Hotspur (1975)

One of the more famous boys comics was DC Thomson's Hotspur. Originally published in 1933 this long running comic went through a number of changes over the years, being relaunched with new numbering in 1959 as The New Hotspur, the "New" being eventually dropped.


First issue 1933

I first came across the Hotspur in the sixties and recall reading a handful of this fairly standard title and wasn't particularly a fan. The Hotspur Book for Boys 1966 did arrive via Santa one year but other than that never made much of an impact on me.

Over the last couple of years my interest in old and sadly defunct British titles has grown so when looking through the back issue bins at 30th Century comics I decided to give a short run of Hotspur from 1975 a go.

What attracted me to these issues was the cover feature Red Star Robinson about a boy and his robot assistant Mr Thrice wandering around the galaxy in a space bus. No really. Amusing enough.



None of the other features were familiar and I straight away skipped over the obligatory football story Limp Along Leslie simply because I never have had any interest in the game.

One Pair of Eyes which followed proved more entertaining as a blind pilot and and young British schoolboy Jinker Stewart (was anyone really called Jinker?) searched for his missing father as the Japanese invaded Malaya. Their only weapon a sub machine gun in a Tiger Moth. British grit and all that. Tally Ho.

Along with Lonely Larry and his pet Toucan Tommy on a Pacific island, a couple of Galloping Ghosts in the wild west, The Knot of Courage set in ancient Japan you did get a world of adventure.



There were the usual humour strips including Dim Dan - The Boobyguard (no smutty schoolboy jokes please)  and an adventure strip Kelly of the Flashers (erm... see previous request) set in the in the 1860's.

Might try some later issues as Hotspur continues for some years absorbing The Hornet and The Crunch until it to disappeared in a merger with the The Victor in 1981.