Things that only ever happen (and happen a lot) in comics

[Kashgar]

Xmas puds where the custard magically stays put on the pud's upper hemisphere without regard to gravity. In fact the slap-up feed denouement has been around as long as comics themselves. Comic characters from the earliest part of the twentieth century were often portrayed as eternal underdogs frequently on their uppers who make good in the end, and what better way of making good was there than with a mountain of grub at the local Hotel du Posh!

[Raven]

Kids riding around in wooden 'carties' was something they only ever did in comics when I was a boy - but I believe they possibly did actually do this before the 70s!

[tony ingram]

Post war austerity did very much linger on in the '70s in the way parents (who'd lived through those years) brought up their children, though - but it's probable that those comic traditions started during that earlier period and just stayed around. Something to do with the age of the writers, too, perhaps.

The 70s were hardly a time of abundance for many, anyway. The unions saw to that.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

'carties' were massive in the '60s, Raven; these ranged from the wheeled chassis of prams to the more 'customized' versions of the 'real Mc Coy' built from scratch that more resembled the comics version [sometimes steered by rope connected to the front-wheel pivot, but usually steered by the feet!]

As late as 1973, I had a cartie that had 'proper' steering with the same principal for turning the front wheels of a car [built by one of my dad's workmates]: back then of course, the roads were far safer for chaotic careering in home-made constructions.......probably a lot more fun than today's over-protected kid's 'playtime', however.

[fústar]

Xmas puds where the custard magically stays put on the pud's upper hemisphere without regard to gravity. In fact the slap-up feed denouement has been around as long as comics themselves. Comic characters from the earliest part of the twentieth century were often portrayed as eternal underdogs frequently on their uppers who make good in the end, and what better way of making good was there than with a mountain of grub at the local Hotel du Posh!

I recently explained the "slap-up feed" convention to an American pal, referring (of course) to the old bangers 'n' mash pyramid. Forgot to mention the Hotel du Posh though! I can see it now. Lines of swanky waiters (with noses in the air), a stereotypical (formally-dressed) Parisian owner. Lashings of posh grub.

You're spot on about the down-and-out, roguish, lovable "chancer" type character (and the conventions they helped to establish). The public love of same goes back to Chaplin...and back and back beyond that. Ally Sloper is another obvious example.

[fústar]

sticking plasters, armslings and even plaster-casts magically appearing from nowhere on baddie's broken bodies, after a punch-up that invariably resembles a mini-whirlwind with added typhoon properties.....ho yes, with attendant five-sided stars flying in all directions.

Good one! The Jocks & the Geordies featured the above very single week.

The hard-of-hearing using ear trumpets is another anachronistic classic.

[Digifiend]

Adverts for comics on the side of buses - in reality, they don't advertise in that way.

[chrissmillie]

Kids riding around in wooden 'carties' was something they only ever did in comics when I was a boy - but I believe they possibly did actually do this before the 70s!

We did this right through the 70s. Probably depends where you are from.

[felneymike]

I built a "cartie" in the mid 90's! I also created my own comic based around them called "Cart Wars". I wantd to enact it for real (it was a sort of cartie banger race, sometimes with the people throwing rotten food at each other too). However i live in the fens and my friends were lazy, so it never even got used apart from a few pushes around the garden.

Oh, and the Dangerous Book for Boys, which came out in 2005, has a design for one. Thier design is completley wrong, though. They even gave it a padded seat!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

swearing symbolized by catherine-wheels, exclamation marks and abstract shapes------this is more likely to be discovered in American mags like MAD, however, I'm sure it cropped up occassionally in UK comics.


also: elaborate robots [sometimes entire armies of 'em----] controlled very precisely by a tiny, often-hand-held device.........GENERAL JUMBO was doing this in the 60s----and possibly earlier!------this technology is nowhere near a reality here in 2009!

the complete absence of SEX [there,that got your interest!] in any form whatsoever was an 'unwritten law' in the comics I grew up with.......men and women in these strips co-existed, and were clearly differentiated, but women never seemed to have er......chests in most of the depictions,: however, in real-life Primary school, many kids had a natural curiosity in the differences between male and female, which was never reflected in the comics at all.

At least today, the attractions of the opposite sex is sometimes represented in BEANO in a way that was unacceptable eons ago [in my youth!]

[Digifiend]

General Jumbo started in 1953.

[Kashgar]

the complete absence of SEX [there,that got your interest!] in any form whatsoever was an 'unwritten law' in the comics I grew up with.......men and women in these strips co-existed, and were clearly differentiated, but women never seemed to have er......chests in most of the depictions,: however, in real-life Primary school, many kids had a natural curiosity in the differences between male and female, which was never reflected in the comics at all.

At least today, the attractions of the opposite sex is sometimes represented in BEANO in a way that was unacceptable eons ago [in my youth!]

Kids riding around in wooden 'carties' was something they only ever did in comics when I was a boy - but I believe they possibly did actually do this before the 70s!

We did this right through the 70s. Probably depends where you are from.

And yet years before in comics like Film Fun, Radio Fun and TV Fun which all featured adult stars of stage and screen it was amazing how often the heroes reward was a date with Gertie Goodsort or some other delectable gal.

[grumpy old man]

The lone villain (or hero) has the financial and technological resources to build a secret base (usually with a nuclear powerplant) in either an urban area or some inaccessible spot undersea, behind a waterfall etc.

Remote spots are always populated by descendents of the Mongols, Aztecs, Conquistadors, Vikings etc who haven’t moved on in centuries and still retain their ancestor’s clothes etc.

[Digifiend]

The lone villain (or hero) has the financial and technological resources to build a secret base (usually with a nuclear powerplant) in either an urban area or some inaccessible spot undersea, behind a waterfall etc.

That doesn't just happen in comics, it happens on TV too - Torchwood for example. Behind a waterfall? There's such an enemy base in the SNES game Earthbound (aka Mother 2).

[Niblet]

Person being the millionth customer in a shop, and being given carte blanche to take what they like for free.

Lead character accidentally smacks someone in the face and gets extremely worried about looming retribution, only to be told by the victim "Hey, I was just going to the dentist, but you knocked my bad tooth out! Have this ten bob note!". You then look back a couple of panels and see, yes, the tooth WAS knocked out.