British comics in Greek magazines

[Ion]

Hello everyone! I am a new member in the forum, and since I'm from Greece I hope you'll pardon my terrible english! I'm a huge fan of comics, and among other genres I like the british strips of Fleetway. I participate a lot in a greek forum about comics, Greekcomics.gr, where I like creating small articles about old british titles that have been published in greek magazines and I used to read when I was a kid.

Since there are many british comic strips that I have no idea who the illustrator was or which was the original title, I hope you don't mind if I upload here a few scans of mine from some of those magazines, with the hope that some of you might recognise the artwork and could give me some more information about them.

At this point I'd like to thank Irmantas from Kazoop, since he was the first I contacted for help, he came up with the idea to make a post in this forum, and he already recognised some artists in some of the pages that I sent him. I hope it happens the same here

Thank you!

Ion

[Digifiend]

The first one looks like Ron Spencer's work. He's best known for Baby Face Finlayson and Little Plum in the Beano, and Dinah Mo in The Dandy, but I don't recognise this character.

[blaing]

the first one was originally Whoopee's Holiday Guide to... which ran from No. 1, and ended before Shiver and Shake's Merger into Whoopee! I

I posted a strip from No. 5 on my blog. It could also be the work of Barrie Appleby.

[Old Freddy]

The first one is definitely Barrie Appleby. I'm not sure who the artist is for the second attachment but I think he also drew Mum's the Word in Whoopee.

I've been vaguely aware of Fleetway/IPC strips showing up in other languages. In the Whizzer and Chips issue dated 11th July 1970, Sid mentions in his letter to the Whizz-kids "I was fortunate to see a story of 'Little Saver' translated into a foreign language... no prizes for guessing which one it was when I tell you the words were all Greek to me!"

[comixminx]

Hello and welcome! I only recently became aware of the level of Greek translations & reprints of girls comics too, in the title Manina. There is a page about it on my blog, though I note that your examples are not from this area of comics so you may not find it as relevant, apologies if so.

[Ion]

Thank you all for your replies! I really appreciate it! Now thanks to you I have 1 title less to look for!

@blaing: your blog seems to be very nice! I'll definitely have a good look at it very soon!

@Old Freddy: there were many greek magazines of '70s and '80s that published translated Fleetway stories. "Manina" that comixminx mentions was one of them, and it was first published on June of 1972. I mostly try to spot stories from the magazines "Vavoura" (first issue published in 1981) and "Fasolas" (published in 1984).

@comixminx: I've never read Manina since it was mostly a magazine for girls, but in greekcomics.gr there are some topics for a few british stories that the magazine included (most of them were originally published in Misty or Tammy): Moonchild, The Four Faces of Eve, No Tears for Molly, The Happy Days, The Robot who Cried, Sue's Fantastic Fun-Bag, The Cult of the Cat.

Allow me now to upload 3 more stories, all of them involving cats, and see if we'll have any luck with them!

[philcom55]

The last one is definitely Mowser who appeared on the back cover of Lion for much of the 1960s. Art by Reg Parlett.

[blaing]

The middle one is Hot Dog and Cool Cat (unless it appeared under a different name, as this appeared in a holiday special in the 1980's, considering IPC's penchant for renaming older strips, so that they look new to newer readers. As far as the artist is concerned, I wouldn't hazard a guess for the artist.

[Raven]

Hot Dog and Cool Cat - that was its original name - was from Knockout and later Whizzer and Chips when the two comics merged. Artist might be Murray Ball. Hard to tell for sure with no human characters.

Ion, your English isn't terrible, it's excellent!

[Old Freddy]

I think Hot Dog and Cool Cat might be the work of Brian Lewis, who drew Tomboy in Cor!! since the style looks similar but slightly wackier than Tomboy.

[philcom55]

I could be wrong but I think the cat in the hat appeared in a British girls' comic. I'll have to check to be sure.

[Raven]

I think Hot Dog and Cool Cat might be the work of Brian Lewis, who drew Tomboy in Cor!! since the style looks similar but slightly wackier than Tomboy.

Oh, yes. I was remembering Kashgar being certain that Murray Ball drew it - and there do seem to be some similarities - but there is a definite similarity to the Tomboy style.

[big bad bri]

im sure hot dog and cool cat was also in wow as well

[comixminx]

I could be wrong but I think the cat in the hat appeared in a British girls' comic. I'll have to check to be sure.

The cat in the hat is Alley Cat, from Jinty.

[Ion]

So the second round was a 100% success as you found all 3 titles of the comics I uploaded. Thank you guys!!! Tomorrow I will upload 3 more pages, hopefully with the same successful results

@raven: I appreciate it! I'm trying not to make many mistakes, although I know it's inevitable.