What happened to Buster in 1992? a bad year for artists..

[Peter Gray]

I collect Buster up to 1992..then a lot of artists seem to loose there jobs or move away...less pages to draw...
Jack stops drawing full time...except for letters and puzzles..a real shame
Mike Lacey leaves..
Trevor Metcalfe leaves..
Jim Hanson only draws Buster..no more Ricky Rainbow
Lew is only now drawing Tom Thug no Vampire Brats
Tom Paterson has left
Mc Hill is now only drawing Chalky
Nigel Edwards has left
Terry Bave only drawing 2 pages now
Keith has left
Mervin has left
Anthony has left..I think he just does the odd half page gag

So 1992 was not a good year for Buster
It got worse in 1995 when it went fortnightly and Lew...Terry Bave..Mc Hill left
1998 Jim doesn't draw anymore Buster strips..Mark doesn't draw the centre pages anymore..

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

It's a pretty depressing list, PETER, and it's incredible that the comic managed to limp on until the first week of 2000. Was it the only IPC humour title left by this point? Afar cry from my youth, when IPC were thriving in this field: or, at the very least, were putting out seemingly endless new projects in this field.

Improved paper-stock from BUSTER did little to stem the downturn, one theory is that at some point in the mid-80s, many kids 'matured' artificially, and skipped out the previous tradition of reading comics, which dominated my childhood. Many kids seemed more interested in appearing 'cool' to their peers, leaving comics out of the equation for many potential readers.........today, of course, many kids are into under-age drinking and other diversions, and the sheer innocence of comic-reading is sadly not nearly as widespread as it once definately was.

By the way, MERVYN JOHNSON had a very high profile in comics work in the early 90s: anyone know if he's still working in this field?

[Raven]

I think in the 90s we enter the era of the "efficiency review," Peter, when the new generation of publishers had the cost-cutting mindset: why pay writers and artists a page rate to create new strips, when we can just reprint old ones for free, and then: why are we filling these titles with expensive to produce comic strips when we can get the in-house staff to throw together 'feature' pages instead, for no extra cost.

It wasn't reader-led but all to do with the growing commercially minded philosophy that grew out of the '80s, of wanting to make as much money as possible while spending as little as possible.

[AndyB]

Said this before, but it wasn't Mc Hill - it was Mr (Gordon) Hill

Tom Paterson's departure can be attributed to one Euan Kerr, I suspect - DCT headhunting Tom and Bob Nixon was the real beginning of the end, and that was before Buster and Whizzer and Chips were "relaunched" - disastrously, in the case of Whizzer and Chips.

[Raven]

They'd have departed because it was clear there was going to be less and less, or indeed no further work down the line at IPC though, surely? As IPC traditionally paid so much better, I doubt they'd have jumped ship to DCT if a reprint-filled future wasn't already in sight for the IPC titles.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

One of the first to 'jump ship' was ROBERT NIXON, who must have been one of IPC'S most commercial artists; what hope did this hold for some of the 'lesser talents' of the day?!

[Raven]

Also, as I recall, around 1991 the Fleetway division that published the comics were taken over by Egmont, formerly Gutenberghus, who, despite their associations with Disney comics abroad, had no interest in carrying on with the UK comics line.

Quite a few new comics - humour and apparently adventure- were in the planning/development stages at that time but I think Gutenberghus/Egmont put an immediate stop to it all, so it clearly wasn't going to continue much longer if they had no interest in investing in the comic line.

I think the takeover in 1991 had a lot to do with the changes you notice from 1992, Peter.

[Peter Gray]

Just to add..
Reg Parlett stopped due to retirement in 1990.
Frank McD also lost work in the ending of Whizzer and chips..and wasn't in the Buster and Whizzer and Chips comic..

Also the price of Buster was far too high...
and the colouring on the reprints wasn't very good...only the reprints that were in colour in the first place worked..

Also a new comic Oh-No!! with Tom Paterson involved didn't come off at this time..

Thanks for the info Raven that explains the drastic cuts!!

I wonder if Mr Gordon Hill was Scotish?
The Mr. Hill the dot could look like the r turning into a C...

[Raven]

Also a new comic Oh-No!! with Tom Paterson involved didn't come off at this time..

That was one of the projects the new owners immediately cancelled.

[philcom55]

I would imagine a lot of the blame for all this could be laid at the door of the unlamented Robert Maxwell, even though the way in which he'd been bleeding his companies dry didn't really come to light until after Fleetway had been sold off in 91.

- Phil R.

[NP]

I would imagine a lot of the blame for all this could be laid at the door of the unlamented Robert Maxwell, even though the way in which he'd been bleeding his companies dry didn't really come to light until after Fleetway had been sold off in 91.

- Phil R.

I was in the late Alan Fennell's Fleetway office at Mornington Crescent the morning after Maxwell 'went missing' and he said he'd have gladly pushed him overboard. He said it with his customary twinkle in the eye but the feeling at Fleetway was that Maxwell was the worst thing that could have happened to the business.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

the only 'comic' contribution that ROBERT MAXWELL appearred to actively back was an elaborate satire on PRIVATE EYE which often targeted him, and CAP'N BOB oversaw.......

[Raven]

I suppose the Gutenberghus/Egmont takeover is the great understated fact when people talk about what happened to British comics - probably because people don't really know the behind the scenes details.

When it's pondered why the grand 'IPC' empire of comics ended, people will say "well, children found other distractions - there were computers and multi-channel TV" etc. but isn't it really just because Gutenberghus/Egmont took over, weren't interested and cancelled everything?

There's no reason to believe that some of the new line of comics that were being developed to appeal to a new generation of kids wouldn't have been a success and the line may still have been around today in some form. But once the whole structure's been demolished you can't get it back.

And it became quite a common thing for one corporation to take over another and for things to change. For example, if I remember rightly, Sooty (the "Sooty brand" as the ubiquitous marketing speak of today would have it) was bought by Gullane, then Gullane was bought by HIT entertainment; HIT entertainment thought Sooty didn't have enough international appeal, then after 50 years of great success with British children, no more Sooty.

[Peter Gray]

Sooty is now been bought out and used by the magician Richard Cadell ...who Mathew Corbett has called a Corbett...because of his love for the character...
Harry C did 25 years
Mathew C did 25 years..
Richard is touring the country at the moment...stage shows..

Glad Richard has the character back...and is using it..

[Peter Gray]

Jack Edward Oliver told me that people were still buying Buster right up to the end and didn't see why it needed to close it was still selling despite all of it reprints..

So the company ended it nmot the readers..