Comic character `spin -offs`

[alanultron5]

I can only recall from my own comic reading experience - of two characters guesting in a comic strip going on to get their own strip!

The first was in about 1965 when `fun` Villian, "Grimly Feendish" who was a villian encountered by - I think, "The Man From Bungle" In `Wham` (Might have been `Pow`) Obviously old Grimly really caught on and soon got his own strip.

The only other instance I recall came in the `Lion and Thunder` adventure strip "The Black Max". Late on in the strip a dwarf who was a scientist, wen't on to feature in a follow up strip called "The Demon Dwarf". This would be around 1972 I think!

I'm sure there must be more! Can anyone else recall more instances?

[Digifiend]

The 3 Bears and Baby-Face Finlayson from the Beano both debuted in Little Plum.

[swirlythingy]

Gnasher's Bit(e) in the current Beano is, by definition, a spin-off. It's an evolution of an earlier strip called Gnasher and Gnipper (which I believe still appeared sporadically until the 2009 TV show well and truly killed it off), which in turn replaced Gnasher's Tale in 1986 when Gnasher had his puppies in the main Dennis the Menace strip.

There was also a lesser-known and short-lived strip called Rasher (after Dennis's pig), which initially stuck strictly to the 'spin-off' concept by completely divorcing the character from his original continuity and explaining it as 'before he came to live with Dennis', but later merged back into the present day (much like the retrospective Gnasher's Tale became contemporary Gnasher and Gnipper). Some of the early (1980s) strips were reprinted in the Beano in about 2008/9, but it too was cut short by the BBC cartoon. (Rasher, as a supporting character, was initially killed off altogether, but was granted a reprieve three months ago as part of the ongoing process of distancing the Dennis strip from the hugely unpopular TV continuity.)

Then there was an even lesser-known and shorter-lived strip called Dasher, created to advertise the Beano website in the early 2000s. Dasher, Dennis's pet spider, had been introduced before then (without looking it up), but that was the most regular appearance he ever had. He last appeared in this year's Halloween special - some might say symbolically, especially as it was very shortly after Rasher had also been brought back, but it's difficult to know if he was ever killed off for certain (three or four years between appearances is almost unremarkable by his standards).

As for non-Dennis Beano spin-offs... the Plug comic would seem to be the most obvious example.

[felneymike]

I'm sure I've seen a strip from the "two page" days (70's - early 90's, I probably saw it reprinted in an annual) where Dennis gets a pet spider, but I'm not sure if he was named. Dasher also showed up on adverts for the Beano website when it first launched, being a spider (it was funny in 1997!).

Anyway going back a bit, one of the first recurring supervillains in the Sexton Blake stories, George Marsden Plummer, featured in a series of stories that (though I haven't read them) probably read a bit like a police-based version of Flashman! Basically Plummer is a brilliant detective with a 'criminal kink' in his brain that allows him to commit 'perfect crimes' and come up smelling of roses. The stories were set before Sexton Blake had exposed him and revolved around him 'solving' crimes whilst actually swindling both the criminal and original victim!

Billy Bunter became a 'spin off' in his own stories! Initially he was just another character in The Magnet, but gradually the plot of virtually every story came to hinge on him... usually his latest failed plot to get hold of grub. Then of course he was actually spun off into a basic comedy strip which was spun even further off into Holland where it is still running today!

Also as Lew Stringer posted it on his blog today and bought up memories, Sonic The Comic initially featured a Sonic story and then other strips based on other games. However later on all the stories became set in Sonic's world but about different characters, who had usually previously been minor characters in the Sonic story.

[colcool007]

A few to be going on with.

DeMarco and Anderson from Judge Dredd.
Tor Cyan from Mercy Heights/Rogue Trooper.
Plug from Bash Street Kids
Krazy Gang/Krazy comic from Cheeky.

and

The Hammer Man from The Sword Maker.

[Little Squelchy Thing]

Dennis the Menace's gran was spun-off into her own strip too, wasn't she? 'Go, Granny, Go!' I think it was called.

Fatty Fudge also enjoyed his own series of film and TV parodies, of course, the latest of which appeared in this week's issue of The Beano.

And may I mention my very own Dave the Squirrel, who graduated from making background appearances in George vs Dragon to his own mini-strip in The Dandy recently?

[Jonny Whizz]

Dennis the Menace's gran was spun-off into her own strip too, wasn't she? 'Go, Granny, Go!' I think it was called.

Yes, you're right on both counts. For those unfamiliar with the strip it ran from 1992-1998 and was drawn by Smasher artist Brian Walker. Similarly, in the Dandy, Cuddles and Dimples' Granny received her own strip for a time.

Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bea yet - she's another Dennis spin-off. Come to think of it, I think Dennis may have had more spin-offs than the other Beano characters put together!

Having said that, Pup Parade is another noteworthy Beano example, being a Bash Street Kids spin-off. The kids' cats and bugs also appeared in their own strips, but I think they only appeared in the annuals.

[dishes]

"Cuddles and Dimples" had a large number of short-lived spin off strips:
"'At's Our Granny"
"Postman Patel"
"Woofer and Tweeter"
"Ted-Time Tales"


The Bash Street Kids:
"Plug"
"Simply Smiffy"
"Pup Parade"

EDIT: Passing by in haste, sorry to repeat some characters others have mentioned

[NP]

...about 1965 when `fun` Villian, "Grimly Feendish" who was a villian encountered by - I think, "The Man From Bungle" In `Wham` (Might have been `Pow`) Obviously old Grimly really caught on and soon got his own strip.

For fact fans out there, Grimly Feendish first appeared in WHAM! No 1, June 20th 1964 in the Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy strip. He reappeared several times before grabbing the back page of SMASH! No1, Feb 5th 1966 as Grimly Feendish, the Rottenest Crook in the world, but continued to menace Eagle Eye in WHAM! for some time. He was never in The Man From Bungle, SMASH!s own 'spy' strip nor Wee Willie Haggis, the Spy From Skye, POW!'s version (from Jan 14th 1967).
For my money, Grimly Feendish was the only character from early WHAM! that could and should have run and run. It's a classic and a real original and still makes me laugh today.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ylv1gp9svN8/T ... 3+rear.jpg

[alanultron5]

Thanks for the correction NP. My grey cells get pretty hazy these days! Some very interesting info from folks! I never knew the Three Bears were first in the `Little Plum` strip!

What about `Pup Parade`? Were the `pups` in the `Bash St Kids` strip first? I just can't recall!

[Peter Gray]

From Desperate Dan
Danny and Katie

Desperate Dawg kind of spin offish

[stevezodiac]

Didn't Minnie's cat Chester get his own small strip once or am I a deluded nincompoop?

[starscape]

Krazy Gang/Krazy comic from Cheeky

Surely the other way around? Krazy came first.

Lots of superhero ones of course, if we're counting Marvel UK.

There's Walter the Wobot from Judge Dwedd...er...Dredd and Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein (ABC Warriors) both were spun-off from Ro-Busters - perhaps that's not quite the same though.

[Jonny Whizz]

Didn't Minnie's cat Chester get his own small strip once or am I a deluded nincompoop?

I'm pretty sure that he was given his own strip in the Beano in one spring 2006 issue. I can't recall the issue number or date offhand, but it must have been around the end of February/start of March. I remember it because it was drawn by Steve Horrocks, who had started drawing Minnie a few weeks earlier. He also starred in a two-page strip in the 2002 Beano Book (where the minor characters get to star in an alternative version of the comic), drawn by Jim Petrie.

[tony ingram]

A few to be going on with.

DeMarco and Anderson from Judge Dredd.
Tor Cyan from Mercy Heights/Rogue Trooper.
Plug from Bash Street Kids
Krazy Gang/Krazy comic from Cheeky.

and

The Hammer Man from The Sword Maker.

If you're talking 2000AD, there's also Durham Red and Middenface McNulty, both from Strontium Dog (and, indeed, the short lived Strontium Dogs strip) as well as Malone, a spinoff from Sinister-Dexter, Mach Zero from Mach One, The Dead Man from Judge Dredd and Survivor, a spinoff from Mean Team. There are undoubtedly several more, too.