Comics

1960s comics

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