SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (FINAL DAY)

I was hoping to close this series of Olympic posts with something appropriately grand and spectacular but couldn’t find suitable examples to show so I’ll go with something else.

Challenge Charlie! was an interesting strip that started in Valiant in the last issue of May 1974 and was illustrated by Frank McDiarmid. Readers were invited to send all sorts of challenges for the unfortunate Charlie who couldn’t resist accepting them, no matter how dangerous or crazy they were. The reader whose challenge was accepted collected a weekly prize of £5. I decided to take a close look at the strip because I was confident I will find some sports-themed episodes – and find I did. I even found more than I was looking for but since the findings have nothing to do with sports or Olympics, I will leave them for another blogpost. Come back tomorrow for more Charlie challenges and a look into the curious origins of a few of them…

From VALIANT dated 24th August, 1974

From VALIANT dated 2nd November, 1974

From VALIANT dated 24th January, 1976

From VALIANT dated 10th July, 1976

From VALIANT dated 14th August, 1976