IPC vs DCT

Buster, Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee, Wham, Smash, you name it!

Moderator: AndyB

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: IPC vs DCT

Post by philcom55 »

One artist defection I only discovered in retrospect was Eric Roberts. Growing up in the early 1960s his versions of Dirty Dick and Winker Watson were pure DCT to me, so it came as quite a shock when Fleetway started reprinting stories he'd drawn for Knockout years before. Here's the long-running character 'Mike' (later renamed 'Smiler' when he resurfaced in The Big One and Buster ).

Image

- Phil Rushton

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: IPC vs DCT

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

I think Eric done another strip for IPC called SMILER, Phil, in one of their 'early 70s explosion' titles....they may have been another couple of short-lived strips as well. These looked a bit dated, so perhaps they were reprints as well?

Thanks for adding the above worthy piece.

I must admit that this next one is a bit of a mystery, however [and has intruiged me for several years] :



Image

It's from the 1971 IPC title KNOCKOUT, and I'm pretty sure that this BEAT your NEIGHBOUR title-frame is the work of John Geering: this illustration certainly fits in with his more detailed style of that period.

However, I can't recall ever seeing Johns' work anywhere in a full strip of these characters, or indeed anywhere else within IPC until much later on in the 70s, almost near the end of the decade.

Why would very early 70s IPC employ John Geering to provide just this one drawing? --maybe he considered moonlighting for IPC at one time, but more work materialized for him at DCT, and he changed his mind............[?]


image from Steelclaws' ace KNOCKOUT site:

http://knockoutcomic1970s.blogspot.co.uk/

EDIT: KNOCKOUT [1971 version] comics just arrived 15 minutes ago; sure enough, John Geering put out a strip called Mucky Mick.......a sort of proto-SMUDGE, very like the later BEANO strip. How I missed JG's work at IPC first time around beats me!

DavidKW
Posts: 635
Joined: 30 May 2012, 08:39

Re: IPC vs DCT

Post by DavidKW »

Interesting points made here.

I'd say in a shoot-out it's about 50:50 in the humour comic stakes for many reasons that would take too long to explain.

For the boys' action comics IPC have the edge in terms of artists & memorable strips & characters.

On the girls' front IPC win for the 60s & 70s - again aprt for the above along with more you can warm to & racier strips. However DCT got the upper hand in the 80s largely thanks to recruiting artists who had been working for years at IPC before - such as John Armstrong & Rob MacGilivray.

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: IPC vs DCT

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

Yes I agree, David: IPC were the tops in boys' 'adventure' stuff,: DCT put out a lot of good hi-octane stuff in the mid-70s with WARLORD, and BULLET, but IPC upped the ante even further with ACTION and 2000 AD, two publications which helped bolster and rejuvenate an ailing UK comics industry!

Post Reply