Beezer

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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, meaning it was twice as big as other comics. It shrank down 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 Annual (1957-2002).

[edit] Strips

Strips in The Beezer included:

Adrian the Barbarian
Baby Crockett - supposedly a baby version of Davy Crockett, but in practice a modern-day 'cute toddler' strip
The Badd Lads - a group of three criminals always on the run or bungling an attempted crime. Drawn by Malcolm Judge
Barney's Barmy Army
Big Bulbhead and his incredible exploding Bulbhead
Beefy Dan The Fast-Food Man
Black Bun - a rabbit stealing cabbages from a farmer
The Banana Bunch - a group of mischievous schoolchildren similar to The Bash Street Kids
Cap'n Hand and his merry mutineers - a pirate captain and his endlessly rebellious crew
Colonel Blink The Short-Sighted Gink
Fizzy Grinner and his box of silly hats
Geezer
General Jim
Giant Swollen Bollock Face
Ginger
The Gobbles - a group of vultures always on the lookout for food. Similar to The Three Bears
Hugh's Zoo
Hungry Hoss - a horse owned by Joe the cowboy robber who couldn't stop eating.
The Iron Eaters - sponges from space that ate iron, causing all kinds of problems
Little Mo (comics) - a generic resourceful/mischievous tomboy
Little Matty Morgtown and his magical banana bulb - always ordering pizza to his home, Snoddington Manor which he shares with Tiny Tiny Freddy Fizz-Pants
My Pal, Ropey
Paw, Maw and Porky
Plug (from Plug)
Pop, Dick and Harry
Saucy Sue
Scrapper
Smiffy
Space Patrol
Spacewacker - name of the family spaceship. The family started out with the 'Bushwacker', a red helicopter type-flying, floating, submersible. Owned and used by a family (Australian?) of three - a father and two children. The storyline moved on with the 'Spacewacker' that the family travelled to other worlds in. A large bubble fronted vehicle that travelled on rollers.
The Badd Lads
The Banana Bunch
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
The Munchers
The Numskulls - small "people" living in your head, each working in their own department: brain, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth
Tommy's Toybox - Tommy finds a toolbox from space and builds all kinds of interesting things
True Brit
Tuff and Tiny
Twitt Hall
The Wallies of Winkle Street
Young Sid The Copper's Kid