Scorcher (magazine)
| Scorcher | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | IPC Magazines Ltd |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Publication date | January 1970 – 5 October 1974 |
| Number of issues | 248 |
| Main character(s) | Pete |
Scorcher was the name of a football-themed British comic magazine published by IPC between January 1970 and June 1971. In July 1971, it joined with another football-themed comic, Score, to form Scorcher and SCORE, before finally merging into Tiger to become TIGER and Scorcher. The word Scorcher started with almost equal prominence to TIGER on the title page, but as usually happens with such mergers the title size was reduced in November 1975, and again in February 1978 before finally being dropped from the title of the comic after the issue dated 30 August 1980. Scorcher featured various well-known comic strips, such as Billy's Boots, Bobby of the Blues and Lags Eleven, a story about a prison football team. In addition, the Nipper story was absorbed from Score comic and Hot Shot Hamish made its first appearance in the Scorcher and SCORE period. Some of these stories later found homes in Roy of the Rovers in addition to Tiger.
IPC Magazines, the publishers of Scorcher, always referred to it as a "paper" rather than a comic in its editorials, to distinguish it from more child oriented publications such as The Beano or The Dandy. In addition to its realistic and comedic football themed stories, it contained factual items about British professional football, and advertisements not only for contemporary toys, games and confectionery, but also others aimed at an older readership, such as for the Charles Atlas body building method, and recruitment advertisements for the Police, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
The weekly editorial column was featured on the Goal Post page, subtitled Pete's Page, and under the byline of Pete was usually around 200-300 words in a jokey, friendly style, describing recent amusing or chaotic events in the Scorcher office, or upcoming features in the paper. Pete was depicted in a line drawing in early issues as a male in his 20s with a short Bobby Moore haircut, sitting at a desk with a typewriter (although on one occasion when he was unwell he was depicted sitting up in bed with his typewriter on his lap), but in later years changed to just a grinning face, with a longer Kevin Keegan hairstyle and waving a football scarf.
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