Scorcher (magazine)

Last updated

Scorcher
Publication information
Publisher IPC Magazines Ltd
ScheduleWeekly
Format Ongoing series
Genre
  • Sport
Publication dateJanuary 1970 – 5 October 1974
No. of issues248
Main character(s)Pete
Editor(s)Dave Hunt

Scorcher was the name of a football-themed British comic magazine published by IPC between January 1970 and October 1974. Scorcher featured various well-known comic strips, such as Billy's Boots , Bobby of the Blues and Lags Eleven, a story about a prison football team. In addition, the Nipper strip was absorbed from the Score comic, and Hot Shot Hamish made its first appearance after that. Some of these stories later found homes in Roy of the Rovers and in Tiger .

Contents

IPC Magazines, the publishers of Scorcher, always referred to it as a "paper" rather than a comic in its editorials, to distinguish it from more child-oriented publications such as The Beano or The Dandy . In addition to its realistic and comedic football-themed stories, it contained factual items about British professional football, and advertisements not only for contemporary toys, games and confectionery, but also others aimed at an older readership, such as for the Charles Atlas body building method, and recruitment advertisements for the Police, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

Publication history

In July 1971, Scorcher joined with another football-themed comic, Score (initially called Score 'n' Roar, launched in September 1970), to form Scorcher and SCORE, before finally merging into Tiger to become TIGER and Scorcher. The word Scorcher started with almost equal prominence to TIGER on the title page, but as usually happened with such mergers the title size was reduced in November 1975, and again in February 1978 before finally being dropped from the title of the comic after the issue dated 30 August 1980.

In total, 548 weekly comics were published with Scorcher in the title, with the following cover dates (the comic usually appeared for sale one week before its cover date, and capitalisations are as they actually appeared on the title bar of the comics):

14 editions of Scorcher Annual were published from 1971 to 1984, and Scorcher or Scorcher and SCORE Holiday Specials each summer from 1970 until at least 1980.

Scorcher #1

Issue No. 1 of Scorcher was dated 10 January 1970 and contained the following features and stories:

Picture strip stories

Prose story

Football features

Other features

This issue contained 32 pages, included a free-gift wallchart which allowed readers to plot their favourite team's progress in the League over the last 20 years, and cost 7d. All photographs in the first issue were black and white.

Pete

The weekly editorial column was featured on the Goal Post page, subtitled Pete's Page, and under the byline of Pete was usually around 200-300 words in a jokey, friendly style, describing recent amusing or chaotic events in the Scorcher office, or upcoming features in the paper. Pete was depicted in a line drawing in early issues as a male in his 20s with a short Bobby Moore haircut, sitting at a desk with a typewriter (although on one occasion when he was unwell he was depicted sitting up in bed with his typewriter on his lap), but in later years changed to just a grinning face, with a longer Kevin Keegan hairstyle and waving a football scarf.

It was revealed over the years that Pete was a West Ham United F.C. fan who attended their matches home and away, had spent some of his youth living in South Africa, had a sister, and played football regularly as a striker for his local club, scoring 22 goals in one season, although he had previously played as a goalkeeper until conceding 6 goals in one match.

Other office characters whose antics featured regularly were Ian the Office Junior (possibly Ian Vosper, future editor of Roy of the Rovers magazine), a Portsmouth F.C. fan who played for the same club as Pete, and the paper's editor (Dave Hunt), a.k.a. the Old Man, a Tottenham Hotspur F.C. fan who was regularly portrayed as a minor tyrant who became angry if Pete didn't make him 48 cups of tea every day. Various other members of the editorial or art staff were mentioned from time to time.

Each week, Pete answered a handful of readers' questions on any aspect of football, often settling bets or other disputes over matters of football fact, and paid £1 to the reader for each letter featured. Despite all this, he often had to reassure concerned readers that he was a real person and not just an invented cover-all name for whoever's duty it was to answer the letters that week.

After joining with Tiger Pete's function was to select a dozen of the readers' best jokes to feature as cartoons on his page, and no longer answered questions.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British comics</span> Comics originating in the United Kingdom

A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. As of 2014, the three longest-running comics of all time were all British.

<i>Cor!!</i>

Cor!!, a British comic book, was launched in June 1970 by IPC, their sixth new comic in just over a year. Cor!! was edited by Bob Paynter.

<i>Roy of the Rovers</i> British comic strip

Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer and later manager named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers. The strip first appeared in the Tiger in 1954, before giving its name to a weekly comic, published by IPC and Fleetway from 1976 until 1995, in which it was the main feature.

<i>Action</i> (comics) British weekly comic

Action was a British weekly boys' comic published by IPC Magazines from 14 February 1976 to 5 November 1977, when it merged with war comic Battle after 86 issues. The comic was created by Pat Mills and Geoff Kemp.

<i>Tiger</i> (British comics) British weekly boys comic

Tiger was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press, Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 11 September 1954 to 30 March 1985. The title was initially launched in a large tabloid size to mimic newspapers; while it featured some action-adventure stories Tiger contained a large number of sport strips. The most famous of these was "Roy of the Rovers", which debuted in the first issue and was the comic's most popular feature, eventually transferring to its own comic in 1975. Tiger would go on to become one of the company's longest-running titles, with 1,573 issues published before being merged with Eagle in 1985. Over the course of its run, Tiger featured columns by numerous famous sports figures, including Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott, Tony Greig, Trevor Francis and Charlie Nicholas.

Robert Hewitt "Bobby" Gould is an English former footballer and manager.

<i>Ranger</i> (magazine) British weekly comic, 1965 to 1966

Ranger was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 18 September 1965 to 18 June 1966. Intended as an educational publication, the cover described it as "The National Boys' Magazine" and the content mixed comic strips with a much larger quotient of factual articles than most other Fleetway children's titles of the time. Ranger lasted 40 issues before being merged with Fleetway's fellow educational title Look and Learn in 1966.

<i>Valiant</i> (comics) British weekly comic

Valiant was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications and later IPC Magazines from 4 October 1962 to 16 October 1976. A boys' adventure comic, it debuted numerous memorable characters, including Captain Hurricane, The Steel Claw and Mytek the Mighty. Valiant lasted for 712 issues before being merged with stablemate Battle Picture Weekly.

<i>Billys Boots</i> Comic strip about Billy and his boots

Billy's Boots was a popular British comic strip by writer Fred Baker and artist John Gillatt, later continued by Mike Western. The original Billy's Boots was an earlier humorous series, written and drawn by Frank Purcell, which appeared in Tiger from December 23rd 1961 until July 13th 1963, with a similar premise to this later series. The later more serious Billy appeared in the first issue of Scorcher in 1970, and later moved to Tiger when the two comics merged in 1974. In 1985, Tiger in turn merged with Eagle and the strip moved again. Just a year later, Billy's adventures relocated once more, this time to Roy of the Rovers. New adventures were included in the weekly comic until May 1990, before he switched to Best of Roy of the Rovers Monthly. The strip also appeared in annuals, including annuals for comics which had themselves ceased publication. The strip is still fondly remembered by fans of the "golden age" of British boys' comics. In Finland and Sweden, Billy's Boots was published in Buster magazine. In the UK, stories based on Billy's earliest adventures appeared in Total Football magazine until it closed in 2001, and Billy's story was also reprinted for a few months in the defunct Striker comic.

<i>Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse</i> Comics character

Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse were two popular British football-themed comic strips, which later merged and appeared in various publications from the 1970s to the 1990s. Both are amongst the best remembered football characters from the "golden age" of British boys' comics.

The 1966–67 season was the 87th season of competitive football in England.

<i>Smash!</i> (comics)

Smash! was a weekly British comic book, published initially by Odhams Press and subsequently by IPC Magazines, from 5 February 1966 to 3 April 1971. After 257 issues it merged into Valiant.

<i>Vulcan</i> (British comics)

Vulcan was a British weekly boys' comic published by IPC Magazines from 1 March 1975 to 3 April 1976, when it merged with Valiant. The comic was unusual among IPC's weeklies for several reasons - it used a much smaller format than most of the company's weeklies and featured more colour; until September 1975 the title was only available in Scotland as the format was tested; and it consisted entirely of reprints of extant material. It was also published simultaneously in German as Kobra.

Frank Whitfield Beattie was a Scottish football player and manager. He spent his entire senior playing career with Kilmarnock, making 422 league appearances between 1954 and 1972. He was captain of Kilmarnock when they won the Scottish league championship in 1964–65. After retiring as a player, Beattie managed Albion Rovers and Stirling Albion.

Roy of the Rovers comic magazine was launched as a weekly on 25 September 1976, named after the established comic strip of the same name that first appeared as a weekly feature in the Tiger on 11 September 1954. The title ran for 851 issues, until 20 March 1993, and included other football strips and features. In February 1989, the magazine merged with the similarly themed Hot Shot, and was known for a brief time as Roy of the Rovers and Hot Shot, but reverted to its original title shortly afterwards.

Mickey Mouse Weekly is a 1936–1957 weekly British tabloid Disney comics magazine, the first British comic with full colour photogravure printing. It was launched by Willbank Publications and later continued by Odhams Press. The comics were said to be "drawn in a slick, smooth style which was clearly influenced by American comics."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Harding</span> British illustrator

Anthony John "Tony" Harding was a British illustrator of boys' action comics specialising in football stories. He worked for D. C. Thomson & Co. and IPC Magazines in a career that spanned over 30 years, on comics such as Bullet, Scorcher, Hornet, Action, Roy of the Rovers, Victor and Scoop, amongst others.

Alexander Begg Allan is a Scottish former professional footballer. During his career, he made over 50 appearances in the Football League.

<i>Thunder</i> (British comics) British weekly comic

Thunder was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 17 October 1970 to 13 March 1971. A boys' adventure comic, the title only lasted for 22 editions before being merged with another Fleetway title, the long-established Lion.

<i>Jag</i> (comics) British former weekly comic

Jag was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 4 May 1968 to 29 March 1969. A boys' adventure comic, the title lasted for 48 editions before being merged with another title, the long-established Tiger.

References

  1. "The Forgotten Story of … Scorcher and Score | Will Buckley". TheGuardian.com . 17 September 2009.