If I couldn’t wait to pay for it myself out of sixpence a week pocket money, then this was reading matter that mattered.
You could get a lot for a tanner, including fat pink rectangles of Bazooka Joe bubble gum, wrapped in mini comic strips: brief funnies, chances to win free trashy merchandise and a phrase always of advice or fortune-telling. If you preferred mint chewing gum, then better than Wrigley’s strips were Beechnut bite size pieces, sugar-coated and peppermint. You put a penny in the machine on the street, turned the black knob and a little pack dropped out. Every fourth penny produced an extra free packet. Sweets and comics were a realm of commerce where children held natural rule and our hunger produced an imaginative plenty. In the pages of comics, the delight in being silly, the desire to be nimble-witted and naughty, the yearning to be valiant and heroic, were validated and given free rein. Every week there were fresh new comics at the newsagent’s, or a friend had ones you could do swaps for. My favourite titles and characters were: The Beano The Topper The Dandy Batman Superman Eagle Valiant Buster Whizzer & Chips Dennis the Menace Roger the Dodge Minnie the Minx Beryl the Peril Desperate Dan Charlie Peace Andy Capp Roy of the Rovers Dan Dare Captain Hurricane Keyhole Kate The Bash Street Kids Comments are closed.
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