The Sparky File 1965 to January 1969.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

ALL comments are welcome on here, steelclaw; there's definately a WIZARD connection, so it's perfectly valid.

[Phoenix]

Without seeing more episodes of Lonely Wood in Sparky, I am not competent to comment on the extent to which it is a repeat of any of the three series in The Wizard text paper. However, the later series in The Wizard picture paper are repeats. All three series are presented back to back, but in the opposite order to the originals, starting with series 3, Black Flash, and ending up with the series when Billy Freeman was 'just a nipper'. For those who are interested in investigating these fine series in The Wizard picture paper, they run from January 3rd 1976 to October 9th 1976.

There is, of course, a further series about Frank and Billy Freeman which has not so far been mentioned. This appears in The New Hotspur 61 (Dec. 17 1960) - 73 (Mar. 11 1961). It is presented as a True-Life Nature Series and is essentially focused on Frank's life as a gamekeeper in Waitabit Wood, which is situated in the East Anglian village of Keye. Billy, and his mother from time to time, are drawn into Frank's activities and those of the animals he is responsible for. The episode in 62, the Christmas issue of 1960, is quite fascinating in view of our recent interest in Minnie Ha-Ha and Craig Crane with their talking ravens, because it involves a situation in which Frank is rescued from a severe beating by some thieves by a bird which has learned to say, 'Arrest that man, sergeant.', 'One more step and I shoot' etc. On hearing 'I arrest you in the name of the law', the thieves take to their heels. One further interesting fact. Running in The New Hotspur concurrently with the Freeman series is.......Lonely Larry, Castaway. Curiouser and curiouser!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

wow! some real in-depth knowledge on here from you guys!
I'm well out of my league with some of this stuff!



note coincidental reference to future SPARKY star WILLIE GETAWAY in closing heading above.....

time to backtrack slightly now, to issue 56 [12 FEB, 1966]:

first on the agenda, 60s beat-group references from HOCKEY HANNAH:



FROM THE SAME ISSUE, some sombre WILD WEST shenanigans:



and finally for today, more high-velocity villianry from those vile Vonaks:




[part 2 next posting].

[Phoenix]

I'm well out of my league with some of this stuff!

No you are not, ISPY. Without the scans that you have posted and Alan's ongoing file, I would not have been in a position to make any of the links that I have made recently, because all I know about Sparky I have basically learned from you two. For example, I am encouraged by your most recent scan of Hockey Hannah to direct attention to Cannonball Kate, who could hit a hockey ball harder than any other girl. This long school serial appeared in Judy 408 (Nov. 4 1967) - 426 (Mar. 9 1968). A visiting games teacher, Janet Lee, introduces hockey to Gaunt Street School, which is due for demolition, against the objections of all the members of the education committee except one. Kate Craddock emerges as a star in the making, but very rough-edged. The slapstick element is evident in both series. For the title itself, the writer was almost certainly influenced by Cannonball Kidd, a football star with a devastating shot, whose heroics were recounted in some eponymous serials in The Hotspur in the late forties.

And talking of Kidds, the origin of The Shipwrecked Kidds can itself be traced back to Judy 89 (Sep. 23 1961) - 99 (Dec. 2 1961). I don't know whether the serial in Sparky was a repeat or a redrawing or even a completely different story. You can judge for yourselves from the uploaded scans from the final Judy instalment. The other scan is from Cannonball Kate in issue 409, to show the aggressive use of a hockey stick and ball when the girls are frustrated in their attempt to start a game by yobs who refuse to move off the pitch that has been legitimately booked for the girls. On balance, from what I can tell, Hockey Hannah seems rather more refined.

[alanultron5]

Some great debating and information on here! Did anyone know that "Grockle" is an old Cornish word for a small Dragon?

Also! In that `Willie the Woeful Wizard` picture post (Where Willie is in jail guarded by a glum Gaoler) anyone get the `drug` reference? "Mescalweed" that was 1960s US jargon for a mixture of Marijuanna and Mescaline that some `Hippies` experimented with circa 1966/67 (they were smoking dried Bananna skin pith too!). How that got past the Editor!? Glad it did though!

Speaking of Psychedelic 67 here's the next Sparky listing.

SPARKY No 105 (21st January 1967, 5d)


Page 1
`The Moonsters` The great Moonsters traffic jam.

Page 2
`Keyhole Kate`

Page 3
`Peter Piper`

Pages 4 & 5
`Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora` Meet the `mix-up` people.

Page 6
`Hungry Horace`

Page 7
Top half, `Free in Mandy, the Rainbow Ring`. Bottom half, left panel, `Write to Sparky and win a transistor radio`. Right panel, `free in Bimbo, the `Circus picture parade` poster.

Pages 8 & 9
`Willie the Woeful Wizard`. Willie searches for a slimming potion for the King of Pom.

Page 10
`Write to Sparky`

Page 11
Full page ad for free `Highfly Glider` in the Victor.


Pages 12 & 13
`The Horse with Wings.

Page 14
`Fireman Fred`

Page 15
`Sparky’s Puzzles`

Pages 16 & 17
`Little Davey Spacer`. The first Davey Spacer adventure in Sparky finds Davey West and his pet space dog `Boogle` stranded on the asteroid Astra. Davey befriends the six inch high populace and helps them to fight off the `Invaders from the Rim`. The Rim invaders are near human sized talking chicken-like creatures armed with ray guns!

I loved this first Davey Spacer adventure very much.

Pages 18 & 19
`My Grockle and Me`

Pages 20 & 21
`The Island from the Past`. This story is a strange one. It features two youngsters, Hope and Rodney Murdoch, who have been (due to the sinking of their boat by a sea monster) been stranded on the island of `Moa`. The islands animal and plant life are all prehistoric, and very dangerous.

Page 22
`Winnie the Witch`

Page 23
`Cuckoo in the Clock`

Page 24
Top three quarters, `Sparky`. Bottom quarter, a picture preview of `The Oakies`. Tree-like creatures in next weeks `Moonsters` strip.



Sparky now moves into 1967! The year would see a overhaul to the paper that is as big a change (in my view) as the 1969 changes!

[Phoenix]

Flying animals transporting people also have some history. There was a long serial called The Winged Horseman in The Skipper 54 (Sep. 12 1931) - 78 (Feb. 27 1932). In this instance the wings and the mechanical flapping contraption were strapped on. A similar arrangement, without animals, allowed Zark's men to maintain control for him in The Human Eagles on the cover of Adventure in 1946. By 1956 eagles themselves are used, no strapping, just hang on for dear life, in Young Eagle, another picture story on the cover of the same paper. However, this story is based on a text tale with the same title from 1930, also in Adventure. Nick Jolly's mare, Bess, became a time-travelled, jet-propelled steel horse in The Hotspur in the mid-seventies, no extra strapping needed there. You will no doubt all be able to add other examples. The whole concept was milked and we ended up with some seriously bizarre modes of transport. Look for example at Mr Thrice's bus in The Hotspur's Red Star Robinson, travelling between planets as required, the yellow of its design partially simulating a Wallasey Corporation bus, apart from the advert on the front for Hotspur - Best For Boys, and certainly predating the Hogwarts bus in Harry Potter by a substantial margin. Perhaps Joanne Rowling used to read The Hotspur. Now there's a thought.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

NICK JOLLY looks like the work of RON SMITH, phoenix! I admire your knowledge of the earlier adventure comics from THOMSON; regarding girl's comics, I did actually read MANDY and JUDY in the late 60s/early 70s, after my older cousin had finished with them. BOBBY DAZZLER and VALDA are the two stips that haunt my memory to this day.

---SPARKY in this earlier period was fairly unknown to me too until recently, I was too young to read comics properly at this stage, after the title was revamped in 1969 was really when I started taking it 'seriously'.

OK, back to issue 56; [12/2/66}; still loads more diverse material on the way.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

part 2 of 'YEAR of the VANEKS':




next, some very atmospheric imagery in a very evocatively-titled work:



-----next we have WILL o' the WELL, in more conventional strip-format, following the previous text-only presentation:

[Peter Gray]

Loved reading those...nice strong stories as well..not wimpy...

[alanultron5]

Here is another listing from Sparky 1967.

SPARKY NO 108 ( 11th February 1967, 5d)

Page 1
`The Moonsters` The Moonsters try their hand at conjuring.

Page 2
`Fireman Fred`


Page 3
`Hungry Horace`

Pages 4 & 5
New Story! `Invisible Dick`. My `Bete Noire` Dick Dicksons father was an Astronaut (something conveniently forgotten in later stories) who takes a torch into space with him (why!!!) He gives it to his son, Dick, who finds that it turns all that it shines on invisible for a while.

This was ridiculous update to an old character. This strip would become one of the all time relentlessly monotonous comic strips in any comic ever!! Dick Dickson soon evolved into a smug, smarmy little oik, who was very much in need of a really good kicking; as I told the Sparky staff in a letter. Bilge of the highest order.

Page 6
`Peter Piper`

Page 7
Top half, `Nosey Parker`. Bottom half, left panel, “Free, the Flying Fizzer in the Beezer”. Right panel, “Write to Sparky and win a Transistor radio”.

Pages 8 & 9
`My Grockle and Me`

Page 10
`Write to Sparky`

Page 11
`Pansy Potter`

Pages 12 & 13
`Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora`. Meet the Collectors`.

Page 14
`Cuckoo in the Clock`

Page 15
`Sparky’s Puzzles`

Pages 16 & 17
`Keepers of the Dancing Drums`

Pages 18 & 19
`Willie the Woeful Wizard`. Willie travels (by Indian rope trick) above the clouds to `Nohow` land to try and find `Old Tom’s Almanac` for the `With it Witch`.

This was a truly surreal adventure for Willie; probably the most far-out story in the run. I utterly adored it, and am always reminded of this particular story by the Kinks record `Autumn Almanac`.

Pages 20 & 21
`The Island from the Past`

Page 22
`Winnie the Witch`

Page 23
`Keyhole Kate`

Page 24
Top three quarters, `Sparky`. Bottom quarter, ad for next weeks Sparky.

[Phoenix]

I did actually read MANDY and JUDY in the late 60s/early 70s, after my older cousin had finished with them. BOBBY DAZZLER and VALDA are the two stips that haunt my memory to this day.

The basic idea behind Bobby Dazzler, a solitary girl in a boys' school, was quite a good one. However, this long-running series never really attempted to do more than chronicle the various methods used by Mike Norton and his third year hangers-on to get the better of the girl, something they normally failed abysmally to achieve. Valda was in a different league altogether. She was to Mandy what Wilson was to The Wizard, returning time after time for new serials. The images below will no doubt help to jog your memory. The Judy cover with Bobby Dazzler is from issue 607 (Aug. 28 1971). The Truth About Valda page is from Mandy 56 (Feb. 10 1968) and the Lucky Charm cover is from the issue that reprints the Mandy story in its entirety. As these matters are straying from the principal point of this thread, perhaps a new one about Valda or even about the content of Mandy could be started.

[Captain Storm]

ISpy wrote:

NICK JOLLY looks like the work of RON SMITH, phoenix!

Yes,indeed! Ron Smith was responsible for much of Nick Jolly(maybe all of the series) and of course also drew King Cobra for the Hotspur,before going onto Judge Dredd for 2000ad.His art always impressed me with its clean lines and awesome detail.A true master!

The Cap.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I have always been impressed with SMITH'S work, Cap, and I can't for the life of me understand why his style is dismissed outright by some comics fans. To be fair, most comments on here are favourable towards him, but in the past, other comic-readerd I met [especially JUDGE DREDD readers] were utterly split down the middle regarding having a taste for his work; I personally thought he was the finest non-humour comics artist in the UK.


Great to see BOBBY DAZZLER and VALDA after all these years, phoenix! VALDA definately looks the same character, in the same style, I remember from MANDY, [she was always a dusky beauty] however the 'skating' theme is unfamiliar to me, the strip must have later diversified/evolved into a mysterious adventure direction, as I'm sure she was centuries old after gaining 'everlasting life' in a mystical pool of light, [she also had a magic pendant of some sort] and much of her tales were centred around forgotten civilizations.

I went so far as to buy 3 random 1970 MANDY comics from e-bay [only a quid each] but sadly they were VALDA- free. If your good self , or kashgar, ---or indeed anyone can supply me with numbers or dates of when these evocative tales mystically appeared within the sacred pages of MANDY. I will be eternally grateful..............

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

now, then.....[apologies for the temporary break in COLOUR transmissions; full-colour services will be resumed as soon as possible]:





above, top from 12 FEB 1966, the next item is from OCT 22 of this year.

---finally. a spin on the THREE BEARS circa 12 MARCH, '66:

[Phoenix]

As these matters are straying from the principal point of this thread, perhaps a new one about Valda or even about the content of Mandy could be started.

OK, who took my new thread on a forum for Mandy, Judy and Bunty, and what have you done with it? At the very least I would have expected the courtesy of an explanatory email. Mystery stories are clearly not restricted to the pages of Mandy or Sparky. Presumably I'm supposed to assume that I should have put it in the Girls Titles section, but if so why is it not there? Will this post disappear now? Read it quickly folks just in case.