Snow on the Masthead
No self-respecting comic ever missed out on the chance to do a celebration number, and Christmas was always a time to expect festive issues. Normally, these would appear on the week in which Christmas Day fell, but occasionally you might find some seasonal editions the week before and even the week after Christmas when a few titles went in for New Year numbers.
My first encounters with Christmas comic numbers would have been in the early 60s, when we were bought various nursery titles such as Playhour, Teddy Bear, Pippin and Playland. Not only did the characters have Christmassy adventures (invariably set in snow-covered winter wonderlands), but just to make the comic extra special, the masthead was usually decorated for the season, maybe adding a sprig of holly or two and of course that all-important covering of the white stuff.
I was minded to wonder when this tradition got going – British comic papers don’t go back much beyond the turn of the last century, with one of the earliest being the adult satire Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday. Ally is credited as having the first Christmas comic number back in 1884, but the masthead was devoid of snow – the font was rather too slender and cursive to allow for much of an accumulation in any case. The earliest example of snow on the masthead I’ve been able to find was Jester & Wonder, cover dated 17 December 1910, and illustrated in one of Denis Gifford’s impeccably researched volumes alongside various other examples from the same era, including Firefly, Merry and Bright and Chips. The comic weekly Puck even offered its readers a ‘Grand Xmas Double Number’ in 1913, anticipating the Radio Times’ own festive tradition by fifty-six years.
One comic always seemed to consider itself above such festive frippery – you’d never have known it was Christmas to judge from the covers of TV21. In 1967, the editor caved in and ran to a snowy scene featuring Captain Scarlet’s SPV and a panel wishing readers a Merry Christmas, but it was the only time in the comic’s history: curious considering that Gerry Anderson’s television series often went in for Christmas episodes. Other adventure papers were rather more inclined to adopt a snow-lined masthead if nothing else, with titles like Tiger, Lion, Pow! and Smash! all showing evidence of sub-zero precipitation around their title blocks.
Eagle usually managed to add a few holly wreaths and a sprinkling of snow to its Christmas week cover, even if Dan Dare rarely acknowledged the time of year – he was usually out in space somewhere, and it’s unlikely the Mekon went in for yuletide festivities on Venus.
My first sighting of a Christmas number of a British ‘funny paper’ came in 1970, when my brother and myself were bought the Beano and Dandy. Both of these have survived, and are excellent examples of seasonal comic celebrations, the Beano especially so.
Of the 1970s’ crop of comics, Look-In went all snowy in December 1971 with a Christmassy scene courtesy of cover-artist-in-residence Arnaldo Putzu, but Countdown kept up the austere tradition of TV21: no snow, no holly, nothing. TV Comic did better with its covers, whilst IPC’s titles were guaranteed to have snow and all the trimmings come Christmas week.
Scroll down for a gallery of covers, sourced from my personal collection (click on the images for a larger version):
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