Comics UK

It's been months since I was last here & even longer since I last did a website update to bustercomic.com

TIme to get back into it. I want to work on a section for celebrities who were fans of any Fleetway comics. So far I have 3:

Tony Martin - New Zealand comedian living in Australia used to read Whizzer & Chips. Confirmed on Martin/Molloy radio show (date unknown, but in 1996 or 1997) & Get This radio show (17/10/07)

Daniel Kitson - UK comedian used to read Buster. Confirmed on Get This Radio show. (17/10/07)

Craig Charles - UK actor used to read Buster. Many people have told me about this, but I don't know where this was confirmed...

Can anyone confirm where Craig "came out" as a Buster fan (someone told me it was a comic special on TV) & whether there are any other celebs who were fans & sources where this is confirmed?

Peter Hook of Joy Division/New Order/Monaco (and Revenge) revealed it on his MySpace. Said it was much better than the Beano. His favourite story was the boy with the army of toy soldiers...in Buster?

Chris

chrissmillie wrote:Peter Hook of Joy Division/New Order/Monaco (and Revenge) revealed it on his MySpace. Said it was much better than the Beano. His favourite story was the boy with the army of toy soldiers...in Buster?

Chris

He probably means Toys of Doom that was in Buster many years ago. (I think that was the strip's title. Later reprinted in IPC's version of Smash!)

Lew

General Jumbo in The Beano

OH, I forgot The Goodies & Cor.

Does anyone know the link to that MySpace?

Apparently Craig Charles was mentioned in Buster itself as well (Thanks Matt from bustercomic.co.uk). Probably a long shot, but does anyone know the issue?

Thanks for the help with this

BILL ODDIE shamelessly plugged 'COR!!' on series 4 opener, 'CAMELOT',and other episodes too, apparantly........another episode they done in 1976 set in the year '2001 and a bit' saw the 'BEANO' and 'DANDY' re-branded 'PORNO' and 'RANDY'!

And who could forget Eric Morecambe with his happy reading of The Beano as Ernie read the Financial Times.

Add in Jonathon Ross as he has plugged more than his fair share of comics on his Radio shows.

Ron Hill and Brendan Foster both list Alf Tupper as inspiration for their running careers.

I am sure there are more, but I can't place them at the moment.

colcool007 wrote:And who could forget Eric Morecambe with his happy reading of The Beano as Ernie read the Financial Times.

Add in Jonathon Ross as he has plugged more than his fair share of comics on his Radio shows.

Ron Hill and Brendan Foster both list Alf Tupper as inspiration for their running careers.

I am sure there are more, but I can't place them at the moment.

Weirdly though when Eric was shown in bed reading the Beano (even though I seem to remember him saying 'Desperate Dan is good this week') it was obviously a mock-up of the comic and not an actual issue. I know the BBC always had a strict policy of not advertising specific products in those days ( who can forget Val Singleton and her blanked out washing-up liquid bottles) but it seems strange that when actually referencing something by name, like the Beano, they should still feel the need to use an ersatz copy of the comic on screen.

I remember that incident [ ERIC n' ERNIE COMIC-READING in bed] well, kashgar; the comic mockup was either a 'BEANO' with a 'DANDY' masthead pasted over [or vice-versa]....

----the BBC certainly did some bizarre things regarding copyright back then.....ie they would clearly show [in close-up in a studio set] a box of cornflakes with the 'KELLOGG'S' label masked over; the famous cartoon cockerel left clearly visible left the viewer in no doubt as to the product 'advertised'.

THIN LIZZY frontman PHIL LYNOTT was a big childhood 'BEANO' enthusiast, his band's name an obvious nod to vintage strip 'TIN LIZZIE'. PHIL met DAVE SUTHERLAND'S daughter during a UK tour that took in DUNDEE, and an illustration featuring DENNIS and GNASHER waving a 'THIN LIZZY' scarf was duly despatched.

I know many footballers reading Roy Of the Rovers.

Bob Monkhouse.

I think Joan Armatrading was a big Beano fan.

she was a member of Gnasher's fan club, as was Star Wars lead Mark Hamill.

Loads of movie/tv stars like comics of course, although most seem to prefer 2000AD and American comics. Mark Hamil is a comics fan, as is Nick Cage (named himself after Luke Cage), and Bill Mumy (Lost in Space, Twilight Zone, Babylon 5) is a huge fan of comics.

Oh, and singer Tori Amos likes The Sandman and Nemi.

Lew

Tons of comic tie ins/fans in music - John Mahall and the Blues Breakers had an LP in the 70s that had the band reading a copy of the Beano - David Bowie was a Dan Dare fan in his youth, he also likes Crumb, Sheldon etc (and has mentioned Dan Dare and Batman in some songs - DJ and Uncle Arthur respectively) Marc Bolan was a big comic fan - Johnathon Ross of course - the 70s had lots of bands using underground artist doing comic like covers to singles LPs -the most famous is probably Janice Joplins Cheap Thrills by Crumb, also Blue Oyster Cult (Zzzzzz) had a few excellent Hunt Emerson singles covers, Savage Pencils of course must have done hundreds (ok a few) Punk singles covers and theres the excellent Gorillaz which is very comic book / Archie Cartoon inspired - Donovan was also a interested in Comics (though not a fan as such) as can be heard in his songs (mostly US characters like Green Lantern and Superman though)