WHOOPEE! POSTERS AND PULL-OUTS IN 1977

In 1977 IPC were again generous with their WHOOPEE! pull-outs – as many as 15 issues had something special in them.

The first two numbers (1st and 8th January) had a pull out calendar. 

This is how the calendar was advertised in the last issue of 1976: 

Ken Reid made it up to the readers for being unavailable to draw the previous year’s calendar, and contributed this impressive 2-part poster, with an evil-looking Sun and a spooky planet for each month. 

Assembly instructions were included with the second part of the calendar:

WHOOPEE! issue cover dated 12th February, 1977 had the Mini-Sampler of Whoopee!'s Companion Comic Whizzer and Chips. The 8-page mini booklet was all black and white and featured Shiner, Odd-Ball, Fuss Pot, Joker, Sid’s Snake, Hover Boots, Sweet Tooth and Tiny Tycoon. Here’s the front cover of the issue, followed by two sample pages of the booklet:

The issue of 11th June 1977 featured the Silver Jubilee Parade poster. 

The poster was advertised in the previous week’s edition:

… and showed a cheery crowd of WHOOPEE!’s stars marching along the street, waving their Union Jacks, etc. to the joy of the kids feasting at the tables on the sidewalk.  See how many strip characters you can spot :) A beautiful piece by Robert Nixon and one of my favourite WHOOPEE! posters (click to enlarge):

In the four issues from 25th June till 16th July, 1977 readers were offered an opportunity to give Bumpkin Billionaires a run for their money by playing the Bumpkin Billionaires' LOOSE YER LOT game.

Each of the first three issues had one part of the game printed in colour on the centre pages, and a page of white and blue cards:

The rest of the cards were printed on the centre pages of the fourth issue that also included instructions how to assemble and play the board game:

 

The next issue (23rd July, 1977) had this advert:

Thus, having taken a short break of just one week after the 'Loose Yer Lot' game, WHOOPEE! came up with a series of 4 pull-outs included in the issues cover-dated from 30th July till 20th August, 1977. They were quiz booklets on the four different subjects of TV, Pop, Sports and Animals. The front, back and centre pages of the 8-page booklets were in colour, while the rest were in b/w. 

Answers to all 4 quiz books were printed in the issue of 20th August, 1977 which had the last booklet. 

In the autumn of 1977 WHOOPEE! offered cut-out masks in the three consecutive issues of 8th, 15th and 22nd October. Here’s the advert of the first one:

All the three masks, drawn and signed by Brian Walker, were printed on the centre pages of the comic and appeared on front covers next to WHOOPEE! logo. 

By the way, WHOOPEE! issue cover-dated 22nd October 1977 was the last one with Bumpkin Billionaires as the cover stars – they were ousted by Sweeny starting from next week. 

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd 

And while you’re here, I would like to remind you that my promotion for the POWER PACK OF KEN REID is still on. Get your copies of the books and BONUS FREE PRINTS on eBay or from my online shop HERE!

THE MOONSTERS ON SPARKY BACK COVERS – PART 4

I recently acquired a copy of SPARKY No. 620 – the last issue that I needed for my complete set of this interesting title. I shared my joy on Twitter and on a few FB comics groups, and mentioned that I was after a complete copy of issue 110 because mine had its centre pages missing. Two fellow collectors responded to my appeal, and that elusive issue is now on its way to me from the UK!

I will celebrate this achievement by resuming my series of SPARKY back covers featuring the MOONSTERS by Bill Ritchie. A few years ago I did a string of galleries of all SPARKY front covers with the Moonsters (Nos. 35 – 139), and at the end of 2019 I did the first three galleries of the back covers (Nos. 2-34).

Here are the first 10 SPARKY back covers after the MOONSTERS were moved from the front cover to the back page once again starting from No. 140. Enjoy!

Images are © D.C.Thomson & Co. Ltd.

WHOOPEE! PULL-OUTS AND GIFTS in 1976

In 1976 WHOOPEE! celebrated the New Year with a two-part Creepy Calendar in the vein of the comic’s World-Wide Weirdies pin-up series, printed in the first two issues of the year:

World-Wide Weirdies were normally drawn by Ken Reid, but worries over his divorce proceedings made Ken unable to work at the time, so the job was given to Robert Nixon:

Instructions to the readers were provided on the Letters page:

WHOOPEE! issue of 6th March, 1976 celebrated the 2nd birthday of the paper (it was issue No. 102). The occasion was marked with the introduction of a new logo, three new strips (Smiler, Gook the T.V. Spook and Werefilf) and – what’s relevant for this series – a sequence of nine special issues of the comic.

First came TV Quiz pull-out booklet. It started in the first new-logo issue and was published over four weeks:

The title of the pull-out was self-explanatory – it featured questions about popular TV personalities and shows. Below is a selection of pages to give you an idea what the booklet was like:

The issue of 27th March, 1976 (the one with the last part of the TV Quiz booklet and its assembly instructions) announced the free gift that was to come with the next edition:

Horror Gripper was a piece of green plastic imitating a monstrous claw, and was part of Smiths Foods ‘Horror Bags’ snacks promotion:

Below is the cover of the free-gift issue, followed by the image of the gift and Smiths Foods advert included in the comic:

That same issue announced the forthcoming Pop Super Poster:

The giant 4-part poster was printed on the centre pages of the four issues of 10th April – 1st May, 1976:

Assembly instructions were provided in the issue of 1st May, 1976:

When assembled, the ‘super pop wall-frieze’, drawn and signed by Alf Saporito, looked like this:

I believe Part 1 of the poster (the one on the left) showed Bay City Rollers; I am not sure who the other pop bands were…

The next WHOOPEE! pull-out treat came nearly two months later. Here is how it was advertised in the issue of 12th June, 1976:

The poster, drawn beautifully by Sid Burgon, was duly included in the next week’s issue (9th June, 1976), and was the only poster featuring WHOOPEE! characters in 1976:

Finally, the four issues of 14th August – 4th September, 1976 had the Pull-Out Playtime Book:

As usual, the booklet was advertised a week before, but this time it was a full-page announcement: 

As can be seen from the advert above, the issue containing Part 1 of the booklet came with a free gift. It was Free Scarey Sticker – another ‘Horror Bags’ freebie offered by Smiths Foods:

The booklet featured a lot of WHOOPEE! stars, and appears to have been drawn almost single-handedly by Cliff Brown (with a little help from Jim Crocker). It’s nice to see Cliff Brown draw the Innkeeper from Scream Inn which he was a regular scriptwriter of. Here’s a selection of pages and assembly instructions:

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd 

And while you’re here, I would like to remind you that my promotion for the POWER PACK OF KEN REID is still on. Get your copies of the books and BONUS FREE PRINTS on eBay or from my online shop HERE!