The story of one house in Lausanne Road number 47 ............. Topper or Eagle?

The story of one house in Lausanne Road over a century and a half and of one family who lived there in the 1950s.*

Now if there is one thing guaranteed to bring forth a shedful of memories it is the name of a comic from the 1950s.

Part of the reason is that there were so many of them and the quality was so good.

For sheer knockabout pleasure the Beano followed by the Dandy ranks at the top of my all time favourites although they are closely followed by the Topper and the Beezer which were larger format.

All of them went in for the more serious story of which the invasion by walking jelly fish always fascinated me especially their ability to trap their enemies in transparent bubbles.

Sadly only the Beano survives although the Dandy did have a brief flirtation with an online version.

And between them they have a special place in our family because they became the chosen comics of our eldest sons and in the case of our Ben even now the Beano annual features in his Christmas stocking.

All of this I was reminded of by David’s picture of his Topper comic from April 1960 which was one that very probably came through our door.

But I have to confess that I was and still am a fan of the Eagle and of its companion comics, Girl, Swift and Robin.**

Eagle did have its silly and funny stories but at its heart were serious adventures featuring Dan Dare Pilot of the Future and a host of other daring heroes drawn from the French Foreign Legion, the Wild West and the Napoleonic Wars.

Added to which there were factual cutaway drawings and the stories of great lives.

At which point I could get quite pompous about the quality of these four companion comics but I have done that elsewhere and so instead I shall just return to the slapstick humour of the Topper.**

Picture; the Topper April 1960, courtesy of David Harrop, and the Eagle from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The story of one house in Lausanne Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Lausanne%20Road

**Comics of the 1950s,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Comics%20of%20the%201950s