Beezer

Beezer may also refer to NHL goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck.

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, making it twice as big as other comics. It shrank 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 (1957-2003).

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 (Boss, Fingers and Knucklehead) always on the run or bungling an attempted crime. Drawn by Malcolm Judge
• Barney's Barmy Army
• 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
• 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 - a generic resourceful/mischievous tomboy
• My Pal, Ropey
• Paw, Maw and Porky
• Plug (from Plug)
• Pop, Dick and Harry - the original cover story about twins trying to outsmart their father. In every issue.
• Saucy Sue
• Scrapper
• Smiffy
• Space Patrol
• Spacewacker - name of the family spaceship. The family started out with the 'Bushwacker', which was a 'land yacht' capable of floating, travelling under jet engine power or rolling along on land under sail. Later series developed the Bushwacker into a red helicopter type-flying, floating, submersible. Owned and used by an Australian family of three - a father and two children (who never grew older despite various versions of Bushwacker and many years of publication). The storyline moved on with the 'Spacewacker' that the family travelled to other worlds in. It was a large bubble fronted vehicle that travelled on rollers.
• 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

Famous creators

Well known creators who worked for Beezer include:

• Leo Baxendale
• Gordon Bell
• Paddy Brennan
• David Law
• Joe McCaffrey
• Tom Paterson
• Bill Ritchie
• Dudley D. Watkins

References

• Beezer on 26pigs.com

See also: List of DC Thomson publications