Rusty Staples – Mike Writes About Comics!
Everything you ever needed to know about comics (limited to the stuff that I know and am willing to tell you)!
IPC's Buster comic waved good-bye on 4 January 2000, exactly twenty years ago. To commemorate the demise of that great comic, here's a revised edition of the Buster family tree that debuted in June 2018 on this very blog. Back then, I was more interested in the family tree aspect -- showing how the comics … Continue reading The Buster Timeline
If you've spent any time peeking at or poking into the history of British comics there's a very good chance you'll have come across mentions of The Wonder, or The Funny Wonder, or The Jolly Jester, or The Halfpenny Wonder, or Jester & Wonder, or some variation on those titles. You might even have thought … Continue reading The Mysteries of Wonder!
The New Hotspur / The Hotspur / Hotspur Publisher: DC Thomson First issue: 24 October 1959 Last issue: 23 January 1981 Issues: 1110 Relaunch of: The Hotspur True story: one of my friends refused to buy this comic because he thought that by doing so he would be supporting the football team Tottenham Hotspur. We … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Hotspur
Prepare yourself for a shock, comic fans: We are now further away from the last issue of Battle Picture Weekly than its first issue was from the end of World War II. Battle, to use its street name, is arguably one of the most important and influential British comics of all time. Of course, that's … Continue reading Branding: Battle Picture Weekly
Hanna-Barbera's Fun Time Publisher: Williams First issue: 1 November 1972 Last issue: 30 June 1973 Issues: 25 Relaunch of: Yogi and his Toy Just about anyone who grew up in the western world in the 1970s (and who has access to a TV set, which wasn't all of us, to be honest) will almost certainly … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Hanna-Barbera’s Fun Time
In the first part of this highly-acclaimed-by-me series, we looked at how the Doctor Who Weekly comic evolved into the Doctor Who Magazine magazine. This time, it's the turn of another staple of the Marvel UK publishing group, Spider-Man Comics Weekly. A spin-off from The Mighty World of Marvel -- launched four months earlier -- Spider-Man … Continue reading Branding: Spider-Man Comics Weekly
"The what timeline?" I imagine that I hear you ask. Wonder no more, chum: those four-letter words that look a bit like they might be the names of Welsh TV stations are the commonly-used shortcuts for The Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly, the first two titles released by the British wing of … Continue reading The MWOM & SMCW Timeline
