The Beezer

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The Beezer
Cartoonists Leo Baxendale, Gordon Bell, Paddy Brennan, David Law, Tom Paterson, Bill Ritchie, Dudley D. Watkins, Malcolm Judge, John Geering
Categories British comics
Frequency Weekly
Publisher D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
First issue21 January 1956
Final issue
Number
21 August 1993
1809
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Beezer (called The Beezer and Topper for the last three years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Comic strips in The Beezer were a mix of irreverence, slapstick, and adventure; notable creators included Leo Baxendale, Gordon Bell, Paddy Brennan, David Law, Tom Paterson, Bill Ritchie, Dudley D. Watkins, Malcolm Judge, and John Geering.

Contents

Publication history

Like its sister comic, The Topper , The Beezer was an A3 (tabloid) publication, twice as big as most other comics. It shrank to A4 paper size in 1981.

Comics that merged into The Beezer during its 37-year run were Cracker in 1976, and Plug in 1979.

The Beezer launched an annual, The Beezer Book , in 1957; this continued in publication following the closure of the weekly comic, and ran until the 2003 book (published 2002).

1990 merger with The Topper

In September 1990, DC Thomson decided to rationalise their comics portfolio, and merged the Beezer with The Topper . Whereas most previous comic mergers saw the name of one of the 'absorbed' comics disappear, the Topper was considered significant enough for its name to be retained despite the merger, and as such the comic was renamed Beezer and Topper following the relaunch. ( Whizzer and Chips was conceived as a double comic, and was not the result of a merger.)

Cancellation/merger with The Beano

Beezer and Topper ceased publication as a weekly comic in 1993; when it closed it was essentially (unofficially) "merged" with The Beano , as this is where the bulk of surviving content from the comic (most prominently The Numskulls ) ended up. Some also went to DC Thomson's other surviving weekly comic, The Dandy .

Annuals and other Beezer publications

Although the weekly Beezer and Topper had merged, the two comics' annuals ( The Beezer Book and The Topper Book ) remained separate publications. The closure of Beezer and Topper led to the closure of the Topper annual as of the 1994 book (published 1993), but The Beezer Book continued in publication annually for some years thereafter, eventually ceasing with the 2003 book (published 2002). Other Beezer publications that continued after the weekly comic's closure were The Best of Beezer (launched 1988, closed 1996) and The Beezer Summer Special (launched 1973, known as the 'Holiday Special' from 1998 onwards, closed 2002).

Vintage strips from the Beezer were published alongside stories from other DC Thomson publications in Classics from the Comics , which was published from 1996 to 2010.

A The Best of the Beezer Annual was released in 2014, published by Pedigree Books as part of the Retro Classics series. [1] It contained reprints of old Beezer comics. Despite the name saying "annual", a second book was never released.

Strips

The Beezer was home to 120 different comic strips over the years.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Topper</i> (comics) Former British comic book

The Topper was a UK comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd that ran from 7 February 1953 to 15 September 1990, when it merged with The Beezer.

<i>The Dandy</i> Scottish childrens comic

The Dandy was a Scottish children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after Il Giornalino and Detective Comics. From August 2007 until October 2010, it was rebranded as Dandy Xtreme.

<i>The Numskulls</i> Comic strip series published by DC Thomson

The Numskulls is a comic strip in The Beano, and previously in The Beezer and The Dandy – UK comics owned by D.C Thomson. The strip is about a team of tiny human-like technicians who live inside the heads of various people, running and maintaining their bodies and minds. It first appeared in The Beezer from 1962 until 1979, drawn by Malcolm Judge.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beryl the Peril</span> British comic strip character

Beryl the Peril is a fictional character created by David Law, the creator of Dennis the Menace, for issue 1 of The Topper comic published by DC Thomson & Co. Limited. Like Dennis, she had black and red apparel, and devilishly tormented her parents and other members of her community. Despite not having quite as many appearances as other DC Thomson characters such as Dennis the Menace or Desperate Dan, Beryl is still considered one of the classic characters which define the popularity of British comics.

The Topper Book was a comic book published from 1954 to 1994, to tie in with the children's comic The Topper. The first twelve editions were undated, and later books were published with the date of the following year on the cover, since they were traditionally published in the autumn and in time for Christmas.

Plug was a British comic magazine that ran for 75 issues from 24 September 1977 until 24 February 1979, when it merged with The Beezer. It was edited by Ian Gray.

Gordon Bell was a British cartoonist, best known for humorous strips for D. C. Thomson's weekly comics, including "Pup Parade" in The Beano and "Spoofer McGraw" in Sparky.

Dudley Dexter Watkins was an English cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his characters Oor Wullie and The Broons; comic strips featuring them have appeared in the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post since 1936, along with annual compilations. Watkins also illustrated comics such as The Beano, The Dandy, The Beezer and Topper, and provided illustrations for Christian stories. Watkins was posthumously inducted into the British Comic Awards Hall of Fame in 2015.

Sparky was a British comic published weekly by DC Thomson, that ran from 23 January 1965 to 9 July 1977 when it merged with The Topper after 652 issues. From 1965–1980 the comic published an annual entitled The Sparky Book. It was a DC Thomson comic, originally aimed at a slightly younger audience to The Beano and The Dandy later it was aimed at the same audience. It changed its name to The Sparky Comic in 1973.

Classics from the Comics was a British comics magazine, published from March 1996 until October 2010. Published monthly, it was D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd's third all-reprint comic. It replaced The Best of Topper and The Best of Beezer, which had reprinted old strips for some years.

Colonel Blink was a British comic strip, drawn by Tom Bannister in November 1958 for the majority of its run, with a few later strips being drawn by Bill Ritchie and Gordon Bell in the same style as Bannister. The strip was published in the comics magazine The Beezer. Denis Gifford in his Encyclopedia of Comic Characters (1987) attributes his creation to "Carmichael." His latest appearances were in the reprint Classics from the Comics series and the associated Beano and Dandy reprint annuals.

The Victor was a British comic paper published weekly by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The Victor ran for 1,657 issues from 25 January 1961 until it ceased publication on 21 November 1992. Associated with it was the annually published The Victor Book for Boys. This annual was first published in 1964, with the last edition published in 1994. A hardback book, The Best of The Victor, was published in 2010 ready to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this popular adventure comic. The book featured a selection of reprints from the weekly comic.

Ginger is a British comic strip series, introduced in the first issue of The Beezer in 1956. The character was the magazine's cover star until 1961, after which Pop, Dick and Harry took over the cover for a few years afterwards, but Ginger returned to the front cover in 1964.

The Fun Size Beano and Fun Size Dandy were small-format, full-colour children's comics, originally published four times monthly by DC Thomson and Co. Ltd between 1997 and 2010. They replaced the Beano and Dandy Comic Libraries, originally printed in red, white and black and published from 1982 to 1997. The Beano Comic Libraries lasted for 368 issues and their Dandy counterparts lasted for 344 issues. There were also comic library specials, The Beano Comic Library Specials being puzzle books and lasting for 87 issues (1988–1994) and the Dandy Comic Library Specials being cartoon books, featuring a number of single page comic strips and these lasted for 88 issues (1987–1994).

Baby Crockett was one of the longest running comic strips that ran from The Beezer issue 34 to Beezer 1809. He continued in the merged Beezer and Topper until its demise in 1993, and would appear in all the Beezer annuals and summer specials until they ended in 2002. He also appeared in several of the Dandy Comic Libraries over the years.

Send for Kelly was a long running comic strip that first appeared in The Topper, originally drawn by George Martin.

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