Topper adventure stories

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 29 Jul 2007, 17:12

Really enjoyed talking and seeing for the first time Beezer adventure strips.e.g Jellymen...Bedlam...etc..and would say I prefer the Beezer to Topper....

But looking at my Topper annuals again there was some good adventure strips....

Wild young Dirky an outlaw..he liked throwing knives around.he was around in 1746 and liked capturing and ruining the plans of the red coats..
at a good guess drawn by Dudley D Watkins....

I found in my annual The Tiger of Kashgar.I wonder if this is where you got your domain name from:) He was a guy who liked capturing bandits in India..he used a weopen called a catabow...'a catapult bow and arrow'
set in the late 1800's he wore a tiger skin hat like Davy Crockett

Jimmys mighty midgets...these were little men from space with a red uniform with an O on it and blue helmits with a point.......used there gadjets to help Jimmy foil bullies or thieves

Rusty's Raiders is about a young boy who trained elephants in India to fight the Japanese in Burma held so far by the British 1942.....he had a cannon on top of an elephant wearing a turban and shorts.............

so lots of stories about boys or young men fighting the baddie:)

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 31 Jul 2007, 11:21

Peter Gray wrote:Really enjoyed talking and seeing for the first time Beezer adventure strips.e.g Jellymen...Bedlam...etc..and would say I prefer the Beezer to Topper....

But looking at my Topper annuals again there was some good adventure strips....

Wild young Dirky an outlaw..he liked throwing knives around.he was around in 1746 and liked capturing and ruining the plans of the red coats..
at a good guess drawn by Dudley D Watkins....

I found in my annual The Tiger of Kashgar.I wonder if this is where you got your domain name from:) He was a guy who liked capturing bandits in India..he used a weopen called a catabow...'a catapult bow and arrow'
set in the late 1800's he wore a tiger skin hat like Davy Crockett

Jimmys mighty midgets...these were little men from space with a red uniform with an O on it and blue helmits with a point.......used there gadjets to help Jimmy foil bullies or thieves

Rusty's Raiders is about a young boy who trained elephants in India to fight the Japanese in Burma held so far by the British 1942.....he had a cannon on top of an elephant wearing a turban and shorts.............

so lots of stories about boys or young men fighting the baddie:)

Geographically speaking this is the same Kashgar as that which I derived my moniker here from, only I cribbed it from a different source. A strip in Hotspur in 1964 featuring the Wolf of Kabul titled 'The War Gong of Kashgar' which itself was a picture strip version of a 1930's prose story in the Wizard.
The Topper was full of great adventure strips in the 1950's and 1960's. Of those you mention their careers in the weekly Topper comic went as follows.
Wild Young Dirky - 4 series in Nos 80-94,122-132,159-173,322-341. all drawn by Dudley Watkins and reprinted from the scottish magazine cum newspaper the People's Journal. Dirky had originally been a text story character in the Dandy where he made his first appearance in No39 in 1938.
Jimmy's Mighty Midgets - 2 series in Nos 131-147,215-224. both drawn by Paddy Brennan. Basically an earlier version of the Whizzers from Ozz with dwarfs.
The Tiger of Kashgar - Only one series in Nos 31-71 featuring very early work from Ron Smith. With his native companion Mung the comparisons with 'The Tiger' and the Wolf of Kabul are obvious.
Rusty's Raiders - Again only one series in Nos 678-695 but this time featuring a more mature Ron Smith drawing at his very best.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 31 Jul 2007, 12:15

Thanks Kashgar...

Wild Young Dirky - 4 series in Nos 80-94,122-132,159-173,322-341. all drawn by Dudley Watkins and reprinted from the scottish magazine cum newspaper the People's Journal

that People's Journal with Wild Young Dirky is the same as
the Black Bob Dennis the Menace that it appeared in the Weekly News

Interesting that these comic pages were originaly from magazines owened by DC Thomson......anyother comic pages that first appeared in a magazine then a comic?

Didn't know Dudley had drawn Dirky.......he sure was a busy man...all that detail and concentration...amazing..

Nice to hear about Ron Smith

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 31 Jul 2007, 14:43

The Peoples Journal was basically in the same tabloid format as the Weekly News and had a children's section called 'For the Bairns' giving away it's intended Caledonian readership.
The adventure strips in the PJ all covered a full page unlike Black Bob and Dennis in the WN which always just had half a page each.
A lot of Dudley Watkins Topper strips were reprints from the PJ including many of his picture strip adaptations of famous novels including Kidnapped and its sequel Catriona, Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Oliver Twist, Rob Roy and Prester John. Of course, all of the strips were originally printed in bw in the PJ while in the Topper they had the added bonus of being either in full colour or printed with at least with red added.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 01 Aug 2007, 18:24

A great idea making comic strip versions of book stories.....I have a 1957 Topper with Rob Roy.

Would it work today?

Were the text from the books...or adapted to the pictures....quite a challenge to draw....can see why Dudley would like to draw the whole Bible in this way....though died before he could do it.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 02 Aug 2007, 23:33

The fighting Frasers are good...they are in Canada a father and son and daughter...fighting bears...wolves...befriending indians...etc..

Flip McCoy the floating boy...he wears a helecoptor type device around his body...flying around and helping people..

some more top class adventure Topper tales...

Comics UK