Comics UK

Its been interesting how some say that comics weren't the same when they went into the 80's...But I'd still say there was good stuff...

Jackpot used its name to have lots of interesting competitons like design the cover! Win your weight in sweets...height in games..visit the Jackpot office..some very cool contests..

As a kid I loved Jackpot and Buster and Jackpot..
Laser Eraser (my favourite)...Gremlins..Full O Beans..Mike's Bike..The incredible sulk..Goodnews Badnews..Jake's Seven..The Winners..The Amazing three..Terror toys..Marathon Mutt..Cry Baby..Will Power..
a lot of these I also enjoyed in Big Comic..

Anyone buy Jackpot at the time or like it now..

I was a Jackpot reader! It was one of my favourite IPC humour titles at the time, along with Whoopee! I particularly liked The Amazing Three, The Teeny Sweeney and Jake's Seven.

As with most comics it probably helps to have read it when you were young.

I never bought Jackpot at the time but have recently completed a full run & read the lot & enjoyed it a lot.

Fleetway's 1980's comics were great (in my opinion at least). I particularly liked Wow, which ran from 1982 - 1983 and produced 56 issues - all of them fantastic. Jack Oliver did a fantastic center spread page from issue 35 on called TV Quiz Kids which was a Quiz in the style of those on TV. My favourite feature was This Is The News - fake news that was always hilarious!

I must admit I didn't care a great deal for IPC's Jackpot at the time, as I was probably comparing it too unfairly to the beloved Odhams comics I grew up with. However, on reflection, all of those 70s/80s IPC comics were so slickly produced, with some very nice artwork.

The one thing I still think hampered Jackpot though was if I remember correctly it used typeset lettering for the captions/dialogue. That worked OK for Battle and Action but somehow it seemed too formal for a humour comic.

It did - I think it was a bit of a gimmick to try and make it "different". That would have reduced the ability to reprint original Arthur Martin Jack Pott strips of course!

When it was amaglmated into Buster, they went back to hand lettering.

Jackpot was good for 1979. My brother had every issue & then collected Buster for 3 years after the merger. Richie Wraggs was my favourite story [for those who never read this classic visit wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Wraggs ].

It's a Nice Life and Milly O'Naire and Penny Less were amongst the best too. If you ever have the chance The Gold Rush and Gremlins are good reads too. I'm alway's surprised that other than number 1, the issue' that sell never fetch much on ebay, although some sellers do try with some optimistic buy it now's.

Each issue was numbered right up to the last, number 141. 3 specials and the 7 annuals had the usual mix of new and reprint material.

I remember one where we have two boys and a professor who are having adventures in a wellycopter (a helicopter that is shaped like a welly). What was that one called again? The Incredible Journey or something; I can't quite remember.

One episode I would like to see again is the one where they end up in Noshville where everything is edible. But they discover too late that it is not for eating and are sentenced to 10 years in the Porridge Swamp (shovelling cold porridge) for damaging property. The Noshville people do everything with food except eat it. The only thing they eat are boots, so when they find the wellycopter, they are all set to have a feast while our heroes look on in horror. Luckily the professor still has the remote control for the wellycopter. So they all escape, throwing their balls and chains into the Porridge Swamp as they do so.

Have you been drinking?

stevezodiac wrote:Have you been drinking?

Long memory. It was in one of the early Jackpots.

The strip does exist. I just can't remember whether it was mentioned on this site or elsewhere.

AndyB wrote:The strip does exist. I just can't remember whether it was mentioned on this site or elsewhere.

I know it exists. I would love to read the Noshville episode again if I can find it.

I personally prefer the IPC comics from the 80s over the Beano and Dandy examples of the same era.