When Biff! became Sam

During the 1970s IPC were never shy of reprinting old strips and changing the character's names to try and convince readers they were new. Quite a few characters from Wham! were reprinted this way. The Tiddlers and Super Sir became The Horrors and Puffing Billy, General Nitt and his Barmy Army became Sir Hector and his Hardnuts, The Wacks became The Beat Boys... and so on. 

In 1970/71, new IPC weekly Thunder reprinted Biff from Wham! retitled as Sam. Quite a bit of a dull change, that one. (No offence to any Sams of course.) Here are a couple of examples. Art by Leo Baxendale on the first one...

Apart from the name change, the big difference is that because the early issues of Wham! had a superior printing technique that allowed painted artwork, the art had to be recoloured using flat tones for the cheap newsprint that Thunder was printed on. (Otherwise the pages would reproduce in a muddy mess.) Unfortunately, any subtlety in the colouring was replaced too. Leo Baxendale's technique of having a face in the foreground in shadow, to give a sense of depth, was replaced by a flesh tone, making the bully look like a giant on the same level as Biff. The other big change is that Leo's signature was removed from the reprint. Although Odhams were happy for artists to sign their pages, IPC were not, - at least not in 1970. 

This next example is drawn by Graham Allen...

Reprints such as this were a major factor in why Leo Baxendale quit mainstream comics a few years later. (Bear in mind that creators received nothing for reprints.) The lack of respect that publishers showed towards creatives in that regard cost them a great artist/creator, and reflected badly on the UK comics industry for years. 

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