Willie Getaway

[Beezer]

Hi,
New bloke on the Forum
Hope nobody minds if I ask for some help on my first posting.

I wonder if anyone can help me with some info on what was my favourite
comic strip character when I was a child.
I'm trying to find any info on a character from Sparky called Willie Getaway.
Just to jog your memories, Willie Getaway was a character who thinks he's a wanted criminal as he can't read the small print on the 'Wanted' posters saying he's inherited a small fortune,he spends each strip trying to escape 'capture' by people wanting the reward of ?1,000 for finding him.

I know he was featured in the Sparky each week in late 1972,around issues 400 ish,but other than that I have no info on him.
If anyone could tell me how long the strip ran for,which issue it started in
and which issue it ended.
Also,more importantly,how did the story end?
Did Willie ever get to inherit his fortune?

Any info on the character would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

[AndyB]

At the risk of spoiling the end of the run in Classic from the Comics...

(No, do really tell me! I'm interested!)

[Beezer]

Unfortunately,I think I'll never know.

By moving the posting into a Subforum,I don't think too many people
seem to look in these sections

Oh well,you never know.

[Lew Stringer]

Unfortunately,I think I'll never know.

By moving the posting into a Subforum,I don't think too many people
seem to look in these sections

Oh well,you never know.

I followed Sparky at that time and enjoyed that strip but I can't remember if it had a proper conclusion, sorry.

Lew

[Kashgar]

Hi Beezer, Fret no more, details of Willie Getaway as follows-
He appeared in Sparky issues No316(6/2/71) - No451(8/9/73) and also turned up in a four page strip in the Sparky Book 1973 where he encountered the Loch Ness Monster. The artist throughout the series was veteran cartoonist Phil Millar.
In the final episode (for all those who don't want to know the denouement read no further) Willie sadly remains on the run and still unaware of his good fortune. The final strip ending with the following piece of doggerel 'Hooray! Willie Getaway's got away! But he'll be back, this way, another day! OK?'
Apparently it wasn't OK as he never did return.

[Beezer]

Hi Beezer, Fret no more, details of Willie Getaway as follows-
He appeared in Sparky issues No316(6/2/71) - No451(8/9/73) and also turned up in a four page strip in the Sparky Book 1973 where he encountered the Loch Ness Monster. The artist throughout the series was veteran cartoonist Phil Millar.
In the final episode (for all those who don't want to know the denouement read no further) Willie sadly remains on the run and still unaware of his good fortune. The final strip ending with the following piece of doggerel 'Hooray! Willie Getaway's got away! But he'll be back, this way, another day! OK?'
Apparently it wasn't OK as he never did return.

Hi Kashgar,
Many Thanks for the info,you're a diamond

What a pity he didn't get to inherit his fortune after over 2 years on the run
I'd like to see if I can track down those issues of Sparky and get the entire run of that strip.

Thanks again for your help

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

'WILLIE GETAWAY' artist PHIL MILLAR also contributed,---for 'SPARKY' also in this period-------another two strips: 'I FLY' which was depicted entirely in close-up from an insect's point-of-view. This featured a cute fly [if such a thing is possible] thwarting his truly repulsive nemesis, 'SPIDER'---------------a second MILLAR strip, 'SAM'S SNAKE', was a rare example of D.C. Thomson turning out a carbon-copy of a contemporary I.P.C. strip,-----in this case, 'SID'S SNAKE' by MIKE LACEY on the cover of 'WHIZZER and CHIPS'. These two strips really WERE as similar as they sound.................Lastly, PHIL MILLAR turned out some excellent seaside postcards under the moniker 'PEDRO':------some of these grace my bathroom walls!

[Kashgar]

I always loved Phil Millar's work. It always slightly puzzled me though why Sparky chose to do the 'I Fly ' strip which was basically another spin on the vintage Allan Morley Dandy strip 'Freddy the Fearless Fly' when they'd junked a direct revamp of the same strip, under its original title and drawn by Bert Holroyd which had appeared in Sparky in its early issues.

[AndyB]

Phil also drew A Trocious, I think?

[felneymike]

I think i have an old Beezer Annual (or parts of one anyway, to go with my single Monster Fun page XD) which the character features in. But i might be getting mixed up with some tatty old 1996 issues of Classics from the Comics that occupy the same shelf. I'm not at home so can't check XD. I seem to remember him running over a 'raising' bridge as a boat went underneath, and one person making himself the "bridge" so everybody could run over and chase him to the other side, but actually he was hanging on the bottom of 'thier' side and escaped back they way he came

[Kashgar]

Phil also drew A Trocious, I think?

He certainly did.

[stevezodiac]

Didn't Phil Millar also draw Big Fat Flo?

[AndyB]

Yep!