FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (FINAL DAY)

I will conclude this series of blogposts with two Buster stories by Nadal and a busy three-pager from Smash! 1969 annual. I hope you have enjoyed reading the various football strips over the last 3+ weeks, just as I have enjoyed searching for them! I may repeat this exercise in the future, if I find an interesting theme :) 

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 23)

Here’s the second batch of examples of football strips by Ken Reid.

From SCORCHER dated 14th March, 1970

From SCORCHER dated 17th October, 1970

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 4th November, 1972

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 9th December, 1972

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 27th October, 1973

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 17th August, 1974

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 21st September, 1974

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 29th July, 1972

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 22)

Flag flies half-mast over my house because the team that I supported dropped out yesterday. Next time maybe... Hats off to super-Balotelli!

The next two football posts will be dedicated solely to those rarely-seen and nearly forgotten Ken Reid footy strips from SCORCHER (and later SCORCHER AND SCORE) in the period from 1970 until 1974 - Sub, Football Forum, Manager Matt, Hugh Fowler, The Soccernauts, Harry Hammertoe, Jimmy Jinks and Triptoe Triers.

From SCORCHER dated 31st January, 1970

From SCORCHER dated 22nd August, 1970

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 24th June, 1972

From SCORCHER AND ASCORE dated 30th September, 1972

From SCORCEHR AND SCORE dated 28th October, 1972

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 13th October, 1973

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 20th October, 1973

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 24th August, 1974

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 21)

Having won their fortune in the football pools, Bumpkin Billionaires were great fans of the game, willing to pay any price to see their favourite team. Followed by another two nice examples of the Match of the Week from SHIVER AND SHAKE. All by Mike Lacey. The bottom one is particularly interesting because the opponents are Mirth Shaking Inventions and Creepy Creations. Both were reader participation features in Shiver and Shake. The former were humorous inventions drawn to readers’ ideas, and the latter were comical monster creatures drawn by Ken Reid based on sketches submitted by the young readers.

From SHIVER AND SHAKE dated 8th September, 1973 (No. 27)

From SHIVER AND SHAKE dated 23rd February, 1974 (No. 51)

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 20)

I recently stumbled across this double pager of Little Plum in the Beano No. 929 (7th May, 1960) and it caused me to remember the episode of General Nitt and His Barmy Army from WHAM! No. 63 (28th August, 1965) that was included in one of my earlier football posts. I put the two side by side and the result was this weird example of a SPOT THE DIFFERENCE puzzle… 

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 19)

Millions of people around the Globe are crazy about football but surely there are also those who are less than keen on the game. Here are three nice episodes of Hugh Fowler – the Man Who Hates Football from SCORCHER AND SCORE, illustrated by Ken Reid.

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 28th August, 1971

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 18th September, 1971

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 9th October, 1971

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 18)

England has now dropped out of EURO 2012, unlike Manager Matt and his Mudchester United who didn’t lose a single match during their 1971 tour of Europe.  Read on to see how they tackled Spain and then were triumphant in the finals...

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 3rd July, 1971

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 31st July, 1971

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 17)

With England now warming up to play against Italy later this afternoon, it is appropriate to remember Ken Reid’s Manager Matt and his Mudchester  Eleven and see how they tackled their Italian opponents back in 1971. From the perspective of this day and age, the set looks somewhat racist and it is difficult to imagine one like this being included in a modern comic.

Now that I come to think of it, in the light of the recent banana incident during Italy's European Championship game against Croatia, the Frankie Stein episode in one of my previous football posts also comes across as racist.

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 17th July, 1971

I know I said my football posts were going to focus on humour comics but as I was searching my collection for interesting examples to show on this blog, I found an issue of TIGER AND HURRICANE with an episode of Roy of the Rovers and most importantly – a rough copy of a letter written by a young reader and long forgotten inside the paper. The boy was so upset with the referee’s decision in that week’s installment that he had to sit down and write this angry note to the editor. Isn’t it sweet to see how strongly the kid (whose name I have whited out) felt for his favourite characters...