Monday, January 11, 2016

HOW MANY ISSUES MAKE THE FULL RUN OF BUSTER COMIC?



Those of you who follow Comics UK Forum may have noticed a recent discussion about the number of issues constituting the full run of BUSTER. You can read the discussion HERE. There you will find a link to download a useful spreadsheet with cover dates and issue numbers, compiled by Forum member hankshanklin.

The important thing about the discussion was that it helped to arrive at the final number of 1,902 individual issues. There was a small debate as to how double-dated issues should be treated, and consensus was that they should be counted as one rather than two.

As a result, I updated my old posts about BUSTER No. 1,000 HERE and HERE because it turned out I had it wrong by one issue through accidentally omitting one number in my spreadsheet... Now it’s official that BUSTER No. 1,000 had the cover-date of 12th January, 1980. It was the last issue before a 4-week break due to industrial action. Here is the cover:


All Images 2016 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.

6 comments:

  1. Bugger, this means I'll have to go through my spreadsheet and change all the issue numbers... Bah!

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    1. Why not download the one from the site and use it instead of the one that you have :)

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  2. I didnt think a topic i started would spark quite a discussion but i'm glad it did,i need to learn hoe to do spreadsheets again so i can do em for the likes of whizzer and chips,whooopee etc,

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  3. Buster Comics total is definitely 1,902 issues.

    I know for certain, as I used to work at IPC Magazines Ltd during the 1980's and have information from various co workers that were working there in the past.


    The reason why some are confused, is because certain ones speculate based on weekly comics.


    Starting in 1995 of January, Buster went Fortnightly until its last issue.


    Its last weekly comic was number 1772, in December 1994.


    Starting with the Fortnightly, the issue was counted from number 1 again until its final issue being number 130.


    Add these two figures together, makes 1,902 issues.


    Not to be confused, if one looks at the last 130 issues, the covers clearly says Buster Fortnightly.


    Buster original series is a different title, just as Buster.


    Buster Fortnightly is a different title.

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  4. Your calculation about Buster’s 1000th issue may have been based on a slight misapprehension. I take it your sums were based on this page:
    https://www.bustercomic.com/decades.html
    I also take it the website’s author consulted the British Library’s Newspaper Library Buster collection. Either that or they were as lucky with their collecting as you’ve been. For the 1979 volumes, the first issue is 13/1/79 – but this is just because it and 6/1/79 were bound in in the wrong order. There were 52 issues for 1979 not 51. The IPC strike of late ’78 didn’t rob Buster of a New Year issue of 6/1/79, as it did with Misty; this was human error on the BL staff’s part.

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    1. Thanks for this. I guess I will have to pull my collection one day and take a very good look to confirm the final count for myself and all BUSTER fans :)

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