Wham! (comics)

Wham!
Publication information
Publisher	Odhams Press
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Humor/comedySuperhero
Publication date	20 June 1964 – 13 January 1968 (merged into Pow!)
No. of issues	187
Main character(s)	The Tiddlers Eagle Eye, Junior Spy Georgie's Germs Grimly Feendish
Creative team
Artist(s)	Leo Baxendale
Editor(s)	Alf Wallace

Wham! was a weekly British comic book magazine published by Odhams Press. It ran for 187 issues from 20 June 1964 to 13 January 1968, when it merged into its sister title Pow!. Although Wham! was superficially a typical British comic in the mould of The Beano, its later issues (under the Power Comics imprint) included short instalments of The Fantastic Four reprinted from American Marvel Comics.

The initial success of Wham! prompted the creation of sister titles Pow! and Smash! with similar intent, and led to the formation of the Power Comics line. But as costs rose in 1968, the inevitable adjustment of content, followed by mergers of titles, made the Power Comics more like those they were attempting to replace.

Created by Leo Baxendale, in its early issues Wham! presented both clear imitations of Beano strips, such as a clone of his Bash Street Kids in the shape of The Tiddlers, and new original strips such as Eagle Eye, Junior Spy and Georgie's Germs, in which he attempted to break the mould of older strips by the use of bizarre humour, outrageous puns, and surreal plots.

The cult figure Grimly Feendish, originally the most popular character in Baxendale's Eagle Eye, Junior Spy strip, with the travelling accomplices (including bats, spiders, octopuses and other creatures of darkness and slime) who assisted Feendish in his schemes of world domination, graduated to his own comic strip in Smash! in 1966.

Background

With the help of Leo Baxendale, the fanzine British Comic World examines the 1960s comic publisher Odhams:

In 1964 Leo Baxendale's brain-child, Wham!, appeared on the newsstands. If all went well, Wham!'s success would be the foundation for the launch of a sister comic. Yet there were problems even from the start. The line of comics managed by Alf Wallace (Managing Editor of Odhams' juveniles) — Eagle, Swift and Boys' World — were steadily declining in circulation. This meant that Odhams were not able to attack DC Thomson from a secure base of rock-steady titles. The other crucial factor was time, and, Alf having a jittery board of directors behind him, meant that he was under pressure for success. According to Leo, "Alf had moved from Fleetway to Odhams as the 'golden boy' on the strength of his success as an editor of the 'War Libraries'." By the time Leo started Wham!, "Alf's position at Odhams had already been weakened by his inability to save the existing Odhams comics from spectacular declines in circulation. The fact that probably, given the demographic changes, no one else could have stopped their decline is neither here nor there in the policies of commercial publishing."

It must be remembered that Odhams' comics were not only trying to attack DC Thompson; they were also in rivalry with Fleetway — despite the fact that Odhams and Fleetway (formerly Associated Press) were parts of the same Mirror Group! "Alf Wallace once made a cry aside to me to illustrate the hostility between Fleetway and Odhams: 'If I were to go across to the Fleetway canteen to have lunch, they would soon order me out'."

There were two other major factors which struck Leo as soon as he started creating Wham! "One was that the long-term commitment on the boards of DC Thompson and Fleetway could not be taken for granted with the Odhams board. From an early stage, I realised that there was a power struggle going on within the Mirror Group. Being an outsideer I only caught glimpses of the struggle, and only belatedly realised its extent. The second feature of Odhams' juveniles that struck me at the beginning was that although they were part of a large group, the comics section did not have the resources of the DC Thompson comics organisation." Leo earned £8,000 in his first year at Odhams (allowing for inflation, that's around £60,000 in 1984 terms), and although it was all very well to give that kind of money to an artist who they wanted, there was no similar commitment of resources by Odhams towards a long-term trend in the comics market. Although these were factors which hindered Wham!'s launch, Odhams published the first issue in June 1964.

Under Leo's guidance Wham! had created a newer, faster trend that was to influence many new up-and-coming artists and editors to imitate Baxendale's style in later years. Although by 1966 Wham! turned out not to be the commercial success it was originally intended, the trend Leo had created in terms of a racy and anarchic "new breed" of comic nevertheless seemed to be gaining greater favour amongst the hierarchy at Odhams. In fact it could even be said to be veering out of control from Baxendale's original conception.

References

Sources consulted

• History of Marvel UK
• The Power Comics: Wham!