Topper, The

The Topper was published weekly by DC Thomson from 7 February 1953 until it merged with The Beezer in 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
• Wulf of the Arrows