Comics

grimtraveller

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
I grew up in England in the 60s and 70s and in Nigeria for 4 years from '77 to '81 and I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in what I view as the golden age of comics. Obviously, I was young so that colours my view, but there was something about comics in that period that grabbed me and I was fortunate that in both England and Nigeria {particularly the latter which was a dumping ground for all kinds of weird and wonderful relics, past and present in various arts and media sections, that often couldn't be found in other places more up to date}, there was a rich abundance of American as well as British comics. I could wax as eloquent about Archie, Snoopy, Beetle Bailey, Sad Sack, Casper the friendly ghost, Josie and the Pussycats, and Dennis the menace as much as Cor !, Whizzer and Chips, Scorcher and Score and the Beano {which had our own Dennis the menace}. Not to mention all those awfully but ever so entertainingly xenophobic world war 2 and cowboy comics or the myriad of strips that appeared in newspapers.
To a large extent, the comic strips were an important ingredient in my understanding and appreciation of humour.
Were any of you guys into comics ?
 
The Phantom, Richie Rich, The Archies and a few others I can remember. Plus anything that had a semi-naked woman in a tight outfit on the cover...

Shallow, I know.
 
Is Iron Man a comic? Yeah, I was into Iron Man.

Whichever comic book I might have in my hand at the time, I liked the ads or whatever towards or on the back cover. Sea monkeys, x-ray glasses, etc....but especially the 101 piece roman soldiers, or army men. I had a dream, but never did send off for any of it
 
If we are talking "strip cartroons", I grew up reading the comic pages in our local papers in the 70s and still read them all the way through to the mid 90's if I had time.

My personal "heyday" however, was the "Calvin and Hobbes", "Bloom County", "Far Side" era when I was a working class smart aleck teen to young adult who was too cool for school as it were.

I still have coffee table style collections of most of those
 
Yeah, Calvin and Hobbes was good. Pretty cool concept that you would occasionally see Hobbes was in reality a stuffed animal. A lot of the things that went on were in the kid Calvin's imagination. At least that's the way it seemed to me, maybe I have an overactive imagination as well.
 
Mick Doobie said:
Sea monkeys
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You know, those things used to freak the life out of me. I still shiver if I think about them. Ugh, the thought of them being in my house ! They had such horrible faces.
Armistice said:
Richie Rich
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I actually really liked Richie Rich when in reality, I should have hated him. But he was so fair and reasonable and naive, he was impossible to dislike !
Gtoboy said:
If we are talking "strip cartroons", I grew up reading the comic pages in our local papers in the 70s
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I always liked the comic strips in the papers. I basically only ever really read the football pages and the cartoons. I liked "Augusta", "The Perishers" and a host of others. But there were some that I never particularly cared for. I liked "Garth" but he strained credulity !
Gtoboy said:
"Far Side"
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I loved "The Far Side." By the time it came along, or by the time I saw it, I was a young adult but it fit right in with the kind of humour I'd been moving in for years.
 
Mick Doobie said:
Is Iron Man a comic? Yeah, I was into Iron Man.
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Once I watched the 1967 Spiderman cartoons in '74, I was hooked and over the next few years {specifically from '78 on} I got into Marvel in a big way. I read a lot of Captain America but I always disliked him and still do. He was so lame. But I really liked Captain Britain
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although he was such a rip-off ! He was the only UK superhero I can think of off the top of my head. But that wasn't why I liked him. I just thought the stories were good, not that I read many.
Slouching Raymond said:
Nothing could beat the Beano!
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"Never be without a Beano !"
That was a great advertising slogan.
In its heyday, there were few comics that could touch the Beano ~ but there were some. Whizzer & Chips, the Dandy, the Beezer, Cor, Scorcher and Score, Tiger and Scorcher, sometimes, even Topper and one that started off as the best comic I ever came across in England before it nosedived, Krazy. Pound for pound, it had an assortment of the best set of strips and characters in one setting that I've ever seen. And it was so funny. I loved Hit Kid and particularly Birdman and Chicken [The Boy Blunder].
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They were so stupid.
Hit Kid
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was actually pretty dark. His motto was "Anytime, anyplace, anyone." He'd probably be referred to one of those anti-radicalization units nowadays !
YanKleber said:
I was a Disney stuff kid.
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Despite the murky rumours that seemed to surround uncle Walt, I always loved Disney cartoons {except Mickey Mouse. I never liked him} and I really liked some of their comics as a teenager, believe it or not. When I lived in Nigeria, all kinds of comics, films, TV shows, records, magazines and books would find their way into the country and when money or persuasion allowed, my little brother and I would acquire whatever we could find from guys that used to sell these things from their street shacks or he would borrow them from his friends that had access to American comics and as beggars couldn't be choosers in those days, we'd read whatever came our way. I read tons of stuff that I might not have otherwise read had I stayed in England in those years.
But Disney comics were among them. I still use the odd phrase I picked up from those comics. There were these two chipmunks called Chip'n'Dale and they once challenged Grumpy of the 7 dwarfs as to why he was such an arsehole:
"Hey, Grumpy, why are you so grouchy ?"
"WHO'S GROUCHY !!!???" 😆

I still remember Minnie Mouse having the hots for some strong cat called Tiger Terrifico and Mickey getting all steamed up.
Oh well. You dig what you dig.
 
Mad Magazine and the book collections were also a very big deal with me and my older brother. To some extent my younger brother also. "Snappy answers to stupid questions" made us pretty insufferable when we became teenagers. Dumb and smart assed. Quite the combo.
 
grimtraveller said:
Rumours of racism and Nazi sympathies.
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Wow, I never had heard about this and this is really sad. Go figure what several of musicians and artists we appreciate are doing when no one is looking? I remember that a few years ago I got aware that Oliver Shanti was recognized as a pedophile. As much as I disagree such behavior I didn't stop to hear his music.
 
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