''Playhour'' was a British children's comics magazine published by

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

Fleetway Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies that merg ...

/ IPC between 16 October 1954 and 15 August 1987, a run of approximately 1,700 weekly issues. ''Playhour'' contained a mixture of original tales for young children and adaptations of well-known fairy tales (drawn by Nadir Quinto,

Ron Embleton Ronald Sydney Embleton (6 October 1930 – 13 February 1988) was a British illustrator who gained fame as a comics artist. In the 1950s and 1960s, Embleton also pursued a career as an oil painter, and he exhibited his works widely in Britain, Ge ...

, Jesus Blasco and others).

Publication history

Originally published under the title ''Playhour Pictures'', it was intended as a companion to ''

Jack and Jill "Jack and Jill" (sometimes "Jack and Gill", particularly in earlier versions) is a traditional English nursery rhyme. The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the commonest tune and its variations as number 10266, although it has been set to severa ...

'', initially aimed at a slightly older audience. The lead strip in its early days was ''Prince, the Wonder Dog of the Golden West'', drawn by

Sep E. Scott Septimus Edwin Scott (1879–1965), who signed his name Sep E. Scott,Norman Wright and David Ashford, ''Masters of Fun and Thrills: The British Comic Artists Vol 1'', Norman Wright (pub.), 2008, pp. 170-179 was a British painter, illustrator and ...

. With issue #32 (21 May 1955), the title of the publication was shortened to ''Playhour'' and it lowered its target age-group, introducing comic strips based on

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

's ''

Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Win ...

'' and

Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as '' The Reluctant Dragon''. Both books w ...

's ''

The Wind in the Willows ''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and get ...

'', both drawn by

Peter Woolcock This is a list of comics creators. Although comics have different formats, this list mainly focuses on comic book and graphic novel creators. However, some creators of comic strips are also found here, as are some of the early innovators of the ar ...

. 1956 saw the arrival of ''Sonny and Sally of Happy Valley'', two children (and their pet lamb) who were to be associated with the title until its demise in 1987. The stories of Sonny and Sally (drawn by

Hugh McNeill Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

) were initially related in rhyming couplets, as were a number of other early stories, although by the end of the 1970s the stories were written in normal prose form. (Others were told in captions below the illustration, or ''

text comics Text comics or a text comic is a form of comics where the stories are told in captions below the images and without the use of speech balloons. It is the oldest form of comics and was especially dominant in European comics from the 19th century ...

'', as ''Playhour'' avoided the use of

word balloons Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

.) Sonny and Sally "wrote" the weekly editorial letter and children writing to the publisher's editorial address (Cosy Corner, The Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London E.C.4) would receive replies "signed" by Sonny and Sally.

Mergers

It was standard practice in the twentieth-century British comics industry to merge a comic into another one when it declined in sales. Typically, three stories or strips from the cancelled comic would continue for a while in the surviving comic, and both titles would appear on the cover (one in a smaller font than the other) until the title of the cancelled comic was eventually dropped. ''Playhour'' exemplified this practice, with nine other publications merging into it over the course of its existence: * 15 March 1957 — merged with '' Chicks' Own'' (1920 series) * 31 January 1959 — merged with ''

Tiny Tots Tiny may refer to: Kane Places * Tiny, Ontario, a township in Canada * Tiny, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the US * Tiny Glacier, Wyoming, US Computing * Tiny BASIC, a dialect of the computer programming language BASIC * Tiny Encry ...

'' (1927 series) * 11 April 1964 — merged with '' Harold Hare'' (1959 series) * 2 March 1968 — merged with '' TV Toyland'' (1966 series) * 1 February 1969 — merged with '' Robin'' (1953 series) * 22 September 1973 — merged with '' Hey Diddle Diddle and Bobo Bunny'' (1972 series) * 17 May 1975 — merged with ''

Bonnie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

'' (1974 series). * 13 March 1982 — merged with '' Fun To Do'' (1978 series) * 6 August 1983 — merged with '' Chips Comic'' (1983 series)

Series published in ''Playhour''

* ''Billy Brock's Schooldays'' * ''Bunny Cuddles'' * ''Jolly Days with Dicky and Dolly'' *''The Dolly Girls'' * ''Leo the Friendly Lion'' * ''Little Red Squirrel'' * ''

The Magic Roundabout ''The Magic Roundabout'' is an English-language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show ''Le Manège enchanté'' but with completely different scripts and characte ...

'', based on the TV series * ''The Merry Tales of Mimi and Marmy'' * ''

Mr Men ''Mr. Men'' is a British series of children's books by English author Roger Hargreaves which began publication in August 1971. From 1981, an accompanying series of Little Miss books by the same author (but with female characters) was published. ...

'', based on the children's book series on Rogers Hargreaves * ''Norman Gnome'' * ''Num Num and His Funny Family'' * ''

Pinky and Perky ''Pinky and Perky'' is a children's television series first broadcast by BBC TV in 1957, and revived in 2008 as a computer-animated adaptation. Original series The title characters are a pair of anthropomorphic puppet pigs, named Pinky and ...

'', based on the TV series * ''Prince, the Wonder Dog of the Golden West'' * ''Sonny and Sally of Happy Valley'' * ''

Sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in 1955, with the ...

'', based on the TV series * ''Tiger Tim and the Bruin Boys'' * ''Tommy Trouble'' * ''The Travels of Gulliver Guinea-Pig'' * ''Wink and Blink, the Playful Puppies'' * ''The Wonderful Tales of Willow Wood''

References

Sources

* * {{Buster Playhour Playhour 1954 comics debuts 1987 comics endings Magazines established in 1954 Magazines disestablished in 1987 Defunct British comics Playhour Text comics