For countless youngsters, the arrival of the weekly comic was an important event.
The Beano, The Dandy, The Topper, The Beezer, Whizzer and Chips, Buster, Cor!! and many others provided an inexpensive parcel of mischief every week. Christmas brought the annuals: thick, colourful books which might be read and reread until the following Christmas.
Many readers remember the punishment scenes particularly clearly.
Winker Watson, from The Dandy, was famous for his extraordinary ability to wriggle out of trouble. One reader remembered being especially delighted on the rare occasion when Winker himself finally received the punishment he had spent so long avoiding.
Elsewhere there were Minnie the Minx, Beryl the Peril, Roger the Dodger, Dennis the Menace and the Bash Street Kids. Corporal punishment was so firmly established as part of their fictional universe that readers could almost anticipate it as the final joke.
A badly behaved character caused havoc. An adult discovered what had happened. The culprit tried to escape.
And then came the inevitable final panel
