Whizzer and Chips

Whizzer and Chips
Advertisement for Whizzer and Chips in Smash, 1st November 1969
Publication information
Publisher	Fleetway and IPC
Publication date	18 Oct. 1969–27 Oct. 1990
Number of issues	1092

Whizzer and Chips was a British comics magazine that ran from 18 October 1969 to 27 October 1990, when it merged with the comic Buster. As with most comics of the time, Whizzer and Chips was dated one week ahead of the day it actually appeared on newsstands in Great Britain.

The format of Whizzer and Chips was to have the comic divided into two separate parts, a novel idea at the time. One part was called Whizzer and the other was called Chips, with Chips existing as a separate pull-out section in the middle. The slogan was "Two comics in one, double the fun!". It had no relation to earlier British comic Illustrated Chips. In the offices at Fleetway, it was always regarded as one comic.

In common with most British comics of the time, both sections originally included some of their strips in semi-colour using black, white, and red (duotone), with others in plain black and white. To reinforce the distinction between the two sections, the duotone strips in Chips were later changed to black, white, and blue. Whizzer and Chips went full colour on the week of 4 May 1990.

The comic Knockout merged with Whizzer and Chips on 30 June 1973, followed by Krazy in 1978, Whoopee! in 1985 and finally Scouse Mouse in 1989.

One ongoing concept was that the two comics were fierce . A guest appearance by a character from one of the comic strips in the story of one in the other magazine would be described as a "raid", and the other comic would seek its revenge with a raid of its own the following week. The first raid did not appear until issue 2.

Readers were encouraged to become either a "Whizz-Kid" or a "Chip-ite", depending on which section they preferred. The leader of the Whizz-Kids was a boy called Sid and his snake Slippy, from the Sid's Snake comic strip. The leader of the Chip-ites was a boy called Shiner from the comic strip of the same name, who had aspirations to become a boxer. In the first issue of Whizzer and Chips, Sid's Snake was on the cover of Chips, as Shiner did not appear until issue 2.