The Knockout.

The Knockout was first published by the Amalgamated press on 4th March 1939. The Magnet was incorporated on 25th May 1940 and the publication was renamed "Knockout Comic and Magnet".  The Knockout was eventually amalgamated with the Valiant on 16th Feb 1963 after 1251 issues. Billy Bunter was a feature of the Knockout for most of that time but was reduced to a slapstick comic feature which may have appealed to the younger reader but had no appeal to readers who remembered Greyfriars from the Golden age of the Magnet.

Billy Bunter in the Knockout.

Chapman was the artist behind a trial of Bunter picture stories for the Magnet in 1939 and it was felt that this would be a good idea to try this format in the 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 recognise. However Chapman couldn't keep up with the workload and a new artist was sought after the first few issues. Chapman drew issues 1-5 and 7-9. The artist responsible for issues 6 & 10 is not known. George Gillingham drew issue 11. Frank Minnit then took over and was asked to produce a two page Bunter strip every week. 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.

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.

You can see some of the early comic strips by clicking on the links below.

Knockout 001    Knockout 002    Knockout 003    Knockout 004    Knockout 005    Knockout 006    Knockout 007    Knockout 008    Knockout 009    Knockout 010    Knockout 011    Knockout 012    Knockout 013    Knockout 014    Knockout 015    Knockout 016

A full issue of the knockout from 1953 is available  here.

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