We land in the 1930s with Fairlyand Tales #551.
Being an earlier comic book makes it a bit of a new experience. For context this is a little after Alley-Oop premiered, before the Kings Comics characters Flash Gordon or Mandrake The Magician showed up and contemporaneous with the publication of “Funnies on Parade” in America (considered to be the start of the modern comics format).
So what does it look like inside?
Well like the majority of later British comics, it is an anthology of short funny pieces consisting of a mix of illustrated prose and poetry and captioned comics.
Captioned Comics
Starting with the latter these are predominantly 4 panel joke comics, tending to involve anthropomorphised animals.
One exception to this is No Witches’ Hat, which is a fairy story told in rhyme:
As would be expected of a nursery comic, these are not complex in humour and storytelling. Good enough for what they are, but quite limited.
Poetry
The use of rhymes and poetry is common throughout the magazine:
They are not always the best written pieces but I actually found them the most enjoyable inside. I also found they had the best illustration. A good example is Billy & Bunny whose poems take them around the world:
Illustrated Prose
All the longest pieces in the issue are prose stories, some even doing the literary magazine trick of needing to continue them on later pages.
These tend to contain mundane situations made slightly more fantastical with magical elements, such as a rat dealing with rheumatism or squirrels trying to get rid of a dog that tries to bite them.
They are fine but lack the magic of someone like Beatrix Potter and are all fairly forgettable.
Off to Fairyland
There is not much more that can be said about these. Middling nursery stories, reasonable artwork. An example of history but not an outstanding one.
One thing that does have to be acknowledged is the casual racism that is present throughout (and will indeed remain a persistent issue in many British comics up until the 1970s). See below for examples of the Gollywog Dunce and the trickster Sammy:
At one point there is even a rabbit distrustful of a rat because their name sounds Russian.
So, I would give it a miss unless you are really determined to understand this period of British Comics history.
Next time, back to the 80s, with one of the most wonderfully weird creations, Load Runner #8:
What will we make of this one? See you soon.
Corner Shop Time Stop 