Comics UK

Don't you mean "McDiarmid Weekly"? - That man was churning out the pages each week. Cheeky was just fab. And like you say, Peter, the strips were so clever; talking out the panels to us and breaking "The Fourth Wall"...

Frazer
http://www.toonhound.com

Folks in the Fleetway fun comics were regularly seen reading the same comic they were appearing in. Plus you often had billboards and fly posters in the background advertizing the comics...

Then there was more subtle promotion, like the way that the Krazy Gang from Krazy lived in - drum-roll ...

Lew, are you thinking of Thomas Williams? - He brought us the joys of Tiny Tycoon, The Ghost Town, Money Talks, Kids Court and - my fave - Creature Teacher in Monster Fun...

http://www.toonhound.com/creature.htm

- Frazer

Just before anyone points a finger in Toonhound's direction (I posted news of Terry's "passing" on my site yesterday), I can confirm that it weren't me, Guv. I too received several emails regarding Terry over the last few weeks, but held off running anything till I saw the thread here, which ...

Here's my five, for what it's worth:

1. Monster Fun Comic - My first regular comic purchase. Robert Nixon's Kid Kong, Gums, those Badtime Bedtime Stories, March of the Mighty Ones predated Jurassic Park by a country mile, and there was the oft forgotten Martha's Monster Make-up from Ken Reid ...

Don't forget the annuals:

1977

Ye Badtime Bedtime Nursery Rhymes
drawn by Terry Bave

1978

Starchy and Butch
drawn by Mike Brown

Traffic Island
drawn by Robert Looney Stevedore

1979

Boggles
drawn by Group Captain Brown (Mike)

1980

Robinson Gruesome (reprint from M Fun #2 ...

Aw, shucks... Now I'm blushing...

Thanks for the happy feedback, Peter. It's still very early days there, as you can imagine. Eventually, we can dream of a database detailing all the Annuals and Specials, with all their strips indexed, and all the artists identified...

But at least I've scratched ...

Dreamy Den was a particular favourite from Buster...
An old concept handled masterfully by Mr Knox...

http://www.toonhound.com/dreamyden.htm

If you're interested, I recently pinned down the Krazy appearances for Mike's fab character Smart Alec:

http://www.toonhound.com/smartalec.htm

It was a top strip from a top artist. Was he a reprint character, perhaps from those Odhams days?
Why didn't he get a better deal?

They asked about my comics too, but I'm way up north at the top of Scotland... A bit too far for my collection to travel!...

I hope it's a good show. The chap who was in touch with me was very nice, but I got the feeling he'd been thrown in the deep end and was learning on the job - if you know ...

DCI Tom Barnaby is an "Eagle" fan. I recall a "Midsomer Murders" episode that was top and tailed with discussions about the comic...

We-e-e-ll.... If you're gettin' technical... Those films featured miniature humans in miniature ships, inside humans... whereas "Starship Dave" has them inside an automated human...

And before you say it, yes, "Men In Black" featured a similar plot device too...

But - oh - now my brain hurts. I'm ...

...Little people inside/controlling a human. Surely, this is just a half-step away from the Numskulls?

Not that anyone in Hollywoodland will know the strip, of course! - I was just pondering on the similarities...

I see Eddie Murphy's latest project is being hyped around the trades and web this morning:

"Director Brian Robbins and Eddie Murphy are reteaming on Starship Dave , Murphy's next project, which is in pre-production at 20th Century Fox. Deep River Productions is producing along with Guy Walks Into ...

Er... what about Captain Britain? I always thought he worked very well, in his UK setting, especially in those fab Moore/Davis strips of the 80s. I used to lap 'em up in Marvel's "The Daredevils" monthly.

And then we had "Knights of Pendragon", another superlative effort. Uniquely British, I ...