Last ever British Comic Merger???

[SID]

I just bought the Roy of the Rovers and Hot-Shot! merger issue.

This started making me wonder: "What was the last classic comic merger?"

It could have been The Dandy and The Beano if it had taken place.

I wished it had since although last Dandy print issue was done under a fanfare, the digital equivalent just slowly disappeared into obscurity. I think an opportunity was missed by not merging the comics. Imagine the media coverage plus it would have been nice to see Desperate Dan (with Bananaman) at least continue on in print.

Anyway, back to my original question. I believe that Buster & Whizzer and Chips was the last ever classic merger (1990). Eagle & Battle merged in 1988 and Roy of the Rovers & Hot-Shot! merged in 1989.

[Digifiend]

Beezer and Topper was also 1990.

[colcool007]

Revolver and Crisis was 1991.

[big bad bri]

Revolver and Crisis was 1991.

I m not too sure as i never really classed revolver as a proper comic in that sense & those are the titles which nearly killed my love of uk comics thankfully i rediscovered that love about 8 years ago And i did not know they merged i thought they just disappeared like beezer/topper.

[starscape]

Absolutely loved Revolver. In fact, that and Crisis would be up there for my all-time favourite comics. But definitely a merger as Dan Dare continued in Crisis.

[AndyB]

Beezer and Topper was also 1990.

That was the first thing I thought of myself, but Beezer and Topper were merged a few weeks before W&C was axed.

[SID]

I forgot about The Beezer and Topper.

But was Crisis and Revolver a proper merger? I know that Dan Dare's last episode was printed in Crisis but I don't recall it being a merger as such (e.g. title didn't change to Crisis and Revolver).

If it was just that the Dan Dare strip moving across classifies as a merger, then you could say that Tiger also merged with Roy of the Rovers since Billy's Boots moved across rather than joining Eagle*.

PS I loved Revolver (see sig) and thought it was one of those unappreciated titles. Perhaps it was before its time?

EDITED 05/06/2017: Not true. Billy did originally go across with the Tiger merger into Eagle. It was only later that he moved from Eagle to Roy of the Rovers.

[davidandrewsimpson]

SID, I checked and you're right. Crisis didn't change its name to Crisis And Revolver. The closest it came was that the issues in which the last two episodes of Dare appeared had a Revolver logo on the cover, but this was well away from the main logo.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Could we really call Beezer & Topper a merger? Same names, same characters and so on, but they set the issue number back to Number One again, it was like a whole new comic!

[Digifiend]

They may have reset the numbering, but the back cover said just The Beezer. Effectively, The Topper ceased to exist in 1990. It was a merger.

Regarding SID's point, if a single strip moving over was to count as a merger, then Beezer was split between Beano and Dandy (by virtue of The Numskulls, Blinky, and Beryl the Peril transferring over) and Dandy merged into Beano (Bananaman). However, I don't believe those count. It looks like the answer to the original question is Buster and Whizzer and Chips.

[colcool007]

They may have reset the numbering, but the back cover said just The Beezer. Effectively, The Topper ceased to exist in 1990. It was a merger.

Regarding SID's point, if a single strip moving over was to count as a merger, then Beezer was split between Beano and Dandy (by virtue of The Numskulls, Blinky, and Beryl the Peril transferring over) and Dandy merged into Beano (Bananaman). However, I don't believe those count. It looks like the answer to the original question is Buster and Whizzer and Chips.

I am sorry, but I have to go with the Crisis and Revolver merger as the last one. Although both were aimed at the post-teen market, the were both demonstratably comics in having pictorial strip content and they both joined together with the Dan Dare serial strip finale being published in Crisis.

If you mean weekly comic, then it's either the Buster/Whizzer and Chips merger or the Beezer/Topper merger depending on which came later.

Or if you are a story paper fan, then the end came in 1973 with the end of Rover when it was merged with the new version of Wizard.

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.

[starscape]

Did any of the storypapers merge? As in whilst there were storypapers, like Chums and Union Jack?

[Digifiend]

It was already pointed out that Beezer and Topper was a few weeks prior to Buster and W&C.

And as SID said, Crisis and Revolver's titles weren't combined and only one strip transferred over (and from what davidandrewsimpson is saying, only for two issues!). Also, I just looked on Comic Vine, which has all the covers, and I see it says "Dare: from the pages of Revolver". Pretty obvious that the publishers didn't consider it a merger and were just advertising on the cover that Revolver readers should buy those issues of Crisis. It's like how Classics from the Comics would use the names of it's eight original source comics (Beano and Dandy, which at first used the actual logos, along with Nutty, Buzz, Cracker, Beezer, Topper and Sparky) on the covers for most of it's life (a practice that finally stopped when they started using stories from other titles such as Victor).

Ah, a new post has appeared. Rover and Adventure is an obvious example of a story paper merger.

[Lew Stringer]

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.

[starscape]

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