THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE BOOK
The WHIZZER and CHIPS annual 1971:
The strips
SADLY IN THE EARLY HALF OF THE 1970s, UK comics industry artists were not allowed to sign their work so this has made identification of some strips difficult, uncertain or even impossible. So if anyone is able to help on such missing information, please let me know.
THE DENIS GIFFORD QUOTES are from his book Encyclopedia of Comic Characters.
Please note: copyright of all images used here is with ©Rebellion. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed if requested by the copyright holders.
Pages 2-3 start off with a two-page board game – the one where you throw a die, move your counter, land on a space and follow instructions if given. With all the comic characters drawn in the game, the art is by Terry Bave.
SID'S SNAKE pages 4-5, 44-45
Artist: Mike Lacey
Notes: One of the few strips that made it through the entire run of the comic, and even to the end of Buster’s run. The strip featured Sid and his pet snake Slippy which could morph into various useful shapes. Supposedly this was the inspiration for Viz Comic’s Victor and his Boa Constrictor. The strip regularly appeared on the front cover to the mid-80s (although in the first issue this was on the front cover of Chips.) Interestingly, drawing snakes in funny comics used to be forbidden by editors for the Amalgamated Press (which eventually became Fleetway, then IPC) for fear of frightening young readers!
SHINER pages 8, 64-65, 110-111
Artist: Mike Lacey
Notes: This is the one strip that still makes me laugh today. Debuting in Issue 2 of the comic as the cover star of Chips, every week Shiner would be warned by his mother (always wearing a headscarf and curlers!) not to come home with a black eye. In two of the strips here, Shiner is forced to wear goggles to protect his eyes, but when he wants to take them off, the elastic snaps back! (It’s one of the few times I actually laughed out loud!) Even better, after being warned his pocket-money would be stopped, he comes home, proudly announcing that he has a bump on the head, a cauliflower ear, a swollen nose and a couple of teeth missing – but no black eyes! Thank you, Bob Paynter, for saving the best here! Shiner made it through to the end of the comic’s run, but did not survive the merger into Buster.
MINNIE’S MIXER pages 6-7, 134-135
Artist: Possibly Angel Nadal. It’s drawn in his style, and he was the main artist of the strip in the early days of the comic.
Notes: Oh, wouldn’t governments love to use this for warfare! It’s also incredulous that those that are ‘mixed up’ don’t confiscate the thing immediately. Okay, I know there’s real life and comic/cartoon reality. A simple but effective premise: Minnie discovers an old hand-held food mixer in the rubble of an old house being demolished, finds out it works and then discovers it can mix up two objects together – even animals and people – totally unharmed, and set in reverse, can unmix them. Minnie’s Mixer would later see reprints in Buster.
THE SPECTACULAR ADVENTURES OF WILLIE BUNK pages 10-13, 98-101
Artist: Frank McDiarmid
Notes: An adventure strip which lasted certainly well in 1970 in the comic. Although presented in black and white here, the pictures in the comic where we saw what was happening from Willie’s point of view, turned red (and later blue)! One strip was reprinted in the COR!! 1974 Holiday Special, and four episodes in the 1975 annual.
Denis Gifford: As a bunch of bullies chased Willie, determined to pinch his buns, he ducked down an old alley, fell into the cellar of an aged optician who gave him an odd pair of square specs. “Just give the lenses and rub if you're in trouble and for 10 minutes you'll see quite a change in yourself.” The bullies pounced. Willie rubbed and ‘Wow!’ Willie saw himself as a noble knight routing his foe on his trusty steed. Actually he was on his bike, but thanks to the magic specs, Willie found courage!
PUDDIN’ TOPS pages 9, 72
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Puddin’ Tops survived at least until my 4th July 1970 issue, but is nowhere to be seen in my 15th August and 12th September issues. Here are two one-page short stories presenting fierce rivalry between a very young brother and sister. The name was inspired by an early BBC children’s puppet show, The Woodentops.
HARRY’S HAUNTED HOUSE pages 14-15, 58-59
Artist: unknown
Notes: The regular strip in the comic was drawn by the prolific Reg Parlett, who remarkably has no new art produced for this annual. (I have a theory about this later.) Harry’s house was sold and since then, various attempts by would-be new tenants or even demolition men would be scared off by Harry, determined to keep the place for himself.
SCRIBBLER’S TREASURE ISLAND page 16
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Scribbler was not featured in the early issues of the comic, and didn’t have a regular comic strip until sometime in 1970 (but collectors please correct me if I’m wrong). This is a one-frame, full-page panel depicting all the characters in Whizzer and Chips on a desert island looking for a hidden key for a treasure chest planted by Scribbler. Exclusive to this website (and I hope Rebellion don't mind) – I present the full page of Scribbler’s Island here in full colour!
THE “STEALER” pages 17-25
Artist: Tom Kerr
Notes: “Thrills And Fun Inspired By The World's Most Innocent Master-Mind!” writes the Whizzer and Chips blogspot. Now I’ve always loved the art of Tom Kerr, and as an artist he is utilized frequently in different strips for the comic. Professor Clueless dreams of exploring the universe, but is basically penniless so his assistant, Arty, has to ‘steal’ all the items needed – the intention that this will all be paid back with the rewards of his discoveries (hence the inverted commas in the title). He invents a space bedstead, but gets no further than two miles down the road. I liked this strip, but it wasn’t enough to ensure any longevity in the comic. Culture notes: Pictures of Blondie, an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young, and Charlie Brown from Peanuts by Charles Schulz, appear on page 19, and the UK Prime Minister at the time of being drawn, Harold Wilson, appears on page 20 behind the policeman singing ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’… Kerr liked to add a bit of background humour into many of his strips. Incidentally, the art in issues 1 & 2 of the regular comic are considerably more detailed than the annual, but was this only in the early issues? Will need collectors to confirm this. Or not.
STEADFAST McSTAUNCH pages 26-27, 96-97, 150-151
Creator, writer and artist: Denis Gifford
Denis Gifford: In the far off days and the far off land of Dogbod, more precisely issue 602 of Knock-Out (9th September 1950), the town crier cried for the crowd. ‘Here-yes’ and ‘O-yezzes’. ‘King Clueless the Umpteenth’ will give the hand of Princess Prettypuss to whosoever rids the realm of Wicked Witch Hazel!’. Meanwhile one Steadfast McStaunch, sole proprietor of the local oddjobbery, bonked a bee with Ye Olde Knockout and proclaimed that he was not afeared of nothing, not nohow. He was promptly pushed into Puzzle Land where he duly did his dependable duty. Twenty years later he returned in human form as ye world’s worst jester, doing ditto.
Notes: In this strip Steadfast McStaunch is on a simple mission to catch Wicked Witch Hazel who is hiding in Puzzleland, and he has to be guided by the readers through the gates and beyond. In the comic, Steadfast McStaunch lasted 11 issues, after which he became the host of the joke page on the inside back cover of Chips. As already mentioned, he is officially credited for the strip, the only artist in the book to have such an honour.
IT’S A DOG’S WORLD pages 28-31
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Unknown
Notes: Husband and wife team Sheila and Terry Bave originally submitted this idea for the new Whizzer and Chips comic, among several others, as Pluto Dogs, a planned space serial featuring a family landing on the planet Pluto, but inhabited by only dogs and turning them into pets. All were liked by editor Bob Paynter, so the pair were asked to choose which strips they would like to take on a weekly basis. Pluto Dogs was passed over (although Bave was keen to draw it), but eventually the idea became a one-off for the annual.
KARATE KID pages 34, 57
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Our first strip which, looking at it with today’s eyes, would be considered racist and stereotypical today (and as far as I know, has never been reprinted for that reason). “You likee fun? Here’s a comic feast, from a lad from the east!” ran the strapline in the first issue. Still, it has a certain charm to it as our lad always gets the better of the bullies that pick on him, along with making use of his karate skills. But perhaps the publishers got a little nervous about this strip as it was soon retired.
ME AND MY SHADOW pages 32-33, 84-85
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: A young boy called Smudger Smith who, just like everyone else, has a shadow. The only difference is – he is alive! Often regarded as a classic in the comic. Well, for me, anyway. In the comic, the strip lasted just one year, but was reintroduced to the comic in 1972 after it was featured in the Christmas Annual published the year before, and readers were asking for it to appear in the weekly comic.
KOO KOO KLUB pages 35, 73, 106, 136
Creator, writer and artist: Denis Gifford
Denis Gifford: ‘Koo Koo Klub’ was conducted by Kuthbert Koo Koo, the Komical Kartoons included Koo Koo Kops (Oho! Just as I suspected! The window is broken on both sides!) Koo Koo Kwiz, Koo Koo Kids, Koo Koo Kourt, and so on.
Notes: There is one running joke in ‘Koo Koo Kaffy’ which the diner is asking the same question – ‘Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!’ with every cartoon giving a different response from Kuthbert Koo Koo. The one-page strip of illustrated gags itself lasted for four years!
PARKER THE PARKY pages 36-37, 114-115
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Norman Mansbridge
Notes: For sure Viz Comic’s The Parkie was definitely inspired by this short-lived strip, but the Whizzer and Chips version obviously takes it to a far lesser extreme, with Parker getting upset with the same set of kids every week walking on his grass, drooling over his prize plants, and so on. (I would be very suspicious of the chemistry set on page 114 that has the ability to turn pretty plants into triffids, mind you.) I quite liked this strip, but perhaps Parker did not resonate with the readers as this was one of the early casualties of the comic. This was another of Sheila and Terry Bave’s strips that made it to the introduction stage of the comic.
LITTLE SAVER pages 38-39, 102-103
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: “Meet Susie… she collects anything, and everything!” ran the strapline across the top of the first strip. Susie was deliberately drawn with an elongated face, an attempt by Terry to create a different face to a new character. Both her parents also have these same elongated faces, but not anybody else, which makes viewing this strip rather disconcerting! Later in the comic (certainly in July 1970, looking at my copy), art duties would be handed over to another artist. Interesting physics note: on page 103, the amount of snow Susie took into the fridge and the resulting big lump should be physically impossible for her to lift.
NIPPER pages 40, 107
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Nipper makes his first appearance in issue 3 of the weekly. Clearly these are the adventures of a toddler (he’s wearing a baby jumpsuit!) taking on all the older kids. Terry Bave created a lot of baby characters in his career in comics (Baby Whamster for Wham! and Baby Smasher for Smash!). Bave also manages to sneak in his initials into the final frame, bottom left-hand corner of this strip on page 40.
GINGER’S TUM pages 42-43, 112-113
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Another fun example of how animals can happily act like, and interact with humans. Comics for kids loved anthropomorphism. The strip was later revived as simply Ginger in Buster. Sheila Bave loved cats, and asked Terry to create Ginger. Her love meant there would be other cat creations: Stoker the Ship’s Cat in Whoopee (1975); Police Dog and Cat Burglar for Whizzer and Chips (1975); and Scaredy Cat a few years before it appeared in Krazy, with scripts written by Willy Cook and other scriptwriters. On a serious note, Ginger’s Tum was also featured on the BBC’s Nationwide programme because of its controversial fireworks strip published in the Fireworks edition in November 1973.
Denis Gifford: Introduced as a cat with an appetite for food and fun, Ginger started his adventures in classic Oliver Twist style by asking for more.
BATTY BAT page 41
Artist: Unknown, possibly Peter Davidson
Notes: Batty Bat is once again looking for somewhere to sleep or rest, but always picks the worst places. The comic strip was reprinted as Scatty Bat in the Shiver and Shake annuals of 1975 and 1976.
MICKEY MARVEL AND HIS TALKING CAT (pages 46-49, 154-157
Artist: Unknown
Notes: A reprint consisting of two two-page strips stitched together to form a four-page story (in two parts.) If you look at the speech balloons, you can tell that Mickey’s name has been pasted over something else. So far I’ve been unable to trace the original strip – it possibly comes from early issues of Buster, or even from Wham! or Pow! A bit of writer humour has been sneaked in without anybody noticing, both for the original and reprint – in the opening frame of page 48, the owner of the corner shop is called Mr. Sniffgrass…
CHAMP pages 54-56
Creator: Leo Baxendale
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Leo very rarely drew for annuals and holiday specials, so this was put into the hands of the prolific Terry Bave. In this strip Champ trains for every sport intensively only to collapse with exhaustion as the sports start.
Denis Gifford: ‘He's a champ or chump, as you'll soon see, pals’ was the editorial intro to this wonder kid in the first issue of the comic.
GLUGG pages 50-51, 104-105
Artist: Gordon Hogg
Notes: A reprint from Wham!, Glugg would not appear as a regular strip in the comic until 1975. Unfortunately I don’t know if those 1975 strips were reprints or new strips.
Denis Gifford: ‘He's first in everything’, was the caption for Glugg, a ginger haired caveboy who made his full colour entry on the back page of Wham! To Glugg it was just another day of boredom, so to pass the time, he invented something, but didn't know what it was. In succeeding weeks, Glugg invented fire and hence baked beans on toast and something that displease his Wham! readers, the bath.
GIVE A DOG A BONE pages 52-53, 70-71, 116-117
Artist: Graham Allen
Notes: I love Graham’s art, although it seems wasted on a premise that in every strip we have our pet pooch trying to find new places to bury his bone. Another strip dropped early from the comic, but some strips were reprinted in the COR!! Holiday Specials for 1974, and the annuals for 1975, 1976 and 1977.
SLOWCOACH pages 60-61, 118-119
Artist: Mike Lacey
Notes: Every week Slowcoach would leave the front door, his mother reminding him how slow he is getting to school, but somewhere on the way he is distracted, and thanks to those same circumstances that slow him down, eventually – in the final frame – he finally arrives at school to be greeted with the typical mortar-board-on-the-top-of-his-head bespectacled schoolmaster with the words “Sorry I’m late, sir, but I’ve got an excuse!”
HOT ROD pages 62-63, 124-125
Artist: Alf Saporito
Denis Gifford: “Run for your lives! Hot Rod, the Dragon, is heading this way!” yelled a valet on the back page of the Chips pull out section in Whizzer and Chips #1. The colour helps considerably when Hot Rod lets fly with his fiery breath.
Notes: Sadly Hot Rod doesn’t get the full-colour treatment in the annual, but gets an additional red in the strip on pages 62-63.
HETTY’S HOROSCOPE pages 66-67, 92-93
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: Another early casualty on the comic (after only 20 issues). It features the adventures of Hetty reading her horoscope and then doing what it suggests… yes, not terribly exciting. Even Sheila and Terry found it limiting; the strip ended as they had simply run out of ideas.
ODD-BALL pages 68-69, 146-147
Artists: unknown, possibly the pages on 68-69 were by Stan McMurty
Notes: In the comic the strip was drawn primarily by Terry Bave and also by Mike Lacey. A living, one-eyed ball that was kicked too hard by an alien meant that he ended up on Earth, befriended by Nobby Noodle. Odd-Ball had the power to morph into various shapes. Like Sid’s Snake, Odd-Ball made it all the way to the end and in the very last issue of Buster, where Odd-Ball was shown bursting after hiding in a thorn bush!
KINGS OF THE CASTLE pages 74-83
Script: Possibly Gil Page
Artist: Unknown, possibly Mario Capaldi
Notes: In the comic some of the early strips were drawn by Mike Western. Interesting to note that either a colour wash or grey wash was added to the strip, indicating that it was originally destined for better paper or full colour, although its 10 pages would have made it inconvenient for such a book layout.
KING OF THE JUNGLE page 88
Artist: Reg Parlett
Notes: The first of three reprint strips in the annual from Reg Parlett (no original strips in the annual), King of the Jungle was lifted from Swift (1954-1963), originally titled King Leo.
GUY THE GUIDE pages 89, 121
Artist: Reg Parlett
Notes: Another reprint from Swift (1954-1963), originally titled Guy D. Guide. It would end up in the main comic itself (still as reprints).
THE GOODIES AND THE BADDIES page 90
Artist: Reg Parlett
Notes: This looks like a possible reprint from perhaps Buster, but I have been unable to find any solid information on this.
TINY page 91
Artist: unknown
Notes: This looks like quite an ancient reprint, its USP being that TINY (yes, his name is enlarged and highlighted in the first speech balloon to mention his name) would be left by his bigger friends to do tasks so they could collect all the rewards later, but ends up getting the best of the deal. Possibly from a comic in the 1950s, or even early Buster or later copies of the short-lived 1967 comic Giggle? Please let me know if you do! With just the one strip being represented in the book, this seriously looks like a gap-filler.
AQUA LAD pages 94-95, 152-153
Created by: Sheila and Terry Bave
Artist: Terry Bave
Notes: One of the early casualties of the comic, the adventures of a keen crop-haired snorkeller who could talk to fish, plus sea life itself seemingly being able to communicate with each other coherently and intelligently clearly didn’t particularly resonate with readers. Or maybe it’s just me, now looking at it fifty years on, wondering how my intelligence accepted all this! Well, I was 11 years old, and perhaps not representative of the readership the comic or annual was intended. Some strips were reprinted in the COR!! Holiday Specials for 1974/1975, and the annuals for 1975/1976.
Denis Gifford: Hans and Lottie Hass, who explored the wonders of the underwater world for television, were the undoubted spiritual parents of this crop-topped young scuba diver.
FOOTSIE THE CLOWN pages 108-109, 126-127
Creator: Leo Baxendale
Artist: Unknown, possibly Mike Brown
Notes: A reprint from Wham!, the character originally appeared on the back page of the comic in full colour, so you can see the various greys that made up the different colours. Footsie later became a regular in the comic, first with reprints but eventually with new art provided by Graham Allen.
Denis Gifford: Footsie the Clown (co-starring Wuff the Wonder Dog) so named for his oversized feet, wore a bowler hat from which sprang all manner of useful props such as boxing gloves to punch the nose of Fred the Fakir when he pinched Wuff’s sausage, or simply a piece of cardboard labelled ‘idea!’ Much of Footsie’s fun came from other circus folk such as Zippo the Trapezist, or Ali the Fire Eater.
OCKY pages 120, 145
Artist: unknown
Notes: I really have no idea of the origins of this strip! But it’s clearly a reprint. Another handy one-page strip to help fill up two gaps in the book, perhaps? (See Tiny.)
SPACE SCHOOL pages 122-123
Script and artist: Mike Higgs
Notes: Only the one strip in the book, and its focus is purely on Tommy from Earth, with only a single frame to show the rest of his schoolmates. A little disappointing.
Denis Gifford: “200 years on from 1969, and Earthmen have reached the planets. Our story is about a school for the sons of astronauts from different worlds. Clank, the robot caretaker, lets the kids out for morning playtime.” And out rush the oddest lot ever seen in a comic, let alone a school. There was two-headed Eddie from Uranus, Newto from Neptune with a space helmet full of water, bouncy Boing from Pluto, flying Dicky from Mercury, Oggie from Mars, legless Rollo from Jupiter, and the only normal boy (for a comic, that is) Tommy from Earth. The teacher, clad in trad mortarboard and kilt, was Mr McWhack.
ANGEL FACE AND DARE DEVIL page 128
Artist: unknown, possibly Peter Davidson
Notes: Our unnamed chum has a dilemma to make, and so Angel Face and Dare Devil instantly pop up, giving him contrasting opinions on what he should do – good or bad. Inevitably, thanks to something else, neither option is any good!
FRED’S FAMILY TREE page 129-133
Artist: Toni Goffe
Notes: The council are desperate to get rid of Fred's Family tree – and it’s full of Fred’s forebears! Each week sees the council men get their come-uppance in their attempts to remove the tree, only for its inhabitants to fight back! In the annual, we get the bonus of a two-page spread of the tree and all Fred’s ancestors!
IT CAME ON FIREWORK NIGHT pages 137-144
Artist: Ron Turner
Notes: This strip takes up eight pages of the annual’s 15 pages available for full-colour work. It’s a one-off story, perhaps a dummy for something else, maybe even created especially for the book. It’s entirely possible, however, that this was an ‘audition’ for Turner, as from the very beginning he became a regular artist for the comic, his most notable strip being Wonder Car, although his first strip for Whizzer and Chips issue 1 was The Space Accident, a serial featuring two boys – John Ward and David Lewis – who may as well have been Billy Foreman and John Glenn from this strip. As this was a serial, its absence from the annual was understandable. (See also The Mummy’s Curse at the end of this section).
WEAR ‘EM OUT WILF pages 148-149
Artist: unknown
Notes: The original artist on the comic strip was Mike Lacey. Wilf had a good run, wearing things out until 1976.
Denis Gifford: “Meet Wilf, he wears out everything except a welcome!” He started wearing things out in from the beginning - he wore a hole in his trousers on the park slide where his mum promptly knitted him a new pair with steel wool!
SNAKES ALIVE! pages 158-159
Artist: Angel Nadal
Notes: A collection of visual jokes brought to life in colour with the overall theme being snakes.
NOTABLY ABSENT: THE MUMMY’S CURSE
This strip featured in issue 1 (drawn by Reg Parlett) in the comic and ran until some time in 1970, but not featured in the annual or the holiday special (except for a one-page maze). Soon, another artist worked on the strips but for some reason was not available (or were not willing) to work on the Mummy’s Curse, or perhaps there was little confidence in the strip. But it was certainly still running in my 12th September 1970 copy of the comic.
​