British Comics 1970s and 1980s – as promoted in print advertising

Posted on August 16, 2019 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

2000 AD advert. 1988.

A TVTA Special

TVTA is pleased to present a selection of 1970s and 1980s British comic book titles as seen in print adverts found in… 1970s and 1980s British comic book titles 🙂

My memories of British comics.

Many of the titles featured in this post I grew with up. I have fond memories of saving up my pocket money for the weekly visit to the newsagent, and then the Sunday visit to our Grandparents’ house where there would always be a bag of sweets and a pile of comics waiting for us kids as treats. My parents split up when I was young, so when Dad visited this was yet another occasion to receive a pile of comics. As a supplement to the weekly and monthly comic books, Mom always bought us a number of hard cover annuals each Christmas.

Free Gift in this Week’s Issue !!

The kids in the grove where we lived were just as comic-mad, and we had regular get-togethers to share our comics and marvel at the free gifts we had received. Indeed, many of the adverts in today’s post are promotional adverts for free gifts included with the title. Gifts ranged from stickers to toys, badges to posters, and special offers made in conjunction with many popular sweets, crisps and chocolate brands of the day.

One good memory I have regarding comics is the day I accompanied my mom to the weekly launderette run. Completely bored, I was mooching about the premises when I found a Fifty Pence pence piece sticking out from under one of the machines. To a kid in the late 1970s 50p was not to be sniffed at. My mom was a good sport and allowed me to keep it, so I popped next door to the newsagents and came back with comics. Another good memory is of a friend having a clear-out of his stuff, and he gave me about a hundred issues of his old Beano and Dandy comics which kept me in happy reading spirits for months. Another good memory is of rainy days at school when at breaktime we stayed indoors and played toys and games or… read comics. Looking back there was many a good time spent with comics, and it’s been fun browsing some of those old titles again in search of adverts.

So, onto the ads, and there’s a little bit of everything here from Star Wars to Buster to Victor to Dan Dare, Spider-Man and Hulk, Tiger, Roy of the Rovers, 2000 AD and Doctor Who!

Enjoy.

Star Wars Weekly. 1978.

Victor Summer Specials. Victor. 1975.

Wow! Eagle 17 Jul.y 1982.

Buster. Eagle 19 Feb 1983.

Rowntree’s Fruit Gums promotion with Girl. Eagle 31 July. 1982.

Red Dagger. 1980.

2000 AD as advertised by Lemmy. 2000 AD. 1987.

A Close Encounter for Dan Dare. Eagle. 1983.

Doctor Who Weekly. 1980.

Playmobil figures promotion with Buster and Whizzer and Chips. 2000 AD. 1983.

MASK vs VENOM. 2000 AD. 1987.

Battle and Whoopee! Eagle 1983.

Roy of the Rovers. Eagle 12 Feb. 1983.

Bubblicious promotion with Tiger. Eagle 9 Apri.l 1983.

Spider-Man and Hulk.1980.

The Empire Strikes Back Weekly. 1980.

: Forces in Combat. Star Wars Weekly. 1980.

: Forces in Combat. Star Wars Weekly. 1980.

: Roy of the Rovers. Eagle 10 July. 1982.

: Panini football stickets 1985 in Roy of the Rovers and Tiger. 1985.

: Eagle Comics is one year old. 19 March. 1983.

: KP Skips comics promotion. Eagle 28 July. 1984.

: Action Force free figure promotion with Eagle, Tiger and Battle Action Force. 1984. UK.

: Judge Dredd free poster. 1983. UK.

: 2000 AD. Eagle. 1984.

: 2000 AD ad. Eagle N°156 1985.

: Conan. Starburst. 1980.

: The Beano. 1988.

: Panini cricket. UK. 1983.

: Panini cricket. UK. 1983.

: Spider-Man comics. 1984.

: Doctor Who Weekly. 1979.

: Doctor Who Weekly. 1979.

: Doctor Who Weekly. 1980.

: Transformers Weekly. 1985.

: Marvel UK’s ‘The Ladies Are Coming .1980.

: Eagle advert. Eagle 154 1985.

: Action Force mini comic. Eagle N°23 July 1983.

: Battle Action Force. Eagle and Scream! N°138. 1984.

: Battle Action Force. Eagle N°155. 1985.

: Frankie Steen. 1980.

: Shiver and Shake. 1980.

Battle Action Force. Eagle N°156. 1985.

Frantic. 1980.

2000 AD. UK. 1980.

Thank you for finding Fifty Pence pieces with us 🙂

Post updated June 2020 with new images.

19 thoughts on “British Comics 1970s and 1980s – as promoted in print advertising”

graycope14 on November 5, 2019 at 00:45 said:

LOVE this, TVTA. I completely missed it due to being over in the UK in August. So many great adverts and covers; oh, the memories! I had a friend whose mum worked for DC Thomson and I used to get free copies of some of their titles. Happy days with The Beano and The Dandy. Lucky me!

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- The Vintage Toy Advertiser on November 5, 2019 at 08:10 said:
  
  Hi Gray, that’s so cool you had a connection to DC… imagine all those free copies of comics!! I was lucky as several members of my family always got us comics to read – plus the Christmas-time annuals! Whenever I see an old annual now I get a pleasant nostalgia rush as I can’t help but associate them with Christmas mornings as a kid 🙂
  
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Resa on August 17, 2019 at 22:38 said:

So, I’ve not been happy with the fabrics and bits I’ve collected to go with Barbie’s lime green shoes.
I found a 1970 vintage “Shiaparelli” tie in my collection. The print is small enough, and it’s got the label still on it. The lining is shocking pink. Elsa Shaiparelli is credited with creating the colour – shocking pink. Chanel & Shiaparelli were in direct competition between the 2 wars. she collaborated with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. She did the shoe hat.
This is so exciting. I have an angle brewing for my Barbie Art Gowns post.
I just checked, and my Barbie folder is all intact w/ the pics from your posts.
I painted a bit of acrylic paint on a bit the sole of 1 shoe. Maybe I can paint them?

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- The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 18, 2019 at 10:02 said:
  
  Exciting! Seems that angle is coming along now – and yes acrylic paint will cover those lime green shoes well.
  Did you know that Salvador Dali designed the famous Chupa Chups lollypop logo (still is use today) ? … https://thevintagetoyadvertiser.org/2017/08/22/non-toy-ad-tuesday-dalis-chupa-chups/ … maybe you could incorporate a shocking pink Chupa Chup into one of your finished glam photos as a sneaky reference, now you mention shocking pink i’m thinking of candy floss, bubblegum, and of course Barbie is the ultimate rocker of pink!! 🙂
  
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  - Resa on August 18, 2019 at 20:24 said:
    
    I will be incorporating the shocking pink lining, embossed with the Shiaparelli logo into the design…somehow, or … working on that! 2 of the Barbie outfits I’ve collected from you are pink… one soft, one almost shocking! I will be checking your Barbie posts before posting, in case I missed something. Of course, it’s all gowns!
    
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Resa on August 17, 2019 at 22:13 said:

That was a sweet peek into your youth. It’s a fab collection, and news to me that there was a Spider-Woman and a She Hulk. I really enjoyed this post! -Resa 😀 x

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- The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 18, 2019 at 09:49 said:
  
  Thanks Resa 🙂 I have a few ads now for Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, always good to see those.
  
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Paul Bowler on August 17, 2019 at 14:41 said:

What a treasure trove of UK comic adverts. These bring back many happy memories, especially the ads for Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Spider-Man and Hulk weekly. 🙂

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- The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 18, 2019 at 09:47 said:
  
  Thanks Paul, was a good memory blast putting this post together 🙂
  
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For Tyeth on August 17, 2019 at 09:18 said:

Hi TVTA, I can’t believe how much we sort of mirror each other.Let me explain, my mother used to help out in our local launderette and I would get dragged there during the summer holidays while she worked. Luckily there was a newsagents on the same parade of shops and I sometimes went and purchased a comic or sweets to enjoy. Well one day I actually picked up the first issue of the Star Wars comic series. It said Star Wars Chapter 4 on the cover but it was issue one which I didn’t understand, but the comic matched the film. The Launderette had a darkened side room that had two arcade slot machines in it and I sat in there reading the comic.

I also leaned how to operate and fix Husqvarna washing machines and tumble dryers!
Great post as always, thanks!

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- The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 17, 2019 at 11:06 said:
  
  Hi FT, that’s a cool story of picking up your first Star Wars comic while on “launderette duties” 🙂 Extra cool it had some arcade machines too! I remember a few of the fish and chips shops by us had arcade slot machines, and also some of our local indoor markets. Good days eh!
  
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  - For Tyeth on August 17, 2019 at 11:10 said:
    
    Yes, too many hours playing 3D Tank Commander, Space Invaders and lucky me I had access to the Star Wars arcade game too! (Oh and a bag full of playing tokens – though I only needed one token to complete Star Wars ;D )
    
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  - The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 17, 2019 at 11:32 said:
    
    Oh yeah the tokens. Space Invaders was brilliant to play. I remember popping a good many coins into Sega’s Altered Beast slot machine while waiting for the fish and chips to cool down.
    
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  - For Tyeth on August 17, 2019 at 11:52 said:
    
    I was quite lucky because the slot machines came with a bag of tokens so it didn’t cost me a thing to play, when I ran out I had the key to open the cashbox and take them back out. And my Sega go to game was Sega Rally (obviously much later in life) as I have a Sega Saturn and played S Rally and Wipeout quite a bit.
    
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Spira on August 17, 2019 at 08:20 said:

Now, that’s the beating heart of the TVTA journey, ain’t it?
And I’m talking about the material and memories both.
Hats off.

I like the redesigned blog / logo ( maybe it’s there for awhile but I’ve just noticed 🙂
Btw,I owed to you a reply to your latest comment – which I did yesterday.

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- The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 17, 2019 at 08:31 said:
  
  Thank you so much my friend 🙂 Yep, seeing those ads triggered some fun memories. I only changed the site look last week, thanks for noticing it’s refreshment 🙂
  Oh, I read your comment from your last art piece last night when I got back from work and loved it loved it loved it. I owe you a reply to that which is coming soon, plus 2 well-deserved ‘likes’ ! Speak soon mate!
  
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  - Spira on August 17, 2019 at 08:36 said:
    
    You owe nothing mate. The only reason I said so was because I wasn’t sure if you would ‘ve notified, since it was awhile back.
    And please, pretty please, with a caramel 🍎 on a stick, leave that post “unliked”.It emphasizes the truth of your words.
    
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  - The Vintage Toy Advertiser on August 17, 2019 at 08:49 said:
    
    You won me over with the caramel, yum! I’ll leave it unliked 🙂
    Off-topic, but isn’t ‘caramel’ such a nice-sounding word? Also ‘cellar door’ is cited as one of the most beautiful-sounding word combos – Tolkien and Lewis loved it, but it only came to my attention via the film Donnie Darko. Lately I love the sound of the word ‘chandelier’.
    
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  - Spira on August 17, 2019 at 09:00 said:
    
    Haha… some words materialize their meaning. Didn’t know about the cellar door.
    I know what you mean about loving the sound of Words; to experience one not intellectually but aesthetically when it hits that sweet spot.
    
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