Comics UK

AndyB wrote:

TwoHeadedBoy wrote:And then there was the BVC, combining Big Comic Fortnightly with the Best of Buster and the Best of Whoopee. All reprints, but over a hundred pages of them!

Interesting. I thought it was 52 pages, like Big Comic Fortnightly, but that was a long time ago.

Certainly, when it mutated one last time into Buster Classics, it was definitely 52 pages.

You're right, just pulled out a BVC and it's 52 pages - it was Big Comic MONTHLY that was 100 pages (whoops).

I was wondering! Which comic `absorbed` the most number of titles ever? My guess- is `Buster` comic as that, over the years must have `sucked-up` about ten to a dozen other comics!

I guess it depends whether you consolidate scores, like conkers, or limit it to those comics that were absorbed directly.

- Phil R.

I think indirectly then revived Eagle might have merged with the most comics if we include comics that were merged into comics that merged into Eagle. e.g. the original Eagle merging into Lion which merged into Valiant which merged into Battle Picture Weekly which merged into the revived Eagle.
Also Thunder merged into Lion, Terrific merged with Fantastic, Wham merged with Pow!, Pow and Fantastic merged with Smash! which merged into Valiant. Comic Cuts merged into Knockout which also merged into Valiant. TV century 21 and Vulcan also merged with Valiant. Action merged into Battle Picture Weekly. Scorcher merged with Score. Scorcher and The Comet merged with Tiger. Tiger and Scream! merged with the revived Eagle.
So at least 21 comics indirectly merged into the revived Eagle.

*ahem* 12 directly and 13 indirectly for Buster (at least!)

Ah, but just off the top of my head I can add Sun, Merry-go-Round, Swift, Boys' World, Hurricane, Solo and TV Tornado to Tommy's list!

- Phil R.

Tin Can Tommy wrote:I think indirectly then revived Eagle might have merged with the most comics if we include comics that were merged into comics that merged into Eagle. e.g. the original Eagle merging into Lion which merged into Valiant which merged into Battle Picture Weekly which merged into the revived Eagle.
Also Thunder merged into Lion, Terrific merged with Fantastic, Wham merged with Pow!, Pow and Fantastic merged with Smash! which merged into Valiant. Comic Cuts merged into Knockout which also merged into Valiant. TV century 21 and Vulcan also merged with Valiant. Action merged into Battle Picture Weekly. Scorcher merged with Score. Scorcher and The Comet merged with Tiger. Tiger and Scream! merged with the revived Eagle.
So at least 21 comics indirectly merged into the revived Eagle.

True. The same way as Buster was the final recipient of all the humour comics (though the mergers were more direct) and Victor being the final recipient of all of DCT's adventure comics.

A shame that they did not survive in one form or another.

When Beezer and Topper folded, some of it's material ended up in Beano and Dandy, though there was no official merger. With Dandy's print version now gone, Beano is the last recipient of the DCT humour titles. Bunty was the last of the girls titles. At Fleetway, Roy of the Rovers was the last adventure comic to go, but the lineage's other fork survives in 2000AD.

Digifiend wrote:When Beezer and Topper folded, some of it's material ended up in Beano and Dandy, though there was no official merger. With Dandy's print version now gone, Beano is the last recipient of the DCT humour titles. Bunty was the last of the girls titles. At Fleetway, Roy of the Rovers was the last adventure comic to go, but the lineage's other fork survives in 2000AD.

Sorry, I forgot about Roy of the Rovers. But merger-wise, it was Eagle that was the last comic in the line.

Beano is sort of `Last Man Standing` for Thomsons. Its a bit like the old weekly Music Papers! In 1966 `Music Echo` was absorbed by `Disc`. In 1975 `Disc and Music Echo` was absorbed by `Record Mirror` In 2001 `Melody Maker` which had begun in 1926! was absorbed into the `New Musical Express`.

The old Family Tree article on this website allowed the mergers of New Eagle, the last traditional adventure comic of "Amalgamated Press" (Sonic The Comic was still a licensed title, albeit a decent quality one) to be traced right back to The Halfpenny Marvel! (though some of the older AP "mergers" were actually title changes, issue 1 of a totally new comic 'incorporated' a previous one)

Yeah, it's a shame that Family Tree isn't on the Wayback Machine and Al hasn't restored that feature yet (he will do it sooner or later, it's mentioned on the Welcome page).

Another merger I liked was Battle-Action which I preferred to either the preceding Battle Picture Weekly or Action. Hence why I only collected that segment of the comic.

The Beano and The Dandy

A better fate to what happened in the end.

I also would suggest that 'and The Dandy' forever stayed in the masthead.

But it never happened and least we still have the annual and summer special.

Mergers tended to have an odd effect on Tammy, introducing popular aspects that came from neither of the merged comics. Tammy's first merger added Sally, but the first combined issue also featured the work of popular artist John Armstrong, who hadn't produced work for either comic before. Then when Tammy merged with June we got Bella, who was to become one of the comic's signature characters, but not seen in either comic before the merger.

It does seem an odd point to introduce a new series, just when you are in the middle of winnowing down the lineup of two comics to fit into one, although I recall Spellbound starting a new story in the final issue, which felt like a bit of a cheat, since it was one of only two that were carried over to Debbie.