Knock-Out

Knock-Out issue 182, 1942

Not to be confused with Knockout, a 1970s IPC humour comic

The Knock-Out, which later lost the article and hyphen to become simply Knockout, was a weekly comic published by the Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway Publications), launched by editor Percy Clarke and sub-editor Leonard Matthews in 1939 to compete with The Dandy and The Beano, launched by DC Thomson in 1937 and 1938 respectively. Like its rivals, it featured a mixture of humour and adventure strips and illustrated prose stories. Matthews recruited Hugh McNeill, a former Beano artist, as the title's main humour artist, and his strips "Our Ernie" and "Deed-a-Day Danny" were very popular. Two characters were imported from the prose story papers - Billy Bunter, formerly of The Magnet, initially drawn by C. H. Chapman, later by Frank Minnitt, and Sexton Blake, initially drawn by Jos Walker, later by Alfred Taylor, Roland Davies and definitive Blake illustrator Eric Parker. After the Second World War the title featured more adventure strips, and Matthews, who was promoted to editor in 1948, recruited artists including Sep E. Scott, H. M. Brock, D. C. Eyles and Geoff Campion to draw them. The title lasted 1251 issues, from (cover dates) 4 March 1939 to 16 February 1963, absorbing The Magnet in 1940 and Comic Cuts in 1953, before being merged into Valiant.

Other strips included:

• "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (Mike Hubbard, 1948)
• "Ali Barber" (Frank Minnitt)
• "Battler Britton" (1960-61, formerly featured in Sun; drawn by Geoff Campion)
• "Blarney Bluffer"
• "Buffalo Bill" (artists include C. L. Doughty, 1940)
• "Captain Flame" (written by Leonard Matthews, drawn by Sep E. Scott)
• "Captain Phantom" (1952-54)
• "The Coral Island", (Mike Hubbard, 1946)
• "Daffy the Cowboy Tec" (Leonard Matthews, 1941-48)
• "Davy Crockett" (1955-60)
• "Deed-a-Day Danny" (Hugh McNeill, 1939-54)
• "Dick Turpin" (Leonard Matthews, D. C. Eyes, H. M. Brock, 1948-50)
• "Firebrand the Red Knight"
• "Freddie Frog" (Peter Woolcock, 1950-52)
• "The Gremlins" (Fred Robinson, 1943-47)
• "Handy Andy" (Hugh McNeill, 1940-48)
• "Hopalong Cassidy" (1954-60)
• "Jimmy Silver"
• "Johnnie Wingco" (Mike Western, 1954-60)
• "Kelly's Eye" (written by Tom Tully, drawn by Francisco Solano López, 1962-63)
• "Kiddo the Boy King" (Frank Minnitt, 1939-40)
• "Kit Carson" (artists include Ian Kennedy)
• "Lucky Logan" (1953-54)
• "Merry Margie" (Frank Minnitt, 1939-40)
• "Mike" (Eric Roberts, 1945-57)
• "Mike, Spike and Greta" (Walter Bell, 1937-38)
• "One-Eye Joe and Two-Toof Tom" (Hugh McNeill, 1946-47)
• "Our Ernie" (C. E. Holt, 1939-60)
• "Patsy and Tim" (Eric Parker, 1940-43)
• "Pete Madden" (Roland Davies]], 1961-63)
• "Red River" (Mike Hubbard, 1949)
• "Robin Hood" (D. C. Eyles, Mike Hubbard, 1947)
• "Sandy and Muddy" (Norman Ward, 1939-43)
• "Sandy's Steam Man" (Joseph Walker, 1939-40)
• "Simon the Simple Sleuth" (Hugh McNeill, 1939-40)
• "Sinbad the Sailor" (Mike Hubbard, 1947}
• "Sinbad Simms" (Eric Roberts, 1957-60)
• "Space Family Rollinson" (Graham Coton, 1954-59; see French Wikipedia article)
• "Sporty" (Reg Wootton, 1949-63)
• "Steadfast McStaunch" (Denis Gifford, 1950-51)
• "Stonehenge Kit the Ancient Brit" (Norman Ward, 1939-50)
• "Strongbow the Mohawk" (Geoff Campion, 1953-57)
• "Thunderbolt Jaxon" (Hugh McNeill, 1958)
• "Tough but Tender Tex" (Norman Ward, 1944-46)
• "Treasure Island" (Mike Hubbard, 1945)

External links

• Knockout issue 182 (22 August 1942) at ComicsUK
• Issues of The Knock-Out scanned at Comicbookplus