Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

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Peter Gray
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Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Peter Gray »

Was it Maisy (is that a women artist?) who drew in Jackpot The Terror toys..

who was the artist of Toys of doom...
a website on this didn't know..
www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/toydoom.htm

Now I have the first Jackpot I might show this on my blog...so little time so many comic artists.. :D

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philcom55
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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by philcom55 »

During its first decade Buster really excelled at stories about mad scientists who tried to rule the world - only to be foiled time after time by groups of pesky kids (very Scooby Doo!). Both the original 1960s Buster strip and its 80s/90s sequel in the new Eagle were drawn by the Solano Lopez studio, though the Jackpot series was by someone else entirely. The Toymaker - and even more young Nick Jardine - seemed to be deliberately conceived as evil versions of General Jumbo.

Incidentally, Alan Moore was also clearly influenced by General Jumbo when he created Officer Slinger and her father Colonel Lilliput for his Top Ten series.

- Phil R.

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Kremmen »

As well as Toys of Doom in Buster from around 1965 to 1968, I remember the IPC version of Smash! running a strip that seemed to me to be, if not a sequel, a retitled version of the Buster original. Would this have been drawn by the same artist? I'm going by vague memories as it is nearly forty years ago...

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philcom55
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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by philcom55 »

Yes. 'Threat of the Toymaker' which ran in Smash! during 1970 was a slightly altered reprint of the original Solano lopez strip from Buster.

- Phil R.

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Kremmen »

Cheers. I thought at the time that it looked familiar, like a sequel to the Buster strip. As I hadn't seen the start of the Buster version, I naturally thought the Smash! run was new.

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Kashgar »

This notion of the Toys of Doom/Threat of the Toymaker reprint connection has existed for a long time and was, if not created by, certainly reinforced by the publication of two indexes with which I was directly (The Buster Index) or indirectly (The Power Pack - the index of the Odhams 1960's comic titles)) involved.
In fact 'Threat of the Toymaker' (Smash 7/2/70-12/9/70) is a kind of sequel to the Buster strip 'Toys of Doom' (27/2/65-13/1/68) in which The Toyman, who was thwarted by a scientist and his two children in the first series and apparently killed in an explosion, turns up looking remarkably the same in the Smash series as an inmate of one of HM's prisons under the name Dr Droll. In this second series the other main protagonists are the prison goverenor and his two children and the main artist is again Solano Lopez after it being begun by John Stokes.
I can only imagine that the idea that it was a direct reprint came about due to lack of actual copies of the comics being on hand for direct reference when the indexes were being produced as, even now, I wouldn't like to say for definite that some of the episodes from the original series weren't 'done up' and reprinted to fit the scripts for the Smash series. It would mean going through both series meticulously looking for comparisons and, at the moment, I just haven't got the time. But at least I can confirm that the Smash series is not a direct reprint.

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philcom55
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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by philcom55 »

How odd! I've just checked the first few episodes of 'Threat of the Toymaker' in Smash! and you're quite right that Dr. Droll is introduced as a brand new character, not just a continuation of the Toyman. However the first episode is particularly odd in that, while clearly not a reprint from Buster, it has obviously been resized from a much smaller format. What's more, John Stokes' involvement seems limited to the first page alone which he appears to have redrawn; meanwhile the following two pages look as though they've been drastically touched up by a variety of hands. Solano Lopez is up and running as the regular artist from the second episode onwards.

Of course it wouldn't be the only time that a first episode went through a complicated gestation before ending up in a completely different home from the one originally intended. All the same I can't help but wonder if the Toymaker might at one time have featured in different stories intended for overseas publication (like Robot Archie), thereby enabling IPC to magically 'reprint' old material that had never been seen in the UK before.

- Phil R.

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Kremmen »

No wonder I'm confused! :o

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Kashgar »

It's an interesting thought Phil.

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by NP »

In Crikey No 6 (the green cover, April/May) Gil page of IPC/Fleetwai describes how a new comic (Blackjack, was it?) was devised but never published, and it's contents were broken up and used in SMASH, Valiant, etc. It seems possible that this is the origin of this curious first strip.

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Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by Peter Gray »

New on John's Look-in website..very good as well..

Image
8)

lmrfm

Re: Terror toys (Jackpot) and Toys of doom (60's Buster)

Post by lmrfm »

The Terror toys was drawn by Francesc Masip a Spanish artist

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