Comics UK

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote: IPC comics had more pages, but they carried lots of ads for non-comics related stuff. 'super Mousse' chocolate bars was a fave in the very early 70s.

Lots? Not typically. Whizzer and Chips, for example, had 1½ pages of ads per issue in the early 70s.

The IPC fun comics would generally only have between ½ to 1½ pages of ads each issue. (Buster does have 2½ pages of ads in the '69 issues I have - which goes down as the '70s begin - but I don't think that title had quite the care lavished on it that the new Bob Paynter titles had, until the Paynter titles started merging with it; hence also the lack of colour.)

But I have a few 36 page Shiver and Shakes here with no ads at all, and - to hand - number 23 of the 40 page Whoopee!, which just has a sixth of a page ad for stamps. And a 1975 issue just has one full page for Super Matey, and that's it.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote: IPC often tended to put in a lot of 'filler' material, like pages of illustrated jokes and puns, which often looked like they were just making up the numbers, even to an seven-year-old reader.

I always thought those pages of single panel gags were perfectly valid, and often very good, by good cartoonists. They introduced kids to the fab art form of the single panel cartoon, which we surely approve of? I know I used to like the Dennis Gifford ones in Whizzer and Chips.

I like Buster Giggles, too - there's quite a saucy one in a 1971 issue, I've just grabbed: two sailors looking out of the top of their submarine at a frisky looking whale jumping overhead. Sailor: "I dread the mating season!"

Raven wrote: I always thought those pages of single panel gags were perfectly valid, and often very good, by good cartoonists. They introduced kids to the fab art form of the single panel cartoon, which we surely approve of? I know I used to like the Dennis Gifford ones in Whizzer and Chips.

Me too. (Always liked Denis' quirky style.)

Admittedly a page of jokes would cost the publisher less than a strip but the artists still had to be paid. They also served a good purpose of breaking up page after page of comic strips and made the whole package more interesting and varied.

These days comics just publish reader's jokes without illustrating them, which is a shame, but an inevitable part of budget cuts. Modern jokes in comics tend to be of the riddle type and not very visual anyway. (eg: "What cake wanted to rule the world? Atilla the Bun". Although a warrior bun-character would have been a funny visual for that one.)

Lew Stringer wrote: Admittedly a page of jokes would cost the publisher less than a strip but the artists still had to be paid.

And the readers - £1 per gag!

Raven wrote:

Lew Stringer wrote: Admittedly a page of jokes would cost the publisher less than a strip but the artists still had to be paid.

And the readers - £1 per gag!

My first published work was one of those Buster jokes. Jim Watson illustrated it, and, yes, I think I got £1.

Lew Stringer wrote: Modern jokes in comics tend to be of the riddle type and not very visual anyway. (eg: "What cake wanted to rule the world? Atilla the Bun". Although a warrior bun-character would have been a funny visual for that one.)

Terry Gilliam would surely agree with you:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZtNsflPBSg

The Bash Street joke page really isn't good.as you say saving money..also the visuals for Roger's diary is boring..

I did a blog post on good joke pages and readers letters..
Jack clayton...J.Edward Oliver and the Beano's Jimmy Glen

Quite grown up, some of the Chuckles ones with marital sniping, aren't they? They could have been in The Weekly news or Titbits or the like.

Some are quite good - I like the "sum in my homework" one. The mice one, too.

I can't see these gag-packed pages as "fillers," worthy of complaint, at all.

The Odhams press people were the most `head in the sand` when having to merge their comics (Wham, Pow, Smash, Terrific, Fantastic) they truly denied reality! One editorial likened it to bieng sated enough after a big feast!?? Heaven knows what they meant by that.

The first page of cartons you have posted are by STYX. I have a few of his "Weekend book of Cartoons" and he did draw the occasional comic strip - one featuring a dog that may have been called Paws.

Raven: pages of cartoons are fine if the jokes are of a high enough standard, but I found the overall quality of the material pretty variable----to be fair, some of the very best ideas turned up occassionally within these one-off gags, but there was an awful lot of routine stuff as well.

DCT also put in a lot of visual gags into their annuals: their 'crime' was to take up a whole page [in some cases] to put over a gag: I remember feeling slightly cheated by this 'waste of space' many moons ago. Easy money for the artists, though!

IPC carried 'lots' of non-comic-related ads compared to DCT, who took no outside advertising until the late 80s. Some of my late 60s Busters have ads for toy cars that take up most of the page, or dominate it at least, distracting from the power of the comics material.


I definately have some COR!!S where the whole back page has been hogged by a colour advert.....there is some period charm in there, but perhaps a colour page by a good artist would have been better value for the reader.
However, these pages of gag cartoons are certainly worthy of discussion on here, and I remember the 'KOO KOO KLUB' by Denis Gifford in Whizzer and Chips very well.

I also loved the 60s/70s magazines like Titbits/Weekend, which were chock-a-block with endless cartoons [and other delights I won't go into here].

Shame this outlet has dwindled along with much other comics output.

Any chance of showing us the Stringer/Watson collaboration, Lew?

The current Bash Street jokes page is four short jokes written on top of a stock background. Now that's making up the numbers (and I don't think the submitters even get paid £1!). Fully illustrated single panel gags, like those above, are much better.

The Dandy's revisiting this sort of concept, in a small way, with their shorts pages, some of which are devoted to recurring characters and artists telling a particular format of joke. I particularly liked "Newsblast with Rocky O'Flair", but then I've always liked that sort of joke.

you're right, swirly; more modern layouts with gag material are much more sparse in general.

I intensely dislike the D C T fairly modern trend of blowing up inkings severely [in some of the compilation annuals] and superimposing them over vintage comics artwork. This breaks up the visuals certainly, but to me it's just creative vandalism whenever I'm unfortunate enough to encounter this sort of abomination.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I also loved the 60s/70s magazines like Titbits/Weekend, which were chock-a-block with endless cartoons [and other delights I won't go into here].

I remember that Weekend magazine used to feature a small character called Wee Ken on the cover of each issue. He was a tiny figure drawn somewhere in the cover photo, and it was sometimes difficult to spot him.

I also have fond memories of Titbits

yes, I think he was a tiny pink transfer [almost invisible], Niblet!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:yes, I think he was a tiny pink transfer [almost invisible], Niblet!

Here's Wee Ken in the bottom left of one pic and the bottom right of the other