Whispers and Solar! Comic

[SiHart]

Ooh colour here! Si, take note. I must have got some new pencils.

Yay!

[Anthony Williams]

Yay for Herberts en masse!

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

If only I'd have known about these back in the day; I would have subcribed!

Worringly I can only find 9 things beginning with 'S', unless you are counting the surfer and the surf board as 2 things!
I'm taking this really seriously by the way - I hope the answers are revealed!

[Alex]

Really enjoying these Si, they're really funny in places, and it makes me wish I kept the comics I used to make as a kid. Especially my Whozine thing, which largely consisted of me writing (very) short stories, and then getting my friend Darren Tree to do cool drawings as he was so good at them. Though creative differences (he was bored, wanted to play computer games instead) led to it's demise after only a couple of issues.

[Anthony Williams]

"What a Herbert!" has become common parlance around Williams Towers...

[Si Hunt]

Another good cover for issue 11, although Hungry Dan is frankly just too frightening for the kiddos.



Ah-ha! Dad was getting bored and devoid of ideas! A clunkily written little message here informs readers that Walter has left his adventure camp, and I seem to be taking over drawing of the Herberts. I'm not quite as good as Dad though am I?



Meanwhile, Walter's adventures continued at home:



BEWARE THE BIRO! Goodbye soft pencils and hello blinding blue pen. It gives a satisfying edge to the lines, but is a little harsh to look at.



Could this strip get any more alarming now that Dan has eaten his own Dad? Cannibalism for the kids.

The kid-friendliness continues with Wily the Worm F-ing and Jeffing to open his strip...



Nice to be promised "More Willy next issue". If only eh?

Also be warned that CONTINUITY WAS ARRIVING with the little pointless note about which issue Tubs didn't threaten Wily. This would culminate in a future issue which could only be described as the Fuzz Buzz equivalent of "Warriors of the Deep".

Meanwhile Scooter went for a float...





And, for Andrew, there are those quiz answers! There's actually 12 things! Although counting the spade as two items (Spade and Shovel) is a bit ropey!

Si.

[Si Hunt]

Too....much....blue....biro!

It's issue 12! Note that Dad has jumped the ship and PWL Adventurer is gone for good!



The cover star is a new, rather gentle, strip called "Gent". I'm sure I made up this character for an earlier, abortive comic called Solar which stalled after a single issue. Meanwhile Fuzz Buzz continuity has arrived in force! Two characters take over the front cover to argue about how many issues they've appeared in!

Inside, Pop Fan's Pop Concerts is Michael Jackson, and I'm getting better with the Herberts. Herbert Ogden is quite a gruesome creation!



Meanwhile the Krunch Kids strip just isn't working. After going no-where fast, Bert Banana arrives home for a bomb to blow up Fruity Valley. I was growing rapidly bored of this feature...



I was also evidently bored of Hungry Dan and couldn't be arsed to draw him this week. So, yes, HE'S EATEN HIS OWN STRIP!

Meanwhile half a page is used up with the simple message that there would BE another issue.



Still, at least it's only half a page eh?



Oh dear. With the design flair of a shopping list, a further entire page is allocated to listing the things in the next exciting issue, including an exciting 7 Up drinks poster, Wily's new friend "Bill the Butter" (?) and the return of the Acid Family. A new look is promised! Let's hope there's less blue biro.

Wily goes ballistic with the continuity, spending his strip listing the issues Tub has defeated him in. Fun all the way!



We must be bored of Scooter too, as he gets his marching orders. My characters seem charmingly to live a self-aware life, unlike in real comics, and actually get informed through the post when they're going to stop being drawn...



Si.

[Anthony Williams]

Herbert Ogden is a little scary!

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

I'm not impressed with those quiz answers Si!
I think Fuzz Buzz should be reinstated for one issue only, just so you can print an apology to all those reader who didn't count the spade and shovel as 2 different items!

Actually, judging by the comments on this thread it could be fun to do one last issue which involves all your regular characters!
I bet your drawings are even better now!
You could do a Boris Johnson Herbert or something!!!!!

[Si Hunt]

What a marvellous idea Andrew! I haven't drawn for many years though... I might be even worse!

Si.

[Si Hunt]

It's a new look! This colourful logo wouldn't last very long, probably because it required so many different pens to draw.



There are neatly drawn pictures of all the characters, including, randomly, that sodding Clown from the cover of Issue 3!

Inside, Pop Fan meets pop star Sabrina, and fails to get her autograph. What can you do, she was big in the day.



The tiresome Krunch Kids strip was finally put to bed. "That's it!" this issue declares. "See the Krunch Kids in a later edition of Fuzz Buzz!" it goes on optimistically. THEY WOULD NEVER RETURN!



Above an alarming picture of what seems to be Gent with breasts, in the next issue readers are promised a "free food cupboard card". The free gifts just get more and more exciting!



Finally, there's a new look back page and a so-so Herbert, DK Herbert...



More next time kids!

Si.

[Si Hunt]

Continuity overload! The idea for Issue 14 was to look back at the evolving history of one of the comic' prolific characters, Pop Fan. "How long til he leaves Fuzz Buzz?" gossiped the front page, as if it were Heat.



More space is used up inside, reminding people which page of each issue Pop Fan appeared on (?) and diligently recreating frames from old issues.



It was a pretty good idea, really.



Bit of a lame Wily the Worm this issue (drawing a character with just his legs in the air, as if he's fallen over in astonishment, is a classic 'cheat' way of not having to draw them properly). And it looks like Hungry Dan has buggered off for good too!



I quite like Herbert of the Issue this time, I think I've hit my stride with these after taking over from Dad...

[Si Hunt]

A bit of a landmark issue, Issue 15. It was the trend of comics of the nineteen eighties to "merge"; it enabled flagging publications to close while bolstering other comics by "passing on" their best strips. Around this time Buster, my favourite comic, joined a long lost comic called "Oink!". Buster was like the king of the merging comics, and consumed many others before finally folding itself.

The thrill of Buster joining Oink! and also the rather groovy logo in Number 1 Magazine every week for a gossip column called Whispers inspired a decision - my comic would join another! There was, of course, no such comic as "Whispers", I really just wanted to change the name.



I seem to have also cannibalised other parts of Number 1 issue to make this very creative Wily the Worm strip, one of the best. Lots of effort seems to have gone into this issue. It was also the only appearance in Fuzz Buzz/Whispers of Pop Mogul Pete Waterman



The other reason this issue is special is that it debuted one of my favourite strips. Cool Dude would last until the very end of the comic, and was one of my favourite strips to draw. One thing reading back over these old comics makes me realise is how hard it was to come up with long-lasting new ideas. Time and again new strips debut only to fizzle out, but with a new "fashion" every issue, Cool Dude seemed to inspire almost limitless ideas.



There's promise of a free gift in the next issue. It's free! It's a sticker! It was free in a packet of Ricycles! Amazing.



I quite like the Herbert this issue, he's quite cute. Also there is more info about the "merger"... "basically it's the same mag with a different name", the back page bluntly informs us. Yes, there was no time wasted. From now on, Fuzz Buzz! (or at least the name) was a thing of the past...



Si.

[Simon R]

A punished Wily sounds painful.

[Si Hunt]

Woolworths stars on the cover of "Fuzz Buzz! and Whispers" Issue 16, along with the amazing free Ricycles sticker. I wonder if it still sticks?



Some quite good artwork in this weeks food themed Wily the Worm



Oh this was ropey! On the first count, I have stolen popular 8-bit computer game character Dizzy from Codemasters for a strip (and a very dull looking one at that), on the second I have offered to pirate his computer game for every reader. Cool!



Cool Dude is listening to Phil Collins. He was big back in the day...



And finally, after just a few issues, we put to bed the crap strip Gent. As ever, the character KNOWS that he's been evicted from the comic. And who's his replacement? That's the theme of the strip. Sadly it's something else with zero potential - the rubbish sounding "Kerry Kry". Oh dear!



And the back page yeilds just as much colour as you're going to get. Herbert Goss is of the time though.



Si.

[Si Hunt]

This is the first issue of Buster joining Nipper, an evident influence on the Fuzz Buzz!/Whispers merger!

[Nyder]

Did you enter the Madballs competition Si?

[Si Hunt]

I think I was a bit young to be entering competitions! Also I don't recall ever really wanting one!

Si.

[Simon R]

I had the Mummy Madball from the front cover! I got it Christmas 1987, the same day I got Pyramids of Mars on Cass-Ette which seems appropriate. I called it Maddy. There was seconds of fun to be had sticking a torch under it and lighting it up.

[Si Hunt]

Issue 17 boasts a free poster and a rather well-endowed and weirdly hairstyled woman on the cover:



The Dizzy strip is another "adventure" strip of the sort that (didn't) work so well with the doomed Krunch Kids strip. This issue, A wizard called Merlin (sigh!) turns up and offers up a riddle. And we don't even find out what it is. Exciting!



Meanwhile Cool Dude gets a yo-yo and two whole pages...



Kerry Kry gets off to a fairly rubbish start. I have a feeling this strip won't last that long...



And Spider-Herbert and a Skoda joke round-off a fairly run-of-the-mill issue 17. Let's hope the next issue is more exciting!

[Simon R]

I spot Wily making a cameo on Cool Dude's page.

[Si Hunt]

Well spotted!

Si.

[MacNimon]

I love the free gifts!

These seemingly random gifts were a staple of the British comics of the time, you never really new when you would get one next (unless you were buying a new comic) and so, just like real life, when better than issues 16 & 17?

Great stuff, Si. I hope you've still got plenty to come! And when you run out, I'm another who'd like to see an updated version with new stories...

[Si Hunt]

There is more to come! And then, yes, I have decided to come out of retirement and make a new issue, over 20 years from the last one.

If you'd like to have your letter printed, please post her, beginning "Dear Fuzz Buzz/Whispers..."

Si.

[MacNimon]

Ah, but will it be canon? A sequel, a reboot or a reimagining...?