Advert for Cracker no. 1

[blaing]

David, you weren't thinking of Big-Head Branny, the Strong-Arm Janny by any chance?

[DavidKW]

Ah yes, got my wires crossed there!

Quite a scary looking bloke but so was my caretaker at school!

Amusing strip spoiled by Sammy's presence - that strip justy underlined how hideous he looked! (Plug was ugly in the Bash Street Kids, but at least he was likeable!).

The thing about Cracker's merger in the Beezer was that a lot of its weaker strips went with it: ie "Billy The Kid" - a Dennis The Menace rip-off; "Little Orror" - not funny, another Dennis rip-off (could've done with a bit of the "Misty" touch): Oh, and "Jest A Minute" with Sammy - I've spoken there!

"Young Foo" & "Joe Soap" were affected by reduced strip sizes (I've made my point on general discussion on sizes).

The revival of "Scrapper" (was last in Beano in late 50s) was sometimes good & the colour worked well for some of his eye-watering injuries!

"Iron Hand" was excellently drawn adventure and benefitted from its Beezer move to colour.

[AndyB]

Been mentioned recently, but Scrapper in Cracker was no relation to Lord Snooty's pal in the Beano, apart from looking completely different. I don't think there was ever supposed to be a link.

[Digifiend]

In fact, the Beano's Scrapper was still appearing at the time, as the Lord Snooty strip didn't end for another 15 years.

[DavidKW]

The Scrapper I was thinking of bore no relation to the one in Lord Snooty.

This one appeared in an early 60s beano annual I read - the one which also featured the Little Plum where he buys a car which gets kicked off a mountain bridge (as referenced on "Comics UK" on BBC4).

In one strip this version of Scrapper has to promise his Freddie Mills lookalike dad not to fall out with his mate to get a trwat to a boxing match. It goes wrong but he & his mate end up going to the circus instead.

The Cracker/beezer version was a worthy revivial update.

[dandy mad]

Wasn't scrapper in the Beano book 1959? I haven't got one to clarify but I do recall seeing it in the book at a book fair many moons ago think it was Bill Holroyd who did the artwork could be wrong though

[Digifiend]

Right era, and that one was supposed to be Snooty's friend. They didn't originally live at the castle, remember. Scrapper is one of Snooty's original pals from Ash Can Alley.

[stevezodiac]

Two other Snooty pals had their own strips, Swanky Lanky Liz and Big Fat Joe the latter in Magic comic.

[Digifiend]

Wrong. Liz, Joe, Doubting Thomas, and Polly Wolly Doodle (and her "poodle", Pongo) all had their own strips in the Beano. Joe's strip was not in Magic. All of those were before they joined Snooty's gang though, whereas Scrapper's was 20 years later, after those characters had joined the gang.

[AndyB]

And drawn by Albert Holroyd.

[stevezodiac]

Thanks for correcting me so abruptly.

[DavidKW]

I was never into Lord Snooty, so I never thought of that Scrapper from there. That annual I looked through in 1985 at my late Aunt & Uncles in South Wales - it belonged to my cousin (30 years older than me).

I was just remembering from the Cracker version on Scrapper, when in Beezer colour, one of the most eye-watering humour comic injuries - when a hay bale falls on Scappers head and at the end of the strip his swollen red face is revealed. The colour worked well on it. Ouch!

[DavidKW]

Will say that Curly's Commandos, The Nutters, Dunder Ed & Wonder Wellies should've moved over to Beezer & not the dires of Billy The Kid, Little Orror, Jest A Minute along with Young Foo which suffered from reduced page size.