Comics UK

I just bought a few old Busters & noticed a story call Sam Sunn In an aug 73 issue & another called Bonehead which i think i remember being reprinted in Eagle monthly,they are 2 separate strips but in the last issue before Cor Merger in june 74 they are 1 combined story called ' the strongest boy in the world Sam Sunn & his daft dog Bonehead'.
Was this a one off or a common occurrence ?with strips joining forces as the only other instance i can remember is Kid Comic & Smiler when Whoopee & Wow combined but i think the strip just retained Kid Comic title Panel.

Captain Hurricane teamed with Steel Commando for a while when Valiant joined up with Lion. And Smarty Pants and Tatty Ed teamed up with The Toffs and The Toughs (you can probably guess who joined which) in Whizzer and Chips, and Ivor Lott and Tony Broke with Milly O'Naire and Penny Less in Buster.

Ezra Creech (the main villian in the "Return of the White Eyes" strip ) and the Prof Krait, the Snake ("Shadow of the Snake" strip) both had separate stories/strips but combined in the "Masters of Menace" strip in Lion (and Lion and Thunder)

The Sam Sunn strips in Buster were reprints of The Knockout Kid from the final days of the original Knockout. Knockout regular Battler Britton co-starred with Captain Hurricane in the first three issues of the merged Valiant and Knockout.

In Tiger, when swimmer Splash Gorton's strip ended he became Johnny Cougar's co-star for several years.

Bad Penny joined The Swots and the Blots in Smash! on a permanent basis.

Cuddles and Dimples

Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse

Zenith Book Three in 2000 ad merged a host of old fleetway/IPC characters - Archie the Robot was most prominent. (of course, all these old characters were pulled from alternate dimensions.) We even had the Amazing Three from Jackpot. That series was way cool in the way that such redundant characters were brought to live in such a gritty, violent way - still remains one of my highlights within the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic. There was even a character called "Hotspur", a nod to Fleetway's rival, obviously.

Lord Snooty is a clear example. In 1950 his strip added several new characters who had their own strips earlier in The Beano's then 12 year history.

You also had Major Eazy taking over the Rat Pack while Taggart was recovering from being wounded in action

I thought we were talking solely about strips that merged when their respective comics did so, but if people are talking about mergers of characters within a single comic like Lord Snooty, then examples in football strips are legion, with Melchester Rovers and "United" both snapping up useful players from other strips.

geoff42 wrote:That series was way cool in the way that such redundant characters were brought to live in such a gritty, violent way

Yeah, characters like Robot Archie were crying out for the "gritty, violent" treatment.

geoff42 wrote:Zenith Book Three in 2000 ad merged a host of old fleetway/IPC characters - Archie the Robot was most prominent. (of course, all these old characters were pulled from alternate dimensions.) We even had the Amazing Three from Jackpot. That series was way cool in the way that such redundant characters were brought to live in such a gritty, violent way - still remains one of my highlights within the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic. There was even a character called "Hotspur", a nod to Fleetway's rival, obviously.

I will have to dig out this story in my old 200ad's & reread it as it prob went over my head at the time & i wouldnt have appreciated it.

Absolutely loved Zenith Book 3. GM was at the height of his powers around that period.

starscape wrote:Absolutely loved Zenith Book 3. GM was at the height of his powers around that period.

I vaguely recall that as "Zenith and some old characters from other comics stand around a lot", with the most obvious twist ending imaginable.

Funny that we should be discussing this. Here are the crossovers from the Dredd-verse being discussed on Grizzly Bomb