Howie's Top Ten British Comics #5 & 4

 

#5 Pow!

The sixties saw the influence of the Marvel Comics boom with the arrival of it's British (sort of) equivalent in the form of Power Comics. They launched no less than five titles, three of which were a mixture of humour and adventure including reprinting Marvel Comics superhero and other fare. One of these titles was Pow!

Launched in January 1967 Pow! was a short lived title lasting just 86 issues and incorporated Wham! (Power Comics first title becoming Pow! & Wham! until it finally merged into Power Comics strongest comic Smash!

The superhero strips included reprints of the Lee & Ditko Spider-Man stories my absolute favourite period of the character along with Nick Fury of SHIELD. At this time I was also reading Marvel Tales when I could pick up a copy. American comics were surprisingly widely available in the small market town of Dorking.

In addition there were some great humour strips. I always liked The Group, The Dolls of St Dominics and Wee Willy Haggis Secret Agent amongst other humour strips, On occasion Pow! reprinted those one off mystery and suspense/science fiction stories. 

Pow! was a versatile comic that helped introduce Marvel to British readers in the years before Marvel UK. That said "Alf & Bart" (think Stan Lee) brought us a set of unique comics that were amongst the very best ever to appear on the British market.

#4 Buster

Launched in 1960 Buster went on to be the longest running title of it's parent company and reached into the heart and minds of several generations of children mine included. Originally a mixture of humour and adventure strips it became a humour only comic in it's declining years but in the sixties and early seventies Buster was a great comic.

The title character as I particularly remember him was the son of Andy Capp from the newspaper strip published in The Daily Mirror and was promoted as such. Andy Capp was popular back then and several collections of his strips were published and I had several though they wouldn't have acceptable content today. Perhaps that's why gradually the connection was lost.

There were so many memorable strips such as  Galaxus: The Thing From Outer Space (which really deserves collecting), The Toys Of Doom (which also should be reprinted) and Charlie Peace a crook from Victorian times who eventually made it into the 20th Century.

Buster absorbed a whole range of other comics including two favourites of mine Cor! and Whizzer & Chips. After a grand 1,902 issues Buster finally closed it's door in January 2000 and was the last of a whole generation of British comics which as an industry was sadly disappearing by then.

Return tomorrow for the penultimate post in my Top Ten British Comics!