Peter Gray wrote:
Without the decline in 1992..would Buster still be around today 50 years young?
Possibly, IF it had been given a massive makeover that appealed to new generations of readers. A Toxic-like revamp if you will.
As it was, like all comics, they are of their time and what worked in 1990, 1960, 1940 or 1896 etc wouldn't appeal to kids today imho. (Beano and Dandy have only survived by moving with the times.)
Intune - I have a copy of the "mock up " (not sure the official name for these "test" comics) issue of "OH No!" I'll try put some scans on here later - it was pretty good it had a few Tom Paterson strips and one by Lew Stringer - It was a bit like OINK, Buster and Mad IMHO
Lew Stringer wrote:(Beano and Dandy have only survived by moving with the times.)
Yeah, that's why they got rid of the original Lord Snooty - too old fashioned and unrelatable to modern kids. Doesn't mean it's a bad strip. And can you imagine a modern Dandy with Black Bob in it? As legendary as that character is, it wouldn't appeal to kids today.
Interesting to see this pop up again....my interview with Allen Cummings that will be up on the site later this month touches on the changes to Buster when it moved from IPC.
Allen also suggested that some of the comics that merged into Buster weren't necessarily that different in circulation numbers to Buster itself. IPC had essentially decided Buster was to be the Flagship so would survive regardless, but you get the impression even in the 1980s it wasn't always at its strongest.
It'll be an interesting read (guess I better start typing it up!)
bustercomic wrote:Interesting to see this pop up again....my interview with Allen Cummings that will be up on the site later this month touches on the changes to Buster when it moved from IPC.
Allen also suggested that some of the comics that merged into Buster weren't necessarily that different in circulation numbers to Buster itself. IPC had essentially decided Buster was to be the Flagship so would survive regardless, but you get the impression even in the 1980s it wasn't always at its strongest.
It'll be an interesting read (guess I better start typing it up!)
I think it was IPC policy that if the sales figures on two flagging comics were both low prior to a merger the older comic took priority unless the figures on the older comic were really bad.
I understand sales of the humour comics were a concern in the mid 1980s which is why IPC tried something different with Oink! but sadly the "establishment" (for want of a better term for retailers and parents) had a knee jerk reaction to a few little things they found offensive in it, despite it being mild even by 1980s standards.
They got rid of the 2 in 1 gimmick when they changed the logo for the final time, and then Shiner didn't carry on in Buster, unlike Sid's Snake - so had Shiner already become a reprint by then?
Sid and Shiner shared a strip at the end. Mike Lacey had retired by then, and Jimmy Hansen had taken over.
Sid was always a lot more popular - well, to the extent that Sid was in the lower reaches of the W&C top ten popularity chart (usually below JR, the Krazy Gang and Sammy Shrink) and Shiner almost never featured.
What I was thinking was whether the need to amalgamate was identified before Whizzer and Chips were united, and it was deliberately run down to shore up Buster. It was 24 pages at the end with a lot more reprint than Buster.
AndyB wrote:
What I was thinking was whether the need to amalgamate was identified before Whizzer and Chips were united, and it was deliberately run down to shore up Buster. It was 24 pages at the end with a lot more reprint than Buster.
Going from memory here but I think management felt a merger of W&C with Buster was inevitable because a) all their comics ended in mergers, and b) Buster was the only other old-style traditional comic left for it to merge into, if memory serves me right.
If you're wondering if they considered doing it the other way around, - merging Buster into W&C, I don't think that was ever on the cards but who knows what possibilities were discussed at senior level. The editors and contributors would be the last people to know.
