Buster was a British comic which began publication in 1960, originally published by IPC Magazines Ltd under the companies comic division Fleetway, then by Egmont UK Ltd under the same imprint until its closure in 2000. Despite missing issues due to industrial action during its run, the comic published 1,902 issues in total. The comic carried a mixture of humour and adventure strips, featuring the title character Buster and a host of other characters.
Description
The title character, whose strip usually appeared on the front cover, was Buster himself. He was originally billed as Buster: Son of Andy Capp; Andy Capp is the lead character of the eponymous Daily Mirror newspaper strip, and Buster wore a similar flat cap to reinforce the connection. In early issues Buster often referred to his father, and Andy was seen in the comic. Buster's mum was often referred to by name, and was consistently drawn to resemble Andy's wife Flo. The connection with Andy Capp was gradually forgotten over time, and Andy no longer appeared in the strip by the mid-1960s. From 1965 the strip instead featured Buster in two long-running series: as lead character in the extremely durable "Buster's Diary" and in "Buster's Dream World". A Swedish edition of Buster began in 1967. At first, most of the material was taken from the UK edition; but as time went on the magazine produced more and more original material. See Buster for more information. In its final years, the comic mostly consisted of reprints from either Buster itself or from the twelve comics which had merged with it over its 40-year run. The final strip was written by the last cartoonist for Buster, J. Edward Oliver. The last page of that final issue also revealed how every story in the comic ended, typically in a humorous reversal of the obvious, or expected, manner.
Special
In March 2009, Egmont UK announced they were intending to publish four one-off specials, celebrating the comics Roy of the Rovers, Battle, Buster and Misty. To mark this event, the website BusterComic.co.uk held a poll in which users could vote for their favourite Buster strip. The results were released in May 2009, with "X Ray Specs" topping the poll. This was passed onto Egmont, and the special was due for release on 16 September 2009. Misty and Buster then had their release dates swapped, and the Buster special was finally released on 9 December 2009. On 19 March 2012, the Royal Mail launched a special stamp collection to celebrate Britain's rich comic book history. The collection featured The Beano, The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD. In August 2016 Rebellion Purchased The IPC/Fleetway comics back catalogue of British comics and characters and in July 2017 published Buster classic The leopard from Lime St.With other Buster strips Marney the fox to follow in October and Faceache in December 2017,with other comics characters from the pages of Scream also going to be published in what is hopefully the resurgence of British Comics.
Absorbed titles
As occurred with other British comics such as The Dandy, many other comics merged with Buster over the years, in consequence of which Buster inherited some of their characters:
Radio Fun - which itself had merged with The Wonder.
Film Fun - which itself had merged with Picture Fun, Kinema Comic, Film Picture Stories, Illustrated Chips and Top Spot.
The Big One
Giggle
Jet
Cor!!
Monster Fun
Jackpot
School Fun
Nipper
Oink!
Whizzer and Chips - which itself had previously absorbed Whoopee!, Krazy, Scouse Mouse and Knockout
Closed story-lines
Here is a list of how the strips came to an end in the final issue:
Benny Bones of Lazy Bones tells the doctor that he is suffering from insomnia.
Tony Broke is happy because his parents have won 90 squillion pounds on the National Lottery, making Tony and his family mega-rich. Ivor Lott has broken down in tears because his father has lost all of his money investing in the Buster comic, making Ivor and his family very poor. Thus, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke have swapped places, with Tony being rich and Ivor being poor.
Melvyn of Melvyn's Mirror breaks the mirror, resulting in seven years' bad luck, but in Mirrorland, it's the opposite, but unfortunately, it also means that Melvyn will never see his family again and will be stuck in Mirrorland forever.
Bobby of Bobby's Ghoul has grown old, so his ghoul-friend breaks up with him.
Watford Gapp can't think of a word rhyming with "oblige", so he cannot finish his poem.
Fuss Pot is too fussy to appear in the comic.
Ray of X-Ray Specs has his specs taken back by I.Squint, the optician because he says that he only lent Ray the specs in 1975, and that he couldn't keep them.
Jon and Suzy of Double Trouble have started to like each other. Also Sweeny Toddler says that he is going to like everyone from now on.
Buster takes off his cap to reveal a Dennis the Menace-style haircut.
The Millennium Bug affects Vid Kid's remote, resulting in the entire universe being turned off.
School Fun was a British comic book magazine that ran from the issues dated 15 October 1983 to 26 May 1984, when it merged with Buster. As the name implies, the comic's "gimmick" was that every strip revolved around school.
