New to the Forum

[Hawkeye]

Good evening to all.

I'm a new member so it seems appropriate to introduce myself...............

I'm a 60 year old retired Civil Servant, but I can't seem to accept the 60 year old part of it. I always thought at 60 I'd be grey and worn out, but I'm not. I walk miles with my dogs every day, and read and collect comics with a passion. I do believe I've found the secret of eternal youth.

My collecting started about 20 years ago with a 1950s Beano annual I found in a bookshop, and I've never looked back since then.

At present I'm collecting DC Thomsons 'big 5'. I've managed to find quite a few early ones, and I love the covers on them, especially a Skipper I recently bought from 1939 with Dudley Watkins cover artwork. It shows a troop of boys walking down the street carrying a banner, and one of the boys is playing a big drum, and would you believe who it is? it the wee Scottish lad himself, Oor Wullie.

I've quite a few questions I'd like to ask regarding old comics, and I'm hoping someone will be able to answer them for me.
I'll start with just the one for now......does anyone know when Strang the Terrible first appeared?
I know it was in the Adventure comic from 1931, and I know it wasn't in nos 519 - 526 from November, but I just can't find any more info.

Thats enough about me for now, I'm going to have to look round the forum and get familiar with it,

cheers

[colcool007]

Welcome to the House of Fun Hawkeye. Have you brought BJ and Klinger with you?

[Hawkeye]

Thanks for the welcome!!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Hawkeye the noo, from Scotland!


Sounds like you will get along fine with forum member Phoenix, who revels in the titles you mention above.

[Hawkeye]

Thanks mate, I'll look him up

[Phoenix]

I'll start with just the one for now......does anyone know when Strang the Terrible first appeared?

Strang The Terrible first appeared in Adventure 775 (Sep. 5 1936). There would be fourteen more serials about him.

At present I'm collecting DC Thomsons 'big 5'. I've managed to find quite a few early ones, and I love the covers on them, especially a Skipper I recently bought from 1939 with Dudley Watkins cover artwork. It shows a troop of boys walking down the street carrying a banner, and one of the boys is playing a big drum, and would you believe who it is? it the wee Scottish lad himself, Oor Wullie.

I might as well share that front cover of The Skipper 445 (Mar. 11 1939) that you mention, Hawkeye, with other forum members.

[Hawkeye]

Thanks Phoenix, its a fantastic cover. Do you know any other good ones I could look out for? I've seen pictures of some in 'This was the Wizard' but not as good as this one.
cheers

[stevezodiac]

Welcome Hawkeye and are you aware that Phoenix is the author of This Was The Wizard?

[Hawkeye]

No I didn't realise, but thanks for telling me. I didn't know I was in the presence of such exalted company.

[philcom55]

Welcome from me too Hawkeye. Having just passed my own 60th birthday I'm intrigued that you seem particularly drawn to the text story papers like Skipper which had their heyday before either of us were born. Though I can vaguely remember the final years of the original Adventure, Rover and Wizard during the early 1960s I have to say that I rarely read them and, like most of my friends, was far more of a fan of the new picture-strip comics such as Eagle, Lion and TV21 that were gradually taking over the market (not to mention the US comic books that suddenly began to flood the country again after a long postwar hiatus).

Having said that I must admit that books like This Was The Wizard have gone a long way towards sparking a belated enthusiasm for many of those text serials that I missed the first time round (and, of course, it turned out that I was already familiar with many of the classic DC Thomson stories and characters from their later picture-strip incarnations in comics like Dandy, Victor and Hornet). As a matter of interest has your own fascination for these text story-papers been kindled in later life (like my own) - or did you grow up reading them like Phoenix?

[colcool007]

I'm loving this thread. I suddenly feel so much younger considering that when I made my first appearance, the Abyssinian Tripe Hound had appeared the same year and there was only one text story paper still going.

I'm am now legging it before I get beaten over the head with a rolled up Beano!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Wow I distincltly remember READING the back page of the BEANO with Gnashers' first appearence, Col, which makes me feel really old-----I will not belay which year it was, to keep your modesty intact---but it was August of that year.

[Phoenix]

Do you know any other good ones I could look out for?

As a follow-up to the question of whether Strang The Terrible first appeared in 1931 or 1936, here is a scan of the trailer in Adventure 774 (Aug. 29 1936) for the first ever instalment of Strang The Terrible, which appeared the following week in Adventure 775. I've obviously clipped off the references to the other two serials so that the text below the main advert is readable. I also include the cover as it is quite striking in its own right.

[Hawkeye]

Thank you for even more welcome messages.

I'm loving chatting about comics to people who are actually interested in such things. At home the only ones I have to chat to are my wife and our 2 dogs, and I'm not sure which of them is the least interested. At least I do get the occasional tail wag from 2 of them.

I showed my wife the lovely cover of the Skipper I bought recently, and got the usual 'oh yes, very interesting dear' look. Now I've found people who actually are interested, its great.

I grew up reading Victor, Valiant and Buster comics as I recall. Then I must have read a Hotspur annual with a William Wilson picture story, which led to discovering Alf Tupper, which led to collecting Wizard and Rover comics, which led to becoming obsessed with Adventure, Hotspur, Skipper, and loving the covers of the older issues.

Thank you for making me feel very welcome,

cheers,

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

hope you will stick around a long time, Hawkeye.