Strange Hill is the title of two British

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

s, one of which ran in ''

Whizzer and Chips ''Whizzer and Chips'' was a British comics magazine that ran from 18 October 1969 to 27 October 1990, when it merged with the comic '' Buster''. As with most comics of the time, ''Whizzer and Chips'' was dated one week ahead of the day it actua ...

'', the other in ''

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a British children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after ''Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 Oct ...

''. The title is a reference to the long running

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

TV show ''

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

'' about a school of that name. Both strips were set in horrifying schools.

"Strange Hill" in "The Dandy"

The ''Dandy'' version was a very "safe" version of

Hammer Horror Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...

clichés, similar to Number 13 in ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...

'' or the US TV series ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monsterEpisodes referring to the fact that Herman is Frankenstein's monster include #55, "Just Anoth ...

''. Drawn by David Mostyn. The focus was on the school's only normal pupil, who was remarkably unfazed that his schoolmates included a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

, a

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...

, etc. The full title was ''Eddie Potter at Strange Hill School''. (This is not a parody of Harry Potter, who did not exist yet.) It appeared in Dandy, from 1986 to circa 2004. He reappeared for a few issues in 2008, as reprints. He also appeared in the 2012 annual.

"Strange Hill" in "Whizzer and Chips"

By contrast, the ''Whizzer and Chips'' version featured a normal teacher, at a similar, but much more grotesque school. Unlike the lead character in the

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Dundee Courier'', ''The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics ''Oor Wull ...

strip, "Teach" found his sanity rapidly decaying as he faced his horrific pupils. It could be argued that the difference between these strips highlights the differences between the relatively safe, conservative humour of DC Thomson and the more edgy, bizarre

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 ...

style.

External links

Toonhound article on the Fleetway version
DC Thomson Comics strips Fleetway and IPC Comics strips Grange Hill Parody comics Parodies of horror Parodies of television shows Horror comics Humor comics School-themed comics Fictional locations in comics Fictional schools Comics set in the United Kingdom 1986 comics debuts 2004 comics endings {{UK-comics-stub