School Fun

School Fun was a British comic book that ran from the issues dated 15 October 1983 to 26 May 1984, when it merged with Buster. As the name implies, the comic's "gimmick" was that every strip revolved around school.

Its strips included:

• B.Ware Caretaker - a highly antagonistic caretaker, extremely irritated by mess, and trying to prevent schoolchildren's enjoyment at every turn.
• Coronation Street School - a class where the pupils resembled popular Coronation Street characters.
• Creepy Crawler - a tell-tale and sycophantic teacher's pet who tends to end up irritating rather than helping his teacher. Creep joined Young Arfur after School Fun merged with Buster.
• E.T.T. - a strip based on the contemporary E.T. movie, involving an alien teacher stranded on Earth and teaching at a local school.
• Grange Hill Juniors - a strip containing various Grange Hill characters.
• Junior Ed: the son of the School Fun editor.
• Schoolditz - a class captured by the Nazis in the Second World War and trying to escape from a Colditz-style prison. Their plans founder because the headmaster often goofs up Gilligan-style. The headmaster redeems himself by saving the day in the final episode. A retro gaming mashup incorporating the ZX Spectrum classic Skool Daze with elements from Schoolditz is reportedly under development by Mal Franks.
• School Belle - featuring a highly egotistical schoolgirl who overrated her attractiveness, continually failing to manipulate schoolboys into doing her bidding
• School Team - who are appointed to win trophies to fill the empty trophy cupboard.
• Slowcoach (from Whizzer and Chips) - Slowcoach is always guaranteed to be late and have an incredible excuse, such as being chased by tigers or falling into a printing press on the way. Note: Slowcoach did not appear in the regular comic; it began after the merger with Buster.
• Softy Sir - featuring a teacher presented as a complete wimp, similar to Walter The Softy, whilst his class runs riot around him. But Softy Sir always ends up with the last laugh. Softy Sir became Walt Teaser's teacher ater the merger.
• Teachers United - a strip presenting all teachers as members of an extremely organised force bordering on a conspiracy against their schoolchildren, complete with a high-tech underground headquarters accessed via a staff cupboard.
• Time Bus - a school bus that travelled through time before each school day. So the kids would always arrive at school on the back of a time travel adventure.
• Walt Teaser - a schoolboy who would make fun at his classmates or anyone who catches his attention - but they always end up with the last laugh.
• Willy Wonty (added after a vote by readers upon six sample strips) - who can never make up his mind about anything.
• Young Arfur - a strip featuring an enterprising Arthur Daley-like character, who always came up with dodges to get what he wanted - most often, worming his way out of schoolwork or helping his classmates to do so.

School Fun ran for 33 issues, and had one annual and two holiday specials.

External links

• Toonhound page