That'd be whatever each of us grew up reading. For me, nothing comes close to Eagle.

Tommy Cooper surely isn't it?

Difficult to name a definitive number one - each is great for different reasons - but my top 3 would be, in no particular order (drum roll):

Battle
2000AD
Warlord

Any other Warlord secret agents out there? If so, here's my top-secret coded message:

"SVOOL XSZKH"

Has to be

or the one with "Billy's Boots" in it. Shoot? The tension whether his boots would be rescued from it's journey to the tip and turn up for the second-half of Billy's crucial trial match was unbearable - every week.

.. is that you click on a blog post, then end up lost in the web and Wikipedia for aaages, pulling out names at random like Alf Tupper, The Tough of the Track; Hot Shot Hamish; Nipper; Keyhole Kate; Black Bob ... then I remember something like the Brampton Keys (Brompton Keys?), a strip about a northern English football team but can't find it anywhere online ... then I recall a hardback comic annual that some well-meaning relative gave me when I was still at primary school (early '70s) except that it was a sub-porno horror comic affair with paranoid overtones (a WWII drama where the pilot baled out only to find that his parachute had turned into a tentacled, hungry monster and ate him) which couldn't have been good for my developing psyche... and, bugger, I've burned the soup ... bloody Word

I've always read comics - they used to cost me a thruppenny bit, now some of them cost me around £50 if the collected hardback Absolute editions. I can't even whittle it down to a top ten. The following have all meant a lot to me at one point or another
Bimbo
Teddy Bear
Beano
Sparky
Topper
Cor
Shiver and Shake
Action
2000AD
All the ones which reprinted Marvel comics
Revolver
Toxic
Viz
Deadline

The only publication to actually grow up with me. One of my few subscriptions alongside Word.

So glad they didn't change the name 10 years ago (3000AD). Somehow the titile still looks like it refers to the future to me.

Prog 2010 next week. Return of Zombo. "Can I eat you?"

In my opinion, The OP should be rephrased to say that the best comic ever produced is The Beano - but what other comics also had good moments?

for me, which became Cheeky Weekly, with Pongo Snodgrass.

..has cropped up on kids TV recently in animated form. It's retained a lot of the original charm, (I was a late 70's vintage reader) and its great to see my 4 year old lapping it up, (cattys, Dad in the pinstripe suit and slap up feeds are all present and correct).

Captain Britain, 2000AD, Starlord and Krazy.

Mine were Cheeky, Beano,Warlord and Shoot.

..wasn't he absorbed into 2000 AD then quietly retired? I remember the sticker that came with the first issue - stuck on to the arm of my Lumberjacket for about 6 months.

I used to find second hand copies in markets in the mid 1970s. They were the first UK comics to reprint Marvel stories.

always will be.
1. 2000 AD( invented the future)
2. Beano (re-invented the past and was actually funny)
3. The Eagle (invented the future as the past but was a little dull in places even Dan Dare)

I would also make the case that seeing as Brits invaded America most of the best Marvel and Dc work of the last 25 years are British comics. My personal favourite is "League of extraordinary gentlemen "by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neil which treats British Sci-fi and mainstream fiction as it's playground and is brilliant in it's own right.

There's a few other honourable additions such commando comics (just for the madness of their stories and in some case the excellent pulp art) Battle Action (for Charles War,Hook jaw and for inventing Toothy!) and Look and Learn for Tragan empire.

Anyone fancy an excellent wander down memory lane should ask Santa for this excellent fully illustrated tome which is packed full of rosebud moments enough to fill up most of Christmas.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-British-Comics-Paul-Gravett/dp/1845131703/...

Warlord.
Action!
Victor.

The latter being the finest.

Joe Bones the Human Fly, Matt Braddock VC, Morgyn the Mighty..

Union Jack Jackson was in Warlord.

Hookjaw, Dredger.. Action was great for a few blood-soaked months.

Take that, Fritz. Hande hoch Englander shweinhund. Aieeeee..

Why, it would be The Daredevils, 'cos it gave us the Fury, best baddie ever

Followed by 2000Ad circa this cover

Oor Wullie or The Broons!

I grew up wishing I lived in England. Apart from the fact that my mother was a school librarian and comics were frowned upon - I was allowed "Treasure" and "Boy's Own Paper" - the worst thing was reading the ads for penknives and Airfix (? - maybe Scalextric??) toy car racing things and REALLY WANTING ONE but my Dad would point out, with his frustrating logic, that the cost to ship to NZ would be excessive.

Sigh.

Any other similar Antipodean experiences?

who could swim faster than he could run!

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/images/Interviews/ScottGoodall/SplashGorton1.j...

can I add Viz to my list it sort of exists in a parallel world but it's peaks still out weigh it's troughs. And although it doesn't always take the head off and leave the body standing it is most the of time still on the nail with satire. Oh and the filth is reassuringly consistent.

Had the full set, in mint condition. Sold on the 'Bay a few years back - financed a new TV!! Issue #1 went for over £70. Fondly remember the thrill each week nipping down the shops for the new issue.

Want there a comic called Beazer, or Beezer. I'm sure that was what I used to get before I grew up and graduated to the Beano.

Who of a "born in the 50s vintage" remembers the war comics,I'm pretty sure one was called Commando but there were others I forget. When I tell my children about these, it brings it home to me how unbelievably racist they were. Every other page was a German, face distorted in fury, shouting words of hatred at us Brits and they always ended up dying horribly, hurrah! And this was a kiddies comic!

Add to that our parents mistrust of everything German and Japanese (and French and Italian for that matter) and its a wonder any of us grew up to be rational human beings.

Early 80s some of the people involved in 2000AD produced a monthly where the creators kept the rights - hence the moneymaking possibilities and creative control - to the characters. Alan Moore's Marvelman (Renamed Miracleman for the US and due to copyright issues) came from Warrior and there were some other excellent strips in it, all a little 2000AD gone adult.

I loved it.

No one mentioned this wonderful comic from the sixties.
Home of Captain Hurricane and his batman, Maggot Malone.
Home of Nick Kelly and his Eye of Zoltec
And home of Legges Eleven. A team of misfits captained by Ted Legge and managed by Dusty Binns ( long before Ted Rogers got his fingers in a twist).
Do I win a prize for being the oldest contributor to this thread?

I began as a Whizzer and Chips reader (I was a Chip-ite), then moved onto The Beano before the hormones kicked in and I began reading Jackie. I never had much time for girls comics like Bunty/ Jinty/ Misty - they were occasionally bought for me by well-meaning relatives but they bored me silly, as did the occasional copy of 2000AD that somehow came my way. The Beano is surely the best British comic for this very reason - it had cross-gender appeal.

which eventually merged with the Eagle, was my early favourite. Each issue had a story called 'What would YOU do?' on the cover.

The point of this was that every week some poor bloke got trapped in the path of a flood/trapped on top of a factory chimney with no Fred Dibnah in sight/trapped in the path of a runaway train/trapped by an escaped rhinoceros/trapped by the ankle in a giant clam with only five minute's air left etc etc, and the object of the exercise was to work out how you'd save yourself.

I never worked out a single one. I still have some of the giveaway booklets they featured though, including one that tells you how to judge your fellow man by the shape of his chin. I kid you not.

The Eagle & Boy's World

The Topper

The Hotspur

The Victor

Look & Learn

The Dandy

The Beano

The Beezer

A more accurate reflection on British society over the last 20 years
than Viz. The comic has to be the best ever produced. Although have soft spot for the Beano. But character's like Sid the Sexist,Paul Whicker and the Drunken Baker's very rarely fail to leave me in creases

But for some reason I understood the OP to be referring to the more traditional kiddie comic, that doesn't involve unfeasibly large testicles or a character that dresses like a thermos flask and is addicted to prostitutes.

This turned up when I was unpacking the last of our boxes following the move to NZ....
http://www.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/violentcomic/violentcomic.htm

My seven year old is now obsessed with Hook Jaw and Death Game 1999.

In which comic did Brassneck appear anyone?

Viz is worth the price of entry just for Letterbocks, the Profanisaurus (which, in collected hardback form, is the funniest single book ever published) and Biffa Bacon.

Rat Boy and Tasha Slapper are always on the money, satirically, and the Fat Slags always delight. Roger Mellie poked fun at the celebrity circus before the current obsession with slebs was even thought of. And the fake adverts are just golden (I remember a "situations vacant" page advertising jobs and services for tramps, including a fake "can't get credit?" loan shark one which read "Need 10p for a cup of tea? Are you an incomprehensible shouter? Self-fighter? Food in beard? We can help!". I nearly shat.)

Used to look forward to my grandad visiting us every fortnight; he would obviously grab whatever he could from the bus station newsstand- Whizzer and Chips (Chip-ite BTW), Victor, Warlord etc but I'd occasionly end up with the odd copy of Bunty and Judy! Read and enjoyed each and every one. My particular roll of honour: Valiant (only ever experienced through my uncle's old annuals), Buster (points for longevity), Sparky (cooler than DC Thompson's other output) Krazy and Cheeky (drawn in the main by the genius Frank McDiarmid!) Still a subscriber to 2000AD but I'm saddened that these sort of comics just aren't viable anymore - everything now has to have a TV tie-in/mixed-media profile.

It had heroism, war, football, engines.

And Alf Tupper, Tough of the Track.

Great to see a few shouts for dear neglected Tiger, a true long-running classic in my book - the comic that made even the most pedestrian of sports exciting.

HIGHLIGHTS:

JOHNNY COUGAR - the redskin matman with his beatnik cornerman Splash Gorton (who owned a penguin called Ice-Chick). Once fought a robot called Grarg and had a scrap in a ring suspended between two mountains. "Wah! Hookhaii! The Cougar strikes!" This sort of thing just didn't happen on World of Sport.

SKID SOLO - mild-mannered F1 ace aided by his one-man team, excitable Scottish mechanic Sandy McGrath. Remarkable the amount of times he'd exclaim: "Hoots Skid, ye've just broken the world lap record!"

BILLY'S BOOTS - Billy Dane, crap schoolkid football-nut who lives with his gran finds a pair of knackered, magic boots belonging to 50's ace 'Dead-Shot' Keen. Turns him into an erratic genius. Always fretting: "Crumbs! The old boots seem to be taking a long walk back to take this corner." In the summer Billy's crap cricket skills take a turn for the better when he finds a pair of Dead-Shot's cricket boots!

HOT-SHOT HAMISH - Amiable but dim man-mountain with cannonball shooting skills. Managed by Mr McWhacker. Has a pet goat called McMutton. Hand hurts when giving autographs. Reduces goalies to quivering wrecks: "Jings! Not the Hot-Shot!" Nuff said.

PIN-UPS of sporting folk reading their fave mag Tiger, eg: Stan Bowles and Ian Gillard sitting on motorbikes in their QPR strips.

LOWLIGHTS: Endless articles by the likes of Trevor Francis and Geoff Boycott.

Free plate wobbler with the first issue! Nice!

Out of the "modern" comics:
2000AD unquestionably/
I too was a Warlord agent
Victor
Roy of the Rovers - how many comics killed off a character (Gordon Stewart) only to replace him with his son? And have the foot removed after a helicopter crash of its main character?
Battle - Charley's War is now in reprint in hardback. And was just groundbreaking.

But my dad collected ones too; I - well, brother and I - still have his Eagle Annuals from the 50s. As well as Jeff Arnold and the Riders of the Range.

Are we also allowed to mention the Commando series? Not comics per se, but just fantastic.