Nipper - IPC's downsized farewell to new comic production.

[Kashgar]

When it first appeared, in Jan 1987, Nipper was a strange comic. Unusual not because of its content, which was traditional enough, but because of its format. It was published A5, roughly half the size of other comic titles and ran to 48 glossy pages, half of which were in colour, and each fortnightly issue sold for 28p.
This initial format didn't last too long though as by issue No 6 it had become just another standard sized title and within nine months it had been merged with IPC's juggernaut comic title Buster.
Despite it's short life and rather weird beginnings historically Nipper was an important title in that it was the last new comic published by IPC whose comic production pedigree could be traced back, through several mergers and changes in the company name to Comic Cuts first published by Alfred Harmsworth nearly a century before.
And what did No 1 give us besides a free bag of licorice allsorts?

Nipper - Gordon Bell
Brad Break - Steve Bright (with a nod to David Law)
Flapper - Gordon Bell
Magic Trainers -
Kelpie's Kingdom - Brian Delaney
Blaster and Bignoise -
Wonder Boy -
Double Trouble - Terry Bave
The Savers - Mark Bennington
Ricky Rainbow - Jimmy Hansen
Strong Arm - Command Kart - Mike Lacey
Frankie's Flashlight - Brian Platt
Roy's Toys - Sid Burgon
Mighty Mouth - Terry Bave
My 'Dad' Mum - Anthony Hutchings
James Pond - poss Barrie Appleby
School Funds - Vic Neill
First-Time Fred - D. Jones
Felix the Pussycat - Tom Paterson

[Lew Stringer]

Humour comics editor Bob Paynter had wanted to launch a digest sized comic for a long time, and Nipper was the eventual realization of that. Unfortunately its small size didn't do it any favours. It was easily shoplifted, or obscured by bigger comics, or its flimsy paper meant that the weight of the cover mounted free gifts caused it to lean over, obscuring the cover.

A swift revamp to a standard size comic proved too late to save the fortunes of this misjudged venture. Good artists involved, but I always thought the tone of the stories were rather tame, and younger in approach than other humour comics. I think it diluted Buster's humour when the comics merged.

The digest-size format is very popular with kids today of course, albeit with the sturdier chunky Manga comics.

Nipper may have been IPC's last comic but under more company name changes, Fleetway and Egmont continued producing new comics. (Sonic the Comic and Toxic for example.)

Lew

[Peter Gray]

Wonder boy is by Mitch.who drew Freddy 3D..Micro mates in Whizzer and chips..

[AndyB]

Full name is Roy Mitchell, whose work I saw a couple of years ago in an anthology of Christian three-panel strips.