Ginger's Tum

Ginger's Tum was a comic strip about a ginger coloured cat, commenced in Whizzer and Chips as 'Ginger's Tum' was in the first issue 18 October 1969.

Artwork by IPC comic strip artist Terry Bave. Rather like Terry Bave's comic strip in Shiver and Shake 'Desert Fox', Ginger was always on the lookout for food, often the shopkeepers, and kindly ladies would save him some. Though equally there would be other shopkeepers and farmers who'd try to exploit Ginger's good nature and massive appetite, in one issue Ginger was only allowed one sausage after helping out a butcher (of course the one sausage he had was a monster sized one).

Occasionally Ginger's path would cross with other hungry cats: 'Tabby' tried to have his food in one issue, but came off worse in the end.

Another issue featured a 'black' cat, who had overheard a lady offering a reward for finding her kitten, Ginger tricked the black cat into thinking the kitten was in a cardboard box, when in fact he had put an 'alley' cat into it. The result was the black cat having a very angry alley cat, and Ginger getting food as a reward for returning the kitten.

In another issue, to win a Cat Show, Ginger entered a 'wildcat' – scaring all the other entries off, and having a huge hamper of food to himself.

Buster later started reprinting these, retitled as 'Ginger' from Buster (comic) issue 23 September 1978 until 10 January 1981

With the onset of 'Buster's Big Year' in 1981, Ginger was quietly dropped from Buster (comic) having already been absent from a number of late 1980s issues.

Terry Bave (comic strip artist) has his own blog