Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Nurks, Nerds and Nurkettes


Nurk, although not an actual word (probably a word made up based upon 'burk'), is the name given to weird, spotty, strange little children by Tom Paterson. Nurks appeared in the background of School Belle over a period of time, and actually became quite popular. In issue dated 14th October 1989, a book entitled A - Z Of Nurks was given away free as a supplement in Buster. The first Nurk we ever saw, labeled 'A Little Nurk' appeared in the School Belle strip in Buster issue dated 11th January 1986.



The next-but-one issue, dated 25th January 1986, featured no Nurks, but instead lots of different species of Haggis and Haggi!



The next Nurk appeared in issue dated 8th March, but issue dated 22nd March reveled Nerds, not Nurks!



This was accompanied with a letter in the same issue. 



The following issue featured a follow-up letter, although 'Buster' has made the mistake of calling them 'nerks' instead of 'nerds', as they were actually called in the strip!



From there the Nurks took Buster by storm, appearing regularly week after week in School Belle, each one coming with a label! Here's one more strip, featuring a group of Nurkettes.



This is part four in the series of Buster posts, and another part will come next week!

Part 1:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/01/new-strips-for-buster.html

Part 2:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/01/sqworm.html

Part 3: 
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/01/introducing-busters-new-friends.html

Part 5:
http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/02/buster-gets-revamp.html

3 comments:

TwoHeadedBoy said...

Nice to see a round-up of these, do you have that A-Z book?

Funny as they are, I always found them slightly mean-spirited, being a "nurk" myself at the time...

Kids can't help acne, right?

Peter Gray said...

Those School Belle's are brilliant...a Tom Paterson of 1986 I must reread...

A-Z nerks...maybe the new artist that took over School Belle drew some of those?

George Shiers said...

The A-Z of Nurks definitely isn't drawn by Tom Paterson. I know the artists name but I can't think of it at the moment! Unfortunatly my copy of the issue doesn't have the Nurks book in it, but I'm sure I'll come across a copy one day that does!

@TwoHeadedBoy - Somebody has to be a Nurk!