The Topper was published weekly by DC Thomson from 7 February 1953 until it merged with The Beezerin September 1990. Along the way, it absorbed Buzz in 1975 and Sparky in 1977.
The font cover originally featured Mickey The Monkey, which was replaced by Send for Kelly, Danny’s Tranny, Tricky Dicky and eventually Beryl the Peril, who remained on the cover until the merger with The Beezer.
Regular strips included:
Ali’s Baba – absorbed from Sparky
The Amazing Peet from Planet K
Andy Ladd – a short strip about a young resourceful inventor
Beryl the Peril – a mischievous pigtailed girl similar to Minnie the Minx
Big Fat Flo
Big Uggy – a caveman with an anthropomorphic dinosaur friend called Dpeoy (short for Dopeydokus)
The Bright Boys
Captain Blood – an adaptation of the novel by Rafael Sabatini
Captain Bungle
Danny’s Tranny – a boy and his magical transistor radio
Desert Island Dick – a castaway, his pet octopus and his incompetent attempts to summon rescue
Dolly Mixture – and her Aunt Polly
Dopey Joe – a short strip about an incompetent Indian
Figaro! – an overweight Mexican bandit and his gang
Flip McCoy the Flying Boy
Foxy – A fox trying to steal chickens and forever getting blasted by The Farmer. Later appeared in The Dandy
Ghastly Manor – A group of ghosts and monsters who live in a run-down manor
Hungry Horace – a kid with a bottomless appetite. Absorbed from Sparky
The Iron Eaters – an extraterrestrial invasion by a pink spongey substance, which could corrode iron and other metals
Jimmy Jinx and What He Thinks – originally from Buzz
Jimmy’s Mighty Midgets
The Jolly Rogers
Julius Cheeser – a strip about Tom the cat’s failures to catch Julius the mouse
Keyhole Kate – absorbed from Sparky but originally from The Dandy
King Gussie
Mickey the Monkey – a talking chimpanzee who was the original cover star
Nancy
Nick Kelly, Special Agent – and his bowler-hatted assistant Cedric
Peter Piper – with magical pan pipes that could animate objects. Absorbed from Sparky
Postie Knox
Scaredy Cat – a cat who had lost eight of its lives and lived in fear of everything
Send for Kelly – a secret agent called Nick Kelly helped by assistant Cedric
Sir Laughalot – a knight and his misadventures
Souper Boy – a weedy boy who became extremely strong when drinking a special soup
Spike
Tiny, The World’s Biggest Dog
Tom and Terry – absorbed from Sparky
Tricky Dicky – cover star from 1979 until 1986
The TV Starrs – the adventures of TV film cameraman Stan Starr, his wife, and kids, Jill and Peter
The Whizzers from Ozz – the Whizzer twins, Krik and Krak come from the planet Ozz and are friends with cheery earth boy, Willie Walker
