An early BEEZER (1956)

Most of us will have grown up with The Beezer comic of the 1960s to 1980s but in its early days it was quite different to the later issues. Here are a few pages from the year of its launch, 1956. Issue No.37, dated September 29th.

Although Ginger was the cover star for the first 33 issues (and would be again later), Pop, Dick and Harry had proven popular enough to be given the treasured cover position every week until 1962. The strip above is by Tom Bannister displaying his excellent skills in depicting physical comedy.

In its early days The Beezer had a good proportion of adventure strips. One of them being The Voyage of The Bushwhacker on page 2. According to Ray Moore's indispensable Beezer index (The Book of The Beezer) the artist was Bill Holroyd. This surprised me as there's barely any similarity to Holroyd's later work for The Dandy on Brassneck, Jack Silver, and Spunky and his Spider etc, but closer inspection does reveal that style emerging.

Fans of Leo Baxendale will know that his style kept developing throughout his career. In this 1956 Banana Bunch page there is very little resemblance to his Badtime Bedtime material of 18 years later but his style evolved gradually.

Westerns were big in the 1950s and The Beezer got in on the act with Lone Wolfe with artwork by Ron Smith. This is the second episode of the series. It's interesting to see a few silent action scenes. Very unusual for a British comic.

Although he was off the cover for a while, Ginger still had a full page inside. Drawn by the late Dudley Watkins with very contemporary images for the fifties, with its wind-up record player, door-to-door brush salesman, and old-style telephone, kettle and lawn mower. For a youngster Ginger was being a bit conservative in his music tastes for 1956 though, preferring Hillbilly music to rock 'n' roll!

The back cover went for an educational theme back then, with a wildlife feature and a cutaway. Presumably this was Thomson's attempt to rival similar features in Hulton's Eagle. 

The early Beezer only had 12 pages but its huge A3 size and bright colour on every page (8 full colour, 4 in red spot colour) still made it look good value for money. It's no wonder it endured a long run of many years!

Danger! Len At Work (1950)

Here's an obscure little strip from the past. Danger! Len At Work appeared in The Beano from issue 386 (3rd December 1949) to No.410 (27th May 1950). It was drawn by Bill Holroyd, many years before he illustrated Screwy Driver, Brassneck, Spunky and his Spider, Jack Silver and others for The Dandy. Good, solid cartooning from one of the best! 

This example is from The Beano No.398 (4th March 1950). Click to see it larger.

Here comes Brassneck! (1964)

It's been just a few weeks over 50 years since Brassneck made his debut in the pages of The Dandy. The character must have proven popular as he'd return again and again many times over the years. I was certainly a big fan of the strip back in 1964.

The strip was heralded a week earlier, in The Dandy No.1201 (dated November 28th 1964) with a small ad (shown above). DC Thomson's art staff could always design a good ad and this was a great teaser for the series. Brassneck was to replace Joe White and the Seven Dwarfs which had concluded that week. 

A week later, in The Dandy No.1202 (dated Dec. 5th 1964, on sale Nov.30th) Brassneck's adventures began! For the first few episodes, Brassneck had three pages, which then reduced to its standard length of two pages. The artist was the excellent Bill Holroyd, who was perfectly suited to this type of comedy adventure story.

Here's that very first episode, with Chuckler Charley Brand (they soon dropped the 'Chuckler') meeting his new metal pal all those years ago. Click on each page to see it larger. 

Christmas 1964: The Dandy Book

Cover by Charles Grigg.

I said in my previous post that this blog would be staying in 1964 for the duration of Christmas and the reason is to have a look back at The Dandy Book that I had on Christmas Day 1964.

This is the earliest Christmas I can remember, and I have very clear, fond memories of receiving this, my very first annual. I was five years old and in my pillowcase was this marvelous book along with other presents such as a Supercar toy (see here) and a Chad Valley See-A-Show (see here). I'd been a regular reader of The Dandy weekly throughout 1964 but to my young eyes this was something really special; a thick hardback book full of my favourite strips. I was immediately hooked!

I couldn't wait to get stuck into the book, and I read the first story in bed before I got up. A one-off adventure strip called Diamond Dick. (No giggling at the back there.) Artwork by Paddy Brennan.

This story of diamond thieves in South Africa fascinated me and I still remember the excitement of reading these two pages with the hero hiding in the crook's car...

Then, a few pages on, suddenly a fantastic double-page spread. What an impact! I'd never seen this technique used in comics before and the great thing was that this book used the two-page spread in several stories as we'll see. 

The book contained all the Dandy regulars plus a few new faces. For years I thought The Beetles was by Leo Baxendale, but it's actually an excellent imitation of Leo's style by Ron Spencer. (George Martin's Sunny Boy on the facing page.)

Another feature that had an impact on me was The Nine Faces of Korky by Charlie Grigg. This 'Nine Faces' idea was used for several characters in this annual and was a uniquely entertaining way to tell a story and to show good cartoon expressions. 

Here's another; The Nine Faces of Desperate Dan, by Dudley Watkins...

The brilliant Ken Reid had several Big Head and Thick Head pages in this annual. Here's one of them, with the pair receiving a battering as usual. Ken was a master of comic violence in strips. And yes, the green spot colour really is that bright in the actual book!

As I said, the double-page spread cropped up in several stories and used very effectively. Here, halfway through a Winker Watson story by Eric Roberts...

Another spread in a Rocket Jock story by Charlie Grigg...

...and at the start of Joe White and the Seven Dwarfs by Bill Holroyd. I remember laughing out loud at this 50 years ago! Holroyd was a fantastic artist (and I understand he was Ken Reid's brother-in-law).

One of the many things I liked about The Dandy back then was that it featured adventure stories as well as humour. One of the most dramatic was The Crimson Ball, a giant indestructible metal ball controlled by a foreign spy (who lived inside it) intent on destroying British aircraft! Art by Jack Glass.

My favourite Dandy adventure strip was The Red Wrecker, - powerful fast growing weeds springing up and destroying anything in their way. In The Dandy Book it was destruction on a grand scale, and Charlie Grigg really outdid himself with this spread...

Time for one more 'Nine Faces' and here's The Nine Faces of Thick Head by Ken Reid...

Finally, on the back cover of the book, a full colour Desperate Dan strip by Dudley Watkins, with a punchline that still amuses me to this day.

All of the scans and photos in this post are taken from that very book I had 50 years ago today. A Christmas of happier and more optimistic times. The lad I was back then could never have imagined he'd be creating strips in The Dandy Annual 2015, and I can hardly believe it myself some days. I hope that some of today's children who are unwrapping their first Dandy Annual today will get similar enjoyment out of it as I did from the one my mum bought me half a century ago. Whether or not they'll be writing about it in 50 years time I'll never know, but I'd like to think so. 

I prepared this post a few days ago, scheduling it to go live on Christmas Day, so if you're reading it on December 25th thanks for dropping by and I hope you're having a good day! Merry Christmas!

A few more festive flashbacks of annuals from long ago, from older blog posts of mine:

Wham Annuals:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/wham-annual-cover-gallery.html

Smash Annuals:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/smash-annual-cover-gallery.html

Pow Annuals:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/pow-annual-cover-gallery.html

Marvel:
http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/road-to-marvel-uk-part-2.html

Daleks:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/happy-birthday-daleks.html

...and going way back, Film Fun:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/70-year-flashback-film-fun-annual-1938.html