I know I’m supposed to be exploring all the comics I never had a chance to read before here at Comic Book Compulsive but realize (as if I was somehow, you know, compelled) that I keep returning to a certain set of usual suspect list of titles and tropes. I do this without excuse or apology because I love them; make no mistake, I’m enough of a professional appreciator that I hope you’ll love them too. But my peculiar devotion to them runs so deep I really don’t care if you do or don’t. Some of these things I do just for me, a prime example of which being the British boys weekly Buster.

I’ve featured Buster several times in the past so I believe you already know Fishboy, an oddball take on the undersea denizen genre who’s more of a Tarzan of the Seas than a Aquaman/Sub-Mariner analog…

…but I don’t believe I’ve ever introduced you to Buster himself. Although happily no such character ever appeared in Reg Smythe’s comic strip Andy Capp. The only thing that could have possibly made the sordid, squalid lives of Andy and his habitually abused wife Flo any more dire would have been a child. For several years Buster was headlined by a kid wearing a familiar cap who was billed as the Son of Andy Capp. But over the years less and less was made of this supposed family connection and Buster became just another standard issue cheeky ragamuffin.

I have in the past expressed my singular devotion to British robots, especially those that I haven’t (so far) been able to read about, like The Iron Teacher, a long-lived DC Thomson character. Although he technically was an actual educator he kicked bad guy ass more often that he took attendance.

He was no doubt the ‘inspiration’ for Fleetway’s Tin Teacher, a dreary ‘humor’ feature about a mechanical teacher who routinely abused his pupils. They no doubt had it coming but, still…

I told you all of that so you’d recognize the Tin Teacher when he hosted this text feature about real world 60′s robots. Man, what I wouldn’t give to own a pair of sentient mechanical salt and pepper grinders (Grinder and Shaker; the least loved Transformers).

And finally here’s a nice little done in one adventure of Galaxus, The Thing From Outer Space, who is on my short list of absolute all-favorite British characters. This story is definitely an example of the downside of a couple of kids taking on the guardianship of an incredibly powerful extraterrestrial creature. Not only do you have to keep him safe from the uncaring adult world that doesn’t understand he means us no harm, you’ve got to take care of his emotional well-being as well.