TIGER AND JAG 27TH DEC 1969

Tiger comic was still around when I was a kid but I don't remember Jag - a quick WIKI search reveals that Football Family Robinson was it's most popular strip. It was carried over after it's merger into Tiger.











This issue is from 1969 and it struck me as odd that there is no price on the cover - it list all the commonwealth countries in small print with their prices but there is no British price - strange.













The front cover starts off this issues Skid Solo story while the back cover features a poster of the Middlesbrough Football Team.













That was the thing with British comics - they always used to print posters on back covers and many of us would mutilate the comics and decorate our bedroom walls with the posters. This has resulted in many of the comics being very rare. Mind you the UK comics, being printed on the same paper as the average newspaper, were not as sturdy as their American counterparts and by and large have never been considered as collectable.















Roy of the Rovers follows Skid Solo - eventually Roy Race would become the Tiger's favourite character which would prompt his transfer to his own weekly comic. But by then it didn't matter because Tiger had the awesome Billy's Boots. Billy's Boots had come from the comic Scorcher when the title was merged into Tiger. Ironic then that when Tiger folded, Billy's Boots would move to a few other titles before ending up in Roy of the Rovers.













Now Tiger was chiefly a sports comic but that didn't stop them bringing in a little action with the wonderfully named Phillip Driver, the golf playing spy. And Johnny Cougar - who was of course another wrestling comic book star (see previous post) - I'd forgotten about him.
















The comic also contained several humour strips - this issue features Nosey, The Mighty Smiths and Typhoon Tracy. But the emphasis was on sport and there were several posters scattered through the issue - more reason for kids to mutilate those comics.














These days the British comic book scene is a mere fraction of what it was. Only a few old stalwarts hang in there, Beano, 2000AD, Dandy and of course the excellent Commando series.















It's a pity really as when I was a kid the comic book scene was really vibrant and there was always one title or another waiting to tempt you to part with your last pennies. We may have not had shoes on our feet or arses in our trousers but we had an infinite choice in comic books.
















We also had bedroom walls plastered with posters and a pile of ripped comic books.