WHAT WERE YOUR FAVOURITE FEATURES?

Anyone who buys any of the current PANINI/MARVEL mags

will know that, occasionally, there are no letters pages because of

a paucity of epistles from which to publish.  It's always been the case

that the proportion of readers who write in to a comic is a relatively tiny

one, which often made me wonder about British comics once including a

small 'favourites' coupon for readers to fill in and send with their letters

or jokes.  After all, there was no guarantee that the strips listed were

representative of the wider readership, so it was hardly an ideal

way of evaluating which strips were really the most popular.

Did you ever fill in one of those coupons and send it in to your

weekly comic?  Cast your mind back to childhood and see if you can

recall what your favourite strips were.  Here's a list of weeklies to jog

your memory:  BUSTER, WHAM!, SMASH!, POW!, WHIZZER &

CHIPS, COR!!, WHOOPEE!, WOW! - or any others you can think of.

Just think - the choice of the few determined the reading options of the

many.  Hardly fair perhaps, but how else can one even try to gauge the

popularity of a comic's contents?  Never sent one in?  Perhaps if you

had, that strip you liked which disappeared might've continued if

the editor had known more readers liked it.  H'mm.

  Okay, thinking caps on, typing fingers at the ready.   

Posted in: Cartoons