Comics UK

I know in general we used to frown on a preceeding "Great News Inside!" issue since it would often herald the demise of a comic we loved into a publication we were not so fond of. My example here would be Cracker when it merged with The Beezer - a comic I was never a fan of.

However, there were other mergers which dragged me into subscription even though I never read either comics. In this case, it was Buster and Jackpot.

For me, one of the best was 2000AD and Starlord. I am a fan of both comics and I was sad to see Starlord leave Earth. But I did love the merger issue. And Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters (mutated into ABC Warriors) survive to this day.

Another merger I liked was Valiant and Lion. A pity it didn't stop Valiant's demise two years later.

I don't know if it would have been a good move but why was Eagle not merged into 2000ad?

A very good question. Eagle was very similar to Tornado and I think the likes of Dan Dare and Doomlord would have fitted well within the House of Tharg.

Dan Dare HAD been in the house of Tharg, though in a very, er, different form. Perhaps if they had done a merger they could have explained that version away as a "bad dream".
Mind you, If Dan Dare had joined 2000AD as a regular, imagine what he would be like now! Perhaps it's best that he remains safely in the care of Spaceship Away.

The early 2000AD Dan Dare was terrific! Captain Monday, the Biogs, Rok. Truly great boys adventure. More entertaining than the stuffed shirt from the Fifties Eagle.

But I think the 'New' Eagle was pretty different to the more adult/avant garde 2000AD of the time. This was the time of Grant Morrison, Simon Bisley etc. The Eagle was reprinting old Mach 1 stories and Charley's War when it finished. Crossover time had been'n'gone.

I'd go for 2000AD and Starlord myself - a titanic line-up. Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain happened to coincide with some of my fave Spidey, FF and Avengers stories.

In terms of the funnies, usually the characters were fairly interchangeable, being written and drawn by the same creators. So, by that token, I'd go for Buster and Monster Fun. MF had some idiosyncratic stories for that horror comedy comic. So, B&MF was really greater than the sum of its parts, due to adding something new.

I'm struggling to find anything in the classic adventure line above 2000AD that added value. By the time Action, Warlord, Bullet, Eagle etc had folded, there honey had largely run out of the pot. The merger stories were a shadow of the original comics. So, I'm really struggling for a genuinely good hatch-and-match.

It was before my time but, looking at them now, I think the early issues of Valiant were a bit lacklustre and the merger with Knockout gave it the kick in the pants it needed to become the best of the Fleetway boys' comics. I was around for all the other Valiant mergers and I'm afraid they had the opposite effect and slowly diluted it. I hated the merger with Lion and it was never the same for me after that.

I would say that the merger of Debbie and Spellbound was a good one (though I didn't think that at the time, being a Spellbound reader! Was I chuffed when Misty started!) - Debbie was improving steadily and the addition of the Spellbound section and stories made it even better.

I can't say I was ever happy with a merger as it almost always tended to dilute the main comic. They'd choose the 'favourite' stories of readers, but it often seemed to me that the readers who sent in those voting coupons had the most conservative tastes. (I can only blame myself, as I never sent in those coupons.)

Exception to the rule: when Oink! merged into Buster, as it meant I had more work!

As someone who's just about old enough to remember it I definitely agree about the Valiant & Knockout merger - my only complaint being that, by rights, it should really have been Knockout & Valiant!

- Phil R.

My vote goes to `Lion and Thunder` which produced a great mix of strips! Surprisingly, most of the strips in the combined title were `Thunder` ones! Even though it was the `Junior` partner.

The combined Beezer & Topper from the early 1990s was fantastic - like a whole new comic (they even re-started at Issue 1).

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!

Two I think were good/shrewd:

Knockout merging with Whizzer & Chips 1973: K-Os strips such as Joker, FussPot and Toffs & The Toughs all fitted in very well with W & C.

June & Schoolfriend coming together in 1965: I believe since est 1961, June was stealing a lot of Schoolfriends readership, but by 1964 SF was fighting back with a stronger line-up (helped a bit ironically by a merger with Girls' Crystal, allowing John Armstrong's Cherry & the Children in). A logical merger (rather than each title cancel the other out).

Agree with what was said on Beezer & Cracker merger - not a good one.

Caused the great colour middle spread to go - Blubba was its last strip (and I believe that reached its conclusion - could've lasted longer though, or better still made way for a revival of Mal Judge's Dan McClue). Also saw the ok & un-PC Pedro The Pesky Parrot to be axed (though its predecessor Black Bun was better).

Most of the weaker strips from Crakcer went over

What should've happened in my view is that Iron Hand should've gone over as it was well written/drawn, instead of lazy reprints of Mr Licko and perhaps Joe Soap also - but allowed to continue in its more action adventure style (when it was scrunched onto half a page it looked rushed & relied more on slapstick).

I'm thinking up a top ten of worst mergers - I feel new blog subject coming on?)

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.

My favourite merger was Whoopee and Wow. Wow was an excellent comic, set up like all the others to fail after 50-odd issues, but what cracker issues they were.