The Bumpkin Billionaires
   
                             
    Before the Lottery, we had the Pools. And most folks could
    only dream of winning that £1m prize. But Ma and Pa Bumpkin
    and the kids, Billy and Daisy, won a whole lot more than
    a £1m. They won billions, and their winnings took them
    out of their ramshackle cottage and into the mansion
    of their dreams...

    Or nightmares, even.

    You see, money simply couldn't buy happiness for the
    Bumpkins. The foursome were driven to distraction
    by the trappings of their winnings. And their Bank Manager
    suffered too, because, each strip the family would scheme
    up extravagant ways to dispose of their fortune - much to
    his exasperation. They'd fling, lose, gamble, invest, and
    hand over great bundles of cash, shovel-loads of gem
    stones and piles of gold bullion before driving into the
    sunset in the Bumpkin jalopy, believing themselves
    to be halfway to penniless bliss...

    

    ...Only for their schemes to backfire in the most spectacular
    ways. Valuations would soar, shares would skyrocket, rewards
    would be granted, donations collected and lost hordes
    discovered, each making the foursome richer than ever.
    Which made for one extra-happy Bank Manager and four
    wailing wannabe paupers!

    The Bumpkins were huge Whoopee! stars. They featured in
    the very first issue in 1974, and stayed with the title throughout
    its 11 year run, before entering the pages of Whizzer & Chips.
    They eventually found their way into Buster comic as the
    fun comic meltdown continued.

    In the earlier comics, Ma Bumpkin often wore a spotty
    headscarf which encompassed much of her head. But
    as the strips went by this transformed into a plainer
    design which preferred to "perch" atop her bonce.
    Hiding beneath that scarf, in what ever form it took,
    was a rather charming set of hair rollers which seemed
    to be a permanent fixture. They'd be exposed when
    ever Ma made a cartoon "take", reacting in horror to
    some financial twist - which was rather too often!

    One thing that never changed was the Bumpkin's fantastic
    country dialect. Every exchange was stuffed with "b'ain't"s,
    "loikes", "gah"s and "oi"s...

    It's interesting to note that those Bumpkins rose to the
    top of the Whoopee! tree at the same time as the Wurzels
    were climbing the UK singles chart. Who can forget, or
    escape from, their singalong chart-topper "Combine
    Harvester"?

    The "country bumpkin" flavour was maintained throughout.
    the Bumpkins' reign. The family regularly chewed straw,
    and they slept in a manor house over run with chickens and
    farmyard animals. The pillows and mattreses in their bedrooms
    were stuffed with great bundles of bank notes, and folks were
    forever tripping over great sacks of cash and priceless gems.
    
    By the way, the Bank Manager had an erstwhile assistant
    called Miss Wobblethorpe. She was only seen infrequently,
    picking up the pieces when a financial scheme went awry.
    Presumably, it all got too much for her...

    

   

   Cover stars

    Those bank-busting Bumpkins were colour cover stars,
   gracing the front of 10 annuals and 9 Summer Specials:

    Whoopee! Annuals
    1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1992

    Whoopee! Summer Specials
    1976, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1991

    Whizzer & Chips Annuals
    1991, 1992

    Whizzer & Chips Summer Special
    1993