Spotlight on 1956

[Kashgar]

A little extra 'illumination' on the current Classics featured year, 1956.
A couple of genuine milestone strips are featured, the first 'Pop, Dick and Harry' from Beezer No1 which is also, by extension, the first work the great Tom Bannister did for Thomsons and the Adventure cover strip from 1955 'The Red Rovers' drawn by Ron Smith which was the first football related picture strip ever to appear in a Thomson boys' paper. Neither Tom Bannister nor the historical significance of 'The Red Rovers' strip is actually mentioned but then I imagine that the compiler may have been unaware of these connections.
Also featured are three pages from the 1956 Beano Book including a Pansy Potter drawn by Jimmy Clark. The 1956 annual being the last time that Jimmy Clark drew the character (he had been Pansy's regular artist since her revival in the 1949 'Wonderland' series) and the last time we'd see Pansy until her revival in the pages of Sparky in 1965.
The text story included this time around is from the Wizard's 'The Square 'Chuter' series and includes a heading block drawn by the undervalued Calder Jamieson, with the accompanying Wizard cover feature being illustrated by George Ramsbottom.
A comedy feature page drawn by the ever reliable George Drysdale and a Nosey Parker/Nero and Zero page drawn by Allan Morley from the early Beezer completes a nice nostalgic line-up for anyone sixty and over.
I'd also like to draw attention to the vintage Mickey the Monkey strip on the rear cover beautifully reproduced in all its original, subtly colourful, glory.

[James W]

Thanks for this post kashgar, it was very helpful post.
I hope to see more!

[Kashgar]

Thanks for this post kashgar, it was very helpful post.
I hope to see more!

You're welcome James. I'll certainly do more as long as Classics continues with its
delving into the pre 1960's archives.

[James W]

Thanks for this post kashgar, it was very helpful post.
I hope to see more!

You're welcome James. I'll certainly do more as long as Classics continues with its
delving into the pre 1960's archives.

Yeh comics had much more detail back then.