The Silver Age of the DC comic line is my favourite period of all comics. Batman and Superman are the two superhero giants but I have a high regard for The Flash. Police scientist Barry Allen was working at night in his laboratory during a thunderstorm when a bolt of lightening smashed some of the containers of chemicals, which spilled over Allen. Allen was unharmed, but discovered that the accident had given his the power to move at superhuman speed. Allen decided to use his newly found super-powers to fight crime as the new Flash (after the Golden Age Flash). The Flash quickly became a famous superhero and faced a number of colorful adversaries who became known as the Flash’s "Rogues’ Gallery.”
The mid-sixties saw a fabulous run of stories with brilliant artwork by Carmine Infantino. The covers were extraordinarily superb.
THE FLASH #163 - August 1966 - The Flash Stakes His Life On…You!
To be continued…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Summer has arrived in the Philippines and it takes me back to those summers in England where seafront shops would be selling the Summer Special editions of the favourite comics of the day.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,915Chief of Staff
Free gifts in British comics was a popular way to get new titles launched. These were commonly given away in the first three issues and occasionally in the first 4, 5 and even 6 issues, although these were rare occurrences. Free gifts were also given when titles began to lose readers and these used to revitalise sales, for a short time at least. Comics with free gifts gain large prices at auction nowadays, sometimes adding hundreds of pounds to issues sold without their appropriate free gifts included.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,915Chief of Staff
Used to enjoy some of those free gifts - the frisbee type gift and the vampire fangs 🤣
British comics had a long standing tradition of merging titles. Comics that were selling poorly were cancelled but to try and keep those readers which were loyal to the title the title merged with a similar, more popular title, taking the best strips with them. This was announced with adverts within both comics with slogans such as “Great news for readers next week!’ and the news of the merger was announced with the new merged comic appearing the following week.
2000AD took two titles within one year, strangely both titles only lasted 22 issues before merging…and James Bond gets a mention too.
STARLORD was cancelled due to its expensive gravure printing process (rumour has it that it was actually outselling 2000AD). TORNADO was unsuccessful since it’s launch but is very collectable nowadays due to it’s short run…
BATTLE had a few mergers in its history including two mergers in just over a year, VALIANT and ACTION were the absorbed titles. VALIANT was a long standing comic of 712 issues but had become stale and the new kid on the block with more gritty stories took over. ACTION had a checkered history, at one time being banned for its violent content before being launched in a more kid-friendly version. Unfortunately this was not taken very well by it’s loyal fans and heavily reducing sales forced the merger into BATTLE after 86 issues…
THE BEEZER was a massively popular comic and lasted from 1956 - 1993. During its tenure it absorbed both CRACKER and PLUG in a little over two years. CRACKER had lasted for 87 issues whilst PLUG (a spin-off from the Beano character from Bash Street Kids) lasted 75 issues, it’s expensive gravure printing process making the comic more expensive than rivals was part of the problem.
The newly merged title would appear for a time on the masthead before being quietly dropped and reverting to its solo title (until absorbing another title or even merging with another title, itself).
More mergers soon…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Mergers! I was a big fan of "Fantastic" and watched in amazement as the whole bunch of it's "family" merged with each other and finally disappeared.
I never read (firsthand, at least - us kids had a comprehensive swapping regime going on) the titles above but it's fascinating to see them merge and vanish.
THE DANDY ran for exactly 75 years from 4 December 137 to 4 December 2012. At its peak in the ‘50’s it sold 2 million copies per week, when it closed it was down to 8 thousand copies. It only absorbed two titles in its lifetime, NUTTY which lasted for 292 issues and HOOT which only lasted for a year with 53 issues…
SPELLBOUND was a girls horror themed comic and lasted for 69 issues before being merged into (swallowed by?) by DEBBIE which was a BUNTY clone.
The second incantation of EAGLE lasted for 505 issues and 5 titles merged into it over its run. SCREAM! had a very short run of 15 issues, TIGER was one of the most popular comics in the UK during its 31 year run with RoyoftheRovers being its main strip but sales plummeted in the ‘80’s (especially after Roy moved to his own titled comic in 1975) and the writing was on the wall after 1573 issues. The other main merger was with BATTLE (covered previously) and the comic had been relying on a lot of reprints so their time was up and EAGLE took over…
The most popular strip in TIGER was Billy’s Boots, a football themed strip, it was an odd choice to add to a sci-fi/action themed comic, I’d have thought a transfer to another title would have been more appropriate.
To be continued…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I remember aunts giving my brothers and I "Dandy", "Beano" etc annuals for presents even though we rarely read the actual comics. "Eagle" was popular, the older incarnation. IIRC it merged with "Lion".
THE HOTSPUR absorbed HORNET which had run of 648 issues between 1963 and 1976. Both were very similar to each other and it was an easy transfer. In 1980 CRUNCH merged into HOTSPUR (it had lost THE after 54 issues. Crunch was reportedly DC Thomson’s answer to 2000AD but sales were on the low side so the end was signalled.
LION was one of the mainstays of British comics lasting a very fine 1156 issues from 1952 - 1974. CHAMPION was a relaunched title that only lasted 15 issues until merging into LION. EAGLE is one of Britain’s most famous titles with Dan Dare being the most well known strip. But it’s star was falling during the ‘60’s (Dan Dare was now only reprints of earlier stories) and sales were dwindling fast so a merger was announced into LION. THUNDER was another comic only lasting the magic number of 22 issues before merging and bringing a huge 6 strips with it.
MANDY was one of the most popular girls titles and ran for a huge 1269 issues. It absorbed DEBBIE (covered previously) in 1983. JUDY was another massive girls title lasting 1635 issues but with sales of both MANDY and JUDY falling the publishers took the unusual step of finishing both titles simultaneously and relaunching it as a new comic MANDY & JUDY with a free gift pocket pen in Issue #1. The new comic ran for 6 years before merging with BUNTY which was Britains longest running girls comic with 2249 issues.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
All very interesting for those of us who remember those titles, although I have to admit patchily since it's been a long time. Were either "Hotspur" or "Hornet" heavy on text stories or was that another title altogether?
Hotspur was a text only comic until the early ‘60’s when it changed to strips, Hornet was strips from the beginning. Both were pretty old fashioned in their storytelling, with a mix of adventure, sci-fi and sport series. Wizard was another title that was mainly text orientated until the ‘60’s.
@Barbel Here’s an advert for the upcoming FANTASTIC comic printed in an EAGLE & BOY’S WORLD issue…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Ah, I see. There were still a few of those text-only titles being swapped, though being less popular there were more of them in the swapping circles since they tended to just lie around.
Fantastic was a favourite of mine. Let me catch up on Marvel characters.
Smash! and the other “Power” comics hav been extensively covered previously but a brief recap…Smash! absorbed Pow! (which had previously absorbed Wham!) and then Fantastic a short time afterwards. Fantastic had already absorbed Terrrific.
SCORCHER absorbed SCORE (previously titled SCORE ‘N’ ROAR on launch) before itself merged into TIGER.
TAMMY ran for a respectable 689 issues before merging into GIRL. Along the way it absorbed 6 titles including JUNE, MISTY and JINTY. JUNE itself reached 631 issues, MISTY only 101 issues and JINTY 303 issues.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
The Beginning.
A cleverly written and beautifully illustrated expansion of the original movie. A pleasure to have read that, CHB.
That was excellent…pity it ended there…but a really well told, and illustrated, story 🍸
The Silver Age of the DC comic line is my favourite period of all comics. Batman and Superman are the two superhero giants but I have a high regard for The Flash. Police scientist Barry Allen was working at night in his laboratory during a thunderstorm when a bolt of lightening smashed some of the containers of chemicals, which spilled over Allen. Allen was unharmed, but discovered that the accident had given his the power to move at superhuman speed. Allen decided to use his newly found super-powers to fight crime as the new Flash (after the Golden Age Flash). The Flash quickly became a famous superhero and faced a number of colorful adversaries who became known as the Flash’s "Rogues’ Gallery.”
The mid-sixties saw a fabulous run of stories with brilliant artwork by Carmine Infantino. The covers were extraordinarily superb.
THE FLASH #163 - August 1966 - The Flash Stakes His Life On…You!
To be continued…
Good story, but that cover is purest clickbait (or whatever that was called back then).
THE FLASH #163 - August 1966 - The Flash Stakes His Life On…You!
G.I. JOE launched in the UK under the Action Man banner and became a huge bestselling toy.
Had one myself, they were fun.
A different kind of Flash story and the cover was in fact justified in the 2nd part.
Summer has arrived in the Philippines and it takes me back to those summers in England where seafront shops would be selling the Summer Special editions of the favourite comics of the day.
Great times…used to love those Summer Specials 😁
I'm sure I had the Smash/Pow/Fantastic one. It seems strange now (but didn't then) to see prices like 1/6d.
Supernatural comic covers…
Good stuff. That first is definitely a rip off of Dr Strange, unless it was published earlier and it's the other way around.
Dennis The Menace turned 75 on 17th March, he debuted in The Beano #452 in a half page strip…
His famous striped jumper followed in 1952 and he had his first solo annual in 1956…
In 1968 he met his faithful dog Gnasher…
And in 1974 Dennis took the front page slot and has held it ever since…
Dennis is 75? He's even older than we are, CHB! But yes, I remember him being on the back page.
Yes, a whole 5 years older than me 😂 but I don’t enter my eighth decade until later this year 😁
Free gifts in British comics was a popular way to get new titles launched. These were commonly given away in the first three issues and occasionally in the first 4, 5 and even 6 issues, although these were rare occurrences. Free gifts were also given when titles began to lose readers and these used to revitalise sales, for a short time at least. Comics with free gifts gain large prices at auction nowadays, sometimes adding hundreds of pounds to issues sold without their appropriate free gifts included.
Used to enjoy some of those free gifts - the frisbee type gift and the vampire fangs 🤣
The last one would encourage kids to buy more copies of the same comic to collect the different gifts. That gimmick was tried a few times.
British comics had a long standing tradition of merging titles. Comics that were selling poorly were cancelled but to try and keep those readers which were loyal to the title the title merged with a similar, more popular title, taking the best strips with them. This was announced with adverts within both comics with slogans such as “Great news for readers next week!’ and the news of the merger was announced with the new merged comic appearing the following week.
2000AD took two titles within one year, strangely both titles only lasted 22 issues before merging…and James Bond gets a mention too.
STARLORD was cancelled due to its expensive gravure printing process (rumour has it that it was actually outselling 2000AD). TORNADO was unsuccessful since it’s launch but is very collectable nowadays due to it’s short run…
BATTLE had a few mergers in its history including two mergers in just over a year, VALIANT and ACTION were the absorbed titles. VALIANT was a long standing comic of 712 issues but had become stale and the new kid on the block with more gritty stories took over. ACTION had a checkered history, at one time being banned for its violent content before being launched in a more kid-friendly version. Unfortunately this was not taken very well by it’s loyal fans and heavily reducing sales forced the merger into BATTLE after 86 issues…
THE BEEZER was a massively popular comic and lasted from 1956 - 1993. During its tenure it absorbed both CRACKER and PLUG in a little over two years. CRACKER had lasted for 87 issues whilst PLUG (a spin-off from the Beano character from Bash Street Kids) lasted 75 issues, it’s expensive gravure printing process making the comic more expensive than rivals was part of the problem.
The newly merged title would appear for a time on the masthead before being quietly dropped and reverting to its solo title (until absorbing another title or even merging with another title, itself).
More mergers soon…
Mergers! I was a big fan of "Fantastic" and watched in amazement as the whole bunch of it's "family" merged with each other and finally disappeared.
I never read (firsthand, at least - us kids had a comprehensive swapping regime going on) the titles above but it's fascinating to see them merge and vanish.
@Barbel FANTASTIC will be covered in time 😁
BUSTER had an amazing 40 year run and absorbed a record breaking 12 comics over its lifetime. Here are just a few…
Conversely, popular girls title BUNTY had a 43 year run and only absorbed 3 titles. Here are the first two…
This feature to be continued…
All very interesting, thank you CHB.
Buster wasn’t one of the comics I read regularly…I probably got a couple of annuals from the local second hand shop back in the day.
THE DANDY ran for exactly 75 years from 4 December 137 to 4 December 2012. At its peak in the ‘50’s it sold 2 million copies per week, when it closed it was down to 8 thousand copies. It only absorbed two titles in its lifetime, NUTTY which lasted for 292 issues and HOOT which only lasted for a year with 53 issues…
SPELLBOUND was a girls horror themed comic and lasted for 69 issues before being merged into (swallowed by?) by DEBBIE which was a BUNTY clone.
The second incantation of EAGLE lasted for 505 issues and 5 titles merged into it over its run. SCREAM! had a very short run of 15 issues, TIGER was one of the most popular comics in the UK during its 31 year run with Roy of the Rovers being its main strip but sales plummeted in the ‘80’s (especially after Roy moved to his own titled comic in 1975) and the writing was on the wall after 1573 issues. The other main merger was with BATTLE (covered previously) and the comic had been relying on a lot of reprints so their time was up and EAGLE took over…
The most popular strip in TIGER was Billy’s Boots, a football themed strip, it was an odd choice to add to a sci-fi/action themed comic, I’d have thought a transfer to another title would have been more appropriate.
To be continued…
I remember aunts giving my brothers and I "Dandy", "Beano" etc annuals for presents even though we rarely read the actual comics. "Eagle" was popular, the older incarnation. IIRC it merged with "Lion".
You are correct @Barbel the old Eagle merged into the Lion comic and a picture will be in a post soon.
Not sure why the Dandy comics have reappeared but I can’t delete them - apologies.
THE HOTSPUR absorbed HORNET which had run of 648 issues between 1963 and 1976. Both were very similar to each other and it was an easy transfer. In 1980 CRUNCH merged into HOTSPUR (it had lost THE after 54 issues. Crunch was reportedly DC Thomson’s answer to 2000AD but sales were on the low side so the end was signalled.
LION was one of the mainstays of British comics lasting a very fine 1156 issues from 1952 - 1974. CHAMPION was a relaunched title that only lasted 15 issues until merging into LION. EAGLE is one of Britain’s most famous titles with Dan Dare being the most well known strip. But it’s star was falling during the ‘60’s (Dan Dare was now only reprints of earlier stories) and sales were dwindling fast so a merger was announced into LION. THUNDER was another comic only lasting the magic number of 22 issues before merging and bringing a huge 6 strips with it.
MANDY was one of the most popular girls titles and ran for a huge 1269 issues. It absorbed DEBBIE (covered previously) in 1983. JUDY was another massive girls title lasting 1635 issues but with sales of both MANDY and JUDY falling the publishers took the unusual step of finishing both titles simultaneously and relaunching it as a new comic MANDY & JUDY with a free gift pocket pen in Issue #1. The new comic ran for 6 years before merging with BUNTY which was Britains longest running girls comic with 2249 issues.
All very interesting for those of us who remember those titles, although I have to admit patchily since it's been a long time. Were either "Hotspur" or "Hornet" heavy on text stories or was that another title altogether?
Hotspur was a text only comic until the early ‘60’s when it changed to strips, Hornet was strips from the beginning. Both were pretty old fashioned in their storytelling, with a mix of adventure, sci-fi and sport series. Wizard was another title that was mainly text orientated until the ‘60’s.
@Barbel Here’s an advert for the upcoming FANTASTIC comic printed in an EAGLE & BOY’S WORLD issue…
Ah, I see. There were still a few of those text-only titles being swapped, though being less popular there were more of them in the swapping circles since they tended to just lie around.
Fantastic was a favourite of mine. Let me catch up on Marvel characters.
Smash! and the other “Power” comics hav been extensively covered previously but a brief recap…Smash! absorbed Pow! (which had previously absorbed Wham!) and then Fantastic a short time afterwards. Fantastic had already absorbed Terrrific.
SCORCHER absorbed SCORE (previously titled SCORE ‘N’ ROAR on launch) before itself merged into TIGER.
TAMMY ran for a respectable 689 issues before merging into GIRL. Along the way it absorbed 6 titles including JUNE, MISTY and JINTY. JUNE itself reached 631 issues, MISTY only 101 issues and JINTY 303 issues.