The Topper Beezer Top 100

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I always enjoyed Toad in the Hole artist Michael Barratt's quirkily unique style: I always assumed he worked in the D C Thomson buiding----and not from home like most comics artists-------as he was forever drawing for promos ['pink paper' adverts for other comics, and illustrations for puzzle-pages, etc].

[philcom55]

...It always amazed me how he found time to present the BBC's Nationwide programme as well!

- Phil R.

[dishes]

I always liked the Toad In The Hole strip, but the premise doesn't bear close examination - the village has supposedly been cut off for 300 years, yet in every episode someone from T-I-T-H takes a casual stroll into the nearby town. In the example above the old geezer tells his neighbours he's going into town, so it's hardly a secret that the modern world lies a few steps away.

Maybe that's why it's called "Tall Tales From..."!

[Digifiend]

109 Blubba (Beezer) (1974-1976)
Art - Watson Kennedy
While out beachcombing young Fred Finney discovers what he mistakenly believes to be a large jellyfish. But it's not. It's a shape-changing alien deposited in the sea minutes earlier from a passing spacecraft. In due course he and 'Blubba' become firm friends in typical Thomson one boy and his alien fashion.

Can't seem to find this online...

[Phoenix]

Kashgar wrote:
109 Blubba (Beezer) (1974-1976)
Art - Watson Kennedy
While out beachcombing young Fred Finney discovers what he mistakenly believes to be a large jellyfish. But it's not. It's a shape-changing alien deposited in the sea minutes earlier from a passing spacecraft. In due course he and 'Blubba' become firm friends in typical Thomson one boy and his alien fashion.
Can't seem to find this online.

The relevant information, Digi, as set out in Ray's The Book Of The Beezer, is that Blubba began in issue 968 (Aug. 3 1974) and ran until issue 1078 (Sep. 11 1976), artwork by Watson Kennedy. His brief synopsis states, A shape changing alien is marooned on Earth. The character also appeared in Beezer Summer Special in 1975 (artwork : Frank MacDiarmid) and The Beezer Book in 1976 (artwork : Watson Kennedy).

[Digifiend]

Thanks for the extra information. Unfortunately, we still need to find a scan.

[philcom55]

Not by any means the most memorable character to occupy the Beezer's centre pages but here's a sample of Blubba's strip:



(...It's a nice touch the way his hat is a constant giveaway no matter how often he changes shape! )

- Phil R.

[toxteth o'grady]

Kashgar wrote

116= The Amazing Peet from Planet K (Topper) (1973-1974) (1982-1983)
Art - Paddy Brennan
Klutonian (Ordinary Class) Peet is found guilty of raiding King Klute's royal fruitorium
and, as a punishment, is banished to the 'primitive' planet Earth for one year where, as part of his sentence, he must obey all earthling instructions to the letter. A literalism that gets him and his young Earth pal Stan Stenson into all sorts of trouble.
This strip ran for a total of 51 weeks and appears here thanks to the full reprint of the series, in the then A4 reduced size Topper, a decade after its first publication giving it a run of 102 weeks in total.
A piece of masterly work by Paddy Brennan who, over twenty years earlier, had been responsible for the appearance of the first bizarre alien to visit Earth ( discounting Jack Flash) via a Thomson comic, the Dandy's 'Willie Willikins' Pobble'

A few months ago I won some Toppers on eBay so that I had a complete run of 1983. While updating my records of strips I noticed a discrepancy for ‘Amazing Peet’ – the original run was of 51 episodes (issues 1075 to 1125), but the reprints ran for 52 weeks (1529 to 1580). Odd, I thought, but couldn’t be bothered to get all the relevant boxes out to work out why, but made a mental note. When I saw ‘Amazing Peet’ in this list I decided I would check this out.

At the weekend I got out the relevant boxes, pushed all the furniture in the living room back and got the comics out. As the repeats are not all in the same order as the originals, I thought the explanation would take some tracking down, but eventually the anomaly became apparent :- the Christmas 1982 Topper (25/12/1982, issue no. 1560) features an ‘Amazing Peet’ Christmas story that was omitted from the original run. I have no idea why, the originals ran from September 1973 to August 1974, so the episode could have featured in December 1973. One consequence of this is that ‘Peet’ appeared 103 times (and not 102) in the Topper and should move up to the (vacant) 115th slot above ‘The Barkers’.

For those purists who felt that repeats shouldn’t count, they might sleep a bit easier knowing the reprints of ‘Amazing Peet’ were not exactly the same as the originals. Much of the text and dialogue was changed. Partly, I would imagine, because the reprints were on A4 whereas the originals were on A3 and the text would be less easy to read, but also because a lot of the words/phrases (eg fret, pesky, “I say”) were old-fashioned (but, let’s face it, they were probably old-fashioned in 1973).

It may be worth adding that the originals were printed in red/black, but the repeats (unusually, but not uniquely) were in full colour.

Keep up the good work, Kashgar!

[Peter Gray]

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!

[Digifiend]

It was probably a new episode drawn by the original artist, rather than one that laid idle in the stockpile unused for nine years. Paddy Brennan was still active in the early 80s. It's not unheard of. More recently, Ken Harrison did the same thing with The Riot Squad in the Beano. All the Riot Squad strips were reprints of The Hoot Squad from Hoot comic, except for the Christmas one, which was new and also featured Robbie Rebel.

Phil, thanks for the Blubba scan.

[Kashgar]

Kashgar wrote

116= The Amazing Peet from Planet K (Topper) (1973-1974) (1982-1983)
Art - Paddy Brennan
Klutonian (Ordinary Class) Peet is found guilty of raiding King Klute's royal fruitorium
and, as a punishment, is banished to the 'primitive' planet Earth for one year where, as part of his sentence, he must obey all earthling instructions to the letter. A literalism that gets him and his young Earth pal Stan Stenson into all sorts of trouble.
This strip ran for a total of 51 weeks and appears here thanks to the full reprint of the series, in the then A4 reduced size Topper, a decade after its first publication giving it a run of 102 weeks in total.
A piece of masterly work by Paddy Brennan who, over twenty years earlier, had been responsible for the appearance of the first bizarre alien to visit Earth ( discounting Jack Flash) via a Thomson comic, the Dandy's 'Willie Willikins' Pobble'

A few months ago I won some Toppers on eBay so that I had a complete run of 1983. While updating my records of strips I noticed a discrepancy for ‘Amazing Peet’ – the original run was of 51 episodes (issues 1075 to 1125), but the reprints ran for 52 weeks (1529 to 1580). Odd, I thought, but couldn’t be bothered to get all the relevant boxes out to work out why, but made a mental note. When I saw ‘Amazing Peet’ in this list I decided I would check this out.

At the weekend I got out the relevant boxes, pushed all the furniture in the living room back and got the comics out. As the repeats are not all in the same order as the originals, I thought the explanation would take some tracking down, but eventually the anomaly became apparent :- the Christmas 1982 Topper (25/12/1982, issue no. 1560) features an ‘Amazing Peet’ Christmas story that was omitted from the original run. I have no idea why, the originals ran from September 1973 to August 1974, so the episode could have featured in December 1973. One consequence of this is that ‘Peet’ appeared 103 times (and not 102) in the Topper and should move up to the (vacant) 115th slot above ‘The Barkers’.

For those purists who felt that repeats shouldn’t count, they might sleep a bit easier knowing the reprints of ‘Amazing Peet’ were not exactly the same as the originals. Much of the text and dialogue was changed. Partly, I would imagine, because the reprints were on A4 whereas the originals were on A3 and the text would be less easy to read, but also because a lot of the words/phrases (eg fret, pesky, “I say”) were old-fashioned (but, let’s face it, they were probably old-fashioned in 1973).

It may be worth adding that the originals were printed in red/black, but the repeats (unusually, but not uniquely) were in full colour.

Keep up the good work, Kashgar!

Thanks for pointing this out TOG. Very interesting. An obvious oversight on my part, for which I apologise, but one which highlights the positive advantages of the immediacy of an internet site like comics uk for being able to allow mistakes to be spotted and rectified in double-quick time. I'll certainly check this 'rogue' Xmas episode out and see if it appears to be something left unused since the original 1973 printing or whether it looks like something prepared especially for publication in the reprint run.
I'll be getting back to the actual countdown as soon as time allows but as the next entry involves a raft of stuff from the combined Beezer & Topper I'll need to locate the relevant issues and rescue them from the attic first.

[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!

My computer set-up is a bit cramped and chaotic, but I'll have a go at the weekend.

It was probably a new episode drawn by the original artist, rather than one that laid idle in the stockpile unused for nine years. Paddy Brennan was still active in the early 80s. It's not unheard of. More recently, Ken Harrison did the same thing with The Riot Squad in the Beano. All the Riot Squad strips were reprints of The Hoot Squad from Hoot comic, except for the Christmas one, which was new and also featured Robbie Rebel.

Thanks for this, Digi

[Kashgar]

I've had a look and the 'Amazing Peet' Xmas strip in the otherwise reprint series in the 1982/1983 Topper was drawn especially for this series. It is still the work of Paddy Brennan but of a later style vintage certainly than the rest of the series.
For anyone who might be wondering what became of the original 'Amazing Peet' Xmas story, that would have logically appeared in the Topper Xmas issue for 1973 (No1090), and why it wasn't reprinted in 1982 the simple answer is that there wasn't one (a two-part Peet zoo story, without any Xmas content, appeared in issues 1089 and 1090).

[Kashgar]

I've had a rethink and have decided to begin this countdown again but, as none of them actually made it into the Top 100 proper, have decided not to include the details for the 'Beezer & Topper' strips as, on further perusal, they would need further time-consuming checking which would only hold up proceedings on the listing of the Top 100 itself.
It should be pointed out though that strips which ran on into the combined title from either Topper or Beezer will still have their later 'Beezer & Topper' appearances credited to them when making up the final tallies.
This decision having been made the listing now begins with No111 as set out below.

111 The Barkers
110 The Amazing Peet from Planet K (thanks Toxteth)
108= Roly Poly
108= Beefy Dan
105= First Ada
105= Eebagoom
105= Antchester Utd
104 Tall Tales from Toad-in-the-Hole
103 Blubba

and now a new entry

102 Oogly (1981-1983) (Topper)
Art - John Geering
With the strip subtitled 'The Man from the Ice Age' Oogly is discovered by the hill-climbing Johnson family when, following a rock slide, he is revealed in all his frozen glory. As his capacity for communication is limited to variations of the expression 'Oog' and because he isn't the prettiest chap from pre-history ever thawed out the Johnsons name him, rather unkindly, Oogly.
Oogly was one of a considerable line-up of prehistoric ice-men whose post glacial hi-jinks featured in the Thomson papers over the years with others including Cecil the Stone-age Scrapper and Ugg.

[Digifiend]

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