| Wham! | |
|---|---|
 Wham! #1 (20 June 1964), featuring Biff and the Tiddlers. Artwork byLeo Baxendale. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Odhams Press |
| Schedule | weekly (every Tuesday) |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 20 June 1964 – 13 January 1968 (merged intoPow!) |
| No. of issues | 187 |
| Main character(s) | Eagle Eye, Junior Spy Fantastic Four Georgie's Germs Grimly Feendish Kelpie the Boy Wizard Pest of the West Sammy Shrink The Tiddlers The Wacks |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Sandy Hobbs, Lois Hobbs,Stan Lee (reprints) |
| Artist(s) | Leo Baxendale,John M. Burns,Jack Kirby (reprints), Gordon Hogg,Brian Lewis, Dave Jenner,Ken Reid |
| Editor | Alf Wallace |
Wham! was a weeklyBritish comics magazine published byOdhams Press. It ran for 187 issues from 20 June 1964 to 13 January 1968, when it merged into its sister titlePow!
Created by veteran cartoonistLeo Baxendale,Wham! was structured like a typical British comic in the mould ofThe Beano, but it was distinguished by "a racy and anarchic new breed"[1] of humour that inspired later British strips. The initial success ofWham! prompted the creation of sister titlesSmash! andPow! with similar intent; these, in turn, led to the formation of Odhams'Power Comics line, featuring reprints of AmericanMarvel Comics superhero stories.Wham! included short instalments ofTheFantastic Four.
Odhams' line of "juveniles" (i.e., comics) were managed by Alf Wallace, who had been brought over fromFleetway Publications (formerlyAmalgamated Press), both parts of the sameMirror Group. Odhams competed for readers withDC Thomson, publisher of such popular titles asThe Beano,The Dandy, andCommando. Wallace had been successful at Fleetway with his line ofWar Picture Library comics, but had been unable to reverse the declining popularity of Odhams' other comics titles, includingEagle,Swift, andBoys' World.[1] Odhams had acquiredEagle andSwift fromHulton Press in 1960,[2] and by early 1964,Eagle was the only one left, having absorbedSwift andBoy's World.
In 1964, Wallace recruited humour cartoonistLeo Baxendale, who had worked for DC Thomson for many years, to create a new, energetic comics weekly. Although Baxendale was paid £8,000 in his first year at Odhams (adjusted for inflation, £140,000 in 2021 terms), he soon realized that there was little other security or money to pay contributors likeJohn M. Burns, Gordon Hogg,Brian Lewis, and Dave Jenner (as Fleetway fought with Odhams for more resources from the parent Mirror Group).[1]
Wham! debuted on 20 June 1964; in its early issues it featured both clear imitations ofThe Beano strips — such as a clone of hisBash Street Kids in the shape ofThe Tiddlers — and new original strips — such asEagle Eye, Junior Spy andGeorgie's Germs, in which Baxendale attempted to break the mould of older strips by the use of bizarre humour, outrageous puns, and surreal plots. OfWham!'s initial lineup of strips, Baxendale created at least seven of them (includingDanny Dare;Eagle Eye, Junior Spy;Footsie the Clown;General Nitt and his Barmy Army;Georgie's Germs;Pest of the West; andThe Tiddlers). Long before theFantastic Four joined the lineup,John M. Burns'Kelpie the Boy Wizard was the rare adventure strip inWham!, set in the days ofCamelot andKing Arthur.
With the success ofWham!, the next title in the line,Smash!, debuted on 5 February 1966.The Hulk became the first Marvel superhero to show up in an Odhams title when he debuted inSmash! #16 (21 May 1966). The popularity of that strip led toWham! addingFantastic Four reprints beginning with issue #112 (6 August 1966). In late 1966, with two Odhams' titles featuring superheroes (and the third,Pow!, on the way), thePower Comics line was named, and the Power Comics logo was installed on the covers ofWham! andSmash! starting in early December 1966.
As costs rose, however, the inevitable adjustment of content madeWham! more like those comics it had been attempting to replace. In January 1968,Wham! merged withPow! to becomePow! and Wham!; that title soon enough merged intoSmash! The Power Comics line itself disappeared in late 1968 (althoughSmash! continued), and, beginning 1 January 1969,IPC Magazines (another member of the Mirror Group) took over publication of the remaining Odhams titles.
Under Leo's guidanceWham! had created a newer, faster trend that was to influence many new up-and-coming artists and editors to imitate Baxendale's style in later years. Although by 1966Wham! turned out not to be the commercial success it was originally intended, the trend Leo had created in terms of a racy and anarchic "new breed" of comic nevertheless seemed to be gaining greater favour amongst the hierarchy at Odhams. In fact, it could even be said to be veering out of control from Baxendale's original conception.[1]
In 1964 Leo Baxendale's brain-child,Wham!, appeared on the newsstands.Wham!'s success would be the foundation for the launch of a sister comic, yet there were problems even from the start. The line of comics managed by Alf Wallace (Managing Editor of Odhams' juveniles) —Eagle,Swift andBoys' World — were steadily declining in circulation. This meant that Odhams were not able to attackDC Thomson from a secure base of rock-steady titles. The other crucial factor was time, and, Alf having a jittery board of directors behind him, meant that he was under pressure for success. According to Leo: "Alf had moved fromFleetway to Odhams as the 'golden boy' on the strength of his success as an editor of the 'War Libraries'". By the time Leo startedWham!, "Alf's position at Odhams had already been weakened by his inability to save the existing Odhams comics from spectacular declines in circulation. The fact that probably, given the demographic changes, no one else could have stopped their decline is neither here nor there in the policies of commercial publishing".
Odhams' comics were not only trying to attack DC Thomson; they were also in rivalry with Fleetway — despite the fact that Odhams and Fleetway (formerly Associated Press) were parts of the sameMirror Group: "Alf Wallace once made a cry aside to me to illustrate the hostility between Fleetway and Odhams: 'If I were to go across to the Fleetway canteen to have lunch, they would soon order me out'".
There were two other major factors which struck Leo as soon as he started creatingWham!: "One was that the long-term commitment on the boards of DC Thomson and Fleetway could not be taken for granted with the Odhams board. From an early stage, I realised that there was a power struggle going on within the Mirror Group. Being an outsider I only caught glimpses of the struggle, and only belatedly realised its extent. The second feature of Odhams' juveniles that struck me at the beginning was that although they were part of a large group, the comics section did not have the resources of the DC Thomson comics organisation".
Leo earned £8,000 in his first year at Odhams (allowing for inflation, that's around £140,000 in 2021 terms), and although it was all very well to give that kind of money to an artist who they wanted, there was no similar commitment of resources by Odhams towards a long-term trend in the comics market. Although these were factors which hinderedWham!'s launch, Odhams published the first issue in June 1964.