There was a time when opening a British children’s comic meant entering a wonderfully chaotic world of runaway prams, exploding chemistry experiments, furious fathers, terrifying headmasters and schoolchildren who could turn an ordinary Tuesday afternoon into a national emergency.
And, more often than not, somebody ended the adventure in trouble.
For generations of readers, corporal punishment was simply one of the familiar ingredients of comic-strip humour. Dennis the Menace might meet his father’s slipper, Minnie the Minx could find herself in trouble at home or school, while the unfortunate pupils of the Bash Street School existed in a world where the cane was never terribly far away.
Today these scenes can appear startling. Yet when we look back at the comics of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, they provide a fascinating little window into the attitudes of their time.
