Tumba and Rumba

[dishes]

What a peculiar strip this was for 1990. A strip set in the British Raj, 45 years after it had ceased to exist. Nevertheless, it was clearly played for laughs rather than as some sort of "bring back the British Empire" propaganda. Can anyone tell me if it's a reworking of an older strip or even text story? The premise would have fitted very well alongside the likes of "The Wolf of Kabul", and I know how DC Thomson liked to re-use old ideas.


I was getting a bit old for the Dandy at the time and the oddness of this and a lot of the other new strips at the time kept me subscribing just a little bit longer. I'm pretty sure Tumba and Rumba instantly became my favourite strip the moment it appeared.

Ron Spencer is one of those artists whose work I enjoy much more on some strips than others. When he was let loose on a exotic strip (foreign or historical) such as Whacko, Robin Hood's Schooldays, Little Plum or Tumba and Rumba, he was among my very favourite comic artists. But when working on strips set in contemporary Britain like Dinah Mo I found his work just passable.

[Digifiend]

There's a comic library in which they teamed up with Dinah Mo, that's the only place I've seen them.

[Niblet]

Ron Spencer is one of those artists whose work I enjoy much more on some strips than others. When he was let loose on a exotic strip (foreign or historical) such as Whacko, Robin Hood's Schooldays, Little Plum or Tumba and Rumba, he was among my very favourite comic artists.

This is the second reference I've seen recently to a DC Thomson strip called Whacko, a title which I always associate with the school-based TV series of the 50s starring Jimmy Edwards.

http://youtu.be/YJMPEyGTG0U

A strip based on TV's Whacko! ran in Buster for some years. Presumably DCT's Whacko was entirely different - what was it about?

[Raven]

A strip based on TV's Whacko! ran in Buster for some years. Presumably DCT's Whacko was entirely different - what was it about?

A ye olde teacher in a suit of armour - "got ye! Now I'll make ye suffer!" - and his class of unruly medieval ragamuffins. The teacher tended to win (wonder why they thought that would appeal to readers), with the kids, not untypically for a Thomson strip, being beaten at the end of most episodes.

Whizzer and Chips had a similar armoured teacher strip: Knight School in the early 70s, drawn (much less impressively than Whacko!) by Les Barton, though this was set in the present day (Jack Pott from Cor!! guested in one episode).

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

The Medievel Thomson Whacko! was notable for giving the impression that the anarchic kids actually tried to murder the armoured teacher during some of the more bloodthirsty scenarios: they sometimes tried to remove his helmet in order to' get a good hit at his head' with a lethal-looking club, for example.
This sort of violent intent was handled with more slapstick values in other Dandy strips. Maybe the Medievel setting brought out more barbaric human tendencies.......

I agree that Ron Spencer's work was less inspired on more down-to-Earth subjects: maybe he preferred soaring fantasy worlds.

[Niblet]

Thanks Raven/Rab. It sounds as if the basic premise of DCT's Whacko was similar to the TV Whacko! where the headmaster would often win out over the pupils, but just shifted back in time by a few hundred years.

[Peter Gray]

Peter's Pocket Grandpa is also very good by Ron...great use of large and small..using different thin and thick pens....which he also did in The Nibblers..
Ron a great comic artist..

[dishes]

Peter's Pocket Grandpa is also very good by Ron...great use of large and small..using different thin and thick pens....which he also did in The Nibblers..
Ron a great comic artist..

Certainly agree with that last bit!
Though Pete's Pocket Grandpa was one of the strips I was thinking of that I didn't like so much. (not keen on the Dandy in Albert Barnes's last years as editor, lots of somewhat dull strips to my mind). But the Nibblers- yes! Forgotten that one.

There's a comic library in which they teamed up with Dinah Mo, that's the only place I've seen them.

Gosh. Considering Tumba and Rumba is set at the time of the British Raj did the story involve time travel?

Just to correct the date of 1990 I gave above: actually it was August 1989. And I see I had in fact stopped subscribing by then so I can't give start/end dates for the strip.