6th September 1986 (#871)

Today it's time to look at the issue of Whizzer and Chips dated 6th September 1986. The cover star is, it as had been for about a year (on and off with Sid's Snake), Sweeny Toddler, with lovely artwork by Tom Paterson. I just love the way it is Sweeny's mum who is hiding behind the armchair in the first panel, and not Sweeny. Great stuff and it is continued over the page.

On the chat pages there are interesting announcements from both Sid and Shiner, both asking readers to send in any birthday wishes they wanted printing in the November issues. Readers could write in and messages would be written in the strips, on walls and fences etc. - a fantastic feature that makes Whizzer and Chips that little bit better than other comics (in my opinion, of course!). It also shows how far ahead they worked on the comics, roughly two months (I believe it was about six weeks in advance).

Be sure to read the letter by Shiner's announcement as well; one reader had written in asking which characters had appeared in the very first Chips section from 1969, and Shiner lies by including himself in the list when in truth he didn't appear until issue two.

Moving on, the Sweet Tooth strip had an interesting script, I can't help but feel that whoever wrote it might have been suggesting something here - after all, Sweet Tooth had been in the comic since 1972 and coming up with new ideas must be tricky!

There's plenty more to show but not enough room to fit it al in, but I can't miss out this Phil Fitt strip. From a great (ahem) pun in the first panel to a guest appearance from Mike Lacey, this strip's got it all!

I'll wrap up this post with this nice full-colour advert for The Best of Monthly comics for Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee. Buster didn't have one yet; it arrived in May 1987.