Another strip Baxendale created for "Smash!" — "The Swots and the Blots" — was about two rival gangs (the Swots and the Blots) vying to outwit each other at Pond Road School, with "Teach" caught in the crossfire. The strip's origins lay in Baxendale's classroom-based strip "The Tiddlers", which had then been running for two years in "Wham!" (and which continued in "Pow!" when it and "Wham" merged in 1968, where it was combined with Ron Spencer's "The Dolls of St. Dominics" to become "The Tiddlers and The Dolls"). In fact, "The Swots and the Blots" was a direct continuation of " The Tiddlers", with only a change of title. The characters (i.e. "Teach" and the Blots), school buildings, and situations were all largely as they had been in "The Tiddlers". The only difference was the addition of the Swots, so that Teach now had an ally. Although "The Swots and the Blots" was created by Baxendale, the first couple of years of the strip were drawn by Mike Lacey. (As had happened with some of Baxendale's work for "Wham!", artists such as Lacey were commissioned from time to time to "ghost" Baxendale's style. Baxendale was allowed to sign his early work on "Smash!", but in practice, he signed very few them, so it is quite difficult to tell which are his and which are other artists substituting for him.)