Glaring errors in comics

[Jon]

I was reading my Action Annual 1984 today and came across this incredible error...

Page 66:


Page 103:


Sorry if it's not very clear, but they printed the same "Fidosaurus" strip twice on different pages! I wonder if anyone else has come across such obvious errors in comics?

[tictak]

In a recent Dandy, a My Own Genie not only included the old title panel, but Clive saying scooters was so "2004". It was a far too glaring reprint, made even worse when you look at how up to date the Postman Prat strip was in the very same issue, with the calendar in his boss's office saying "October 2011". That's all i can think off.

[Phoenix]

Sorry if it's not very clear, but they printed the same "Fidosaurus" strip twice on different pages!

At least the Fidosaurus repeat was accompanied by an advert for a repeater pistol.

[Jonny Whizz]

I remember there was one Joe Jitsu strip printed in the Beano around June 2004, which reappeared in the comic a mere two weeks later. The Beano staff must have accidentally put the same strip in again, but given the short time gap between its two appearances I can't quite fathom how this might have happened. When similar errors have been made in the Beano and Dandy, normally a strip reappears a few months after its original publication, not a fortnight.

Some of the reprints in the Beano in recent years have made for amusing reading as well. In one reprint of a Fred's Bed story from the Beezer and Topper, Fred claimed that his mobile phone was 'ancient' (an attempt to cover up how big and old-fashioned his phone was), while the strip which featured John Major as a Tory boy schoolboy seemed bizarre. The story was still funny but I suspect hardly any of the kids reading it for the first time in the Beano will have got it (even I didn't know who the 'old prime minister' was at the time).

[tictak]

I remember that John Major strip from June 2008, i didnt know who the old prime-minister was either! It was a very enjoyable strip though and i've still got it somewhere.

[Digifiend]

A Beryl the Peril strip was used in the Dandy Annual two years running.

[Jon]

Great stuff, keep them coming. Any scans as well?

[WizzKid97]

Here's a few famous fails that have happened in the last year or two...

- The "famous" 'Sir 6x15, Huh? Mr Meecher' appeared at the bottom left of two Mr Meecher comic strips in total (the one where Mr M takes up playing the guitar and the one where he learns to skate).

- Phil's Finger back in April (?) had a story about Katie Price in Story 4, it was then reprinted in the following issue making it the alleged "Story 5" as well. Unlike the Mr Meecher stories which were uploaded without the error to Facebook, Phil's Finger Strip 5 will always remain as a mystery as it was never published (would've been publihed if it had won most likely).

- The 3 Bears featured a story about a hammock and then two issues later the exact same story reappeared in the comic!

- As with above, a Les Pretend story about ants was reprinted once and then once again by mistake (can't remember the difference between the issues), it featured on the back cover in its second appearance.

- Dr. Doctor's last strip of its initial run in the Dandy was a reprint of a previous Dr. Doctor with the joke being about a man who thinks he's a dog.

- Yore featured a misprint the week after its original debut! The story was about Piggy and Doombar being trapped and Elfin accidently blowing up the castle when she only meant to unlock their chains. It was the third story in meaning Yore's story run was the original plan + 1 because of the reprint.

- Desperate Dan on the Next Week page showed him discovering a whale in Cactusville but when you turned to the back cover the Dan story was about him finding a whale in Cactusville (it was meant to be about Dan getting spots), however the 'spots' story was then in Next Week's issue instead. Whoops!

- A Wallace and Gromit story from the series running in the BeanoMAX once accidently made pages 2 & 3 the same so the 3 page story had page 2 twice! The story never featured again meaning the final ending is unknown.

- In the Bash Street Kids story for the Gnashional Trust special, Danny says something to Plug however the writing goes off the speech bubble!

- The same thing happened in The Numskulls when Edd took part in a talent show, the speech he said appeared twice on a page, once in the speech bubble and once accidently on the judges' table! Very odd!

[Tin Can Tommy]

this isnt that glaring but two consecutive issues of the Beano had the same joke in them. I think one may have been part of a reprint and the other not but it was still glaring.

Also Beano 3578 misprinted as 3577 (it went back to normal by 3579) but i really dont see how an error like this could have occurred.

[tictak]

In the 1998 Dandy Book, the Hector Spectre story has the dog speaking in a thought balloon in the first panel. In the last panel, he's speaking with a speech bubble! I noticed that right away.

[AndyB]

If you check Gnasher and Gnipper, they use speech balloons when the humans aren't around, and thought balloons when they are - always have done. I don't have that Dandy book to hand, so it might or might not be the case

[tictak]

I remember that as well, Andy, in the 2003 annual i think! Naw, this is a different case completely cos there's ghost humans in both of the panels where the dog is speaking. That's not always the case with Gnasher and Gnipper, take the 2004 annual, where they are speaking through thought balloons when they're pushing the door open. Dad is not in the picture.

[Tin Can Tommy]

If you check Gnasher and Gnipper, they use speech balloons when the humans aren't around, and thought balloons when they are - always have done. I don't have that Dandy book to hand, so it might or might not be the case

In the ten years i've been reading The Beano I have never actually noticed that.

[AndyB]

Ah, y'see, I go back over 30 years

[Phoenix]

Also Beano 3578 misprinted as 3577 (it went back to normal by 3579) but i really dont see how an error like this could have occurred.

Obviously they simply didn't change the final digit from the previous week's number when composing the front page of 3578. However, such errors are by no means unknown in Thomsons' comics and story papers, although they are rare. I have found examples in both text story papers and picture story papers for boys. There are also a few in the girls' papers like Bunty and Judy. However, these anomalies are only really important to collectors, who do get a bit irritated.