TOPS anyone read this own one..whats it like?

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Peter Gray
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TOPS anyone read this own one..whats it like?

Post by Peter Gray »

TOPS anyone read this own one..whats it like?

Saw the advert in a 80's Beano

It had the Professionals...Sally James pop pages...[b:b4175d084f]Spit the dog[/b:b4175d084f]...Little and Large...Paul Daniels magic page
So it had some ITV programs comic pages as well as mostly BBC...

How did it compare with Look-in at the time.
Look-in went on to the early 90's...

Would a best of TOPS book look good...now we've had the super 70's Look-in book which really captured it well...with adverts ...complete stories as well

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Shaqui
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Re: TOPS anyone read this own one..whats it like?

Post by Shaqui »

I got some issues at the time, mainly for the Toyah bio strip which ran for a while. I recall Adam Ant had his own strip as a pop star come time-travelling adventurer (a kind of new romantic Garth! :wink: ), 'The Professionals' (which ran until TV Tops ended) but little else stuck in my mind.

I've tried to get various back issues which crop up on eBay and it's an interesting title but I think it suffers from the usual script flaws that occur with DC Thomsom TV tie-ins as far back as 'The Avengers' in 'Diana' and 'Space Patrol' in 'The Beezer' - stories seem too short and undeveloped. Which is a shame as a lot of the art was very nice.

Curiously it never had any specials or annuals.

:?

Kashgar
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Re: TOPS anyone read this own one..whats it like?

Post by Kashgar »

Without checking through the issues I have Tops ran for 2 1/2 years as a photogravure title featuring a mix of strips based on TV shows, both BBC and ITV. As I remember the longest running strip based on a sitcom it contained was Hi-De-Hi. In the strip Shaqui refers too Adam Ant was a time-travelling highwayman dressed very much as he was in his video for the Adam and the Ants hit 'Stand and Deliver'. As time went on the title developed a decidedly female bias and in the end it was no surprise that it merged with one of Thomson's girl's titles.

Kremmen
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Re: TOPS anyone read this own one..whats it like?

Post by Kremmen »

I vaguely remember TOPS. Didn't it start as just TOPS, but then add the TV prefix when more and more TV strips were added? ISTR it running from late 1981, because one issue ran a pin-up page of Nicholas Hammond as Spider-Man, ITV having ran said series in late 81. Also IIRC TV TOPS must have still been around by late 82 as they started running a Buck Rogers strip, and ITV had ran the pilot movie with Gil Gerard at that time. As the series itself didn't follow, I thought it a bit odd that DCT should go to the trouble of doing a strip just to tie in with one showing of one episode.

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