Hoot

Hoot was a weekly humour comic published by DC Thomson from 26th October 1985 to 25th October 1986, a total of 53 issues (though it billed itself as "Britain's bubbling new comic" throughout). It had a cover price of twenty pence, represented by a stylised drawing of a 20p coin. The last new humour title from Thomson's to feature mostly new characters (though several characters from previous publications also appeared) it was eventually merged with The Dandy. Featured strips which began in issue #1 included Cuddles by Barrie Appleby (originally from Nutty, Cuddles eventually joined the strip Dimples in the Dandy, which became 'Cuddles and Dimples'), The Hoot Squad by Ken H. Harrison (later reprinted in The Beano in 2007 as 'The Riot Squad'), Wanta Job Bob and Super Fran by Steve Bright (Super Fran ended in issue #51), Polar Blair by Robert Nixon (transferred to the Dandy), Sam's Secret Diary by Jerry Swaffield (ended in issue #48), L Plated Ella by Robert Nixon, Dogsbody by John Geering, Piggles by Barrie Appleby (later briefly reprinted in the Dandy in 2004), Snackula by David Mostyn and Spotted Dick by Barrie Appleby, Jerry Swaffield and John Aldrich (ended in issue #52 but was revived when Hoot merged with Dandy two weeks later). Later additions were Charli by Jim Petrie (which began in issue #5), Harry and William by George Martin (which began in issue #50), The Old Ones by Jerry Swaffield (which only appeared in issue #50), Winston by Steve Bright (issues #51-52 only) and Space Cop by George Martin (#53 only). In addittion, four frame mini-strips featuring established characters from other titles appeared in each issue, including Big Uggy from Topper,