OiNK Media Coverage

OiNK: A SHORT TAiL

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As announced in the post introducing OiNK’s 40th anniversary , the funniest comic ever created is getting its very own documentary. It’ll be a short film, running to 15-20 minutes but aims to pack as much as possible into its runtime. The people behind it are Claire Bend and Rob Reed of Bread and Butter Films, who reached out to me last summer in their research of OiNK, and to ask if I’d like to be filmed for it too!

Our original Zoom chat may have been hampered by an audio-only link (thanks to my home internet) but we chatted at length and had a great laugh along the way. I was confident OiNK was in safe hands as they began to talk to some of its contributors throughout the rest of the year. Originally, I had planned to make the trip to England to see them but unfortunately in the end I just couldn’t. But that didn’t stop Claire and Rob, who were determined to include me in the film.

So, a couple of weeks ago I found myself very excitedly setting up part of my living room for another call (this time with a faster connection and video intact). Surrounded by my favourite comic (and my phone camera precariously held up by anything I could find) I had a great time discussing all things OiNK. Claire and Rob are a joy to chat to and I can’t wait to see the finished film.

While I can’t give too much away yet about what I know, I did ask if I could turn the tables on them for the blog. I’m pleased to say the bribes worked, so here are both Claire and Rob to tell you all about an honest-to-gosh OiNK short film you’ll get to see later this year! Enjoy.

OiNK Blog: What attracted you to OiNK as a possible documentary subject?

Claire Bend: I have a long list of ideas for films that no one will pay me to make, and OiNK had been on there for a while. I’d done some work for Lakes International Comic Festival and came to realise that a lot of the creators of OiNK had gone on to do other brilliant, interesting things. And as I began to mention OiNK to more people, I began to see that it had a real cultural impact. Rob and I had met through work and on some long car journeys to filming locations we’d chatted about the idea and both thought, if no one else is making it, I suppose we should. 

Rob Reed: Claire used to work at a creative agency I sometimes freelance with and getting to know each other through those chats we discovered we shared a similar taste in films, music, hobbies etc. and comics was one of them. I grew up a huge comics fan in Essex but it was so hard to get anything from the local newsagent that wasn’t the Beano or the odd Marvel comic. OiNK wasn’t on my radar at the time but since making the film I realised that I did recognise some of the covers from the comics shop I used to have to travel to in the nearby town. I was a huge fan of Round The Bend which the same creators went on to make for TV so it was brilliant making that connection. When Claire was telling me all about OiNK, its origins and her passion for it, I knew it would make a great subject for a documentary. As a filmmaker I’m a huge believer of just getting started on something that interests you and see where it leads. Thankfully the journey with this so far has been one of the most enjoyable experiences yet for something I’ve worked on. Also there are hardly any documentaries on British comics and it’s a hugely overlooked part of British pop culture. 

OB: So what we all really want to know is which OiNK contributors can we expect to hear from?

Rob: We were so glad to spend time with and interview Patrick Gallagher [above – Phil] the sole remaining member of the original trio as Mark [Rodgers] and Tony [Husband] have both sadly passed away. There’s Lew Stringer [below] and David Leach [he and Helen Jones can be seen further below] alongside a few other contributors. I’m really pleased we hear from Laura Howell who was a huge OiNK fan growing up and then went on to be the first regular female artist to draw for the Beano and Viz. 

Claire: Loads! But there are so many we haven’t interviewed (yet) because Rob keeps telling me we only have 15 minutes and I have to stop now. We haven’t spoken to [Jeremy] Banx or Ian Jackson for example, but we’re hoping that we might be able to keep working on the film and add in some more creators if we can (please email us!). There are people you will know like Lew and Patrick, and a few people you may not know, like OiNK fan Dr Nik Taylor [Director of Teaching and Learning for the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Huddersfield… and a practicing magician]. Oh, and some bloke called Phil [sounds like an eejit].

OB: Were there any revelations about OiNK we can look forward to hearing about?

Rob: Nothing I would say surprising but it’s been so great to hear all the memories and stories from all the creators. It’s also funny hearing how their own recollections of certain moments can vary from person to person.

Claire: I’m not sure if we’ve uncovered any shocks, but hearing all the brilliant creators talking about their memories of the time has been such a lovely experience. I feel really honoured that everyone has been so willing to take part and has been so welcoming to us.

Rob: The main point that has been hammered home is that it definitely wasn’t Viz for kids!

OB: Indeed! Did you read OiNK yourselves as children? What are your fondest memories? But if you didn’t read it as a child, what did you think when you read it as an adult?

Claire: I was 7/8 yrs old when I read OiNK and remember feeling incredibly smug that I was allowed it and my best pal was not. Thanks mum! It was a very different experience to reading Twinkle comic for girls. I particularly loved the GBH products, how they seemed to critique the adult world, they gave me excellent grounding for my ‘E’ grade in Media Studies A-level many years later. I bought a pile of copies from eBay during lockdown to see if it was as good as I’d remembered and found I still enjoyed the Torture Twins very much and Frank Sidebottom of course, who was a huge figure in my childhood. Frank had a daytime digital radio show that I used to listen to at my desk in work. I emailed him during his show once and to my delight he sang, “She’s called Claire Bend, she really is”, which was one of the best days ever. 

Rob: I didn’t read it as a child. As I previously mentioned it wasn’t something I saw or could buy in my local newsagent (unless it had been put higher up with the mountain of ‘adult’ reading material). It’s a shame as I would’ve loved it. Reading it as an adult and for film research has been great. I think there’s a real lack of media made today across most art forms that is funny, smart, subversive and just plain weird. Silliness and joy within comedy seems to be at a premium these days and I would like to see the dial shift a bit more towards that. 

OB: With that in mind, what do you think the overriding message of the documentary is?

Rob: I guess the main thing I’ve taken from it is just how much impact a cult comic that ran for a couple of years in the late 80s can have. Both in terms of giving the fantastic contributors to OiNK a wonderful start to their careers and also seeing how its tone and style has permeated into things like the Beano and Aardman’s animations, with it’s influence still being felt. 

Claire: That the impact of the comic reached far beyond its short run. And, “If you can’t fight, wear a daft hat”. (May not be a real quote.)

OB: With this being a short 15-minute film, what other plans do you have for all of the footage you’ve shot?

Claire: There will be so much that doesn’t make it into the film. No fixed plans as yet, but we’d love to find a way to share more with the fans.  

Rob: The final cut may end up being longer! Haha. We’re still working out what to do with all the extra material. We would love to take this further and expand the film into something longer but first we’ll see what the response is like and have a think. We’ll definitely be putting out exclusive extra clips and are working on ways the fans can be involved in the film.

OB: So where and when will people actually get to see the OiNK documentary? Are there plans to release it online for those who can’t make it to cons?

Claire: We’ve got a preview at MaccPow at the end of June which is brill because it’s where we did our first interviews last year, and everyone at the festival was so supportive. And as long as we don’t get any boos or rotten fruit thrown at us, we’ll arrange some more showings as soon as we can. We’ll let you know! 

Rob: After that we’d love to screen at other festivals and comics conventions. Ultimately it will end up online for everyone to enjoy and OiNK Blog will be the first to know about it!

Huge thanks to Claire and Rob for agreeing to this, for including me in both their research and interviews, and for doing the project in the first place!

As Rob says, the OiNK Blog will be the first place to know when the film is in its final finished state and ready to be released to the sties of the general public, so make sure you follow along by subscribing to the blog or joining in on socials (menu at the top of the page). For news on preview showings at comic cons this year you can follow the film’s Instagram account.

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Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 44

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SATURDAY 27th MAY 1989

Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters comic appeared to be celebrating a week late on Brian Williamson’s and Nick Abadzis’ colourful cover on this day back in 1989. Rather simpler in design but probably more eye-catching was Jeff Anderson’s rather shocking cover to Transformers and Action Force (yup, G.I. Joe were back).

The story that stood out the most to me in the former was Culture Shock. Its main set up was Ray inventing something instead of Egon, even though Ray had done so before. But the strip stood out for a couple of other bizarre reasons. The first was the fact the invention was a blatant Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man) rip-off and Ray fights a random terror dog, the beasts from the original movie, with no explanation as to why one just pops up out of nowhere. Odd to say the least.

The UK strip in Transformers is again drawn by Dan Reed and I just love how his art looks in black and white, and this was before he knew they wouldn’t be coloured; when he does the level of detail he produces is second-to-none. The Classic Cover calendar is for May even though the month was about to end, the June one having been printed in error last month. Never fear, Lew Stringer’s Combat Colin was on the case and you can read it at the link at the bottom of this post.

On to the checklist details and Action Force (G.I. Joe) was back in Transformers after we said goodbye to the Visionaries for the final time last week. The Joes would remain with the comic beyond #300. The opening line to The Real Ghostbusters’ description will have that song stuck in your head all day, but other than that it’s an unremarkable checklist, the other three comics being repeats of last week’s entries.

It’s here that I actually take issue with things. Has interest in doing the checklist waned? Was it being phoned in? I said last week how I was surprised the special 50th issue of The Real Ghostbusters wasn’t the ‘Don’t Miss’ title when Action Force Monthly (which had been given the top spot) would be here for four weeks and could’ve been awarded it another time. To add insult to injury, it’s been given the spot again so there was no excuse last time.

Anyway, on with the latest contemporary comics ad.

I never realised there was a Marvel UK Popeye comic, but then again I was never the biggest fan of the cartoons. As a kid I felt the humour was outdated so it just didn’t appeal to me. (OiNK has a lot to answer for.) This advert isn’t exactly the most elaborate they’ve produced, is it? It looks like it’s been thrown together in rather a hurry, in fact. The comic itself wasn’t that popular either, lasting for only eight issues and one winter special before disappearing.

Next week there’s another odd choice made on the checklist as a big event issue of one of their biggest titles doesn’t get the attention it deserves and one of Marvel UK’s top-sellers gets the horrible “another chance to read” treatment. There’s another ad though, and it’s one that I may not remember from my comics but it does take me back to my childhood nonetheless. See you in seven.

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THE MAKiNG OF A MAD MONK: DAVEY JONES

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The Mad Monk was a funny little three-panel strip from #28 of OiNK (the Fantastic Flying Issue), written by Graham Exton and drawn by Davey Jones. The character never appeared again, just another of those random little one-offs OiNK was so full of every issue. However, it may have been his last appearance but it actually wasn’t his first, as I’ve found out recently.

Regular readers of the blog will now know The Mad Monk first appeared in 1978 in Graham and OiNK co-editor Mark Rodgers’ university project, Germs where he was also drawn by Graham. All of Germs is now available to read on the blog and if you’ve done so already you’ll know there were a few precursors to OiNK strips and characters within its pages. This was one such instance.

However, not only do we get to see the origins of the strip in Germs as part of OiNK’s 40th anniversary celebrations, now we can get a little glimpse into how it also came to be in the pages of our favourite comic. “Just found an example of me making a pig’s ear out of an OiNK cartoon in early 1987,” related Davey when he found a note and pencil doodle of the strip and shared it on the OiNK Comic Facebook group a few years back.

“Script editor Mark Rodgers sent me the idea (by Graham Exton) and I drew it for OiNK #28 (May 1987),” he explained. “But why on earth did I give the mad monk those stupid little feathery angel’s wings, instead of the proper big wood and canvas constructions indicated in the rough, which would’ve been funnier and more ‘mad monk’-ish? In fact, the rough sketch is altogether better than my finished drawing. Sorry Graham, sob.”

Wanting to share this doodle and note from Mark with OiNK Blog readers, I asked Davey if he could tell us anything else about working on OiNK at this time.

OiNK Blog: Obviously The Mad Monk is a very short strip so I’m limited in what I can ask, but generally speaking how did you get involved with OiNK in the first place?

Davey Jones: When I was in sixth form at school I sent some samples of my cartoons to [Group Editor of Humour] Bob Paynter at Fleetway (or was it IPC then?) [it was IPC – Phil], who invited me to Kings Reach Tower for a chat and told me about OiNK, which was in the developmental stages. He sent my samples to Mark Rodgers, who wrote to tell me more about OiNK and suggested I send some ideas. So as soon as I finished my A-Levels I started bombarding them with scripts, and after a few weeks got something accepted. That was about it, really.

Henry the Wonder Dog was the first script of Davey’s accepted by OiNK, which he also drew. It was published to much giggles from readers in the first Halloween issue, #13.

OB: How did you find working with Graham, if you ever had any contact that is?

DJ: I didn’t have any direct contact with Graham until we connected years later through your OiNK page. I dealt pretty exclusively with Mark, although I did meet Tony [Husband] and Patrick [Gallagher] once or twice when I was living in Manchester, and would see Marc Riley when I’d drop into the OiNK office.

OB: I’ve spoken with other cartoonists like Lew Stringer who said he dealt pretty exclusively with Mark. How was he to work with?

DJ: Mark was great, always very encouraging and full of ideas and suggestions for how to improve a script. I’ll have a dig around and try and find some letters/scripts.

Watch out for more behind-the-scenes finds from Davey this Christmas (2026) on the blog, folks!

Thanks to Davey for taking the time to chat with me about The Mad Monk and OiNK in general. It’s always fun to peek behind the door of the sty!

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 43

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SATURDAY 20th MAY 1989

It was a very exciting Saturday for me 37 years ago! Andy Lanning, Stephen Baskerville and John Burns teamed up for an excellent celebratory The Real Ghostbusters cover spoofing the cinema poster for RoboCop. Then, as an adult, having finally read the earlier issues of Transformers from before I started buying them as a kid, the return of Skids on John Stokes’ cover was equally as exciting.

Ecto-X was Egon’s newest invention and just like modern day automation it tried to steal their jobs! But just like modern AI it was a bit pants and it all went horribly wrong. At least in this comic it was beautifully drawn (unlike AI) and very funny. Like the first weekly (#14) it’s all one big story this week and ties in with the other features and prose story too. The Design-a-Spook competition was also launched. I drew a possessed HQ firehouse but never sent it in. You’ll never guess what someone else drew and won with?! Grrr!

In Transformers and Visionaries, Skids hadn’t been seen for 100 issues, languishing in the void after being displaced by time-travelling Cybertronians (it makes sense in context). He’s being stalked by inky black creatures from void space and Dan Reed was the perfect artist to bring these nightmarish creatures to life, and they look even better in black and white! His nighttime scenes in this story are particularly atmospheric. It’s the beginning of the Survivors arc, a brilliant months-long series of tales focussing on characters on both sides left out in the cold after the recent Underbase and Time Wars sagas. Some truly memorable times ahead.

In the other Transformers story, the wonderfully written, strong female leader of the alien planet just has to go against her character and fall for the male lead, doesn’t she? (In this case, Cloudburst’s Pretender shell.) Why did male writers always have to undermine the strong women characters they’d created? It so infuriating. Visionaries comes to its end (for the final time) and why the 50th issue of The Real Ghostbusters isn’t the big comic of the week on the checklist I have no idea.

That honour goes to the 13th edition of Action Force Monthly, or G.I. Joe The European Missions as it was called when exported. As exciting as it may have been to have Cobra going berserk in London, the milestone issue for the Ghostbusters really was superb and deserved that spot, especially as how this issue of Action Force could’ve been given the slot anytime over the next three weeks. Sometimes, I just don’t understand the choices made in these checklists. Oh well, part of the fun is seeing which one of our faves would make the cut each time.

No comics ads this week. No new ones at least. Next week however, a very popular cartoon character can be seen in an ad for their own monthly comic that I never even knew existed at the time. Until then, Make Mine… um, the MiNK Mlog.

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ROGER & WiLLY: TRUE ORiGiNALS

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Weedy Willy and Roger Rental, He’s Completely Mental are two of my most fondly remembered OiNK characters. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. We’re all familiar with their strips and art styles; Mike Green for Willy and Ian Knox for Roger. But that wasn’t always the plan.

Graham Exton went to university with one of OiNK’s three creator/editors, Mark Rodgers and I’ve previously shown the Germs comic they produced as part of their course. Graham was very heavily involved in OiNK in the early days, helping create characters, strips and the overall sense of humour as the dummy issue was put together in 1984 for IPC Magazines, the contents of which would be used for the Preview Issue two years later. Graham would contribute heavily to the early issues of the regular comic before moving to live in the Bahamas, which reduced his comics work somewhat. (Hey, it was the 80s, before the internet so seamlessly brought us all together no matter how far apart we were to adore each other’s cats.)

Graham created The Plops amongst others, including the aforementioned Roger and Willy. Not only did he create these two icons of OiNK, he also drew their strips when cartoonists were still being assembled. Ultimately, he’d be one of the comic’s main writers when it launched, for these two characters and plenty more. For OiNK’s 40th anniversary Graham has given me his kind permission to show pig pals those early, unpublished strips from the days when OiNK was first being put together. Some are still in their unfinished pencilled state, while a few of the Willy strips are complete and inked.

You’ll notice quite a difference between these and the characters we were eventually introduced to. Weedy Willy looks more like a regular boy, it’s his words and actions that give us the information (and the gags) on how weak and cowardly he is. Roger isn’t even called Roger! Barmy Barney was the precursor to Mr. Rental. As Graham explained to me, “I think it was Mark’s decision to use Mike Green’s weedy, spindly style for Willy rather than my more Baxendale-ish one. Similarly, Ian’s wacky style seemed better suited to the character [of Roger].”

The name Stuart Fellows also pops up in one strip, a name unfamiliar to me. “Stuart is an old pal from the Leeds days,” says Graham. “I expect he chipped in for that story. Most of our mates contributed ideas and scripts. You’ll see Keith Forrest’s name on Roger Rental stories, for example.”

Some of these early ideas of Graham’s would make it into OiNK in his scripts for Mike. A strip about Mandy’s recently deceased cat would be reworked and included in the Preview Issue and the introduction of Flash the dog, who now looked like it wouldn’t be too long until he joined Mandy’s cat, was used in the first regular issue. “The dog was named after a friend’s (school friend Rob) mangy mutt. Mike’s version was certainly weedier than mine, which is sort of generic IPC/Baxendale style.“

This was followed up in #2 with a reworking of a photography story. You can see Graham’s original completed strip and the full page from OiNK below to compare.

Graham would continue to contribute to OiNK via fax but less often, ultimately stopping altogether. “I continued to write Sweeny [Toddler for Whizzer and Chips] in South Andros, but dropped all the others on account of teaching,” he says. “Gums was the last to go. (I loved writing Gums. Such a narcissist prat!)” On that we can agree, I love that stupid ol’ shark!

“I continued to write and draw and started Tatertown when I was between jobs in Freeport, Grand Bahamas,” Graham continues. “That really improved my art, and I learned how to use Photoshop to colour the strips. Now I’m teaching comics colouring in my computer classes! One of my tenth grade girls is completely into it and coloured one of my Sweeny newspaper strips that never got published.”

Thanks so much to Graham for all of the great information and of course these original scans. I’ve always said I’d love to see the Creating OiNK section of the blog expand now that the full real time read through is complete, so this insight into the creation of these characters and their misadventures is gratefully received. I hope you all enjoyed it too, may there by many more to come.

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