On this day, 1 January 1972: The Beezer
Ginger: Bob McGrath (artist)
A belated Happy Hogmanay from Oor Pals in the North, and a look back at a copy of The Beezer from early in the 1970s. This is a great piece of work: at 2½p it’s the same price as IPC’s Knockout, and only 16 unstapled pages long, but printed on sturdy paper stock in the broadsheet format used also by The Topper at this time, and half the pages in full colour (the other half in duotone), which looks like excellent value to me.
Following yesterday’s Beano, this comic provides a further look at some of the most recognisable of DC Thomson’s humour cartoonists, and three in particular who I remember fondly from my younger years of reading The Topper, but whose names I didn’t know until now: Tom Bannister (The Beezer’s Colonel Blink, The Topper’s Figaro and Desert Island Dick), Ken Hunter (The Beezer’s Barney’s Barmy Army, The Topper’s Danny’s Tranny) and Albert Holroyd (The Beezer’s Willie Wink, Sparky’s (and later The Topper’s) Hungry Horace and Thingummyblob).
And a special mention for the letter’s page, which admirably offers a choice of prize for every letter printed – and consolation prizes for ten more which didn’t quite make it. Classy stuff, The Beezer.
The Badd Lads: Malcolm Judge (artist)
Little Mo: Bob McGrath (artist)
The Gobblers: Watson Kennedy (artist)
Black Bun: Bill Hill (artist)
Colonel Blink: Tom Bannister (artist)
Barney’s Barmy Army: Ken Hunter (artist)
Barney’s Barmy Army: Ken Hunter (artist)
Smiffy: Bill Ritchie (artist)
The Numskulls: Malcolm Judge (artist)
Baby Crockett: Bill Ritchie (artist)
Young Sid: George Martin (artist)
The Banana Bunch: Bill Hill (artist)
Willie Wink the Missing Link: Albert Holroyd (artist)
Pop, Dick and Harry: Tom Bannister (artist)
Pop, Dick and Harry: Tom Bannister (artist)
