Topper's quirky humour strips of the 70's

[Peter Gray]

Got some early 1970's Toppers
love some of the humour pages like
Piggy Banks
Morgan the Mountie
Willy Nilly
Happy Daze

Splodge..all by Charles Griggs..
lots of blog posts I can do with these..

Plum Duffy by the artist of Willy Getaway from Sparky..a plum pudding walking around getting into trouble..
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... l%20Millar

Nick Kelly as a 3 parter is great and so well drawn..
whistling Billy..hypnotising people
Jiffy and the Glyphs...more nice George Martin

Jingo the jester
Danny tranny
Barmy Army

Mickey the monkey by Vic

Its well worth another look the Topper in the 70's..
it sure was quirky like Sparky..

will read Top of the flops soon..

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I well remember Plum Duffy, Peter-----hope you will put some examples of very early '70s 'TOPPER' on here or your site.


[just checked....they're already on your site...great to see all these years later!]

I think the artist on DUFFY was CLIFF WHITE: in any case, this same artist penned 'KEYHOLE KATE' in the same period.......anyone confirm this?

[AndyB]

I'm pretty sure that Phil Millar didn't draw Plum Duffy - doesn't look the same at all

[Raven]

Thanks, Peter - I'm delighted to see Plum Duffy again! One that really stuck in my mind since reading it as a little boy but which probably isn't widely remembered. I don't think I've seen that in decades.

[Peter Gray]

I'll change the artist name once its confirmed..

I like the strip its so different and funny...breaking the four walls,,

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I also remember an early 70s 'TOPPER' strip that featured a Victorian Bobby brought into modern times to deal with unruly early 70s kids......possibly this was penned by JOHN DALLAS. Anyone remember this one?

[Kashgar]

Plum Duffy was originally drawn by Brian White, the artist who had drawn the Nipper newspaper strip in the 1930's.

[philcom55]

I also remember an early 70s 'TOPPER' strip that featured a Victorian Bobby brought into modern times to deal with unruly early 70s kids......possibly this was penned by JOHN DALLAS. Anyone remember this one?

Sounds like 'Lumbering Jack'. I'll see if I can dig up an example.

- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

As promised here's Jack settling into his abandoned Police Station at the beginning of the second episode from May 1970 (it ends with him arresting two modern day coppers and their squad car for 'impersonating police officers'! ):



I don't recognize the artist but Ray's Topper index identifies him as Andrew Christine. It's a shame the series only lasted for about three months as I thought it had a great deal of potential; in case anybody's wondering it concludes in the issue for July 18th 1970 with Jack finally being awarded his sergeant's stripes ...after a wait of just 115 years!!!

Hope this is of some help - Phil Rushton

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

many thanks for putting up this memorable strip, Phil; like 'PLUM DUFFY', it was a very quirky strip from 'TOPPER' whose comedy direction become more manic during this period.

The artwork does indeed look like the work of A. Christine [even today, I still sometimes have trouble telling these two cartoonist's styles apart.] Ironic this is the second-ever strip featuring 'LUMBERING JACK': the very first episode especially stuck in my mind, and included scenes of yobs getting a very Victorian smacking on the rear end! I found this character slightly disturbing [especially in that first episode] , but it clearly was a memorable strip as far as I'm concerned, and I appreciate seeing it again.....I intend getting some 'TOPPERS' from this period at some stage.

[Peter Gray]

Great to see.please could you put up the bottom part as well...your cheekly..

I have the 1973 Topper annual and the character is inside...might put it up on the blog another day with your example..
the one in the annual could be John Dallas..

[philcom55]

For Peter and ISpy here are the first two full episodes of Lumbering Jack shown just as they appeared in Topper no's 902 and 903 (May 16th & 23rd 1970), followed by the final panels of the last-ever episode from no. 911 (July 18th). Amazingly enough it only lasted for ten issues!




Incidentally, according to Ray the version of Jack in the 1972 Annual was indeed drawn by John Dallas.

It's interesting to note that Lumbering Jack was relatively unusual for a British humour strip in that it featured a vague plotline which actually developed from week to week with a beginning, middle and end. As such it probably had more in common with the traditional adventure strip than a series such as 'Dennis the Menace' where the same dance of Hubris/Nemesis is enacted over and over again every week, with few developments beyond the occasional acquisition of a dog or a sister.

Can anyone think of other British humour strips which featured the same kind of story arcs stretching beyond individual episodes? Two examples that spring immediately to my mind are George Martin's 'Send for Kelly' and Ken Hunter's 'Big Fat Boko', so perhaps it wasn't all that unusual after all...

- Phil Rushton

[Digifiend]

I Spy, of course!

[Peter Gray]

great to see..thanks;0)

liked him locking everyone up

shame it was short lived.when I got time I'll do a blog post on it with John Dallas example in annual..

[philcom55]

I Spy, of course!

...Hmmmm, don't think I've heard of that one!

- Phil R.