Beezer

The Beezer (called The Beezer and Topper for the last 3 years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993, when it unofficially "merged" with The Beano.

Like its sister comic, The Topper, The Beezer was an A3 (tabloid) publication, making it twice as big as other comics. It shrank to A4 paper size, like the others, in 1981.

Comics that merged with The Beezer during its 37 year run were Cracker in 1976, Plug in 1979, and The Topper in 1990 and the comic was renamed Beezer and Topper. Although the comic ended in 1993, three other publications continued for a few years afterwards. They were The Best of Beezer (1988-1996), The Beezer Summer Special (1973-2002, known as the 'Holiday Special' from 1998 onwards) and The Beezer Book (1957-2003).

Strips

Strips in The Beezer included:

• Adrian the Barbarian - reprinted as of 19 July 2008 issue (3441) of The Beano as Olaff the Madlander. Drawn by Robert Nixon and Sid Burgon
• Baby Crockett - supposedly a baby version of Davy Crockett, but in practice a modern-day 'cute toddler' strip. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• The Badd Lads - a group of three criminals (Boss, Fingers and Knucklehead) always on the run or bungling an attempted crime. Drawn by Malcolm Judge. Later by Barrie Appleby.
• Barney's Barmy Army
• Beefy Dan The Fast-Food Man
• Black Bun - a rabbit stealing cabbages from a farmer. Drawn by George Martin
• Blinky - About Colonel Blink's short-sighted nephew. Drawn by George Martin and Gordon Bell. (Now in The Dandy)
• The Banana Bunch - about a group of kids, Brainy, Dopey, Lanky, Titch, Fatty, Cookie (1977-1979), Thatch (1977-1986), Sis (1994-). Drawn by George Martin, Gordon Bell and Tom Paterson.
• The Black Sapper - 1959 story about a thief who stole the Crown Jewels with his tunnelling machine called the Earthworm.
• Cap'n Hand and his merry mutineers - a pirate captain and his endlessly rebellious crew
• Colonel Blink The Short-Sighted Gink- About a man who is as blind as a bat. Originally drawn by Tom Bannister, later drawn by Gordon Bell
• First Ada - About a tomboy girl, who looks after hurt animals. Drawn by Gordon Bell. A Plug merger.
• Fred's Bed - recently reprinted in The Beano, but now new strips. Drawn by David Parkins and occasionally Tom Paterson.
• Geezer - about a young boy, who always was after money. Similar to Roger the Dodger. Drawn by Robert Nixon, Trevor Metcalfe and Jimmy Hansen.
• Gnatasha - The daughter of Gnasher and sister of Gnipper from the Beano in her own strip in the late 80s and early 90s of the Beezer/Beezer & Topper. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• Ginger - cover star in earliest issues, and from mid-1960s to 1990. [1]
• The Gobbles - a group of vultures always on the lookout for food. Similar to The Three Bears
• Hugh's Zoo - About a boy who has his own zoo. Drawn by Gordon Bell. A Plug merger.
• Hungry Hoss - a horse owned by Joe the cowboy robber who couldn't stop eating. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• The Iron Eaters - sponges from space that ate iron, causing all kinds of problems
• Joe Soap - About a boy and his grandpa and a strange lot of bubbles. Drawn by John Dallas. A Cracker merger.
• Little Mo - a generic resourceful/mischievous tomboy.
• My Pal, Ropey
• Our Sherrif's An Ape- About a town with to sherrifs. One who's human called Danny Blain, and another who's an ape named Charlie.
• Paw, Maw and Porky- Later on just called 'Porky'. Drawn by John Geering
• Plug (from Plug)
• Pop, Dick and Harry - early cover story about twins trying to outsmart their father. In every issue.
• Saucy Sue
• Scrapper - About a young lad who always gets into fights. Drawn by Gordon Bell and George Martin
• Smiffy- About a boy who liked getting dirty. Drawn by Bill Ritchie
• Space Patrol
• Spacewacker - name of the family spaceship. The feature was a development of the earlier 'Bushwacker' strip, in which an Australian father and his two children (who never grew older despite various versions of Bushwacker and many years of publication) - journeyed in a 'land yacht' capable of travelling on land or water under sail or jet engine power. Bushwacker later developed into a flying, sailing, submersible wheeled helicopter. The storyline moved on with the 'Spacewacker' in which the same party roamed around a strange alien world. The vehicle was a large bubble-fronted vehicle that travelled on rollers and bristled with gadgets on demand.
• Sting- about a group of bees, (Originally called 'The Beezers'). Drawn by Bob Dewar
• The Hillys and the Billys - two feuding hillbilly families. This strip was surprisingly violent, with the families eager to shoot each other with shotguns - even to the point of co-operating in order to steal guns from the sheriff. Drawn by George Martin and later on by Barry Glennard
• The Munchers - About a bunch of thieving rabbits. Similar to The Nibblers from The Beano. Drawn by Gordon Bell
• The Numskulls - small "people" living in your head, each working in their own department: brain, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth (now in The Beano.) Drawn by Malcolm Judge and later on by Tom Lavery and Steve Bright.
• Tommy's Toybox - Tommy finds a toolbox from space and builds all kinds of interesting things
• Tuff and Tiny - About a young caveboy and his cowardly pet dragon. Drawn by Gordon Bell
• Twitt Hall- Drawn by John Geering
• The Wallies of Winkle Street
• Young Sid The Copper's Kid- About a young lad called Sid and his dad PC 99. Drawn by George Martin

Famous creators

Well known creators who worked for Beezer include:

• Leo Baxendale
• Gordon Bell
• Paddy Brennan
• David Law
• Joe McCaffrey
• Tom Paterson
• Bill Ritchie
• Dudley D. Watkins
• Malcolm Judge
• George Martin
• Bob Dewar
• John Geering

References

• Beezer on 26pigs.com