Last ever British Comic Merger???

[philcom55]

Some uncharitable souls might suggest that the current merger between the Conservative Party and the SDP has had its comic moments - mostly involving Nick 'What Me Worry' Clegg!

...What do you mean that wasn't the sort of comic merger you meant?

- Phil Rushton

[colcool007]

Some uncharitable souls might suggest that the current merger between the Conservative Party and the SDP has had its comic moments - mostly involving Nick 'What Me Worry' Clegg!

...What do you mean that wasn't the sort of comic merger you meant?

- Phil Rushton

This is not a comic, this is a tragedy!

[felneymike]

Were the Rover and Adventure storypapers or comics at the merger?

Rover and Adventure were always storypapers, though Adventure did have strips on the cover (and inside in black, red and white) in later years, it was always primarily text stories. There's lots of information on the various "big five" mergers at this site: http://britishcomics.20m.com/

Earlier Amalgamated Press storypapers supposedly "merged" with other ones, but in fact it was the same publication, just with a name change. For instance Union Jack became Detective Weekly in 1933. When paper rationing started a few more "mergers" were hastily performed. The Magnet was incorporated into Knockout, simply because Knockout had a Billy Bunter strip in it, but the text story series which had began in The Magnet the previous week was never finished.

[SID]

And as to having the name on the new comic, there must be a fair few examples where the merged comic dropped the name of the demise(d) comic in short order.

When Oink! merged into Buster, the name 'Oink!' only appeared on the cover for three weeks, even though the strips from Oink remained inside.

Seems like IPC wanted to get rid of Oink! as quickly as possible.

Thunder on the other hand despite running for just 22 issues lasted for years as part of Lion and Thunder. In fact it stayed as part of the Lion logo until it was merged with Valiant. Even then, I remember Valiant's editor welcoming the readers from 'Lion and Thunder' (and not just 'Lion').

[tony ingram]

Would the last merger have been Whizzer & Chips with Buster? Late 1990?

[Phoenix]

Would the last merger have been Whizzer & Chips with Buster? Late 1990?

Mandy merged with Judy in May 1991, Tony. The new story paper was called Mandy And Judy, later to be known simply as M&J, and its numbering started at 1. However, M&J was itself merged with Bunty with issue 2055 on 31 May 1997, the merger acknowledged on the front cover as Bunty with M&J. The scan below is from the following week's issue.

[colcool007]

Would the last merger have been Whizzer & Chips with Buster? Late 1990?

Mandy merged with Judy in May 1991, Tony. The new story paper was called Mandy And Judy, later to be known simply as M&J, and its numbering started at 1. However, M&J was itself merged with Bunty with issue 2055 on 31 May 1997, the merger acknowledged on the front cover as Bunty with M&J. The scan below is from the following week's issue.

I believe we have a winner.

[George Shiers]

Would the last merger have been Whizzer & Chips with Buster? Late 1990?

Mandy merged with Judy in May 1991, Tony. The new story paper was called Mandy And Judy, later to be known simply as M&J, and its numbering started at 1. However, M&J was itself merged with Bunty with issue 2055 on 31 May 1997, the merger acknowledged on the front cover as Bunty with M&J. The scan below is from the following week's issue.

I believe we have a winner.

Definitely - I had no idea Bunty was still running in 1997. I've just learnt that it ended as late as 2001!

So, does anybody know what the first ever British comic merger was?

[Phoenix]

So, does anybody know what the first ever British comic merger was?

It may well have been Big Budget amalgamating with Boys' Leader in August 1905. It ran as Big Budget And Boys' Leader until June 1909. After the amalgamation it tended to move away somewhat from its comic format, to become more of a story paper. Most of this information is in both Denis Gifford's Comic Chronology and Robert Kirkpatrick's 2013 work From The Penny Dreadful To The Ha'penny Dreadfuller, published by The British Library.

[George Shiers]

So, does anybody know what the first ever British comic merger was?

It may well have been Big Budget amalgamating with Boys' Leader in August 1905. It ran as Big Budget And Boys' Leader until June 1909. After the amalgamation it tended to move away somewhat from its comic format, to become more of a story paper. Most of this information is in both Denis Gifford's Comic Chronology and Robert Kirkpatrick's 2013 work From The Penny Dreadful To The Ha'penny Dreadfuller, published by The British Library.

I shall check both these books out.

Are you sure that's the title of Denis' book? I can't find it anywhere.

[Phoenix]

Are you sure that's the title of Denis' book? I can't find it anywhere.

The title is correct but it isn't a book. It's just a list of titles from April 1796, but from 1900, he gives brief details about important issues, such as War Double Number; Queen's Birthday Number; Number 1 Free Hanky Panky Sweet; Number 299: last issue (into NELSON LEE); etc, and he does seem to include all the free gifts from British comics and story papers between 1900 and 1940. I suspect that the information was originally drip-fed to his readers, or would it be subscribers, of/to A.C.E.

[philcom55]

Every now and then we all complain about Denis' occasional lapses, yet it really is remarkable how much he contributed to our knowledge of British comics history. At the time of his death he'd apparently completed a book which listed the chronology of all British newspaper strips - a work that was and is sorely needed - yet the manuscript seems to have been subsequently lost, leaving us all the poorer for it.

- Phil Rushton

[SID]

Looks like we got a new winner for last ever British comic merger thanks to Digifiend:

Panini's Ultimate Spider-man and X-Men.

With Bunty with M&J being second and also the last merger of the older generation of comics, highlighted by Phoenix.

So question answered.

Thanks, guys.