iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Comics fact of the day: Despite being published less than a year after his debut in the main comic, the first Beano Comic Library featuring Calamity James has an entirely different depiction of how he met Alexander Lemming.

Cover of Beano Comic Library #139, "Calamity James: The World's Unluckiest Boy".

James enters a pet shop and asks how much their rabbits are, to which the shopkeeper replies "Twenty-five pounds each, young sir!" He then shows James to a lemming in a cage and says "But this lemming is free to a good home!" James responds, "I'll take him!" The next panel is captioned "And so Alexander Lemming plummetted into James's life!" as they leave the pet shop, James noting "I'm not having much luck finding a lucky rabbit's foot!"

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Comics fact of the day: Following the removal of the letters page in the previous edition, the drawing of the free gift on the cover of the 4 - 17 Aug 1999 edition of Buster was the only new art in the entire issue.

Cover of the 4 - 17 August 1999 issue of Buster, promoting a free jumping hopper.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Nickolas Grace plays Joel Cairo in this production. Four years later, he plays the equivalent role (more or less) in the film adaptation of The Falcon's Malteser!

Promo card for Just Ask for Diamond, depicting Nickolas Grace and Peter Eyre

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A deep dive into a comic strip about a schoolgirl which takes at least two very strange turns. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-fu...

Belle turns away from a boy at a school gate, declaring "I shall easily find a boy who's keener on me than soppy cricket!" In the right-hand corner, a boy with branches growing out of his head is labelled "Know Your Nurks No. 107: Albert Frogpongle is going to the barbers for a prune."

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

L: Final new edition of Terry Bave's "Double Trouble", from the 9 July 1996 edition of Buster. R: First rerun edition, from the 23 July 1996 edition... pretty seamless.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

L: What was *probably* the last new edition of X-Ray Specs, from the 12/05/98 edition of Buster. R: The reprint edition from the following 26/05/98 edition of Buster. There are more graceful transitions in the comic's final years.

A very obviously not new edition of X-Ray Specs.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Conclusion of the Buster strip from the 07/04/90 edition of, er, Buster, also the final strip to be drawn by Tom Paterson. Note the farewell 'ta-ta!' in his signature, bottom right.

Buster and his friends try to go camping, but their backpacks are so big they get jammed in the front door.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

More reverse-engineering of adventure gamebooks from the 80s. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/trai...

Vladimir Utoshski, aka the Titanium Cyborg, a villainous figure drawn by 2000 AD artist Brian Bolland.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Gamebooks fact of the day: In all four possible solutions to "Appointment with F.E.A.R.", you should ignore the story branch where you try to stop the President's assassination, which is a deliberate red herring.

Cover of Fighting Fantasy #17 "Appointment with F.E.A.R."

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Another edition to the Side Table of Simpsons Charity Shop Mugs.

A very large mug depicting Homer Simpson exclaiming "D'oh!", on a sideboard with many other Simpsons mugs and glasses.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Ken Reid character "Hugh Fowler: The Man Who Hates Football" (Scorcher, 1971-72) is sometimes suggested as being prescient of Basil Fawlty. Not *quite* sure I see it myself...

An edition of "Hugh Fowler: The Man Who Hates Football" where Hugh buys hundreds and hundreds of packets of breakfast cereal to stop anyone else from entering a competition to win a football. It ends poorly for him.

An edition of "Hugh Fowler: The Man Who Hates Football" where Hugh inflates footballs with helium to stop anyone from using them. It ends poorly for him.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A history of the oddest comic strip I have ever researched. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/davy...

Dare-a-Day Davy attempts, unsuccessfully, to resist a dare, and runs off holding a boot-horn and a cauldron of porridge, exclaiming "Ha-har-r! He's dead right! - Where's a blue-bottle? I can't resist a dare!"

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A Jonah strip from a 1960 issue of the Beano which not only demonstrates Ken Reid's habit of getting carried away and cramming 30 panels onto a single page, but also features the deaths of hundreds of people.

Jonah strip from a 1960 edition of the Beano

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Comics fact of the day: The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Victorious had a life-size portrait of Jonah hanging in the mess, produced after artist Ken Reid "got carried away".

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This absolutely is a word, fuck off

A section of text, with which spellcheck has taken issue with the word 'spifflication'

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A look at an inexplicably unsuccessful comic themed entirely around going to school. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/scho...

Masthead of issue 26 of School Fun, price 20p, every Monday, 7th April 1984. Styles itself as "The pet comic for laughs!" and promises a lucky dip with 50 prizes within.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

More notes on BBC Two's reruns of a comedy series set in space. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/dwar...

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

A short and silly post connecting The Simpsons and The Baby-Sitters' Club. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/08/adve...

Book 20 in The Baby-Sitter Twins series, The President's Baby is Missing.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Comics fact of the day: At the time the first ever edition of Billy Whizz ran in the Beano in May 1964, the editorial team considered it unlikely the strip would last more than a year or so, as the concept had too few usable plotlines.

First ever edition of Billy Whizz, depicting him getting up and eating his breakfast, then using his pet tortoise to transport some eggs from the grocer's.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Okay there should *definitely* be more films where you get a free sheet of stickers at the end

A really neat sheet of stickers for the film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

DELETED SCENE: Elsewhere in the book, Brennan pulls the same 'ridiculous thing turns out to be the only thing that can possibly save your life in one encounter' with the Artificial Aardvark.

And he produces a parchment inventory of the following useful items:

INVENTORY

Axe

Artificial Aardvark

Backpack

Blanket

Bandages

Bookworm

Blue powder

Carpentry hammer

Cooking utensils* (counts as 4 off SPEED)

Container of oil

Climbing spikes

Change of clothes

Change of boots

Clickstick

Dog collar

Fish-hooks

Food rations* (counts as 4 off SPEED, but one LIFE point comes back each time you eat) Gold braid Harp

Healing potion (1 dose)

Hasp

Joke Book

Knife

Leather thong-thing Lute

Parchment (12 sheets) Powdered ink Quill pen

I

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Rope (15 m coil) Sack (per six) Saw

Tent (counts as 5 off SPEED)

Tinderbox

Waterbag

Xylophone

Excuse me, Merlin, sir,' you say politely, 'there are some items here I don't understand . . . . '

Really? Seems clear enough to me. What are they?'

'Well, the Artificial Aardvark for one thing .... '

A little invention of my own,' says Merlin proudly. 'It's a sort of mechanical mouse that eats ants.'

'What about the bookworm?'

'That's a worm that eats books - I should have thought you'd have known that.'

But why...?' But Merlin is looking impatient, however, so you only ask, 'Blue powder?'

'Handy stuff that. You throw it behind you if you're being chased and if you roll a 6 or better on two dice, whatever' s chasing you will slip and break it's neck. I can only spare enough for one use though.'

'Clickstick?' you ask.

Another of my inventions. It enables you to communicate with crickets.'

This is getting sillier and sillier. 'Why should I want gold braid, a joke book or a xylophone?'

Well, at least there's an exit door in this 50' x 20' chamber. There's also a funny-looking sort of mound in the middle of the floor. Curious, you move forward to inspect it, giving it a little poke with EJ.

Now there's trouble. You've disturbed a colony of ants!

Roll two dice and multiply the answer by 10 to find out how many are attacking you. Each has only one LIFE POINT, but is very hard to hit so you will need to score 8 or better to squash it. The ants, in their turn, score on a 6 and do 1 damage each successful strike, irrespective of what damage the dice show.

If you want to try for a Friendly Reaction, you must roll for each ant separately, so it hardly seems worth the trouble. Of course, if you happen to be carrying an Artificial Aardvark in your backpack, it will eat 20 ants every time you wind it up, which you can do by rolling a 6 or better.

If the ants kill you, go to 14.

If you survive, you may leave by either door.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The silliest piece of writing about adventure gamebooks imaginable. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-...

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Reminded that this film also produced a book which is one of the worst movie tie-in books ever published, and unsurprisingly one of the worst Choose Your Own Adventure knockoffs ever published.

Cover of "You Choose the Way: A Catch-a-Crook Adventure: Dick Tracy", which boasts 'featuring full-color movie scenes'.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

L: Beano editor Euan Kerr in the Arena documentary "The Beano and the Dandy", TX 15/01/88. R: Beano editor Euan Kerr depicted in his own comic by artist David Sutherland, in the issue dated 09/01/88.

Euan Kerr depicted in a 1988 Rasher strip

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A history of a comic strip about some anthropomorphic germs. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-...

The editor of the Beano is delighted to meet three anthropomorphic germs, who can take over the page previously starring Dennis the Menace's pet pig.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

After this weekend's post I am temporarily out of comic strips I can write a little history of; I have a few drafts which need specific issues to complete. So once again if there's any strip from a DCT or Fleetway publication you'd like to read about, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

The cover of an issue of the Dandy from 1993.

The cover of the Beano's 60th anniversary edition, from 1998.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Another mystery concerning a semi-obscure Simpsons clip taking a shot at the George H. W. Bush administration rears its head. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/08/in-b...

Live-action footage of George H. W. Bush giving a speech from January 1992, integrated into the Simpsons' TV set.

Live-action footage of George H. W. Bush giving a speech from August 1992, integrated into the Simpsons' TV set.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Another dissection of an interactive fiction puzzle from the 80s. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/07/last...

The rather ominous entrance to the Mampang Fortress from Sorcery!: The Crown of Kings

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

In a display of questionable forward thinking, a series of articles on D. C. Thomson's more obscure comics concludes with the one that contains one of their most racist characters. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/08/crac...

Title banner of Cracker issue 51, dated Jan 3rd 1976, every Monday. The title is in big red letters, behind a yellow burst, with white lining.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

An unnecessarily close inspection of the maps used for a role-playing game from 1984. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/08/song...

Map 1, Level I from GrailQuest #3 Gateway of Doom. Resembling a sheet of graph paper, with corridors represented by shaded squares, doors by symbols resembling an ajar door, and secret doors by the letter 'S', with numbers in rooms denoting section numbers to turn to

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This post will not appear for a few weeks, but I am confident it meets the expectations set by its title.

Blogger editor for a post with the title "The Silliest Post About Adventure Gamebooks Imaginable".

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Another mayfly of British humour comics is pinned and mounted to the wall. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/07/buzz...

Masthead of issue 59 of Buzz, dated March 2nd 1974, every Monday, price 3 1/2 p. A boy called Sammy promotes a super picture of the Osmonds in the centre pages.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

No gamebook author does 'trolling the player' quite like J. H. Brennan.

Section 153 of The Gateway of Doom: "A whirlwind envelopes you the second you step through this doorway, blacking you out momentarily and teleporting you straight back to 150.

Isn't that irritating?"

Section 167 of The Gateway of Doom: "A whirlwind envelopes you the second you step through this doorway, blacking you out momentarily and teleporting you straight back to 74, which is right at the beginning of Level II!!

Wouldn't that make you spit!"

Section 176 of The Gateway of Doom: "A whirlwind envelopes you the second you step through this doorway, blacking you out momentarily and teleporting you straight back to 80, which is right in the middle of LEVEL I!!"

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Childhood memory inexplicably stuck in my head #86: "Frogs were never good at spelling"

Section 151 of The Gateway of Doom: "There is a statue of a frog in here which is wearing a silver filigree amulet encrusted with magical emeralds.

The frog is wearing red tights and a blue cape and it has an emblem embroidered across its chest saying: 'Superfrog!'

All this must come as something of a shock to you, but there is more. A chiselled inscription on the frog's plinth states: 'Touch my amulet and I'll kill you. Signed, Superforg. (Frogs were never good at spelling.)"

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Annotated fourth and final map of the GrailQuest book "Gateway of Doom": All asterisked rooms are teleport traps, and entering them will immediately teleport you to the room indicated. (184, 176 and 167 all teleport you back to earlier levels.)

A role-playing game map with some rooms marked with asterisks and numbers by some idiot.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

An interactive fiction puzzle which gives the player the option of needlessly slaughtering seven entirely innocent people. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/07/coac...

Five figures in a medieval fantasy sit around a table at a tavern.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Similar deal with the penultimate issue the week after, which reuses the cover from the 1987 annual...

Front cover of the Dandy Book 1987, featuring Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat about to have a cycling race.

Front cover of the penultimate issue of the Dandy from December 2012, reusing the same cover art

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

L: Front cover of the Dandy Book 1967. R: The antipenultimate issue of the Dandy from December 2012, reusing the same artwork (down to lack of time to produce an original image, perhaps?)

Front cover of the Dandy Book 1967, depicting Korky the Cat rolling up some mice in a snowball.

Front cover of the antipenultimate issue of the Dandy from 2012, using the same artwork from the 1967 annual.

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