Trisha Shetty (Editor)

The Hotspur

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Publisher
  
D. C. Thomson & Co.

Publication date
  
2 September 1933

The Hotspur The Hotspur 671 The Monster from the Deep Issue User Reviews

Similar
  
Warlord, Bunty, Sparky, The Topper, Starblazer

Vintage ephemera the hotspur comic no 1055 january 26th 1957


The Hotspur was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in 1959, initially called the New Hotspur, and ceased publication in January 1981.

Contents

The Hotspur The Hotspur 314 Billy Fish Issue

Vintage ephemera the hotspur comic no 1071 may 18th 1957


The original Hotspur

The Hotspur The Hotspur 424 The Iron Teacher Speaks Issue

The Hotspur was launched on 2 September 1933 as a story paper, the last of the 'Big Five'. The first issue came with a black mask as a free gift and contained an offer for an electric shock machine:

The Hotspur Absurdly awesome covers from 1930s boys39 magazine The Hotspur

It's a great prize, absolutely harmless and will give hours of fun. Just watch your pal's face when you give him his first electric shock!

The Hotspur The Hotspur Wikipedia

Thomson's 'Big Five' papers were extremely successful; the name was used by both readers and the industry. In 1939 the company advertised combined weekly sales of over a million for the group; the first issue of The Hotspur sold over 350,000 copies. The Hotspur specialised in school stories; its Red Circle School stories replaced the public school stories in The Gem and The Magnet as reader favourites.

The Hotspur The Hotspur Volume Comic Vine

Like other British children's publications, The Hotspur was published weekly, except for the Second World War and its aftermath, when as a result of paper rationing it published fortnightly, alternating with The Wizard. The original Hotspur story paper published 1197 issues, the last on 17 October 1959.

Notable characters and series

  • Red Circle School, a public school with pupils from all over the world.
  • Bill Sampson, also known as The Wolf of Kabul, an agent of the British Intelligence Corps, first introduced in The Wizard, appeared in illustrated format in The Hotspur.

    • The New Hotspur

    It relaunched in comic format as the New Hotspur on 24 October 1959, a week after the original series ceased publication, and ran for another 1110 issues until being incorporated into The Victor on 24 January 1981. The new format contained comic strips as opposed to the old text story format. The word "new" in the title was dropped with issue #174. There had been several mergers during the 1970s: with The Hornet in 1976, and with The Crunch in 1980. In January 1981 The Hotspur finally merged with The Victor.

    Strips included:

  • Coral Island
  • Dozy Danny - eleven-year-old Danny Lorimer is constantly nodding off during the school day, as his stepfather forces him to get up at four o'clock in the morning every day to make coal briquettes.
  • Jonny Jett
  • King Cobra - journalist Bill King transforms into the UK's very own high-tech superhero. Drawn by Ron Smith.
  • Spring Heeled Jack
  • Union Jack Jackson, a British Royal Marine serving with the US Marine Corps in the Pacific campaign during World War II, later in Warlord.
  • X-Bow

    • References

    The Hotspur Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA