Whizzer and Chips was a
British comic which first started in 1969. The comic ran until 1990 when it
merged with a comic called
Buster (a spin off of sorts of
Andy Capp). It was similiar in style to
The Beano and
The Dandy and was a direct competitor to the two being published by a different publisher
Fleetway as opposed to
The Beano and
The Dandy which were published by
DC Thomson. The comic's gimmik was that it was two comics in one, one called
Whizzer and the other called
Chips which was a pull-out section. These comics were supposedly rivals with so called raids (which involved characters from one comic entering the other) between the two being a common occurrence, readers were encouraged to become Whizz-kids or Chip-ites (this referred to which comic they supported) and each comic had a different leader Sid from a strip called
Sid's Snake for Whizzer and Shiner for Chips.
This comic (and its strips) provide examples of:
- A Boy and His X: One of the most common themes for strips, with the 'X' being either an animal, some sort of alien or etheral creature, or a gadget with strange powers.
- Sid's Snake (Sid and his giant snake Slippy)
- Ray Gunn (eponymous boy and his Ray Gun with settings controlled by Billions of Buttons allowing it to do whatever the plot required)
- Minnie's Mixer (see below)
- X-Ray Specs (A boy and his, well, X-Ray Specs)
- Odd Ball (a boy and his sentient shapeshifting magical football...thing)
- All Ghouls School: A strip called Strange Hill which featured a normal teacher with monster students.
- Which was only one of several strips based on the concept of 'weird school where normal teacher vainly tries to carry on as usual'. Others included Showbiz School (all the students are budding superstars who don't care about normal lessons) and Shipwrecked School (stuck on a desert island).
- Arch-Enemy: The two comics in thise two comics in one comic Whizzer was Chips were supposedly archenemies.
- Comics Merger: The comic Knockout merged with Whizzer and Chips in 1973, followed by Krazy in 1978, Whoopee! in 1985 (Which itself had merged with three other comics Shiver and Shake in 1974, followed by Cheeky in 1980 and Wow! in 1983) and finally Scouse Mouse in 1989.
- Enfant Terrible: Sweeny Toddler
- Magical Girlfriend: There was a strip named Bobby's Ghoul, which was about a boy who had a ghost for a girlfriend.
- Merging Machine: There was a strip called "Minnie's Mixer", which played this for laughs. The eponymous device looked like an electric food mixer, but when pointed at two objects in close proximity could fuse them together. Most often used to mix people or pets with objects. Fortunately the process was reversible.
- National Stereotypes: The strip Worldwide School was about a multi-national group of students travelling around the world to all their home countries in turn, accompanied by their accident-prone teacher. About 50% of the time stereotypes were played straight and the other 50% they were referenced and then debunked.
- Recycled In Space: A lot of strips basically consisted of taking whatever was popular on television (especially imported American programmes) and putting a spin on it that was either 1) British, 2) involved children or school to fit the target audience, or 3) both. Some renamings over the years were required to avoid being sued.
- The Six Billion Dollar Boy, later Super Steve, was a British version of The Six Billion Dollar Man as a boy. Made obvious by his civilian identity, Steve Ford (the original being Steve Austin, both Ford and Austin being car companies).
- Shipwrecked School was Gilligan's Island but with schoolkids and their teacher.
- The Bumpkin Billionaires was The Beverly Hillbillies, but set in the UK and with the twist that they were forever trying to get rid of their money, only to be foiled by the Reset Button.
- Underdogs Never Lose: The strip Store Wars, which was about a Corrupt Corporate Executive villain running a huge supermarket and his rivalry with a small traditional corner shop down the road run by Mr Bloggs and his son. Had a similar dynamic to the Wile E Coyote And The Roadrunner cartoons—although you should in theory sympathise with the one who's being targeted, in practice the villain becomes sympathetic just because of the Foregone Conclusion of his Epic Fail every week.
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