Saturday comics: Second weekend of May 1981 — GREAT NEWS FOR ALL READERS!

May 14

May 14 Saturday comics: Second weekend of May 1981

Saturday Comics, Tammy, Girl, Jinty, 2000AD, Battle, Roy of the Rovers, Tiger, Buster, Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee!, Jackpot

Saturday comics! It’s 42 years since the second Saturday of May 1981, when these comics were stacked on the shelves of the newsagents of Britain. Here’s a look at the world in which we lived back then.

Buck’s Fizz had won Eurovision and Tom Baker became Peter Davison. Charles & Di were getting wed and Ossie was on his way to Wembley. To me, 10yo and on my way to secondary, all was new and exciting.

As Jackpot’s The Winners would find, things ain’t always as they first appear.

I didn’t register pit closures, unemployment of 2.5 million, the New Cross fire, or the Troubles. I had no idea that Britain would become a nastier, more divided and unequal society in Thatcher’s 80s.
Perhaps the owner of this Jinty comic had an inkling. Mopey girl tut tut.

The preceding week had seen the death and funeral of Bobby Sands following a hunger strike lasting 66 days. Nine more Irish republican prisoners would also die over the next four months.

This Whoopee! cover is a jarring counterpoint but typifies Irish stereotyping in the UK.

Anticipation for the forthcoming Royal Wedding was at fever pitch. Jackpot, Buster, Whizzer & Chips and Whoopee! offered a cutting-edge mini TV in a design-a-card competition.

This was simultaneously an age of new tech for the home. The ZX81 had launched just two months earlier.

The Rubik’s Cube was at the height of its popularity in the UK and US, and spawned various spin-off products including the clunkily twisty Rubik’s Snake – which bore more than a passing resemblance to Sid’s Snake Slippy in Whizzer and Chips.

Summer was on its way and a few of this week’s comics carried a promotion for Wall’s ice cream range. Who remembers Funny Feet, Funny Faces, The Finger and Dracula? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k05F76K4lEY

Deadly Hedley, Vampire Detective, provided brought chilly chuckles to the cover of Buster.

Artists: Martin Baxendale (Deadly Hedley), Reg Parlett (Buster’s Diary)

‘I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention.’ Adam and the Ants’ Stand and Deliver was No1, the very spirit of ‘81 swagger and strut.
The dandy airman on the cover of Battle Action was Johnny Red, Brit pilot flying for the Russians in WW2.

Also flying up the Top Ten this week were Stars on 45, Shakin’ Stevens (You Drive Me Crazy), The Nolans (Attention to Me) and Spandau Ballet (Muscle Bound).

The 13th issue of Girl was on sale – a magazine-style comic featuring photo-strips as well as drawn stories.

This week’s Tammy gives us a snapshot of life for girls in the UK, with a fashion page, horoscopes (looking good for Taurus, Leo, Virgo, Libra and Pisces) and a letters page including pen pal ads with full addresses for the young correspondents – unthinkable today!

On Saturday 9 May, Spurs and Man City played the 100th FA Cup final. This game had a glamour about it. Ardiles and Hoddle, Power and Reeves, Chas and Dave.
No such glitz for Roy of the Rovers: Melchester needed to win by five goals to avoid relegation.

The final was a tight 1-1 draw. In my copy of the previous week’s ROTR I found this record of the game, filled in by the original owner - a moment captured in time. I love the little cartoon drawn at the top of the page.
Spurs (and Ricky Villa) won the replay 3-2 on Thurs 14 May.

(I like finding original-owner graffiti on comics, such as this footy cartoon and ‘Mopey girl’ on the Jinty. It probably devalues a comic financially but adds to its relic quality. It’s a physical touchpoint to the past, this day and week in history.)

We were mid-season in the 1981 Formula One World championship. The previous Sunday had seen eventual champion Nelson Piquet win the first San Marino Grand Prix, and the Belgian event would take place next week. In Tiger, the Skid Solo storyline followed a similar circuit.

BBC1’s evening schedule includes Terry Wogan’s You Must Be Joking!, The Val Doonican Music Show and part 1 of a repeat showing of Roots, starring LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte.
A similarly seminal saga, Strontium Dog: Portrait of a Mutant was mid-run in 2000AD.

This week’s 2000AD and Battle Action both came bagged up with a fantastic Buck Rogers sticker album and starter pack from Panini. I have very clear memories of buying more of these stickers from WHS in Harlow Broadwalk (1981 photo below by Brian Shuel, Sainsbury Archive).

Incidentally, that lovely 2000AD complete with album and stickers is shortly to be put on sale by @philcomics on his brilliant auction site phil-comics.com.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was an audience-grabbing staple of ITV’s Saturday evening line-up on the second weekend of May 1981, in between Metal Mickey and Family Fortunes, and made the cover of this week’s Look-In.