Whispers and Solar! Comic

[Si Hunt]

When I was a child, I was a huge fan of comics and got Buster every week. Being very fond of drawing, it didn't take me long to hit on the idea of launching my very own Comic! I can't remember if I've shared this with you before, but I don't think I have. So here it is - young Si's first attempt at his own comic!

I called my comic - what else - Fuzz Buzz!



Sadly, there is evidence of some retrospective tampering and the first few issues seem to have been hacked about a bit with scissors and pritt stick a few issues later, goodness knows why. But I'm sure this rather fetching cover image is the original one.

Now, Acid House motives were very popular in 1988, which I believe is when this started out, so with no knowledge of the drug culture it was based on I created a family of Acid People for my first strip



I got my Dad to draw a strip for me, so he created, based on an adventure holiday I had recently gone on, PWL Adventurer. Walter was born!



Every good comic had a letters page, and these were usually made up by my Dad or sister, as might be obvious. Also my sister would supply drawings. Dad, too, invented "Herbert of the Month", which was... well, God knows what it was but there was a different one of these 'egg people' to appear every issue.



Short but sweet, that was issue 1! Do let me know if you want to see more, as Fuzz Buzz! was only just beginning.

Si.

[SiHart]

Aww!

[Rob McCow]

That's very cute - if slightly bizarre, as all comics should be! Especially the bald guy with the big foot...

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

This thread has made me feel old!

I was leaving school in 1988 - 'Remembrance of the Daleks' was on as I was starting work!

Your drawings were pretty good; I can't draw as well as that now, let alone when I was a young boy!

I remember the acid faces everywhere too - I suspect at the time that I didn't get the meaning of them either.

I don't think I ever tried a comic, due the afore-mentioned lack of any drawing ability, but I did do a Doctor Who scrap book / project for school.
I had the exclusive scoop for my class when I put in a photo of Nicola Bryant in it with an article saying that she had just been cast as Peri. Nobody else in the class had this up-to-date news yet! - well, it's not like they could look online - well, actually it's not like anyone had a home computer even!
You know, I always wondered why my teacher (who was male) was so interested in that article in particular. I spent ages tracing and colouring in the current (Sid Sutton) Doctor Who logo and all he wanted to do was look at the picture of the new girl!

[Si Hunt]

Thanks for your comments Andrew! Issue 2 was more of the same, only better!



The Acid Family now straddled two pages, and there was the debut of what would become my joint longest running strip, "Pop Fan". Usually occupying a few frames at the foot of a page, and hinging on a different pop-related pun, each issue...



There was a dubious letter from "J. Donovan, Australia" in the letters page, and Herbert of the Month was Sampson Herbert. Once again my sister stepped in with some artwork...



Si.

[MacNimon]

Love it!!! I wish I had as much imagination when I was a kid!

[Si Hunt]

Thanks! Issue 3 had the best, busiest cover yet, and I'm rather fond of this (rather random) picture of a clown.



This issue saw the debut of my other longest-running strip, Wily the Worm. Yes, I know it should be WILLY but I always spelt it Wily and so Wily it stayed. What can I say? I was fooled by Willy from a young age.



What's apparent is that to my young mind all you needed to make a comic strip was a crap pun. Countless strips would contrive just to tell an impossibly bad joke. That was, seemingly, all there was to it! I think the artwork is already improving slightly though.

Meanwhile, PWL Adventurer, now officially called Walter, went sail training in this issue:





I should really have pointed out before now that we almost exclusively sat and drew these comics during our summer holidays, in the Caravan in France, to stave off boredom. That's why many of the strips are about holidays or sunshine!

"Jason D" is back in the mail:



And we don't seem to have a Herbert, so I think I must have forgotton to upload the back page of this issue. I'll see if I can sort that out later!

Si.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

This makes me want to dig out Duster, which is a comic me and my sister made (very) loosely based on Buster, but where the main character was a duster who had to clean furniture.... unfortunately I have no idea where it might be.

[Si Hunt]

"Duster"

Here's that missing back page. Firty Girty Herbert (?!) and an obscure quiz question about top group of the time Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.



Worth waiting for, I'm sure you'll agree.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

Issue 4 is sadly mostly absent from the archives, so we move on next to Issue 5. And the first cover not drawn by me! Dad must have been bored that week, as Walter gets the honour... AND a poster inside.



Dad also decided to give him a girlfriend, the troublesome "Mersey Tunnel"





There was yet another Wily the Worm strip culminating in a crap joke...



And finally a letter from a cat. What an issue!



Incidentally, eventually Pop Fan will acquire a sister. I bet none of you can guess what my young mind decided to call her. Go on, guess.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

Issue 6!



I do like the cover image, of a boy with dangerously sharp hair seemingly barging his way through a greengrocers to get to the new issue of Fuzz Buzz, truly the "Fabest" comic there is!

There was more trouble for Walter with Mersey Tunnel inside:



Herbert of the Issue had been reduced to a different racial stereotype each issue, with "Bruce (Wallaby) Herbert"



Meanwhile a new character, Scooter, was introduced on the back page...



Si.

[Simon R]

It's very Smash Hits in places.

[Si Hunt]

A bit of a first in Issue 7, as Pop Fan sneaks his way onto the front page.



Heaven alone knows what "Milky" was about, but it's probably best not to hazard a guess.

Meanwhile, Dad was clearly running out of ideas and searching for a variation on a theme, so we get...



Letters were a bit lame this issue, and we also patronise the French with this issue's Herbert:



Finally, a competition combined with a strip! Guess where Wily the Worm is. You'd have to go to great lengths to get the answer...

[Si Hunt]

Issue 8

I'm rather fond of this cover; the layout is quite good, don't you think? You've got the Pop Fan strip, and the ghetto blaster towering up there.



There's a rather shallow Wily the Worm strip though. The hilarious punchline is Wily calling Tubs "Fatty". Nice comeback. How do you beat a bully? Slag off his size issues.



Also if you thought you'd finally find out where Wily was hiding last issue, you are wrong. Not only did you have to wait a week, you now pointlessly have to turn to a different page. Why not, like, just tell us now?

Walter visits the actual Mersey Tunnel...



And Ben the Bear's strip is heralded with the rather lame catchphrase "He's Great!". He actually isn't though.



Finally, what would become a bit of a trend... a whole page (that's an 8th of the entire comic) devoted to telling you what's in the next issue. And that means two new strips! Can't wait...

[SiHart]

Did you only have three coloured pencils?

[Rob McCow]

What's apparent is that to my young mind all you needed to make a comic strip was a crap pun.

The Beano thrived on them.

Issue 4 is sadly mostly absent from the archives,

Hush! You'll ruin the negotiations to get it returned!

a whole page (that's an 8th of the entire comic) devoted to telling you what's in the next issue.

Future DWM editors were clearly taking note!

[Anthony Williams]

I am very disappointed in the lack of a Herbert in issue 5...

[Si Hunt]

I'm not putting every page up from each issue, but just for Ant...

That issue Dad decided to insult the whole of Scotland, so it was Jock McHerbert:



And Si, be grateful, the debut of the dreaded biro will make you long for colours again...

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

Hurrah! Herbert of the Issue is definitely my favourite part! Thanks, Si!

[Simon R]

I think it's safe to assume Belinda the bear was named after "Shades of Michaelangelo" singing chanteuse Belinda Carlisle.

[Si Hunt]

There's a sense of excitement around Issue 9, with two new strips beginning. I like the cover strip of the "rock" concert. I think I forgot to say, Mum is drawing the "logo" every issue, I recognise her handwriting.



Meanwhile inside, Wily the Worm is flicked off



You can tell I used my own hand to draw that last frame.



Gran Herbert looks suspiciously like she was modelled on my Grandma!

Oh and there's a free poster! Introducing the Krunch Kids! They're just the Munch Bunch ripped off really arn't they.



This would be a doomed strip that I would tire of very quickly. Olive Olive is a bit lame, but nothing compared to the desperation of Cherylly Cheese Sarnie and Tegan Tea Bag. Fruity Valley sounds like a fun place to live though.



As you can see, it's an "adventure" strip that rumbled on for a few issues but doesn't really have a point. This issue Bert Banana and his bit of totty Paula Plum go on holiday. And that's it. "Tune in" next issue to find out where they went. Ooh, a cliffhanger.



There's a letter from someone called Kumzzulla, who the editor of the comic rather regrettably chooses to refer to as simply "Kum". There would be no more Kum in future issues, sadly.

Now this rather alarming new strip is Hungery Dan (I wish I'd been able to spell Hungary) ("He's a small little man") who could eat literally everything. It's all rather scary.



Si.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Wily the Worm is flicked off

I don't know why, but that just sounds rude!

[Si Hunt]

Maybe to some minds.

SI.

[Simon R]

The Mersey Tunnel theme seems to pop up with alarming regularity. I wonder what Freud would say?

[Si Hunt]

Issue 10!

PWL Adventurer returned to the cover, a lovely picture sketched out by Dad. Kylie and Jason are inside!



Was it that rainy holiday in France where we got marooned in our caravan and had to be pumped out? That may have inspired this PWL Adventurer strip:



So far, I've persuaded Dad to actually draw the whole comic for me. Clever kid eh?

Pop Fan was so popular with me that he would shortly have a second spin-off strip, Pop Fan's Pop Concerts, for which the inspiration never seemed to dry up. Quite like my imagining of the puppet-like Jason in this one!



And this would be a treat for Ant - to celebrate the 10th issue, there's a free poster of all the Herberts to date! A lot of tracing went on here, I fear.



Ooh colour here! Si, take note. I must have got some new pencils. Now, this "Hungery" Dan ("He's small!") strip got me in a bit of trouble with Mum. You'll notice the last frame - originally, and you can still just see it, you could disturbingly see the full outline of a dead cat lodged in Dan's throat. Mum, horrified at the mind of the child she'd brought into the world, demanded it be toned down, so the offending image is shown here erasered out and replace by a less offensive lump.



Meanwhile the Scooter page boasted a not-very-fendish puzzle. Really, is there anything in this picture that DOESN'T begin with "S"?



Si.