Sparky's Golden Jubilee

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I agree, Steve;

I often wondered why there was never a Sparky Summer Special ever, I would have loved to have seen those stories in lustrous, shiney full colour.

[alanultron5]

Kashgar/Ray. When you started getting Sparky - as I did from no 1; how long did you collect it for? I only missed two copies in 1968- apart from that I had-and kept them up to end of may 1971 when I was 15!

Any chance you know the artist who drew the first Peper Piper strip in the comic to early 1966? That artist also drew the short run of sci-fi strip "Raiders from the Red Planet" in 1965- i'd love to know who drew these!

[alanultron5]

I am still `tweaking` the file with some `ammending` of a few of my more `dismissive` comments! I think its only fair when being critical to try and explain the criticism!

Regarding the comic- it did have some `hidden gems` in my view such as `Fireman fred` `Snip and Snap` and- yes! even `The Snooks` The pre 1969 years had more variety as there were `adventure strips then (Those were phased out in the early 70s).

I certainly agree with Rab that I.Spy and Puss and Boots were its two best strips! But `not` the Moonsters for me though! In my time of reading- I adored the "Willy the Wizard" strip. On reading post 1971 comics it had to be Thingummyblob!!

The comics weakest offering? well- for me- all I need to do is post "I.D" There y' go.

[Kashgar]

Hi Alan,
I bought Sparky for about two and a half years from No1.
The artist on the early Peter Piper strips was an artist who became much more well known in later years when he totally adapted his style to become one of the Leo Baxendale school. It was none other than Mike Lacey.

[Kashgar]

For a new comic Sparky's first issue was certainly awash with characters raised from a bygone age. A cost cutting, not to say imagination cutting exercise that saw some truly vintage Thomson creations return to life.
These were, in order of appearance
1) Keyhole Kate who had originally appeared in the Dandy nos 1-721 (17/9/55) drawn by Allan Morley and whose last pre Sparky appearance had been in the Dandy Book for 1958.
2) Wee Tusky - a picture strip revival for the little elephant who had appeared in a prose story in the first 40 issues of Dandy and then again is issues 241-252 with his final pre Sparky outing having been in the Dandy Monster Comic for 1948.

[Kashgar]

3) Hungry Horace - originally in the Dandy Nos 1 - 860 (17/5/58) again drawn by Allan Morley with his final pre Sparky appearance being in the Dandy Book for 1959.
4) Nosey Parker - The Grand Old Man of Thomson comic strips Nosey, drawn again by Allan Morley, had first appeared in the boys' paper Rover No 172(3/6/25) where he stayed for over twenty years and, at the time of his first Sparky appearance was still appearing in the pages of the Sunday Post Fun Section where he'd first appeared in 1936 and where he would remain until 1976, in the process being the first Thomson comic character to notch up a fifty year career. Like he was to have in Sparky he had a brief stint in the first issues of Beezer comic in 1956 and was even the first Thomson comic character to have had his own comic, albeit a one-off free gift in Rover, Nosey Parker's Holiday Comic in July 1938.

[alanultron5]

Nosey Parker in `Sparky` must have had at least half a dozen (if not more) artists used on that strip. by my reckoning, the Nosey Parker strip used more artists than any other Sparky strip in its lifetime!

[Kashgar]

5) Freddy the Fearless Fly - Originally a Dandy strip in Nos1-667(4/9/54) drawn by Allan Morley.
6) Dick Turpentine - First appeared in the series of Midget comics given away with boys' story paper Wizard in 1930 (403-406) before returning for a series in the paper itself in 1931 (463-468). Allan Morley originally the artist.
7) A name change here but Stone-Age Steve had originally appeared as Prehistoric Pete, a strip in the Wizard in 1930 (397-412,414)which also turned up in the Midget comics mentioned above. Allan Morley again the original artist.
Hairy Dan - Originally a Beano strip in Nos 1-297(16/11/46) with his last pre Sparky appearance coming in the Magic Beano book for 1948. Original artists Basil Blackaller and George Drysdale, the latter providing much work, twenty years later, in the pages of Sparky.
To be continued.

[Kashgar]

Other strips that appeared in Sparky No1 that could be considered revivals were
1) Flubberface - a strip that certainly owes something to the Dandy comic strip 'Flippy the Sea Serpent' from 1938 (11-38) as drawn by Farnk Minnitt.
2) Sparky himself who, in appearance at least, certainly owed something to the Torelli
Bros/ Robert MacGillivray creation 'Sooty Snowball' who graced all the issues of Magic Comic 1939-1941 (1-80) and whose last pre Sparky appearance was in the Magic Beano Book 1947.
3) And perhaps rather more tenuously Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora who certainly owed some of their script ideas to The Magic strip 'The Tickler Twins in Wonderland' (1-80) and whose last pre Sparky appearance came in Magic Beano Book 1950. Original artwork by Robert MacGillivray.
To be continued.

[Phoenix]

Nosey Parker...-...was even the first Thomson comic character to have had his own comic, albeit a one-off free gift in The Rover, Nosey Parker's Holiday Comic in July 1938.

I hate to disagree with you, Ray, on anything, but I must do here. Strictly speaking, Nosey Parker's Holiday Comic was not a Free Gift. I did include it in my Free Gifts In The Big Five to be on the safe side, and I made some allowances for it in my description, but I've always been uncomfortable over its inclusion. Thomsons advertised it on the cover of the previous week's issue of The Rover as a 16-page comic free next week, with an internal pictorial panel giving the same information. The front cover of 846, the issue that included it, proclaimed Nosey Parker's Holiday Comic Free Inside - 16 Pages Of Fun. However, what they didn't tell the reader was that the free comic, which was presented in eight A4 pages, to be cut and folded appropriately to make the advertised sixteen, was in effect pages thirteen to twenty of that week's issue of The Rover, whose page count, to be fair, had been increased from 28 pages to 32. That nevertheless leaves a discrepancy of four missing pages if The Rover is to be seen as a complete issue, regardless of how many pages are allotted to Nosey Parker's Holiday Comic.

Nosey had of course already had a comic of his own though, Nosey Parker's Midget Comic, which was given away with The Rover 714 (Dec. 21 1935), so he certainly was the first Thomson comic character to be given his own comic.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I had no idea that Mike Lacey drew some of the earliest Peter Piper stories...great revelation, Kashgar.

His later style was unrecognizable as you say...and of course Mike returned to the comic in 1970 on the very good Rudlolf story,,,,,,,,,,

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Alan: the Moonsters was an imaginitive, elaborately-mounted fantasy that satirized 60s culture, and unlike a lot of the recycled Sparky output, it was definitely original in concept--I think the strip is an unrecognized classic.

Bill Ritchies later Barney Bulldog was fine, but it was a lot more domesticated and 'safe' in comparison to the all-out bizarre Moonster world I reckon.

[dishes]

I had never heard of Sparky till I saw my my first Sparky annual at a second hand shop. It was the final one, and it had lots of reprints in it. Even as a child I recognised they must be reprints, because they were presented in twelve-panels per page format, in contradistinction to the six-panels per page new strips they were printed alongside. This meant it took longer to read than an all-new DCT annual, and thus felt better value for money, not worse. I really enjoyed it, especially the Sparky People, Reichspudding, I-Spy, Puss 'n' Boots and Spoofer McGraw. The reprints of the Bubble Imp (or whatever he was called) stood out as seeming aimed at a younger audience (I balked at them).

I was amazed to find out years later how long-running Sparky had been (even though logically it must have been s,o for the reprints to be available for that annual in the first place). I supposed that I would have heard of such a long-running comic sooner. But then, I got most of my knowledge of old comics from my dad who naturally only knew of the comics of his childhood.

I suppose its success must have surprised DCT. Since it was so heavily reliant at first on characters relegated from other comics I can't imagine they put too much stock in it.

[alanultron5]

Mike Lacey!! Thanks ray- must admit I would have never twigged it was he! Thank you for solving that mystery! I am intrigued by the extra info about how the comic was set up- and how it was a sort of `Magic 2`. I must add that!

It wasn't just in the very early years that old `updated` characters were used. The September 67 overhaul introduced `Meddlesome Matty` and `Charlie Chutney` and even the Feb 69 one brought back `Elpful `Enry` as `Helpful Henry`

With the `Moonsters` I certainly liked it a lot early on Rab- its just that the strip (in my view) from about 1967 portrayed the Moon like a second Earth with (Water) Oceans, Oak forests - blue cloudy skies. It lost the very enjoyable `strangeness` it had of bieng an alien world that I liked in the first two years! I was old enough to enjoy the documentaries on the telly and features on Blue Peter about the Moon (Height of the space-race) and after all that as contrast! began to find the strip rather unbelievable for me- but it did have many fine individual gags in each weeks scenarios!

Harking back to artists on the comic- am I right in thinking that James Malcolm rather that Andy Tew might have drawn the first `Davey Spacer` strip late 1966 to early 67?

[Kashgar]

Thanks for pointing out my overlooking the first Nosey Parker Midget comic Derek. Sheer forgetfulness on my part.
I'm working through the revivals as they appear Alan so I'll get around to the later ones in due course.
I'll check out your Davey Spacer query and get back to you on that and I'll also have a look to see if I can spot as many of the Sparky Nosey Parker artists as you mention.