When Odhams finally gave up publishing their line of "Power Comics" in 1969 there was only one title left, Smash!. This comic had absorbed it's four siblings (Wham! Pow! Fantastic and Terrific) but obviously IPC thought the title had some life left in it and took the comic over.
Smash! was originally a mix of anarchic humour and Marvel reprints. Most of these features (including all Marvel reprints were discontinued) and the comic was completely revamped to bring the comic into line with their other titles such as Lion and Valiant.
Relaunched in March 1969, Smash! was a bumper 40 page more traditional "boys" paper. Even the cover indicated a change of direction with it's series of "Warriors of the World" feature. Gone too were Alf and Cos the "Power" equivalent of Stan Lee who were replaced by "Mike" a fictional 15 year old host heralding the dawning of a new age.
Kicking off with Master of the Marsh, Nutt and Bolt, the men from W.H.E.E.Z.E., Jason Stark and the great Cursitor Doom, Smash! did show great potential.
Some humour features were familiar, particularly The SWOTS and the BLOTS, Percy's Pets, Bad Penny and Wiz War.
Also featured was a para story about Sergeant Rock (no not the DC fella).
This was a period of change for British comics and Smash was eventually merged with the stronger selling Valiant comic. There were two Summer specials and a few Annuals which were published until 1975.
In my opinion Smash was a great comic under both publishers even if the formats were widely different and are a great read even for this ageing fan!
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