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...

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 13)

I find it interesting that many DC Thomson characters were so broke that the majority of  football strips I managed to find in my collection show their efforts to see a match for free… 

From BEANO No. 896 (19th September, 1959)

From BEANO No. 750 (1st December, 1957)

From BEANO No. 765 (16th March, 1957)

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 11)

My last two football posts contained back covers of JAG with official team photos. Below is a take on the “genre” by Ken Reid. The Were’Wolves’ United was the last in the long-running series of World-Wide Weirdies monster pin-ups in Whoopee!  It appeared in the issue dated 21st October, 1978. The only other football-themed World-Wide Weirdies poster (The Mid-‘Freak’ Match) was in Whoopee! issue dated 24th April, 1978. 

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 5)

Yesterday’s match between England and France in the Ukraine ended in a draw but France didn’t get so lucky when Mudchester United challenged them for the European Cup in this episode of Manager Matt from Scorcher by Ken Reid. Mudchester United also tackled two or three other teams during their 1971 tour of Europe but I’ll save those episodes for later – perhaps the teams will meet in EURO 2012 later in the tournament...

From Scorcher cover dated 19th June, 1971

Here’s another Beano with a football-themed cover that I managed to find:

I just love those scrumptious BUSTER football covers by Nadal and there’s enough of them to last until the end of the month!

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 3)

Angel Nadal drew a lot of football-themed Buster covers. Here is a nice sample:

Sub was one of the eight humour series in SCORCHER by Ken Reid from 1970 until 1974. The sample below is from the period when his Odhams career had ended and his work for IPC Magazines was limited to football strips in SCORCHER, until he started drawing Faceache in JET in the spring of 1971.

From Scorcher dated 7th March, 1970

I managed to find very few issues of The BEANO with football-themed covers, here is one by Dudley Watkins:

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 2)

From Scorcher cover dated 26th September, 1970