In Review: Classics from the Comics Issue 173

The latest issue of DC Thomson's 'Retro' title, Classics from the Comics is on sale now in all good newsagents, offering another fine medley of humour and adventure strips from a variety of the publishers' current and past titles, including The Beano, The Dandy, Topper and Sparky.

There's a fun Biffo the Bear strip on the cover (which ace comics historian and cartoonist Lew Stringer tells us is by Dudley Watkins from an early 1960's Beano), but that's just one of many cracking strips, which include a fine Desperate Dan tale from 1965 on the inside cover; an ace episode of Ken Reid's Jonah, the hapless sailor; a 1963 episode of Foxy from Topper, a not-very-bright predator who must surely have been inspired by Warner Bros. Sylvester the Cat; and a spotlight section on the Beano's ever-hungry Three Bears, with reprints of some of their earliest appearances, including their first, drawn by Leo Baxendale, published back in June 1959.

Considering the longevity of The Three Bears, it was a surprise to learn that the strip originally ran for just four weeks, and was eventually brought back after positive reader feedback, but not until October 1960. The examples selected, which include strips by Bob McGrath and Bob Dewar, are well chosen and show how the simplest of concepts can have enduring appeal.

With a selection of adventure strips (the last episode of a General Jumbo story from Buddy, Space Kids from Beezer, drawn by Ron Smith), a 1953 text story (Nutty the Coal Imp from the Beano), another 'My Home Town' spotlight (Newport) and episodes of Bananaman, Colonel Blink, Superwitch, Corporal Clott and Dennis the Menace (to name but a few), this issue of Classics is another fine collection of archive material.

Of course, the greedy among us still want more: Sparky's I-Spy, for a start, and some more adventure material. But with so much material to choose from, it's great to see such a well put together 'retro' title on the news stands - and I'm amazed Egmont isn't doing something similar, beyond the limited WH Smith-only specials it put out last year.

• Classics from the Comics, published by DC Thomson, is on sale now in all good UK newsagents, price £2 Click here for subscription information

Cover image © 2010 DC Thomson, published with full permission

Beezer Blog Launched

Comic creator and Beezer fan Simon Mackie has launched a new blog that aims to chart the history of DC Thomson's best-known large format humour comic.

The Beezer was a large format (tabloid newspaper/A3 sized) weekly published by DC Thomson from 1956-1981. Along with its sister comic, The Topper, it dominated the comic stands from the late 1950's to early 80's until it was cut down to A4 size.

"For many years the comic retained a charming consistency," says Simon, who is a huge fan of the comic. "Fantastic artists like Dudley D. Watkins, Bill Ritchie, Leo Baxendale and Mal Judge contributed: the characters rarely changed and when you opened up the comic every week you knew exactly on what page they were going to be."

Sadly, when it was shrunk in size, a lot of the original artists left and the characters and formats changed. The Beezer continued until 1993 when, after merging with The Topper, it ran for 153 issues before cancellation. Although never officially merged, some characters did continue in The Dandy and The Beano.

"My blog is solely devoted to the glory years of The Beezer when quality, style, consistency and above all size mattered," Simon enthuses.

• Simon Mackie's Beezer Blog: thebeezersgoldenyears.blogspot.com

Tube Surfing, 30 June 2008: Baxendale, Bernice Summerfield and Graveyards

Above: The Bash Street Kids, drawn by Leo Baxendale, start a circus in a story from Beano Issue 1063, published in 1963. Bash Street Kids © DC Thomson

• (via FPI): Leo Baxendale features in The Times today, recalling the early 1950s and his first approaches to DC Thomson, them taking on Little Plum, Minnie the Minx then the immortal Bash Street Kids. More details and links over on Forbidden Planet International's blog, or jump straight over to The Times. Talking of Leo, his next volume of memoirs, Hobgoblin Wars, is due fairly soon.

• Big Finish have announced that Simon Guerrier's book, Bernice Summerfield - The Inside Story, will be out in August. The book is a warts-and-all guide to the character first created for Virgin's Doctor Who New Adventures by Paul Cornell, but who quickly grew to feature in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and get brought to life by Big Finish in several audio adventures, voiced by actress Lisa Bowerman. More info here on the Big Finish web site.

• (via Bear Alley): The latest Eagle Times (Volume 22 Issue 2, Summer 2009) continues a run of excellent issues with more of the same. The cover story is a look at the nature artwork of Tom Adams, nowadays best known for his covers for Agatha Christie novels but who has had quite a diverse career over the past sixty years. Other features include looks at the Dan Dare stories Operation Saturn and The Man from Nowhere, Eagle Autographs, Rex Keene (the first in a new series of 'Rivals of Jeff Arnold'), the third part of a look at Heros the Spartan, a P.C. 49 text story, pop music in 1965 and a look at Eagle Holidays.
Subscriptions are £22 (overseas £34 in UK pounds) for four issues a year from Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA. More info at: eagle-times.blogspot.com

• Congratulations to Neil Gaiman, who has picked up yet another award for his novel, The Graveyard Book, this time the 2009 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book.

• A new web portal, Talenthouse launches today, aggregating the works of artists from multiple disciplines including music, fashion, fine art, graphic design, film and photography.
Based in California, the site is the brainchild of British recording artists Amos Pizzey and run by CEO Roman Scharf. It allows artists to build their own profiles for free to display their work in full screen mode, gather followers and alert friends when new work is posted.
Cynopsis Digital reports the site's business model includes selling subscriptions to its database to TV and film studios and talent agencies (like the Amazon-owned IMDBPro), as well as launching brand-triggered creative competitions to source the community for new designs (sort of a multidisciplinary Filmaka)

• Bloggers and other writers may be interested to know Google-owned YouTube has launched its own portal to help instruct citizen journalists about how to practice better reporting. YouTube's Reporter's Center features house-made videos, clips from seasoned Pros from Dover including Katie Couric and Bob Woodward and practical shooting tips from sources such as Howcast. Check it out at www.youtube.com/reporterscenter