Cover date 6 April 1985: Buster
A colourful front cover for this issue of Buster, towards the end of the wonderful Reg Parlett’s long run as principal illustrator of the comic’s titular tittermonger.
The cover date was 6 April 1985, but the comic would have first been available the previous Monday, 1 April.
Reg was one of IPC’s most distinguished artists, having joined Amalgamated Press, one of its predecessor companies, in 1923. As well as Buster, Reg was regular artist for a few years on Billy Bunter for the original Knockout comic, and several other much-loved British strips.
Buster had also been around for a while. Over 40 years it was the lead title in mergers with 12 other comics, plundering loads of new strips.
School Fun was the 9th comic to join Buster, and For a while had its own ‘comic within a comic’ section. The cover below features School Team drawn by Vic Neill.
School life in the mid-80s wasn’t much of a laugh as I remember it, but School Fun did its best with weekly education-themed funnies including B. Ware Caretaker (art Steve Bright), Teachers United(Jim Watson), School Belle (Tom Paterson) and Top of the Class (Nigel Edwards).
Top of the Class had started out in 1979 in Jackpot, and became part of the Buster roster when those two comics merged in early 1982. By 1985 it seems to have been conveniently grouped with the other school-themed strips in the centre of the comic.
