COMIC BOOK COMPULSIVE — Buster Book 1977, Part 1
As the cover indicates Buster was one of those British boys weeklies where the emphasis was on humor but which also featured a surprising amount of straight adventure material. And while the weeklies were all well past their prime by the late 70′s there’s a lot of really good material in Buster Book 1977.
Pete’s Pocket Army is yet another strip with a high concept premise (boys collection of action figures are in actuality extraterrestrial refugees) involving miniaturization, a theme that pops up repeatedly in British boys comics. Most notably Peter’s Pocket Grandpa which ran in The Dandy published by Fleetway’s main rival D.C. Thompson. I couldn’t tell you which strip came first.
I originally made the mistake of assuming that Pete’s Pocket Army was drawn by the great Argentinian artist Francisco Solano Lopez but Dave Gibbons assures me that it was actually drawn by Eric Bradbury. Although Bradbury was known for developing a style similar to Lopez’s I particularly feel the fool for making the mistake because the artist drew two of my favorite strips, The Leopard From Lime St. and Mytek the Mighty.
And just because I’m admittedly over fascinated with British robots here’s an episode of Uncle Ironsides. Before I ever read the strip I was intrigued by what I imagined it was about; a kid waking up one morning to hear “Your father’s brother is coming to live with us, and, oh, by the way he’s a robot; he’s sensitive so don’t say anything”. Someone could turn that into a Disney Channel show in about a half hour. Of course the actual strip is nowhere as interesting as my imaginings; it’s a pretty standard sit-com of the hilarious consequences variety that follows the perfectly ordinary British Carter family who “as an experiment” has sent to them (by who exactly I have no clue) the robot named Uncle Ironsides,
Naturally stodgy old Dad can’t stand the miraculous machine or his inventions which include, interestingly enough, Tinhead, a robot boy that Uncle builds to be a pal to young Joey. That’s right, Uncle Ironsides can reproduce at will, which nobody seems to think is at all unusual.
— Steve Bennett
Really love the blog, Craig. Always interesting and it’s good to see that you’re a fan of vintage British comics. I grew up reading them and broke into comics professionally by lettering the art of a lot of many of the great artists: Baxendale, Reid, Colquhon, Bradbury, Solano Lopez etc. Not only did I earn money and make contacts but i got to study original art close up and that was a hugely important part of my education.
Don’t want to nit-pick but I just wanted to point out that thePete’s Pocket Army art here is by Eric Bradbury, not Lopez, although very much in that style.
I actually got to meet Solano Lopez at a con in Argentina and was particularly thrilled that he knew my name. From American comics, not the little I’d added to his art in England!
Interesting to see Dave’s response above. I first started freelancing for Fleeetway/IPC as a letterer, with the intention of eventually graduating to drawing strips, but soon realized I could never draw fast enough to earn a living from it. Therefore, I stuck mainly to lettering, and actually made a nice living for 15 years before computer fonts took over the world. Great blog.
Dave:
Naturally I’m a huge fan and your comment made my day! I especially appreciate the correction — I’ll definitely make a correction.
As much as I love British comics I’d be the first to admit that I don’t know nearly enough about them. But I am trying to educate myself. In the span of a couple of years I’ve gone from a guy who could just longingly read about British comics to having (thanks to a dedicated troupe of downloaders) a good collection of copies of LION, VALIANT, EAGLE and BUSTER.
Your comment came at the perfect time; I was starting to think I was the only one who cared about this subject.
Thanks,
Steve Bennett
I think there’s a fair amount of people who still care about this subject - I’m one of them. Unfortunately we get smaller as time goes on.