Comics UK

Most likely asked before but what the heck.

What is the first comic you ever read as a child (or adult if you started off late in life)?

Mine was Bobo Bunny but not sure for how long as I quickly went over to The Dandy and The Beano.

Rainbow and Thomas the Tank Engine. Both were nursery titles with stories in the illustration with a caption underneath style, rather than using speech bubbles. My older brother was buying the Beano at one point, which is how I got into it. I've now been buying the Beano for 16 years.

For me, I had been reading a lot of U.S. humour titles (Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvester, Casper and so on) since the late 1960's at age three from my brother's collection

Then in around 1972, I had read IPC's Disneyland magazine, and Donald and Mickey

The first U.K. comic title I read was in 1974 (which was Whoopee!)

I have a timeline of what I read on my comics archive page here

Playhour.

I really can't remember, but I suspect it was Harold Hare's Own Paper (i.e. I know I read HHOP, but I'm not sure whether it was my first comic). I doubt whether it was my choice, I suppose my mum chose it for me.

I believe that, like Cheeky in the 70s, Harold Hare graduated from being a strip in an earlier comic (Sun) into his own title (in 1954). I don't think Harold featured on as many pages per issue in his comic as Cheeky did in Cheeky Weekly, though.

My cousin bought Warlord and Battle, and I would read those when I visited. But the first comic I ever bought myself and read every week was 2000ad. Then Starlord (if I had enough pocket money - it was expensive!) and Krazy comic.

I'd also buy Whizzer, Whoopee and Buster regularly, but I came to the Beano and Dandy fairly late via a collection of annuals I was given around 1980. One of which - The Beano Book 1962 - is easily the best and most read comic book I've ever owned, and it was published 10 years before I was born! It's a work of art...how we got from that level of genius to the current glossy, full colour but ultimately empty annuals is a mystery to me.....[/grumble]

So long ago, I really can't remember and I've racked my brain, what's left of it. But the mention of Harold Hare rings a bell. Being nuts about comics from a very early age, I read lots and it occurs to me that when I say read, I don't mean bought and now I'm not sure if the ABC figures, which reflect sales aren't being confused with readership, because, as a rule of thumb with newspapers, readership is roughly 3.5 to 4 times sales and, although I can't back this up, is higher for comics. Sorry, a bit off topic.
However the most important comic in my early years was a Frew Phantom from a newsagent in Crail - it had a profound impact on me. One which has stayed to this day as I remain a firm Phan. I was very young and those old Frew covers were, to me at any rate, very dramatic.

I still own the very first comic I ever had. I didn't particularly look after it back in those days, so the cover's a bit loose and torn, but it's all there. It's a copy of The Beano.

I may have had some stray nursery comic handed to me in my infancy, but I don't remember.

As far as I'm concerned, where it all started was when i was in a second hand book shop with my dad (I don't remember which one or where, but probably in Shrewsbury), and encountering two 1970s annuals- a Dandy one and I think a Dan Dare one.
They fascinated me and I think I persuaded my dad to buy them. Though if so I've no idea what happened to them as I surely didn't have them very long. I expect I was so rough with them they had to be thrown out. This would have been 1985 or 1986 I suppose, and me seven-ish. All I remember about them is being quite disconcerted by the sight of Desperate Dan playing soccer (!) with loads of bandages on his head and feet. I now know this would have been the Dandy annual 1977, as I eventually bought it again.

When I spotted my best friend at school reading the weekly Dandy ("so it's still going? as a weekly comic?") some time afterwards, it didn't take long for me to get my parents to get me the Dandy every week too, starting late 1986.

Being it was 1969, I don't remember much about Bobo Bunny except possibly the front cover. Which tells me that I wasn't keen on it. I may even had only a couple of issues before abandoning.

Now my second comic, The Dandy, was a different matter. The first story I remember from it was Black Bob. A story which I never re-read until I purchased some early Dandys recently. And you know what? The story is as good today as it was then.

The first comic I have distinct memories of reading was 'Joe 90 Top Secret', especially for the 'Star Trek' strip. I even recall the adventure now (having been able to get the issues again) where wraith like aliens attack crew members doing repairs on the exterior of the Enterprise. I think my interest was due to the series first being shown on British television at the time (from the summer of 1969), and I would have been four, approaching five...



From then on I must have migrated to the second series of TV21, as I got that weekly until the Anderson and SF content disappeared, and got 'Countdown' instead, with the occasion jump to 'Look-in' on and off throughout the 1970s.

I have an inkling I may have got 'Thunder' for a period as well but have no distinct recollections of any strips in it, except... was 'Black Max' in it? A World War One airplane adventure?

I'm pretty sure it was the Beano. The family moved to England for a few years when I was five, and my granda back home in Belfast, who used to subscribe to the Sunday Post from Scotland for The Broons and Oor Wullie, posted a copy of the Beano for me every week, and then later added the Beezer for my younger brother. So it's his fault.

I devoured Tintin from the age of six when I discovered the books in my local library. I can also remember reading the odd superhero comic around then - some original American ones like the Invaders and Nova when I could get them, and British reprints as well - I have a very clear memory of Lockjaw from the Eternals in one of those landscape-format black-and-white reprints, and I also remember not really understanding it and finding it a bit scary. Then back to Belfast in time for 2000AD to get started. My brother preferred Warlord.

Almost imposible to remember as at the time do many comics and cant recall many nursery titles which I assume would have been the first ones I read - I do remember reading Harold Hare, the Beano and buying Wham comic - so one of them (but probably in reality it was Playhour)

Bimbo and/or Playhour

I used to get Jack and Jill 'till about 1975. I broke my leg in '77 and whilst in the hospital waiting room, picked up a copy of Buster and Monster Fun. I read it and laughed, and my Mum said she could get it every week for me. The rest is history, I was 7 then, and Buster was delivered to our house every week until 1983. I often wondered if I would have got into comics so much if i hadn't broken my leg that day?
Every cloud etc....