The Topper (comics) The Topper (comics) The Topper was a UK comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd that ran from 7 February 1953 to 15 September 1990, when it merged with "The Beezer". A strip named "Mickey the Monkey" originally appeared on the front cover. In the early 1970s, it was replaced by "Send for Kelly", by "Danny's Tranny" in 1975, and "Tricky Dicky" in 1979. "Beryl the Peril" took over on 24 May 1986, and remained there until the merger with "The Beezer". Unlike most other comics at the time, which were half tabloid size, the Topper was for
Comic Cavalcade the time. It was priced at 15 cents, when the average comic cost a dime. Many stories in "Comic Cavalcade" were scripted by other than the characters' regular writers, for deadline reasons. Batman writer Bill Finger, for example, would occasionally write Flash stories for "Comic Cavalcade" when regular Flash writer Gardner Fox was preoccupied with other projects. One non-superhero ongoing character introduced in "Comic Cavalcade" was newspaperman Johnny Peril. His roots, prior to his first appearance, came in the one-off story "Just a Story" in issue #15 (July 1946), by writer-artist Howard Purcell. With issue #22 (Sept. 1947), the anthological