Xmas is here...

Well, Christmas Eve anyway. And there IS something special about Christmas Eve that makes it stand out more than any other day in the year, even more than "the big day" itself. Bill Murray (who else?) puts it best:

With this being the last post here before Xmas happens, I'd just like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who's been following this thing since it started in July. Anyone who's commented on it or just looked at it, and obviously ANYONE can "do a blog", but... I'm still grateful, really.

So, in keeping with the season - join in!

Sing some songs:

Have some parties:

Be NICE for a change (or nicer than usual, if you're already nice):

Remember who your friends are (and that's ALL the time, not just at this time of year):

And overall, have a smashing Christmas:

Cheers!

Merry Xmas from Tin Teacher

Just the one leftover Tin Teacher strip I thought I'd save for December:

Tom Paterson's Spooky Buster Covers

During the late 1980s, Tom Paterson did some amazing covers for Buster, often depicting chaotic, ridiculous or downright strange things befalling the poor lad. As it's October and I'm feeling slightly restricted in that sense (but not in a bad way!), here's some of the "ghost/monster"-themed covers that were done over the issues...

"Win a Christmas Treat From Sellotape" - scary stuff!

Oh look - the date on this one's the same as my 2nd birthday. This one might not be Paterson's, but it's good all the same.

Unfortunately I don't have the "whole thing" - never even seen it!

But I do have the mask that was inside this one!

See?

My absolute favourite - probably one of the greatest comic covers of all time. Playing on the comic's title too, nice trick! Actually, this one's SO good, that I'm posting the story that goes with it too. It's a good'un:

Tin Teacher

There's always been "archetypes" in comics. You know, take a theme and run with it. There's "gang of unruly kids" (Bash Street Kids, Banana Bunch), "rebellious little nutter" (Dennis the Menace, The Smasher), "girl who fights and stuff" (Minnie the Minx, Beryl the Peril), "strange animal-mad hybrid" (Biffo the Bear, Mickey the Monkey), "over-imaginative child" (Dreamy Daniel, Les Pretend), and so on and etc. One of the more oddly specific "types" would be "robot teacher and his class that wishes to murder him". We've already seen Autoteach from the Topper. Well, now we have Tin Teacher from Buster!

Drawn by Peter Davidson, and originally running from 1965-1970, I've got a bunch of them here from several 1979 reprints. In contrast to Autoteach and his adversaries, both robot and pupils here are equally sadistic, with the class cooking up ways to crush, decapitate, bury and otherwise annihilate the mechanical master, who in turn takes a lot of pleasure from whacking the kids senseless. I've scanned as many as them as I can find below, but there's a few two-parters that are missing either the first or second part. Sorry, like.