Knockout (British comics)

Knockout (launched as The Knock-Out Comic, and also known as The Knock-Out and Knock-Out Comic at various times) was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press and later Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 4 March 1939 to 16 February 1963. A boys' adventure comic, the title ran for 1227 issues before being merged with Valiant.

Since consolidating his various titles into Amalgamated Press in 1902, Alfred Harmsworth had built one of the largest publishing empires in the world over the first quarter of the 20th century. As well as some of Britain's largest newspapers (which included founding Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, as well as buying out The Times, The Sunday Times and The Observer), Amalgamated Press also dominated story papers, with early successes Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips joined by the likes of The Gem, The Magnet, School Friend, The Champion and The Schoolgirl. Initially designed to undercut the infamous 'penny dreadfuls' with a halfpenny price, the story paper was roughly equivalent to the American pulp magazine - containing prose fiction interspersed with illustrations and the occasional short cartoon, designed to be sold to children as disposable casual reading material. However a challenge emerged from rival DC Thomson. In 1937 the Scottish publisher launched Dandy Comic and the following year The Beano. While still featuring illustrated prose stories, these led with comic strips of the type which were dominating children's fiction in America and mainland Europe, using sequential artwork and speech bubbles to tell the stories. AP's first response was the entertainment personality-focused Radio Fun, and after it launched well Harmsworth assigned editor Edward Holmes to craft a second title, this time freed from the celebrity format, with Leonard Matthews as sub-editor.

Holmes initially proposed a weekly title entirely consisting of the new picture stories but AP executives baulked at such a radical departure. Instead, only three would run in the first issue. "The Steam Man on Treasure Island" featured the small crew of the tramp steamer Shamrock becoming marooned on a tropical island, aided by a mechanical steam-powered robot built by the ship's engineer. Drawn initially by Joseph Walker (with Norman Ward later taking over); AP's stalwart detective Sexton Blake, even then 45 years old, tackled the Hooded Stranger; and the National Editorial Association's syndicated Red Ryder cowboy strip was licensed and modified. At this point, the strips featured speech bubbles for dialogue but utilised large narrative captions under each frame; indeed, these were added to "Red Ryder" for British readers.

Text stories were instead equally represented, consisting of "The Runaway Orphans" (introducing Tod and Annie, who would appear often over the next twenty years), "The King's Horses" and "Mickey's Pal, the Wizard". The remainder of the 28 pages were given over to a variety of cartoons, including "Our Crazy Broadcasters" (a celebrity strip originally intended for Radio Fun) and the mishaps of greedy public schoolboy Billy Bunter. Like Sexton Blake, Bunter already a staple of AP's older story papers, and was ripe for the cartoon format, with initial episodes of 'the fattest boy on Earth' drawn by Charles H. Chapman. The cartoon section was largely shaped by the sense of humour of Hugh McNeill, recently tempted from DC Thomson and encouraged to break AP's mould. He responsible for "Deed-a-Day Danny" and "Simon, the Simple Sleuth", and collaborated on "Ali Barber" with Frank Minnitt. Minnitt himself contributed "Kiddo the Boy King", "Merry Margie, Invisible Mender" and "Bob's Your Uncle" to the opening line-up. Other debutants included "Stone-Henge Kit" and "Our Ernie". McNeill's cartoons soon became one of the title's most enduring and popular features.

Priced at 2d, featuring four-colour front and back covers and black-and-white interiors, the first issue of The Knock-Out was dated 4 March, 1939. In order to tempt in new readers, Amalgamated Press funded an attractive scheme of free gifts to boost the first month's appeal; the first issue included either a 'Tuck Hamper' of sweets or a paint-box and brush, depending on the copy; the second came with a painting book; the third a 'zoo album' with four printed cards to stick into it, and the fourth the remaining quartet of animal portraits. The tactic worked, and The Knock-Out was swiftly a sales success.

A little over six months after its launch, World War II broke out. Initially this meant little change to the comic, which debuted "Buffalo Bill" and "The Queer Adventures of Patsy and Tim" in place of the Steam Man and Red Ryder. However, Nazi Germany's rapid invasion of much of Western Europe meant, among other things, that paper was rationed.

Renamed Knock-Out Comic in March 1940, during the conflict the page count fell to 14 pages and the colour was removed. Percy Clarke took over as editor for the duration of the war; to reduce the impact of military call-ups (McNeill was among the AP staff who would serve in the conflict) a move was made towards shorter serials, including a strand of literary adaptations, beginning with "Gulliver's Travels" and later including the likes of "Mr. Midshipman Easy", "Treasure Island" and "The Coral Island".

On 15 June 1940 Knock-Out Comic incorporated the venerable Magnet, one of several wartime mergers forced as much for practical reasons as for financial concerns. The war also had an effect on the stories themselves; "The Happy Vakkies", a cartoon depicting evacuees enjoying fun adventures, debuted in the first Knock-Out Comic and Magnet while Sexton Blake would put his skills at the disposal of the Special Service Brigade until 1944. Other new stories of the time included "Will o' the Woods" and "Outlaw Kid".