Scorcher (magazine)

"Scorcher" was the name of a football-themed British comic magazine published by IPC between January 1970 and August 1980. In July 1971, it joined with another football-themed comic, "Score", to form "Scorcher and SCORE", before finally merging into "Tiger" in 1974 as a new publication, "TIGER and Scorcher". The word "Scorcher" started with almost equal prominence to "TIGER" on the title page, but was reduced in size in November 1975, and again in February 1978 before finally being dropped from the title of the comic after the issue dated August 30 1980, having appeared for over 10 years in its various guises. It featured various well-known comic strips, the most famous being "Billy's Boots" and "Bobby of the Blues". 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".

In total, 548 weekly comics were published with "Scorcher" in the title, with the following cover dates (the comic usually appeared for sale the week before its cover date):

*77 issues of "Scorcher" from January 10 1970 to June 26 1971
*171 issues of "Scorcher and SCORE" from July 3 1971 to October 5 1974
*300 issues of "TIGER and Scorcher" from October 12 1974 to August 30 1980 (Industrial action prevented publication of 3 issues in December 1978 and a further 5 in May and June 1980)

14 editions of "Scorcher" "Annual" were published from 1971 to 1984, and "Scorcher" or "Scorcher and SCORE" "Holiday Specials" each summer from 1971.

Issue No.1 of "Scorcher" was dated January 10 1970 and contained the following features and stories:

Picture Strip Stories

*"Royal's Rangers": the story of Caxford Rangers and their manager, Ben Royal.
*"Sub.": a comedy story about a perpetual reserve and his efforts to get a game.
*"Kangaroo Kid": Redstone Rovers' coach breaks down in the Australian Outback after a summer tour, and they discover a boy with amazing football abilities living wild.
*"Bobby of the Blues": Bobby Booth plays for Everpool City, nicknamed "The Blues" because of their colours.
*"Billy's Boots": long-running story about a boy who finds a pair of antique football boots in his gran's attic which seem to make him able to play better. He also found an old airgun up there. Although one or two of the other picture stories had some single colour in the drawings, this was the only multi-colour story, and had an excellent drawing of an old fashioned pair of football boots in the title banner.
*"Paxton's Powerhouse": Vince Paxton, the ruthless soccer dictator who vowed to build a team of world-beaters, using scientific methods.
*"Byrd of Paradise Hill": Richard Byrd prefers to take up a teaching post at Paradise Hill Secondary Modern School, rather than the offer of a trial for Hampton Orient reserves.
*"Lags Eleven": (Humorous) Willie Smith, known to his friends as "Brilliant Genius", was the greatest super-crook in Britain, having been the master-mind behind numerous bank-raids, jewel-robberies and wage-snatches. Unfortunately for him he'd been caught and was doing a ten-year stretch in Bankhurst Prison, where he decides to start a football team as part of a master plan to escape during the first away match.

Prose Story

*"The Goal Thief": 16 year-old Kenny Banks is taken on as an apprentice by 2nd division Tandridge Town. Then his father breaks into the ground to steal the trophies...

Football Features

*"How I Began": each week the story of how a different top star got started in the game. This week: Jack Charlton.
*"Roll of Honour": a team picture of the Celtic team which won the European Cup in 1967.
*"Floodlight On": photographs and mini-biography of a different star each week. This week: Dave Mackay of Derby County.
*"Big Match Preview": illustrated preview of a big match for the following week-end. This week: Southampton "versus" Everton.
*"Football Club Badges": "Start your collection today". Colour illustrations of club badges. This week: Norwich; Torquay; Arbroath; Liverpool; Oldham; Rangers; Hearts; West Ham.

Other Features

*"Scorcher Team of the Week": a different schoolboy team featured each week has their team photograph published and wins a "Scorcher" football.
*"Goal Post": Pete, "the office junior", answers readers' letters, and each one published wins £1 for the sender.
*"Know-All": Know-All, "Soccer's Mister Big-Head", makes 10 statements about football and the reader has to spot where he goes wrong.
*"Challenge Your Chum to quiz football": a quiz for readers to move a ball up and down the printed pitch into the goal by answering football questions.

This issue contained 32 pages, included a free-gift wallchart which allowed you to plot your favourite team's progress in the League over the last 20 years, and cost 7d. All photographs in the first issue were black and white.

More on Scorcher comic at Britishcomics.com [http://www.britishcomics.com/Scorcher/index.htm]