In Review: Classics from the Comics 167

DC Thomson's Classics from the Comics title is a gem of a reprint title, combining a range of cracking humour and adventure strips from comics such as The Beano, The Dandy and other, no longer published titles, into one bumper monthly collection.

Issue 167, on sale now in all good newasgents, includes some cracking strips from 1970s issues of the much-missed Sparky - perhaps one of DC Thomson's most anarchic titles in past times.

While the adventure strips this issue - Morgyn the Mighty and The Truth About Wilson - are pretty dated, it's good to see them alongside humour strips - a mix that was prevalent in the British comics I grew up with but is no longer considered popular.

The issue includes a spotlight on artist Barrie Appleby (interviewed for BBC News back in 2003 here when he turned 65), who has freelanced for DC Thomson for years and whose credits include Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger. (His Dennis the Menace work also features in this Dennis the Menace: A Licence to Menace! collection, and you might also like to check out Danny Templar: Invasion Earth, written by Alec Sillifant). Considering DC Thomson rarely used to provide any credits for its creators, it's great to see them getting credit where credit's due in this way.

Humour strips in the issue include Calamity Kate, Biffo the Bear, Corporal Clott, Little Plum, Dennis and Gnasher, Billy Whizz, Baby-face Finlayson, Puss an’ Boots, Roger the Dodger and Hungry Horace.

For just £2, it's a great package of strips from yesteryear. One gem has to be "My Home Town – Woking" - a feature strip that focuses on famous faces associated with one British town, which ran in The Dandy in the 1960s. One of those great reader involvement ideas that could surely be revived!

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