CHILDHOOD COMICS

Which were your favourites as a kid.

I loved Bunty and Judy, and the Beano and the Dandy, and I can remember most of the characters, but not necessarily which comics they were in.

I think my brother got one called the Eagle, and another, but I don’t remember what it was as it was a boy’s comic. Was it something like Hotspur?

Which were yours?

I liked the Bash Street Kids in the Beano. Fattie, Smiffy, Plug, Toots and the rest. Poor Teacher always got the worst of their antics.

I get mixed up with the characters in the Dandy and the Beano, but Dennis the Menace was a favourite, along with Minnie the Minx. I wonder if those two ever got married?

Now your talking, Beano, Dandy, Beezer, Buster, Topper, Victor, Hotspur, Hornet, Sparky, all good reads, best character, probably Alf Tupper, The Tough Of The Track, from the Victor.

Thanks, Tuddy. I'd forgotten about the Beezer and the Topper. So there was one called Hotspur. Not such a bad memory after all.

To be honest, if I saw some of them on a newspaper stand, I'd still buy them. I've still got an old Beano Annual, and a Dandy Annual as well, somewhere. Must dig 'em out for a read again.

At some point in my nipperhood we got 4 comics per week, I had 3 sisters at the time, My elder sister got, Bounty, My choice was the Beano my younger sister's choice was the Dandy and my 2nd youngest sister's choice was Topper, we all inter swapped and enjoyed 4 comics per week and I also get confused with the characters , I know straight away Tommy Tee's gonna come in somewhere and say " I bet Little Plum was your hero" and, he'd be right, that little injun's been a bee in my bonnet since the 60's along with, Dodger the doger and Dennis the menace, Lord snooty, the bash st kids, Johnar , Desperate Dan and his cow pie, Great days,

That was a good bargain, Tom, being able to do swapsies with the other kids. My brother and I didn't swap comics as the boys' comics were of no interest to me, and the girls' comics were too girly for my brother.

We did occasionally get Topper and Beezer, which Tuddy reminded me of so we could swap those as they were neutral, from what I can remember.

Thinking back to those days and although I read my elder sisters bunty, I can't remember any characters from it except for a posh girl always saying a thing was " utterly utterly " quite a lot, That must be something to do with Bunty being a girls thing, I read it but, It was of little interest to me,

Mollie this is a very interesting thread because we are finding out things about ourselves we did't know in our yoof, I never fancied the Hotsur or any football orientated 'male' comics nor the female comics but i liked the Beano,dandy,Beezer, topper and other unigender comics even though, unigender had not been invented yet then,,,,

I loved the bumper editions during the summer holidays when all the characters had gone to the seaside , just like you .
The size of the comics got as big as the Wigan Observer .

Tom, I'm glad you find this thread interesting as it can be viewed and replied to by everyone who was once a kid, and that's all of us, most especially from the eras of 50s and 60s.

I loved my comics back then and couldn't wait for the next thrilling instalments the following week.

Thinking about Tuddy's post, if the Hotspur was about football, then my brother definitely didn't read that so it must have been something else.

Bunty as a youngster, then Jackie as a teen. I read my brother's comics as well but he didn't read mine!

The Hotspur wasn't all football, there were football stories in it, but others as well. I think The Rover was the main football comic, Roy Of The Rover's and all that.

Jackie! That was the one I'd forgotten about. I got that one too when I got older.

There also the ' funnies' in the daily papers, Andy Capp and Buster were 2 I remember,. there were others but, I can't remember many, a married couple was another, two professional people , he was in a suit, she was in a smartly dressed outfit and a typical scenario was,
They'd be walking and he'd look in a shop window with a model wearing a corset and say, " wow that corset really works , why don't you buy one ?, and the woman would say, " she Doesn't need that corset, If you took it off, she'd be the same shape, ,

MrsC:

I remember the Topper and Beezer both being much bigger than the others.

Tuddy:

I honestly can't remember what comic my brother got. Must ask him next time I see him.

Tom:

Oh, Andy Capp, and his missus, Flo! Now they were funny, especially when she used to flatten him with a rolling pin or frying pan for coming home drunk, and other things he got up to!

Just a thought, are any of those comics still on sale? Anyone know?

Not today Mollie but you can buy old editions on ebay and annuals , Our generation loved them but, kids today want video and social media stuff,
tiktok is the new comic book,

Us plumbers have a big association with Andy capp because, every toilet, bath and basin has an over flow and its known in the circles of plumbers as the ' andy capp divorce' ( its over Flo)

Well, Tom, it's a shame that kids aren't kids anymore, like we were, enjoying the antics of the characters in our comics, and let our imaginations run free. We had to read, not rely on technology for our amusement.

I liked Andy's wife, Flo, though. She's my kind o' woman!

Posted by: tomplum (12501) View tomplum's page
Not today Mollie but you can buy old editions on ebay and annuals.

Sorry, Tom, I must have skipped over this post.

The last time I read a Dandy, Desperate Dan had changed, and his Aunty Aggie, having looked exactly like him with a jutting jaw and whiskers, the new Aunty Aggie is just like a little old lady with grey hair up in a bun.

I don't want to see the newer "updated" characters. Long gone are Izzy Skint, Pansy Potter, Brass Neck, Korky the Cat and Bully Beef. It just wouldn't be the same.

I used to love Rupert bear. Started reading from an early age and I’m still an avid reader today. I always have a love for books and I think it’s sad when we hear about children very rarely reading.

In one comic was there a character of a mans head with people inside of him working his eyes ears and mouth?

Eagle, Beano, Dandy were my favourites, but as I got older moved on to the magazines like Boy's Own Paper (BOP) and Trains Illustrated which was not as the title implies, just pictures of trains!

I still have some copies of the Eagle.Mr Lee our metalwork teacher used to bring them in and pin the centre pages up which were usually to do with engineering.My brother and I got the Dandy and Beano but the local binman used to save us all the different comics from the papers that were left out.They did recycle in the 50/60’s.Another type of comic was the war themed Commando.The Wizard and Tiger with Roy of the Rovers,I even remember Radio Fun.

Dandy and Beano were our first comics then as we got older I had Judy and my brother got Victor, as a teenager I loved Petticoat . Like linma I am an avid reader and get lots of 2nd hand stories for my gt Granddaughter who is 6. this week she got the trophy for her reading. Her teacher said she loves books. sadly some children don't have any in the home or have stories read to them

Interesting thread, Mollie.
My comic in the 50s was Topper, the front page was Mickey the Monkey, who I think was really a Chimpanzee, then there was Foxy who's aim in life was breaking into the farms chicken shed but the farmer always managed to see him which resulted in him being blasted with lead shot in the bum.
Beryl the Peril and Keyhole kate were a couple more.I
That's from about 70 ago

I was a huge Superman fan - still am! But I loved many of the comics and characters already mentioned. Knockout was one of my favourites, though, and a character called Thunderbolt Jaxon. He was an ordinary kid - Jack Jaxon - who had a magic belt that belonged to Thor. When he fastened the belt he turned into a super hero, Thunderbolt Jaxon. Children's imaginations being rich back then, I remember sneaking into my dad's wardrobe and taking out his belt, which I was convinced would turn me into a Hindley version of Thunderbolt Jaxon. Alas, the belt didn't work. It was my dad's fault.

Posted by: PeterP (11322)
In one comic was there a character of a mans head with people inside of him working his eyes ears and mouth?

Peter, if memory serves, that was called The Numbskulls!

I'm so glad this thread has brought back fond memories of our time as children, and the contents of some of the posts have reminded me of characters I'd forgotten.

Linma:

I totally agree with you. I also started to read at a very young age (3 years old) and I all but worshipped my books. Dad encouraged me and I started on my Noddy books, then "advanced" as I got older by reading my comics. By doing that, it taught me how to spell as well, but today's kids, because they don't read, they rely on their computers to spell for them. Gawd knows what they'd do with a pen and paper! It's good to know that Kath's G-Granddaughter loves to read at a young age.

Retep, I'm pretty sure that Commando magazine is still published. A few characters not mentioned are Lord Snooty, Panzy Potter, Bully Beef, Corporal Clot, The Jocks and the Geordies, Billy Whizz.

I used to get the Victor, some of the characters I remember were Alf Tupper and Matt Braddock, great reading at the time but probably wouldn't get past the current politically correct and gender stereotyping standards today.

There are too many characters to name.My favourite was General Jumbo.There was the Iron Fish but I think Black Bob would have to change his name these days.

I used to buy DC comics, Superman Batman etc. Always bought them from a stall outside the Market hall.This would have been mid sixties and I still have some in the spare room.

The Tiger dropped through our letterbox every Tuesday.

Roy, of course, and Olac the Gladiator.

Loved it.

retep1949 as that jesse lee of argyle street.Myself and Albert Bailley used to make all sorts of fishing tackle in there .He used to bring his shotguns in once a year and get one of us to clean and polish them.If i remember correctly the barrels were heavily inlaid with wildfowl

Ì think I have read most if not all and my dad used to read all our comics you could hear him chuckling in the armchair, I know I am getting oñ a bit but does anyone remember BIG EGGO he was on the front page of the Dandy, then there was FilmFun and Radio Fun but my best comic was the Beano,

Ì think I have read most if not all and my dad used to read all our comics you could hear him chuckling in the armchair, I know I am getting oñ a bit but does anyone remember BIG EGGO he was on the front page of the Dandy, then there was FilmFun and Radio Fun but my best comic was the Beano,

That’s the same Jesse Lee.Still got a set of bread punches that me and Alan Ashton made.

As a professional paperboy in the early 1970s I had the ability to read all of the comics every week, which I did a bit of, but I wouldn't have bought any of them, and in the 1960s me brother use to get TV21, now I enjoyed reading that, and in 1970s I used to get a monthly magazine called 'Modern Railways' and I much preferred reading that, to reading a comic

Who remembers Biff Bailey?

I think yoo mean Biffa Bacon LINK

No, I meant Biff Bailey who was a boxer, but I can't remember what comic or magazine he was in!

retep1949 id forgotten about the bread punches.Aluminium body and a brass shaft.

Not sure what shotguns, fishing tackle and bread punches have to do with Childhood Comics, but it was nice to read about other characters in them, many of which I'd forgotten.

Rio, do you remember Sad Sack? My dad used to bring American comics home for me, from the pit, and Sad Sack was always in them. They might well have come from the market stall you mentioned. I remember Little Dot and Little Audrey too.

Who remembers - Nan Dare?

And The Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats?

That’s the bread punch Sonlyme a knurled aluminium handle a four different size brass punches.mollie m when a thread is started it can lead to other things.I was talking about a teacher who got me interested in engineering through the things he used to show us in the Eagle comic.He was a teacher who came from industry and I went to work at the place he came from so the Eagle and the teacher helped me in my career.

My sisters boyfriend spent a few years in the merchant navy and brought us many what we called yanky comics

Sorry tonka but never saw those. I have a copy of Charlie Chan the detective, it is issue No1 though it's not worth so much cos they only made 6 issues!

The Thievin' Gypsy B------s comes to mind...

Hilarious.

Who'd believe it? Biscuits Alive!