Saturday 22 August 2015

The Beezer and The Topper #1 (1990)



By the early nineties the writing was on the wall for the British comics industry. One of the signs of that decline was the merger or outright disappearance of a number of long running titles. Both Lion and Valiant were long gone as was The Hotspur, though Buster was to survive as IPC's last title until the year 2000.

Bucking the trend and still surviving today were 2000AD (now published by Rebellion) and the ever lasting Beano. The end of the large range of British adventure and humour comics was now in plain sight.

In an attempt to save two of their older comics DC Thompson merged The Beezer and The Topper into one title. Unusually it was split in two. The first half of the pages being Beezer, with a second cover inside taking us to The Topper.

Inside you would find old Beezer favourites such as Geezer, The Banana Bunch and of course The Numskulls. The latter always a perennial favourite of mine. They were joined by Blinky who seems to have replaced the elderly Colonel Blink.

Not to be left out Pop, Dick & Harry continued inside

At the rear there was of course Beryl the Peril, Tricky Dicky & Kelly the Defective Detective from Topper.

Sadly this this comic only lasted a further three years before it ceased publication. In another unusual move the comic did not merge with either The Beano or The Dandy but some strips did transfer over.

The Numskulls continue to this day in the pages of The Beano!

 

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