Tony Broke

Origin

Tony Broke was a poor boy who lived with his parents in Broke Cottage, a small run-down hovel neighbouring the vast Lott Hall, home of Ivor Lott and his father. Ivor loved showing off his wealth to Tony and mocking Tony’s impoverished circumstances, but inevitably Ivor’s nastiness backfired, leaving him the losing party in whatever situation the pair were in.

Creation

Tony Broke and Ivor Lott were created by Reg Parlett, and debuted in Cor!! issue 1 in 1970, with Tony’s name coming from the phrase “Stony broke.” The pair survived Cor!!’s cancellation and merger into Buster, proving enduringly popular with the readers. With British comics being mostly weekly anthologies the demand for new strips was constant, and thus British comics were never afraid to rip off the concepts of successful strips appearing in other comics; thus Buster’s IPC stablemate Jackpot produced Millie O’Naire and Penny Less (the former a name already used as one of the Toffs from Knockout’s The Toffs and the Toughs, a group version of the rich vs. poor class war seen between Tony and Ivor). When Jackpot also merged into Buster, Millie and Penny’s strip merged into Ivor and Tony’s, with the girls dating the respective boys. Millie and Penny eventually vanished from the strip, but Ivor and Tony continued appearing in Buster right until the final issue in 2000, a respectable thirty year run for their strip. The pair were namechecked in Albion, where it was revealed that Ivor had grown up to become a “Turf Accountant” (a betting shop owner).