Smart Alec
    
    
    Over the years, Fleetway actually gave us two very different
    "Smart Alec" strips. The first and most famous version
    appeared regularly in the pages of "Whizzer & Chips" in the
    early 70s. But this index page refers to  the more elusive
    "Krazy" character, drawn by Mike Brown.

    In this strip, Alec defied the usual logic of a smarty
    pants being something of a nerd, or a geek, or just plain
    annoying. He had real street smarts, which gave him the
    edge on his annoying neighbour over the garden fence,
    and certainly impressed his pals.

    "Smart Alec" originally snuck into "Krazy" on 27th August
    1977 as the star of a one-off strip entitled "Smart Alec's
    Project Page". The project in question was a "flitter moth"
    which we saw being constructed out of two small rolls of
    paper and an elastic band and used to frighten his dad.
    In the final panel, Alec said he'd see us soon, but he didn't
    reappear until some five months later, inthe issue dated
    14th January 1978. At least we now had a "proper" strip
    to read. The story had Alec losing his favourite catapault
    to his misery-faced neighbour. But Alec found a smart
    way to fling revenge upon the bad-tempered buffoon.
    Just like before the strip popped up without any fanfare,
    fully-formed, and was gone the next week. Only this time,
    it went for good, ne'er to return to the weekly editions.

    Even so, that wasn't the last we saw of Alec, because
    eagle-eyed readers could have also spied him in the
    1978 Krazy Annual. He featured in two tales, playing football
    in his back garden and annoying that old neighbour. The
    clever clogs uses his smarts to outwit his antogonists and
    even earn a bob or two on the way to getting his ball back.
            
    And that was it. Four hard-to-find appearances, for what was
    actually a very sound creation from cartoonist Mike Brown.
    In keeping with the artist's other works, "Smart Alec" was
    full of fab details and asides - similar in tone to strips by
    Leo Baxendale and Tom Paterson. It's such a shame
    we never saw more of the character...

    Or did we?

    If you know any better, do get in touch!