editors as a testing ground for new writers. It was assigned to them to prove their capabilities and hone their skills before moving on to other characters or comics. Drawn by the renowned Mike Lacey, whose work I particularly loved from the covers of each issue of Funny Fortnightly (reprints of his Krazy covers), Sid’s Snake could be very hit and miss.

This could be because the writer kept changing, or maybe it’s simply a difficult idea to get a consistent gag out of. What it always was though, was simple, inoffensive fun and at least in this instance very definitely smile-worthy. I can remember very little from the character in the pages of Big Comic Fortnightly, so this one stood out as something a bit more memorable and funnier than usual.

Another Mike Lacey highlight is up next in the form of Shiner, also from the pages of Whizzer & Chips, first appearing way back in the second issue. However, even being the leader of the Chip-ites (the characters from the inner ‘Chips’ part of the comic) wasn’t enough to see him move to the pages of Buster when his comic folded in 1990. Shiner was an amateur boxer whose mother disapproved of his interest and she was constantly trying to stop her son from getting injured.

That doesn’t sound like a bad thing and it’s why I particularly liked this entry in the series. In this story he would’ve gotten away with it but ends up in a rather worse state than he was in the first place, and all thanks to his mum! Elsewhere on the blog make sure you check out a clever and very funny Buster strip written by Mark Bennington and drawn by Mike in one of the first issues after the OiNK merge.

X-Ray Specs used to be a favourite of mine in the regular reprint comic. He stood out for a couple of reasons. The first was the most obvious: those glasses. These were the unique selling point for the character; a pair of super-powered glasses which could see through anything, although somehow used to various levels of strength. For example, sometimes he used them to see through whole walls, sometimes just the contents of a person’s pockets.

These were paired up with a character who could use them for feel good endings like catching burglars and cheats etc. but also for his own selfish reasons, which was always funny. In the hands of a lesser creative team it could easily have become a very predictable strip but Ray could often surprise us. Below is a good example of what drew me to his pages before many others in these books. Once more we’ve got some Mike Lacey art to enjoy too.

My next choice is a character who appeared in the very first edition of Cheeky Weekly, later making the move to Whoopee! She was drawn by a favourite OiNK contributor, fellow Northern Ireland native Ian Knox (Roger Rental, He’s Completely Mental). Robot Granny was a state-of-the-art mechanical person originally crafted in top secret by a mysterious team of inventors. However, people were quite scared of how it looked, so in order to keep it secret and fit in with humans it was disguised as a little old lady.  The strip started life as ‘Six Million Dollar Gran‘ so no prizes for guessing the influence here.

It was later renamed again as Gran’s Gang, however here the reprints are from the middle years of the strip and tell the tales of how this seemingly innocent and quiet retiree is just trying to fit in with her much younger friends. I’ve yet to read any of her stories that don’t raise a big smile. That might be because she somehow reminds me of my own late nanny, who always seemed to have so much more energy than all of us kids when we were younger. The strip may be far-fetched but it rekindled some lovely personal memories and that’s another reason I’m including her here.

Granny’s stablemate from Cheeky Weekly and Whoopee! comics, Mustapha Mi££ion also has a handful of strips in this book. He made a further transition to Whizzer & Chips too when Whoopee! folded, such was his popularity.  Having discovered oil, making him and his father extremely wealthy, his dad sent him to the UK for his education and supplied him with a mansion, land and staff to keep him occupied. Originally drawn by the legendary Reg Partlett, the early stories had him desperately trying to fit in and often misinterpreting the needs of others, going far beyond what was actually needed because he had the wealth to do so.

Joe McCaffrey soon took over and his strips are reprinted here. In these stories Mustapha was the opposite of all the filthy rich kids we’d normally find in our comics; he was kind hearted, playful and would do anything for his friends. I do mean anything. Nothing was too much for this young boy as far as treating his friends was concerned. Most importantly, it never felt like they were taking advantage of him; they were always shown enjoying his company whether he was being extravagant or not. But of course the strip had to have the indulgence, that was the whole point and in the McCaffrey years it was all about Mustapha simply having fun.

After he moved to Whizzer & Chips, Frank McDiarmid took over and apparently (I’ve never read them) there wasn’t always a happy ending. From what I’ve found out, sometimes Mustapha would do things with his wealth that would annoy his friends at the end of the stories, but for me the boy in the strip above is the one I know and love to this day.

The final selection from the 1988 book I have for you took two strips with two main characters each and merged them together into the mouthful of (deep breath) Ivor Lott and Tony Broke with Milly O’Naire and Penny Less. The two male characters started off in the pages of Cor! comic, eventually making the shift into Buster (everyone seemed to at some stage), while the two young ladies ended up in the same comic after making the transition from Jackpot in 1982.  The girls may have left again in 1987 but Ivor and Tony stayed put and would cling on all the way through to the final Buster in the year 2000. Despite the final years being all reprint material, that’s still an incredible 30 year lifespan for their strip.

It looks the part on any book shelf rather than a pile of comics in a cupboard somewhere

Originally brought to the page by Reg Partlett, it was Sid Burgon who nurtured them throughout the years and it’s his work you can see below. When reading up on these characters I was surprised to find out they started off very differently. Originally Tony Broke was a very bitter young boy and Ivor Lott would get away with all manner of mischief simply thanks to having lots of money. That doesn’t feel right to me so I’m happy they changed into the characters we have here, where Ivor would come a cropper from showing off his spoilt lifestyle, while upbeat and lovable Tony would always show us that money can’t buy happiness. 

This particular strip of theirs stood out for inclusion on this blog. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out why.

I know there are an awful lot of characters I haven’t featured but there’s simply not enough space to show them all. I was able to pick up this huge book on eBay for about a fiver and that can only be described as a bargain. The 1988 book seems to pop up the most so you shouldn’t really have any difficulties in tracking it down. While last year’s book was really enjoyable I’d opt for this one over it. It feels like a more considered selection, the strips complimenting each other that little bit better. Or it could be because I’ve a personal fondness for this volume.

Whatever the reason for my recommendation it’s a great book and reads well even today. For a ‘Best Of’ collection of some classic comics you can’t do better than this one. 256 pages with an impressive hardback cover, it also looks the part on any book shelf rather than a pile of comics in a cupboard somewhere. Whether it’s for yourself or as a perfect surprise gift for a comics fan in your life, you really should check out The Big Comic Book 1988.

1987 BOOK < > 1989 BOOK

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OiNK! STARS iN BUSTER: A MiRTHFUL MERGE?

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The following post was originally written for Sunday 22nd but was held back after the sad news of Tony Husband’s passing

In the review of OiNK #68 I began by describing how I discovered it was coming to an end and merging into the pages of Buster. I was absolutely gutted, not to mention confused. While over the next few years it felt I had a knack for collecting comics that would end up cancelled quickly, OiNK had been a big part of my life for what felt like a long time at that age. But Buster was weekly and a lot cheaper, maybe this could be the next best thing? Especially with these three OiNK characters making the transition?

So, after asking for my reserved copy of OiNK I went back to the shelves and picked up this issue of Buster. However, something (I don’t know what) stopped me from placing a regular order right there and then for a weekly dose of Pete and his Pimple, Tom Thug and Weedy Willy, despite the former two being favourites of mine. When I got home I decided to read Buster first. I wanted to be excited about something new, a new comic with four times the amount of Lew Stringer’s strips every month.

Despite the fact OiNK was a breath of fresh air in comparison to others, its humour speaking to me like no other humour comic, I was desperate not to say goodbye completely. Perhaps I’d really like Buster, maybe its humour had moved on in the few years since OiNK’s creation, maybe I’d reserve it and have a brand new weekly to look forward to with some faves included.

The fun front cover with the legendary Tom Paterson drawing our OiNK characters was a very positive start although I was initially disappointed they weren’t part of the Buster story that continued on to the back cover. However, the story is really good, Tom’s artwork elevating Mark Bennington’s already funny script to lofty heights with his crazy style, gorgeous (or in this case grotesque) details and of course his trademark smelly sock.

I was also initially a little jealous of Buster readers, who still had the same format as OiNK did in its Golden Age during the final months of 1987. Having said that, after reading this it felt like it had nowhere near the amount of reading material as those issues of OiNK had, nor did it take anywhere near as long to read. Our piggy publication crammed so much more content into the same 32 pages, so even though it was 7p more expensive a whole year before this 28p comic, OiNK was a real bargain!

Towards the back Buster welcomes any new readers making the pilgrimage over from Uncle Pigg’s comic at the top of his letters page with hopes that he can keep them laughing. Let’s see if his wish would come true and begin with a look at the three highlights we’re all here for, and no doubt the first three pages any pig pal would’ve read after that cover strip. First up is Pete Throb.

Pete and his Pimple keeps its title banner so initially everything seems normal, or at least as normal as an OiNK strip ever was. However, once we get going there’s a key difference that may not have sat well with long-time fans. Of course it’s an introductory strip in many regards, which is completely understandable and that’s not the problem here. Have a read of Pete’s first Buster page and see if anything pops out. Or rather, doesn’t.

Right up to that penultimate panel everything is as chaotic and funny as we’ve come to expect from Lew’s Pete, but then he lands on the burglars and squishes them, his pimple flattening for one panel and that’s it. Where’s the almighty explosion? Where are the vats of pus that would’ve stuck the thieves to the ground until the police arrived? Something key to Pete’s success in OiNK was missing. Nothing had been enforced upon Lew, he simply knew he couldn’t show a pimple bursting and covering everyone with pus in this comic.

He wasn’t the only one of Lew’s characters to see a change either. In the monthly OiNKs Tom Thug had made humour comics history by actually leaving school, applying for jobs and even signing on for unemployment benefits. But for Buster time was reversed and Tom became that mainstay of children’s humour comics, the eternal schoolboy. Not that this is a complaint of course, not with quality like this.

I’m surprised Tom knows the phrase “attaché-case”! This felt much more like an OiNK strip than Pete’s, although there was already one little change in that Satan the Cat would go unnamed from now on, ‘Satan’ not deemed appropriate anymore. Also, Tom would only ever look queasy if he felt like being sick, unlike the results we could see in OiNK! There was a reason behind the changes. These popular OiNK stars simply weren’t in OiNK anymore and had to adapt to their new surroundings.

As such, Pete’s pimple would largely go un-popped, Tom would never leave school for a setting the younger audience would better appreciate and his cat’s name would remain a secret for pig pals to keep. Would these changes be acceptable in the eyes of their fans? Well, there’s one more character to check in on first before I share what my opinion was upon reading this comic back in 1988.

Weedy Willy, originally created by Graham Exton, usually written by Mark Rodgers (as he is here) and always drawn by Mike Green needed the least changes in making the transition, although apparently he’s single again after he eventually began dating Dishy Mandy in the second OiNK Holiday Special. With hindsight there’s a moment here where he’s accused of being a pervert though, but we’ll put that down to this being inadvertent and 35 years ago.

All three of these strips were clearly introductory ones and below we’ll look at their next three instalments to see how they settled in, but for ten-year-old me it simply wasn’t enough to justify that slot in my comics list. I was only allowed a certain amount on order at once and Wildcat’s preview issue given away with the last OiNK was very tempting. But ultimately it came down to how I felt at the time about Buster.

I immediately thought, “What?! My OiNK has to end but they’ll start THIS?!”

In the last issue of OiNK Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins described it as “a breath of fresh air in the clichéd world of children’s comics” and apart from a few exceptions (the brill Buster strip, as well as fun with Ricky Rainbow, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke and X-Ray Specs) little was convincing me Buster was any different. Yes, it was a bit more random by this point, after a lot of mergers there wasn’t enough room every week for all the characters so some would pop in and out, but the majority of the humour felt old-fashioned compared to what I was used to. Then I saw this!

As a child this advert really didn’t help. Please remember: I was ten. I saw this and immediately thought words to the effect of, “What? My OiNK has to end but they’ll start THIS?!” The cover even looks unfinished, like it’s lots of bits of paper glued together. Reading this issue now there are some more smiles and laughs to be had but things like Nipper and Dad Mum are atrocious and don’t hold up to the test of time at all. The latter’s whole ‘funny’ scenario appears to be the fact the character is a single mum who likes to do things that apparently are ‘funny’ for a mum to do, like work, go out with friends and have fun! Outdated humour even for the 80s, surely.

Getting only 12 pages of OiNK strips a month wasn’t worth the reservation slot and so I moved over to Wildcat which itself was heartbreakingly short-lived. Until doing this blog I never purchased any more issues of Buster so I’m quite excited to have a look at some new Pete, Tom and Willy strips from the next three issues. OiNK’s title would only appear on these four issues in total and it was never called ‘Buster and OiNK’ like other mergers.

Most likely with WHSmith’s stupid attitude towards OiNK and placing it on the top shelves Fleetway didn’t want to risk that happening to their top title. Despite OiNK’s humour simply being cheeky (more in-line with the kids of the 80s) and the good moral messages it contained, to some groups this didn’t matter so perhaps the publisher wanted to play it safe. The Tom and Willy covers were drawn by Tom Paterson again, and Buster didn’t appear on the cover of the last one but there’s a funny story to tell about that inside, which we’ll get to below.

So let’s take a quick look at the remaining OiNK strips and first up are Pete’s. The first one reuses a joke from one panel of a sports issues of OiNK as a basis for the whole strip and as you can see in the next two we actually have pimples popping! Although, it bursts with much less of the sticky mess we found so funny and the result is shown only in silhouette, and his dog’s explodes more like a balloon filled with air than a pimple filled with pus.

Don’t get me wrong these are still fun but it does feel like the main selling point has been watered down somewhat. This isn’t a fault on the part of Lew, Pete was one of OiNK’s most popular characters so was an obvious choice for the merge in that regard. But the strips from OiNK just wouldn’t have been allowed in Buster, so maybe a different character should’ve been chosen in the end? (Although I’m not sure who would’ve been more suitable.)

I can see why Pete was brought over. However, with an even younger audience how many readers could identify with a spotty teenager? As such the strips feel sanitised and that’s completely the wrong feeling for Pete and his Pimple. Tom fares much better. Yes, the writing on the back of the t-shirt at the end of the first strip below seems tame by OiNK standards but by all counts these are classic Tom through and through.

That slip in the middle strip caught me completely off guard and I’ll admit I snorted with laughter at that one! Also nice to see the little extras we sometimes got at the bottom of Tom’s strips have made the pilgrimage to Buster with his woodworking masterpieces. Taking Tom back to school was an obvious choice. Unfortunately many children come across a bully or two in their lives, but Tom could prepare them by showing the true identity of all bullies. As such, he feels just as much at home here as he did with Uncle Pigg and the rest.

As for Willy, you can see below he’s back to asking Dishy Mandy out but at least it has a happy ending for once. (Actually, given how they just suddenly appeared as a couple in OiNK I’m going to say this is how they actually got together.) In OiNK Willy would sometimes use his weediness to his advantage but we haven’t seen that here yet. No pun is intended but these are some of his weakest entries I’ve seen to date, and I’m not sure if it’s because they’ve been simplified back to what they were at the very beginning or not.

So what happened next? Willy would disappear completely after a few months and even the mighty OiNK megastar Pete would follow suit about six months after the merge (although he did cross over into regular character Thunderclap’s strip). As I said I don’t know if many Buster readers would’ve appreciated him as much as pig pals did. Tom was another story altogether though. He became one of Buster’s most popular characters and would remain in the comic all the way until its ultimate cancellation in 2000.

Lew created brand new weekly instalments for Tom all the way until 1996, over 400 strips in total for the brainless bully over ten years. He even made the cover on occasion, taking the place of title character Buster himself, proving Tom’s popularity with readers of both the 80s and the 90s. Even to this day, anyone who has dealt with online trolls will still get a kick out of the Tom Thug strips.

“We’ll try and make things easy for your first week, Mike!”

Buster to artist Mike Lacey

I’ll finish things off with a Buster strip from the issue with X-Ray Specs on the cover. Tom Paterson took a break for a couple of weeks (given the amount he squeezed into his pages it’s understandable!) and instead Mike Lacey drew the character. Brilliantly, this is also the basis for the plot. I love it when a comics character acknowledges they’re inside a comic and here Buster and Delbert decide to help Mike by having everyone on their best (and easiest to draw) behaviour.

This reads like a practical joke from writer Mark Bennington to Mike so I asked Mark about it. However, he wrote literally hundreds of scripts so it’s only understandable that he can’t recall a specific one, but he did tell me, “It seems to follow my slow build up to a twisted chaotic end style which I liked to do. Sometimes the editor Allen Cummings gave me a couple of sentences on subject matter to follow for the coming issue and I put up a script idea based on that.” Like all of Mark’s work for Buster it’s a brilliant piece of writing and there’s a ton of his work in the Tom Paterson book which will be getting reviewed here soon.

There we go, that’s our look at the beginning of the Buster/OiNK merge complete. The amount of brand new (to me) Tom strips still out there to read makes an attempt to collect them all very tempting. Expensive, but tempting. And that’s not including the fact Specky Hector would return with a multi-part guide to comics after his very funny one in OiNK, and Lew would also draw Vampire Brats, scripted by OiNK co-editor Mark Rodgers. There are some key moments from those years I’ll definitely be covering on the blog though so keep your eyes peeled for those further down the line. Beyond that, you never know…

Don’t forget Pete, Tom and Willy star in the second OiNK! Book and you’ll see if they’re included in the highlights on Christmas Day 2023.

iSSUE 68 < > OiNK! BOOK 1989

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BiG COMiC BOOK 1987: STOCKiNG FiLLED

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As a child one of my regular orders at the newsagents was for Fleetway’s Big Comic Fortnightly, which I collected from #1 for a couple of years after receiving a giant book the previous Christmas (the 1988 volume). Only when deciding to collect the books for the blog did I discover there’d actually been another the year before; when it had hit the shelves originally I hadn’t even discovered OiNK (my first comic) yet. Now I’ve been able to complete the collection of eight huge tomes that make up the Big Comic Book series, released between 1986 and 1993.

While they’d have been available since the end of the summer, it was Christmas Day when most of us would’ve received these so I’m going to cover one each festive season. (At least you know the blog will be about for a bit now.) While OiNK was more in tune with my sense of humour than more traditional humour comics, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of smiles and a few chortles to be had here. With 256 pages it’s a cliché to say it but there’s something for everyone. Here are a few of my own highlights.

I can’t remember these first characters from the fortnightly or books as a kid, but that’s probably more a lack of memory on my part. Happy Families is drawn here by Dick Millington and I’m sure it can resonate with many of us around this time of year. The Happies are made up of Mum, Dad, Grandad, Sharon and the twins Vicki and Dicky and the scenario is much like the rest of the book’s comic strips, a simple but effective one; a small disagreement over something very unimportant would escalate until the whole family was at war with each other.

As with much of the contents in the book this is only one of several Happy Families strips, although most of the others end up so rowdy the police get involved. The stories can vary from them all being at each others’ throats by the end, all of them being punished in some way, or one or two of them getting sweet revenge on the rest of the family. Yet at the start of each new strip they’re back to loving one another again. Families, eh? These strips may even have been somewhat cathartic for some readers’ parents or older siblings on Christmas Day.

Regular blog readers will know I’m a sucker for a comical shark in the pages of OiNK due to my obsession with the creatures. This stems from my favourite movie of all time, Jaws, which inspired teenage me to read up on the real fish and decades later I’m still fascinated. In fact, my favourite ever page of OiNK was a parody of Jaws in #4 but even the top comic of all time has to take a bow to the following star of Monster Fun.

When I started collecting Big Comic it would still be a couple of years before I’d see the best film ever made but I always loved Gums. I was reading this funny strip very obviously inspired by that movie before I saw it. After I did eventually watch Jaws I just enjoyed this toothless version even more so as a result. Gums was originally created by writer Roy Davis and artist Robert Nixon. The above strip is taken from Buster after Monster Fun folded and is drawn by John Geering (who also contributed to a handful of OiNKs).

To me he was always a Geering character. John gives such fantastic, expressive gestures to Gums who thought he was a terrifying monster of the deep, but the cast of recurring characters who lived with him weren’t exactly quaking in the depths. The best thing was that Gums would sometimes triumph in his schemes which kept things fresh. With quite a few strips in this one book, it’s clear he was a fan favourite. Our next character also originated in Monster Fun.

Kid Kong’s original artist was also Robert Nixon, although this Buster strip is drawn by Rob Lee and alongside Gums he lives on today in Rebellion’s new Monster Fun in new stories by new artists. Originally an escapee from a zoo and much larger, he was shrunk down to make it easier to write stories in a family home setting, although still having to stoop down to fit inside Granny Smith’s house. Granny was chronically short-sighted and hard of hearing, mistaking Kong as her own.

As enjoyable as these have been so far, not all of the contents hit the spot as much as these examples. Some haven’t aged well, in fact some hadn’t even aged well by the late 80s. But whether it was the latest book or the fortnightly comic there was enough content to ensure plenty of enjoyment and the odd chortle from a favourite character. The sheer size of Big Comic meant every reader would have some favourites and get a lot from each volume. Just don’t be expecting OiNK levels of guffaws. Unless you’re reading Gums, of course.

In recent years Ken Reid’s Faceache has had something of a resurgence, from a gorgeous hardback collection to new strips alongside the two stars above. Created for Jet comic but (yet again) a later star of Buster, Ken’s style is instantly recognisable and upon first glance may seem very traditional, very DC Thomson-esque to the uninitiated. But you soon realise these are very different to pretty much everything else in this book.

Ken’s work really pops, really stands out, which is no small feat in such a huge book

The humour has a different feel to it, not least thanks to the creative ‘scrunges’ Faceache pulls off. This juxtaposition works, the strips feel fresh even today with a unique art style. Ken’s work really pops, really stands out, which is no small feat in such a huge book where everything is black and white on cheap paper stock. However, if you’re scanning through a Big Comic Book these really do stop you in your tracks.

I’ve happy memories of the following family from my time with the fortnightly comic and they’d often be the first strip I’d read, the endings almost always guaranteed to raise a laugh. The Bumpkin Billionaires originated in Whoopee and told the tale of a family of Beverly Hillbilly types who had won billions of pounds on the pools (the family-friendly weekly sports betting which predated the lottery, kids – Phil) but who hated the lifestyle changes the money brought. Every story would show us another hare-brained scheme of Ma, Pa, Billy and Daisy‘s to get rid of all their cash, much to the disgruntlement of their bank manager.

Mike Lacey brought these loveable rogues to life and the physical comedy of the main characters was always funny. Most of the time the family’s plan would fall apart in the final frame or two and they’d somehow end up with even more money than they started with. I’ve included the one above because it was one of those rare occasions when things actually worked out in their favour. Well, I’m assuming these were rare occasions, I certainly can’t remember this happening regularly and I’ve fond memories of trying to work out what was about to go wrong for them.

Do you remember CBBC programme Grange Hill? My siblings watched it but I never did, although the theme tune is still seared into my mind. Whizzer & Chips came along with its own interpretation, Strange Hill, which as a name I absolutely love. Teech was the poor sap trying to educate the wee monsters who in this case actually were little monsters; a class full of spooks, ghouls and tiny versions of famous Hollywood creatures. I thought this particular example would be a good one to include on this blog, can you tell why?

Tom Paterson, who brought us a few ingenious early OiNK strips is the perfect choice for these manic pages with such a varied ensemble cast and his trademark smelly socks, little squigly creatures and descriptive word bombs are all evident by the bucketload. These little extras always made his strips classics for me and his were the only ones I read in my brother’s Beanos.  I’ve always said it’s unfortunate he was too busy to contribute more to OiNK where surely his work was a perfect fit.

Drawn by Sid Burgon, Lolly Pop was an entrepreneur with an endless range of businesses and an equally endless supply of money. However, while his businesses thrived the same couldn’t be said of his relationship with his son Archie, who was a regular kid after a regular life, who just wanted to play and spend time with his dad. With his dad being so preoccupied with his factories, Archie’s unsupervised attempts of leading a normal life and wanting to win his father’s attention would inevitably lead to a variety of disasters.

It also didn’t help that despite being an obvious millionaire Lolly Pop was rather miserly to say the least, preoccupied with saving his wealth, leading to Archie being somewhat neglected. Although to be fair it was only attention that Archie felt starved of. Originally in Whoopee, Lolly Pop is one of the stronger series in this book and there are stories involving Lolly Pop Toffees Ltd, Lolly Pop Movie Studios, Lolly Pop’s Garage, Pop’s Tyres, Lolly Pop Wood Products and Lolly Pop’s Record Company over five 2-page strips.

“Ha! No playpen can hold Sweeny!”

Sweeny Toddler

To finish the review there’s one perennial favourite surely everyone loves no matter which generation they’re from. Another character appearing in new strips today, even illustrated by one of his original artists, Sweeny Toddler was the tearaway baby who would cause havoc in not only his own home but all across town, with his ever faithful canine friend Henry by his side. Sweeney was originally created for Shiver and Shake comic and drawn by Leo Baxendale, then through mergers he’d go on to star in Whoopee, Whizzer and Chips and (of course) Buster.

There’s a reason Sweeney lasted as long as he did. Quite early on the brilliant Tom Paterson took over drawing duties and OiNK’s very own Graham Exton became Sweeney’s writer in the early 80s. They made the perfect team and during that time the strip rose to ever greater heights. The strip below is drawn by Tom but is before Graham’s time with the character. When Graham joined Tom’s style had developed to include all those lovely little sight gags he became synonymous with, like those in Strange Hill.

Overall, the first Big Comic Book is a success. Financially it was a huge success! It (and its fortnightly spin-off) cost next to nothing to produce since Fleetway owned the rights to all of the contents (we would never have seen any OiNK material as a result since most of it was creator-owned) and used cheaper paper stock, enabling the books to be much thicker with a retail price similar to a regular annual.

While some of the strips haven’t stood the test of time as well as others, there’s not really any that won’t at least raise a smile, making it a very pleasant reading experience. Needless to say, if you see this on eBay or in a second-hand charity store snap it up. With this amount of silly comics stuffed inside you should find plenty to keep you amused no matter your tastes.

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