Comics UK

I don't want to know the ending as I may start collecting, but I'd love to know a bit more about Johnny's Journey!

The thing that stops it being a full blown golden era for me is the amount of very dated looking reprints in there like Tin Teacher, and Minnie's Mixer and Ginger's Tum from early Whizzer and Chips, and the double page ancient looking Little Orvy (apparently a newspaper strip reprint from the early Sixties). It's not as good as it was between, say, 1969-1977. But though it's no longer firing on all cylinders, it's still very good for the longer adventure strips and there's some decent humour stuff in there, too.

Did you get the Buster books around this time, Muffy? I was wondering if any of the regular serials apart from Leopard From Lime Street - The Byrds of Paradise Isle or The Runaways, say - ever had exclusive strips in the annuals.

I wonder what Andrew Wilson is up to now.

I know what you mean about reprints Raven (though Ginger being the best of the reprints was a favourite of mine).

I did get the 1979 annual, but as I recall it didn't have any of the adventure type strips, though did have quite a few reprints.

In Johnny's Journey he is devoted to the donkey, but as you may know in the general story-line his donkey falls ill, with little hope of recovery. So they go in search of a cure.

For me Buster changed radically after the merger with Jackpot in Feb. 1982, though perhaps it was me getting older, though I did carry on reading for another 2 years.

Muffy wrote:I know what you mean about reprints Raven (though Ginger being the best of the reprints was a favourite of mine).

I liked the strip but I remembered it from first time round in Whizzer and Chips when it was shaded blue! I thought the reproduction quality of Ginger's Tum was quite poor, and Minnie's Mixer - originally in full colour - was even worse, like a bad photocopy, and really stood out.

Muffy wrote: In Johnny's Journey he is devoted to the donkey, but as you may know in the general story-line his donkey falls ill, with little hope of recovery. So they go in search of a cure.

I didn't even know there was a donkey in it! I don't think I've ever seen a single frame of this strip. How does the donkey travel if it's ill? Is it set in the past? (Presumably there's no local vet or the story would end in a few panels.)

I now have some late 1980 Busters so I can see Andrew Wilson's Johnny's Journey serial at last. Despite it being discussed in this thread, I hadn't realised it was another of the single page a week adventure strips, itself. Wilson's art is lovely as usual, but so cramped in these one-pagers, compared to his Byrds of Paradise Isle weekly three pager (see steelclaw's post on the previous page). The Leopard From Lime Street benefits from retaining its three pages a week.

There's another new weekly single page adventure serial during this period, too: Ben the Bad, about a boy, falsely accused of burglary and on the run. So the Buster editor obviously thought this format was the way to go at the time.

I now have the Buster issue with the debut instalment of donkey drama Johnny's Journey, and Johnny and his braying beast of burdenesque buddy are already on the run to avoid Peppy (the donkey) from being put down.

For a diseased donkey that hasn't eaten for days, Peppy is a good jumper.

Folks I have a complete absence of Buster from my collection and would love to delve into some of the adventure strips talked about. Are there any annuals or reprints that have some of these featured and that might serve as a possible taster for me?

Thanks in advance.