On this day, 11 February 1984: School Fun
Cover artwork: David Mostyn
On this day, 11 February 1984 … a short-lived comic called School Fun was just over halfway through its 33-issue run. I was thirteen and in my third year of secondary school when this comic was out, so I was a few years over the obvious readership but if I’d been aware of it at the time I would have enjoyed the Grange Hill Juniors strip, starring as it did the classic Jonah, Zammo, Roland, Fay and Annette line-up, and Coronation Street School, starring schoolkid versions of the soap stars. That aside School Fun, true to its title, consisted of only humour strips so wasn’t particularly resonant with my feelings about school at that time. It’s a great concept for a comic though, and featured the usual roster of first-class IPC artists on some imaginative story ideas, including E.T.T. Extra Terrestrial Teacher, Teachers United (in which the staff room plotted against the kids), Time Bus (a time-travelling school bus) and Schoolditz (a class of British kids and their teacher, the Arthur Lowe-esque Herr Mennerink, attempt to escape from a Nazi POW school).
Junior Ed: artist unknown
Softy Sir: Jim Petrie (artist)
Coronation Street School: Colin Whittock (artist)
Creepy Crawler: Trevor Metcalfe (artist)
Walt Teaser: Anthony Hutchings (artist)
B. Ware Caretaker: Steve Bright (artist)
The School Team: Vic Neill (artist)
E.T.T. Extra Terrestrial Teacher: David Mostyn (artist)
Grange Hill Juniors: Brian Delaney (artist)
Teachers United: Jim Watson (artist)
School Belle: Tom Paterson (artist)
Time Bus: Keith Reynolds (artist)
Schoolditz: Frank McDiarmid (artist)
Young Arfur: Pete Dredge (artist)
