Strange Hill, alternatively known as Strange Hill School or Strange Hill School for Ghouls in ''

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a Scottish children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after '' Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 Oc ...

'', is the title of two British

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s, one of which ran in ''

Whizzer and Chips ''Whizzer and Chips'' was a British comics magazine that ran from 18 October 1969 to 27 October 1990, when it merged with the comic '' Buster''. As with most comics of the time, ''Whizzer and Chips'' was dated one week ahead of the day it actu ...

'', the other in The Dandy. The title is a reference to the long running

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

TV show ''

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

'' about a school of that name. Both strips were set in horrifying schools.

"Strange Hill" in "The Dandy"

The ''Dandy'' version was a very "safe" version of

Hammer Horror Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...

clichés, similar to Number 13 in ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'' or the US TV series ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

''. Drawn by David Mostyn. The focus was on the school's only normal pupil, who was remarkably unfazed that his schoolmates included a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

, a

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

, etc. The full title was ''Eddie Potter at Strange Hill School''. (This is not a parody of Harry Potter, who did not exist yet.) It appeared in Dandy, from 1986 to circa 2004. He reappeared for a few issues in 2008, as reprints. He also appeared in the 2012 annual.

"Strange Hill" in "Whizzer and Chips"

By contrast, the ''Whizzer and Chips'' version featured a normal teacher, at a similar, but much more grotesque school. Unlike the lead character in the

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Courier (Dundee), The Courier'', ''Evening Telegraph (Dundee), The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Pos ...

strip, "Teach" found his sanity rapidly decaying as he faced his horrific pupils. It could be argued that the difference between these strips highlights the differences between the relatively safe, conservative humour of DC Thomson and the more edgy, bizarre

Fleetway Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. History It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies t ...

style.

References

External links

Toonhound article on the Fleetway version
DC Thomson Comics strips Fleetway and IPC Comics strips Grange Hill Parody comics Parodies of horror Parodies of television shows Horror comics Humor comics Comics set in schools Fictional locations in comics Fictional schools Comics set in the United Kingdom 1986 comics debuts 2004 comics endings {{UK-comics-stub