Scorcher

Publisher: IPC
Publication Dates: 10 January 1970 – 26 June 1971
Number of Issues Published: 77 (#1 – #26 June 1971 [77])
Publishing Format: Was ongoing
Publication Type: magazine

Features continue in Scorcher and Score (IPC, 1971 series).

Scorcher and Score

Publisher: IPC
Publication Dates: 3 July 1971 – 5 October 1974
Number of Issues Published: 171 (#1 – #5 October 1974 [171])
Paper Stock: newsprint
Publishing Format: Was ongoing
Publication Type: magazine

Features continue from Scorcher (IPC, 1970 series) and Score (IPC, 1971 series).

Merged into Tiger to become Tiger and Scorcher in October 1974.

Information thanks to the Grand Comics Database

Scorcher was the name of a football-themed British comic magazine published by IPC between January 1970 and June 1971. In July 1971, it joined with another football-themed comic, Score, to form Scorcher and SCORE, before finally merging into Tiger to become TIGER and Scorcher. The word Scorcher started with almost equal prominence to TIGER on the title page, but as usually happens with such mergers the title size was reduced in November 1975, and again in February 1978 before finally being dropped from the title of the comic after the issue dated 30 August 1980. Scorcher featured various well-known comic strips, such as Billy’s Boots, Bobby of the Blues and Lags Eleven, a story about a prison football team. In addition, the Nipper story was absorbed from Score comic and Hot Shot Hamish made its first appearance in the Scorcher and SCORE period. Some of these stories later found homes in Roy of the Rovers in addition to Tiger.

IPC Magazines, the publishers of Scorcher, always referred to it as a “paper” rather than a comic in its editorials, to distinguish it from more child oriented publications such as The Beano or The Dandy. In addition to its realistic and comedic football themed stories, it contained factual items about British professional football, and advertisements not only for contemporary toys, games and confectionery, but also others aimed at an older readership, such as for the Charles Atlas body building method, and recruitment advertisements for the Police, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

The weekly editorial column was featured on the Goal Post page, subtitled Pete’s Page, and under the byline of Pete was usually around 200-300 words in a jokey, friendly style, describing recent amusing or chaotic events in the Scorcher office, or upcoming features in the paper. Pete was depicted in a line drawing in early issues as a male in his 20s with a short Bobby Moore haircut, sitting at a desk with a typewriter (although on one occasion when he was unwell he was depicted sitting up in bed with his typewriter on his lap), but in later years changed to just a grinning face, with a longer Kevin Keegan hairstyle and waving a football scarf.

It was revealed over the years that Pete was a West Ham United F.C. fan who attended their matches home and away, had spent some of his youth living in South Africa, had a sister, and played football regularly as a striker for his local club, scoring 22 goals in one season, although he had previously played as a goalkeeper until conceding 6 goals in one match.

Other office characters whose antics featured regularly were Ian the Office Junior (possibly Ian Vosper, future editor of Roy of the Rovers magazine), a Portsmouth F.C. fan who played for the same club as Pete, and the paper’s editor (Dave Hunt), a.k.a. the Old Man, a Tottenham Hotspur F.C. fan who was regularly portrayed as a minor tyrant who became angry if Pete didn’t make him 48 cups of tea every day. Various other members of the editorial or art staff were mentioned from time to time.

Each week, Pete answered a handful of readers’ questions on any aspect of football, often settling bets or other disputes over matters of football fact, and paid £1 to the reader for each letter featured. Despite all this, he often had to reassure concerned readers that he was a real person and not just an invented cover-all name for whoever’s duty it was to answer the letters that week.

After joining with Tiger Pete’s function was to select a dozen of the readers’ best jokes to feature as cartoons on his page, and no longer answered questions.

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Scorcher 1970-01-10
Scorcher 1970-01-17
Scorcher 1970-01-24
Scorcher 1970-01-31

British Comics

Scorcher

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