A Christmas Gift----from Me to You

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Here's the extremely attractive cover from the same issue, and I assume the entire work including the Buster/Santa Claus centrepiece is the work of Spanish artist Nadal;---- and very nice it is, too.

[Peter Gray]

As a 80's kid I loved fleetway comics of that era...But I can see they were even better in the 70's...
Though Jack edward oliver and tom Paterson and others shone in the 80's..

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Many thanks for your interest, Peter.


Well, the 25th is soon upon us, and I reckon the IPC themes have been well-covered on here. I resolved to seek out something a bit more diverse and looked through my vintage TV 21 and EAGLE files, hoping to locate lush imagery of the THUNDERBIRDS crew or DAN DARE and the Mekon celebrating over turkey and all the trimmings, all depicted in lush full-colour photograuve.

The reality was somewhat disappointing, as these 'posher' comics usually chose to ignore Christmas altogether, other than a few related adverts---the popular strips have nothing to do with the Festive Celebrations in the issues released around the 25th----maybe the annuals mentioned Christmas more aptly?


In fact all I could really find was this curio from EAGLE issue 142, 24 December 1952; but it's scarecely the sort of thing I was hoping to find:


HARRIS TWEED by JOHN RYAN

[philcom55]

As a matter of fact Frank Hampson drew a famous page called 'The Editor's Christmas Nightmare' for an early issue of Eagle where Dan Dare, Digby, Jeff Arnold, Harris Tweed, the Mekon, etc. got all mixed up at a seasonal feast!

Of course Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Morecambe and Wise, so here's their one-and-only Christmas strip from the issue of Buster dated 26th December 1964, drawn by the great Roy Wilson - sadly one of the very last pages he completed before dying of cancer in June 1965.



- Phil Rushton

[stevezodiac]

I've been going through a crate full of comics updating my checklist and these were the assorted Christmas issues therein:

[matrix]

Here is the first 'Playhour pictures' Christmas cover plus back page from 1954.

Prince the Wonder Dog, and his master Texas Jack along with Duke, save Christmas for Little Falls orphanage!

[philcom55]

Sep Scott was a fantastic artist, but I can't help feeling his realistic style was better suited to comics aimed at an older age group. Presumably AP came to the same conclusion in the end - hence Playhour's relaunch. It'd be interesting to know what sort of market research lay behind the revamp.

Bearing in mind the recent passing of Charlie Grigg here's a Christmas Panto from 1972 featuring Splodge and a number of his Topper co-stars:



- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

...And while I'm at it here's a curiosity from the 1978 Christmas issue of Topper by Leo Baxendale's son Martin (an artist I normally associate with IPC):



Interestingly, Martin's style seems more individual here than on some of the strips he took over from his father.

- Phil R.

[Peter Gray]

These two are great...nice seeing Splodge and Foxy...also interesting about Martin at DC Thomson..Topper was very quirky in the 70's like Sparky was..

http://www.petergraycartoonsandcomics.b ... ryone.html

[philcom55]

I guess most people will have access to the bulk of seasonal Beano and Dandy covers by now via Phil Shrimpton's book - so here's a Beano centrespread from 1964 instead, featuring one of David Sutherland's earliest 'Bash Street' Christmases:



- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

-I think this one is not by David Sutherland...maybe Frank Mc Diarmid or mGordon Bell ghosting? The faces look very loose for this period by David...i of course could be wrong...

[philcom55]

You could be right Peter - I did wonder about some of the faces myself.

- Phil R.

[NP]

Yes, looks like Gordon Bell

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I think the BASH STREET set seen above is by Ron Spencer of Little Plum fame, guys---Ron done a fair bit of work for the BEANO BOOKS of the mid-60s, presumably the era this strip dates from. [just re-checked---it's Christmas 1964: many thanks, Phil]

Spencers' versions of these characters usually exhibited more of his own natural style than was the case for Dave Sutherland, who adhered more to the Baxendale template.


---Wow! I was away from the computer for 2 days due to festive booze etc, and I am well impressed by all your contributions, Phil, Steve and Matrix......in the earlier part of the thread it was just me putting visuals on here, but all are welcome!

Martin Baxendale must have been very young when he drew the above embryonic strip.

[philcom55]

Fascinating stuff! I must confess that I've never been very good at differentiating the various artists who took over Leo Baxendale's strips in the Beano. Is anybody prepared to have a go at identifying these other 'Leolookalikes' from the same Christmas issue?







- Phil Rushton