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The 3 randomly chosen series illustrated above are ....
Huxley Pig - The Wombles - Portland Bill
The editorial,left,confirms that Helter Skelter was actually a character, invented just for the comic.
Colourful,yes.
But the poor little chap must've known he had limited career prospects when he was so obviously typecast by his hat, and the fact they chose to dress him like Timmy Mallet.
So it was really akin to a mercy killing when he duely disappeared along with the comic.
All the strips featured had been made into tv series.
And the only one that I think many may struggle to remember is called Bangers & Mash.
So here's their wiki
Below is the 2 page Herbs story ....
The full scale version is easily readable.
The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley
On this page ..... a brave,but ill-judged,attempt at the pre-school comic market in the 1990's.
Helter Skelter comic
In 1991,an organisation called the Storm Group bought the rights to Filmfair's back catalogue -including all things Herbal of course.And,a year later,they tried to bring all the series together in a printed comic called "Helter Skelter".
Hardly a new idea,as Polystyle Publications had filled Pippin & Playland with the Beeb's Watch With Mother programmes of course- and done very nicely out of it too,thanks very much.So at least it was based on a tried and trusted idea.
And yet it lasted just four issues before being axed.
Q. So .... what went wrong ?
A. Poor timing,combined with a couple of other serious downsides ....
By 1992,the mainstream UK comics market had been decimated by declining sales.
The 2 main players in Helter Skelter's tv-centric niche sector were both in their death throes ....
Pippin's successor,"Buttons" in the pre-school market and "Look-In" for the slightly older market.
And,as if that wasn't bad enough ....
Both those titles were struggling despite being able to tick 2 major boxes that Helter Skelter couldn't :-
1. They both featured comic strips based on series that were still regularly featuring on tv.
Whereas most of the Filmfair series weren't by 1992.
2. They both had the habit-forming immediacy of being weeklies.
Whereas Helter Skelter was only a monthly.Which was surely far too infrequent for a voracious young audience.
So,even without 20/20 hindsight,I'm not entirely sure what the publishers thought was going to happen to be honest.
Although I'll leave you to ponder the wider issue of why general circulation figures had declined so badly .... even before the arrival of the internet and multi-channel tv.Because it's something I've never really been able to put my finger on.
But before we leave Helter Skelter let's end on a positive.
Because at least the production values were excellent.At least if issue #1 is anything to go by [ examples below.]
Oh,and if you're lucky enough to have the other 3 issues then I'd love to see them or buy them ! - email on home page.
A few snapshots from inside ....
