The Sparky File 1965 to January 1969.

[Digifiend]

Flying Horse? There was an early Beano text story called The Prince on the Flying Horse. Ran for several series, renamed when the Prince became King, and reverting back to Prince when it became a picture story. So Sparky used the idea later on, and a boys text paper used the concept before The Beano?

Also, you mention Grockle was in Rover - does this predate Jimmy and his Grockle from the first Dandy in 1937?

I can add one more to your list - Peter Piper (The Magic Comic).

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

more GROCKLE and PETER PIPER coming up, Digi......




TOM TARDY never lasted too long for some reason; check out that agressive close-up in frame 5! [issue 153, 23 DEC, 1967]:



NEXT, more BOB WEBSTER fare circa SEP 30, 1967, [ISSUE 141]:



and lastly in today's items, an ALBERT HOLROYD PETER PIPER offering [12 AUG, '67/issue 134]:

[Phoenix]

Thank you, Digifiend, for that information about Peter Piper. I do have a wide range of reference books and Ray Moore's The Magic Index is inevitably one of them. All my knowledge of that comic comes from Ray's book but, to be fair, I don't consult it very often. The concept of the flying horse certainly predates the existence of The Beano and the grockle made his debut in Jimmy Johnson's Grockle in The Rover in 1932. I have already mentioned the flying horse and the grockle before, I think on this thread. It is fair to say that ALL Thomsons' picture story papers owe something to the text papers, in some cases like The Victor, The (New) Hotspur and The Hornet much of their lifeblood. It would actually require a book to catalogue all the repeats, the rewritings, the adaptations and the new stories based on characters or ideas that had a vibrant life somewhere in The Big Five.

[Phoenix]

TOM TARDY never lasted too long for some reason

He probably got fed up with all the punishments. I can empathise with Tom. When I was in Ryelands County Primary School in Lancaster, aged between about nine and eleven, I was obsessed with getting engine numbers. Armed with my Ian Allen guide to British Railways Locomotives (London Midland Region) I will have been a familiar sight at all the useful spots. When this meant Lancaster Castle Station, I did have to beg a penny off my mother for the platform ticket though. I got particular pleasure from spotting those with names as well as numbers, and I had noticed that the nine o'clocker was almost always a double-header, taking the second engine at great speed to some destination where it was needed such as Oxenholme or Carstairs or even Glasgow. The temptation to wait for this train to pass was utterly irresistible. Two namers for the price of one. Ecstasy. Unfortunately, Miss Carter did not seem to share my obsession. A very good teacher but, how narrow-minded can you get? Her reaction was always the same. She raised the leg of my short pants and with some gusto she gave me a good open-handed slapping. While I was rubbing my smarting leg she would say 'You really must get in on time, Derek. You never learn.' But of course I did learn, I simply factored the inevitable pain into the deal in advance. Just to make sure here that I am still ON topic, let me add that I too used to read the Cornflakes packets and, furthermore, I always collected the cards they periodically contained. I look forward to further episodes about my new friend Tom.

[Digifiend]

Thank you, Digifiend, for that information about Peter Piper. I do have a wide range of reference books and Ray Moore's The Magic Index is inevitably one of them. All my knowledge of that comic comes from Ray's book but, to be fair, I don't consult it very often.

I've known about Peter Piper being in Magic since Dandy-Beano: An Alphabet of Fun came out in 1996 - it featured several Magic strips, including Peter. That was my first insight into the deep history of the comics (and the impact of World War 2, think about it, if it had never happened, Magic may well still exist now), before that, I only knew non-Beano/Dandy characters from annuals. (Judging by your tone, you felt I was stating the obvious ) Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean any offence, I was just pointing out that you omitted Peter Piper from your list.

[Phoenix]

(Judging by your tone, you felt I was stating the obvious ) Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean any offence, I was just pointing out that you omitted Peter Piper from your list.

Unfortunately the way I expressed myself, Digifiend, has given you a completely false impression of what I was trying to say, and obviously I apologise unreservedly for that. Reading it again, I can see it as you saw it. It could appear as if I was implying that you were wasting your time telling me about Peter Piper's link with Sparky and Magic because I already had that information in Ray's book. But I really didn't know anything about Peter Piper, and my thanks were genuine. Having a book and knowing what's in it are two quite different things. My collection of reference books is there for consultation, but I really hadn't looked at The Magic Index prior to today for a year, maybe longer.

[Digifiend]

Don't worry about it.

[alanultron5]

In Peter's debut in Sparky No 3. It was the statue of Pan-which came to life-that gave Peter the magic pipes! Was this how the original Peter gained them?

[Digifiend]

Sounds like you're asking for a scan from a Fascimile of Magic Comic No1 - there's not a cat in hell's chance of anyone having the original, there's probably only half a dozen copies in existance! Anyone got it? Or I don't suppose the origin is mentioned in The Magic Index phoenix?

[Phoenix]

Sounds like you're asking for a scan from a Fascimile of Magic Comic No1 - there's not a cat in hell's chance of anyone having the original, there's probably only half a dozen copies in existance! Anyone got it? Or I don't suppose the origin is mentioned in The Magic Index phoenix?

This is the first episode, Digifiend. I've scanned it from DC Thomson Firsts.

[Phoenix]

And these are the two pages from Ray's The Magic Index that are relevant to Peter Piper.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

fantastic historical works, Phoenix: [thanks to kashgar also]. Doesn't this early WATKINS PETER PIPER look like 'OOR WULLIE?'

[Digifiend]

That's hardly surprising considering Watkins was also the Oor Wullie artist. Think of how alike Dirty Dick and Winker Watson (both drawn by Eric Roberts) look.

Re: Peter Piper's origin. Seems his first Sparky strip had the same storyline as his Magic debut then. Thanks for posting that. Also it's interesting that Allan Morley drew him in issue 77. Strange artist choice though, Morley is legendary, the only other artist allowed to sign their work in that era, but his style is nothing like DDW's.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Watkins had a wide range of different-looking characters, though, Digi-----much wider than Eric Roberts, for example, whose characters often looked 'samey'.......it was unusual for DDW to have two seperate characters who were almost interchangeable in appearance.....


.....meanwhile:



GEORGE DRYSDALE must have departed the comics scene by this time [23 DEC '67, issue 153, the same as the following pair]:



some real festive fare on view here, readers:

[Kashgar]

[quote="
GEORGE DRYSDALE must have departed the comics scene by this time [23 DEC '67, issue 153, the same as the following pair]:



[/quote]

Sadly George had departed full stop by this time. He having died of a heart attack in the summer.