The Topper Beezer Top 100

[Phoenix]

In view of this current focus on The Beezer, it may be of interest that about a fortnight ago a flyer from The Beano advertising a free gift in The Beezer called The Tootle Flute sold on eBay for £82. There were 10 bids but only 2 bidders. A couple of days later the same seller then got £122 from the same buyer for the gift itself. On that occasion there were 26 bids from 5 bidders. I find these winning bid prices quite amazing. Does anybody know whether this gift is particularly rare?

[toxteth o'grady]

What an interesting thing you've found..
If at all possible can you put up the Christmas Peet..its fun that it wasn't published the first time round!

I've put the Christmas 1982 Amazing Peet strip up.
See it at http://home.btconnect.com/thetopper/amazing_peet.htm

[steelclaw]

[Kashgar]

http://lambiek.net/artists/g/gudgeon_david.htm
David Gudgeon's Lambiek page says he also drew Oogly.

It should have been David Gudgeon. I just got the name of the artist for the Oogly entry at 102 and the entry at 101 mixed up. Sorry folks.

[Peter Gray]

Great to see Peet..thanks for doing that..a nice story as well..
liked all the Peets skiing it along on top of the car..

[Kashgar]

Just missing out on the Top 100 we have

101 Puss an' Boots (1977-1979) (Topper)
Art - John Geering
By-lined 'They fight like cat and dog' this fondly remembered feline/canine duo first appeared in Sparky in June 1969 and earn their place in this countdown thanks to the Sparky's amalgamation with Topper in 1977.
Reprints would follow in the boys comic Victor in the 1980's.

[Digifiend]

They ended as early as 1979? Much earlier than I thought. Especially since they were one of the Topper stories that ended up in The Dandy in the 1990s and 2000s.

[dishes]

The many revivals (and the clone-strip "Mutt and Moggy" in the Dandy) indicate that Puss and Boots should never have been discontinued! I wonder if it was due to the editor, or the writer growing weary of it, rather than low popularity?

I enjoy almost anything drawn by John Geering, but I think Puss and Boots was definitely his masterpiece.

[Raven]

The many revivals (and the clone-strip "Mutt and Moggy" in the Dandy) indicate that Puss and Boots should never have been discontinued! I wonder if it was due to the editor, or the writer growing weary of it, rather than low popularity?

I was told some years ago by a D.C. Thomson insider that the writer - I forget his name - who was essential to this strip (later versions, without his facility for language, wordplay and lateral thinking ideas, seem horribly dumbed down and banally simplistic by comparison) left comics to become a journalist.

Probably the best written UK humour comic strip ever.

[Digifiend]

Needs no introduction, but here's two examples. I think they're both from Sparky.
http://www.oocities.com/pjgjohngeering/ ... boots.html
(Yes Peter, your old Geocities site is fully backed up on Oocities!)

[Peter Gray]

How strange its still there..geocities site..

Anyway the Puss and Boots is shown here..
http://petergraysukcomicartists.blogspot.com/

Heres Mutt and Moggy

[Digifiend]

Not strange at all. There are several projects trying to restore the Geocities content. Oocities is one of them. I don't know why it came up in search (on the second page) and the blog didn't (not on the first two pages anyway).

Thanks for the Mutt and Moggy scan. Mutt looks exactly like Boots, but Puss was black whereas Moggy is grey. That's the only difference between the two strips. I've always found it odd that the Dandy didn't just call it Puss and Boots.

[dishes]

The other difference between Puss an' Boots and Mutt and Moggy is that Mutt and Moggy act marginally more like cat and dog. They live in a house with their owner, Master. In the first episode he buys them as kitten and puppy and they are tiny and even walk on all fours IIRC. The second episode they fight over a basket. In those early days the difference between the two strips is quite clear.

However, as the strip went on it became more and more like Puss an' Boots and Master faded into the background.

Moving slightly back towards the topic, it's understandable that the Puss an' Boots writer took his talents to more profitable climes! I hope he did well. I think Topper should have carried on the strip regardless, even with an inferior writer it would have been better than a lot of the eighties Topper strips. Or they could have run reprints until they found someone up to the job.

[Digifiend]

Indeed, they had a ten year back catalogue to use. During the 1970s, both Black Bob and Desperate Dan were reprints in The Dandy. I see no reason why Topper couldn't have done the same with Puss and Boots in 1979 when the writer left.

[Peter Gray]

I spent ages transfering it all to the new blog site..maybe I didn't need to..as I did it very quickly I lost some of my info..like dates of comics..my thoughts..and other comic pages..

so it is really nice to see them all again..