The Beezer

This article is about the British comic. For other uses, see Beezer (disambiguation).

The Beezer

Editor	unknown
Categories	British comics
Frequency	Weekly
First issue	21 January 1956
Final issue Number	21 August 1993 1809
Company	D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Beezer (called The Beezer and Topper for the last 3 years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993,

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).

Beezer and Topper and closure

In September 1990, D. C. 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.

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 D. C. Thomson's other surviving weekly comic, The Dandy.)

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 which 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 D. C. Thomson publications in Classics from the Comics, which was published from 1996 to 2010.

Strips

Strips in The Beezer included:

• Adrian the Barbarian (1989–93) - reprinted as of 19 July 2008 issue (3441) of The Beano as Olaff the Madlander. Drawn by Robert Nixon and Sid Burgon
• Baby Crockett (1956–93) - supposedly a baby version of Davy Crockett, but in practice a modern-day "cute toddler" strip. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• The Badd Lads - a group of three criminals (Boss, Fingers and Knucklehead) always on the run or bungling an attempted crime. Drawn by Malcolm Judge. Later by Barrie Appleby.
• Barney's Barmy Army
• Beefy Dan The Fast-Food Man
• Black Bun - a rabbit stealing cabbages from a farmer. Drawn by George Martin
• Blinky - About Colonel Blink's short-sighted nephew. Drawn by George Martin and Gordon Bell. (Now in The Dandy)
• The Banana Bunch (1956–93) - about a group of kids, Brainy, Dopey, Lanky, Titch, Fatty, Cookie (1977–1979), Thatch (1977–1986), Sis (1994-), Mitzy, 2004-. Drawn by George Martin. Robert Nixon, Gordon Bell and Tom Paterson. Reprinted in Dandy Xtreme in 2004 and 2010.
• The Black Sapper - 1959 story about a thief who stole the Crown Jewels with his tunnelling machine called the Earthworm.
• Cap'n Hand and his Mutinous Band - a pirate captain and his endlessly rebellious crew
• Colonel Blink The Short-Sighted Gink- About a man who is as blind as a bat. Originally drawn by Tom Bannister, later drawn by Gordon Bell
• Club 5 - Beezer's own version of the Dandy's Cuddles and Dimples
• First Ada - About a tomboy girl, who looks after hurt animals. Drawn by Gordon Bell. A Plug merger.
• Fred's Bed (1990–93) - recently reprinted in The Beano, but now new strips. Drawn by David Parkins and occasionally Tom Paterson.
• Geezer (1989–93) - about a young boy, who always was after money. Similar to Roger the Dodger. Drawn by Robert Nixon, Trevor Metcalfe and Jimmy Hansen.
• Gnatasha (1990–93) - The daughter of Gnasher and sister of Gnipper from the Beano in her own strip in the late 80s and early 90s of the Beezer/Beezer & Topper. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• Ginger (1956-90 - whole Beezer run)- cover star in earliest issues, and from mid-1960s to 1987.
• The Gobbles - a group of vultures always on the lookout for food. Similar to The Three Bears
• Hugh's Zoo (1977–82) - About a boy who has his own zoo. Drawn by Gordon Bell. A Plug merger.
• Hungry Hoss (1981–87) - a horse owned by Joe the cowboy robber who couldn't stop eating. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• The Iron Eaters - sponges from space that ate iron, causing all kinds of problems
• Iron Hand
• The Jellymen Five-legged invaders from the deep
• Joe Soap - About a boy and his grandpa and a strange lot of bubbles. Drawn by John Dallas. A Cracker merger.
• Little Mo (1964–93) - a generic resourceful/mischievous tomboy who frequently warred with an older boy called Mugsy.
• Mr Licko and his Lollipops
• My Pal, Ropey
• Old Git - An implausibly old man who terrorised schoolchildren by firing rotten potatoes and boiling hot chip fat at them from a military grade cannon.
• Our Sheriff's An Ape- About a town with two sheriffs. One who's human called Danny Blain, and another who's an ape named Charlie.
• Paw, Maw and Porky(1986–90) - Later on just called 'Porky'. Drawn by John Geering
• Plug (1977–86) (from Plug)
• Pop, Dick and Harry - early cover story about twins trying to outsmart their father. In every issue.
• Saucy Sue (1981–87)
• Scrapper (1975–88) - About a young lad who always gets into fights. Drawn by Gordon Bell and George Martin. Originally appeared in Cracker.
• Smiffy (1960s–88) - About a boy who liked getting dirty. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• Space Patrol
• Spacewacker - name of the family spaceship. The feature was a development of the earlier "Bushwacker" strip, in which an Australian father and his two children (who never grew older despite various versions of Bushwacker and many years of publication) - journeyed in a "land yacht" capable of travelling on land or water under sail or jet engine power. Bushwacker later developed into a flying, sailing, submersible wheeled helicopter. The storyline moved on with the "Spacewacker" in which the same party roamed around a strange alien world. The vehicle was a large bubble-fronted vehicle that travelled on rollers and bristled with gadgets on demand.
• Sting (1988–93) - about a group of bees, (Originally called "The Beezers") later just one bee called Sting. Drawn by Bob Dewar
• The Hillys and the Billys - two feuding hillbilly families. This strip was surprisingly violent, with the families eager to shoot each other with shotguns - even to the point of co-operating in order to steal guns from the sheriff. Drawn by George Martin and later on by Barry Glennard
• The Munchers(1981–86) - About a bunch of thieving rabbits. Similar to The Nibblers from The Beano. Drawn by Gordon Bell
• The Numskulls - small "people" living in your head, each working in their own department: brain, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth (now in The Beano.) Drawn by Malcolm Judge and later on by Tom Lavery and Steve Bright.
• Tommy's Toybox - Tommy finds a toolbox from space and builds all kinds of interesting things
• True Brit - a boy named Tommy Britain who appeared on the cover between 1987 and 1988.
• Tuff and Tiny - About a young caveboy and his cowardly pet dragon. Drawn by Gordon Bell
• Twitt Hall- Drawn by John Geering
• The Wabits - a strip from the early 90s featuring a load of cute looking wabits who do nasty things whilst Adrian the Barbarian isn't looking.
• The Wallies of Winkle Street (1984–87)- A family
• Young Sid The Copper's Kid- About a young lad called Sid and his dad PC 99. Drawn by George Martin

Famous creators

Well known creators who worked for Beezer include:

• Leo Baxendale
• Gordon Bell
• Paddy Brennan
• David Law
• Joe McCaffrey
• Tom Paterson
• Bill Ritchie
• Dudley D. Watkins
• Malcolm Judge
• George Martin
• Bob Dewar
• John Geering

References

• Beezer on 26pigs.com
• The Beezer's Golden Years

References

See also: List of DC Thomson publications