Meanwhile... Back at the Comic Book Blog

This is another of the free comics that the Guardian gave out to its readers, and it's far more like the ones I used to read (the Beano, the Dandy, the Topper, and the Beezer) when I was a little kid.

One of the neat things about this one is that it actually is two different comics combined into one. Whizzer has the front page, but inside you'll find another front page, this time for Chips, and instructions on how to take out the staples and have two different comics. The front and back pages of Chips are in full colour, like the front and back of Whizzer, and unlike the rest of the comics which are either in black and white or have a single colour. Chips even has its own joke page!

Some of the comics inside are kind of weird. Most of them are just your average one or two page humour comics that I remember, but then you get the more adventurey ones that had apparently been phased out by the time I started reading comics. "Whizz" Wheels is about a "super-cyclist" who in this issue saves a villainous land agent from a forest fire while riding a penny farthing. Seriously.

There's also "Thingumajig!" which features a rather odd looking alien who, of course, says things like "Gg-uu-uuuh...my head spins and stomach tubes churn! This must be what Earthlings call sickness of the sea!" Oh aliens!

My favourite comic in it is also the only one I've ever seen before (or at least I think I've seen it before): Harry's Haunted House. It's about a ghost who doesn't like haunting people, and I thought it was fairly funny.

Or maybe I just really like the idea of a ghost sleeping in a bed.

Labels: comics, ipc

Jackie No. 580
Feb 15th, 1975

Earlier this year the Guardian newspaper gave away reprints of old comics published by IPC.

I used to read some of the comics they published back when I was a kid living in the UK, though, needless to say, I didn't read this one. Both because I wasn't born when it came out, and because it is for girls. Ick.

In fact Jackie is hardly a comic at all. There's only about six pages of actual comics in the whole thing. The rest of it is letters, short stories, agony aunts, pop star things, and other stuff that makes me glad I was not a girl who grew up reading something like this. Aiee.

The comics that are featured are both weeeeeeeeeeeird. The first one is all about how awesome and dreamy Donny Osmond is, though it features some nice art when it's not trying to replicate celebrities.


Just ignore her creepy, pupil-less, eyes.

The second one is even worse, and all about a girl trying to steal her best friend's boyfriend, leading to her friend's death. What a dick! Girls!

Jackie is strange, and I hope to never read it again. It does let me show this video though, which is pretty ace, and I feel a pretty accurate representation of this magazine.

Labels: comics, ipc