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Hey, all: you may remember on a previous skip week, we did two rounds of My Four Manga, one for the podcast and one for our Patreon. This week, Jeff was a little too wiped out from a crazy workweek, so Graeme decided to step up and turn the tables on Jeff with…Four British Comics! Three are real; one is a fake! Can Jeff tell which is which? This is the first round—listen to Jeff flail!
If you must cut, if you must paste, then do so here:
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts5/4BritishComicsRound1.mp3
What a great bonus episode, thank you! I used to read Billy Boots in Tiger, and I do indeed remember other strips, Graeme – there was Martin’s Marvellous Mini, who could forget that? And Hot Shot Hamish. And the comic wasn’t really that shortlived – it ran for more than 30 years.
Billy’s Boots inspired a, sadly, one-off character in a Marvel comics MI-13 event tie-in by Al Ewing, Magic Boots Mel.
Now, I really think we could have a whole episode of the contest dedicated to strips from Bunty alone… they were realllly wacky.
Yes, Tiger lasted a long time.
It kept swallowing up other comics — I can remember it being Tiger and Scorcher and then being Tiger and Speed — in that notorious British practice of launching short-term comics then folding them into other comics to raise sales. I recall that the poor star of “Speedboy,”* one of the most heavily-promoted features in Speed, was demoted in the merger to being a minor character in Billy’s Boots, joining the football team. No idea how often, if ever, he appeared after being in one panel of Billy’s Boots in the first issue of the joint Tiger and Speed, as I never bought any of the others.
But I should stop talking aboutr British comic strips in case Graeme McMillan wants to use any of them.
Yes, these were an unexpected treat and most welcome. My existence in time and space being what it was, I was gasping at some of Jeff’s decisions. I particularly remember The Wild Wonders for it’s action-filled humorous art. I looked it up and it was by Mike Western.
I echo the request for more old girl’s comics. I have a memory of a problem page in the 60s addressing what girls should do if they have crushes on other girls. As best as I recall, the advice was sensible and sympathetic. Wish I could remember the comic.
I’ve been looking through some of my old UK Christmas annuals. So many weird stories in there… oh, if only we could have an all-listener edition of My Four Manga/Four British Comics, to challenge both our hosts!