Billy Bunter in the Knockout.
Chapman produced some Bunter picture stories for the Magnet in 1939 and it was felt that this would be a good idea to try this format in a new publication 'The Knockout'. Readers of the Knockout were encouraged to read the magnet and vice versa. The initial picture stories were drawn by Chapman and were based on authentic Greyfriars incidents that readers of the Magnet would appreciate. However Chapman couldn't keep up with the workload and a new artist was sought after only 9 issues. To see some of Chapman's work select the links below.
Knockout 001 Knockout 002 Knockout 003 Knockout 004 Knockout 005 Knockout 007 Knockout 008 Knockout 009
Frank Minnit replaced Chapman and was given the job of producing a weekly two page Bunter strip. Initially he emulated Chapman but over a period of time the strips became more slapstick and by 1942 The Co had been made redundant and most of the stories featured Bunter, Quelch and Jones Minor, a character that had never appeared in any Frank Richards story. These strips held no appeal to the traditional Magnet reader but the Knockout was a success with young readers and within a year it was selling more copies than the Magnet had ever sold. Minnit drew the comic strip for the next 18 years until shortly before his death after a short illness in 1958. You can see one of his strips from Knockout issue 723 here.
A number of artists kept Bunter alive and in 1961 Bunter started to appear on the front page. The Knockout was renamed Billy Bunter's Knockout but his front page status was short lived and in July 1962 after a revamp he was banished to the inside pages. In Feb 1963 the Knockout merged with the Valiant and Bunter continued to appear until the Valiant folded in 1975.
Steve Holland has produced an excellent article on the Knockout in his 'After the Magnet' website. You can read it here. http://www15.brinkster.com/hiamie/greyfriars/sh/After_the_Magnet.htm#index