The Forbidden Planet International Blog

(Hot -Shot Hamish, (c) Egmont)

The Sunday Mail (that’s the Scottish newspaper, not the similarly titled Mail On Sunday from south of the border) is reprinting classic football comic strip Hot-Shot Hamish in its Sunday supplement. The gigantic Scottish footie player Hamish Balfour possessed the most powerful kick in the world of football and was usually depicted in an ill-fitting strip which struggled to cover his mighty frame. The creation of Fred Baker and normally drawn by Julian Schiaffino (although I’m not sure if Julian drew this week’s strip – above – as sadly there are no credits in the paper. I’m sure Steve Holland probably knows this kind of thing with one glance), Hamish began life in the old Scorcher before moving to Tiger and later on to the popular sports comic for boys, Roy of the Rovers. I must admit I was never a big fan of sports comics as a boy – I much preferred Warlord, Battle and 2000 AD – but its interesting to see this popular old strip seeing the light of day in a major newspaper again. The picture quality is variable though – how much of this is down to the Mail’s printing process and how much is caused by the lower quality of older original strips I don’t know, but the Sunday Mail has also conveniently posted the strip on its website so anyone can have a look, although beware it will try opening another window with an advert when you do.