Comic characters merging..

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swirlythingy
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by swirlythingy »

Whoops, Splodge! I knew I'd forgotten something. (I think Blinky was originally Colonel Blink, but, hey, if the Numskulls count...)

As for the Banana Bunch, they got a few new stories (by Nigel Parkinson) in 2004 or so. Can't remember how long it lasted offhand, but it was probably cut short by the revamp.
Old Freddy wrote:I also really like the long stories by Mike Pearse (And later Kev F) featuring lots of characters; they're really good, and they're the type of strip where I don't mind other characters in the issue not appearing, because the quality of those long stories were always top-notch, in both artwork and story terms.
Seconded, thirded, and fourthed. The best thing which ever happened to the Beano was when Mike Pearse joined, and the worst thing was when he left. Kev F soldiered on for a few more years, injecting some variety into the comic, but he's also long gone. Long stories and serials were always the parts of the Beano I looked forward to most (Nigel Dobbyn's 2005 eight-parter was also brilliant), and I literally leapt when I first saw an advert for the 2009 Bash Street Kids annual and recognised Pearse's artwork.
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Digifiend
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Digifiend »

Blinky was in the merged Beezer and Topper, Colonel Blink was in the old pre-1990 Beezer. He definitely counts.

Nigel Parkinson was also the Banana Bunch artist in the last few Beezer Books and the 2005 Dandy Annual.
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Morgyn the Mighty. :P

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Jonny Whizz »

I'm not familiar with the Beano book of Britain though. Is it anything like the Beano book of amazing Facts? (Roger and Ivy share a strip in that book too, and I think Billy Whizz appears in the strip)
It probably is quite similar in format, but I don't have the Beano book of amazing facts. Going slightly off-topic, the comic strips in the Beano book of Britain were Dennis the Menace, Billy Whizz, Minnie the Minx, Roger and Ivy, Joe King and the Bash Street Kids. Roger and Ivy were drawn by Bob Nixon, Minnie by Jim Petrie and Joe King by Bob Dewar (all their usual artists), but Dennis was drawn by Tom Paterson (a decade or so before he started doing it in the weekly comic), Billy by John Dallas and the kids by Jim Hansen.

I agree about Mike Pearse and Kev F, their strips were very enjoyable and it's a shame neither artist is in the comic anymore. I didn't actually mind when the Beano reprinted Mike's Three Bears strips, partly because I hadn't seen most of them before but also because I think they have aged well. I also thought Derek the Sheep was good whenever he appeared - like Mike and Kev's strips, they were something to look forward to because they didn't appear every week.

Re: Morgyn the Mighty - you're absolutely right of course, my mistake. I knew I should have checked first...
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Old Freddy
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Old Freddy »

Going by what you said Jonny, The Beano Book of Britain seems quite similar to Amazing facts. The latter was released by Kingfisher and featured the following characters:

Outer Space Section- Dennis The Menace and Gnasher- Tom Paterson
Oceans, tectonic plates, etc.- Minnie the Minx- Jim Petrie
Animals- The Bash Street Kids- Jimmy Hansen
History- Roger the Dodger- Bob Nixon (With extras by Gordon Bell)
The countries of the World- Billy Whizz- Jimmy Hansen
Chemistry and physics- Techno- Jimmy Hansen

Ivy only appeared in a Joint strip with Roger- It's possible Kingfisher were given the rights to use Ivy but there wasn't enough sections for her to have one. Several other characters appeared in a tapestry by Gordon Bell (Ball boy and Biffo spring to mind). Extra artwork was drawn by an artist who I don't know the name of (He drew a Dennis the Menace prose story in the 2001 Beano annual and Cuddles & Dimples in the 2001 Dandy Annual) and in order for me to stay on topic :lol: Dennis, Gnasher, Minnie, Roger, Billy Whizz, the Bash Street Kids and Techno all shared a strip at the end where they told the reader some of their own amazing facts (For example, if you stacked all the complaints Minnie's Dad recieves into a pile, it will be taller than Big Ben- Ben Brown, that is.)

In Techno's section, there's a bit about sound waves that shows what the different hearing ranges between Dogs and Humans are. A sort of table, drawn by Jimmy Hansen, is shown with small icons of Dennis and Gnasher, but the icon of Dennis actually looks like the Current Dennis (i.e. the version based off of the 2009 TV Series incarnation) And Jimmy Hansen was originally one of the artists for the TV Series style dennis in the comic. Hmmm...
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Jon
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Jon »

One move which always struck me as funny is when Pup Parade moved from the Beano to the Topper (and later on, Beezer and Topper). Where the usual trend is for the characters from a comic with less-circulation to move to the more popular comic, this one happened the other way around.

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swirlythingy
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by swirlythingy »

And then, of course, it moved back again. (Another short-lived series from the early 21st century.)
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Digifiend
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Digifiend »

Beezer had two other strips which were spin-offs from the Beano - Gnatasha, who is one of Gnasher's daughters, and Plug, who of course had had his own comic which merged into Beezer. Hungry Horace and Keyhole Kate are both Dandy characters, who after a hiatus, reappeared in Sparky (and thanks to merger, Topper, where Horace survived for over a decade more).

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Jonny Whizz »

Yeah, the Amazing Book of Facts you describe, Freddy, is similar to the one I've got.

Also, Pansy Potter did pretty much the same thing as Keyhole Kate and Hungry Horace - she was originally a Beano character, but she later reappeared in Sparky. However, Pansy later returned to the Beano, and Kate to the Dandy, which Horace didn't.

The Pups did the same thing as Pansy and Kate in that respect, with the second Beano series of Pup Parade appearing in the comic in 2003-2004, drawn by Gordon Bell as with their first spell in the Beano (did he draw them in the Topper as well?).
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Old Freddy
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Old Freddy »

No one's seemed to mention Peter Piper in this thread, he's appeared in four comics! Then again, aside from the topper version, they might as well be three different characters:

Magic Comic (and magic beano book) a kid with more than a passing resemblance to Oor Wullie, possibly aged about 6 or 7.

Sparky/Topper: Has a different hairstyle and appears to be slightly older, possibly aged between 8 and 10.

Dandy: Has black hair and a hairstyle a bit like that of Elvis, a purple shirt with a 'P' on it, and I think he's probably in his early teens. (Some people may disagree, but this was actually my favourite Peter Piper, Nick Brennan was at his peak during this time.)
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Sammy Shrink, Korky, Dennis and the Dandy all updated
Beryl the Peril Page Added
Navigation altered

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Digifiend
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by Digifiend »

The Magic version ended due to Magic being forced to close, Sparky's was the definitive version (it lasted longest) and Dandy's was pretty shortlived. By the 90s, Dandy's circulation was probably lower than that of 1970s Sparky. Comics don't need so many sales to be considered a success nowadays. Of course the reason the first version of Peter looked like Oor Wullie is because Dudley Watkins drew him.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by stevezodiac »

Here's the Beano - Dandy crossover we all wanted to see.

Image

big bad bri
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by big bad bri »

i have just won that beano library 97 on ebay i shall look forward to reading it

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blaing
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by blaing »

I'll have to look for that one when I get the chance.

The ultimate menace battle :lol:

FiftiesAndSixtiesFan
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by FiftiesAndSixtiesFan »

dishes wrote:Actually there are loads of Football ones. IPC football heroes could always be transferred to Melchester Rovers when their strip ended (e.g. Kevin's Chance, The Hard Man Johnny Dexter) and Thomson's had United (Iron Barr, Limp-along Leslie, and for a while it was Jimmy Grant's team). I'm sure there are lots of other examples like this.
I can remember one example from the early 1960s, when IPC launched a football-themed mini-magazine series (similar in format to the War Picture Library). The first one - extensively advertised in the Lion, with several sample panels - was called Come On Carford!, and told of the fortunes of Carford City FC. A nuggety character called Bomber Reeves featured prominently. Some time later, in the Tiger, Carford played Melchester Rovers in some sort of benefit match, only for Ben Galloway (the older version, not the lantern-jawed young tough of subsequent years) to be robbed of the gate-money. Never heard how that one ended. Later still, Bomber Reeves transferred to the Rovers to play alongside Roy Race!
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stevezodiac
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Re: Comic characters merging..

Post by stevezodiac »

I forgot to mention Baby Whamster and Baby Smasher from Wham! and Smash! respectively who joined together for the Baby Whamster and Baby Smasher strip in Smash! after it had absorbed Pow! & Wham!

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