The Gift is exactly what it says on the tin, an absolute gift of a wee comic that’ll simultaneously have you roaring with laughter while pulling on your heart strings. As you’d expect coming from Davy Francis (Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving, Cowpat County) it’s as unique a comic as you’re likely to find. Even its creation was very ‘Davy’.
A few months back I was having coffee with Davy and Peter Duncan of Belfast’s Sector 13 Comics when Davy pulled out a selection of random little bits of paper of various types and sizes. On each was drawn one panel of a story. He’d been randomly drawing each image whenever the mood took him on whatever he had to hand. What I saw that day was brilliant and deserved to be seen by others.
Peter was of the same opinion and had the means to make it happen. Sector 13 originally began by creating and publishing the entertaining 2000AD-inspired Sector 13 comic. In recent years they’ve branched out into publishing comics by other local writers and artists. Their latest release is Davy’s The Gift, which comes in a small square format in keeping with his original sketches.
It was released during the Enniskillen Comic Fest and there was something of an embargo on story or even character details beforehand as no one wanted to give anything away before its publication. Hence why I’ve waited until now to review it for the OiNK Blog, so that I can give you a few details in this review, although I’ll make sure not to spoil anything for you.
Part of the joy of this comic is not knowing anything about it beforehand, but that could make for a somewhat bland review. So what can I tell you? It involves a Bruce Wayne/Batman-type character called Dwayne Castle, who lives in a castle. His alter ego is… The Rook. Along with his Alfred-like butler friend the set up is a very funny take on the original Batman legend but it goes much farther than that.
How it develops is the part I don’t want to tell you about because it’s the whole point of the comic. It’s strange to be highly recommending something when I can’t mention the main plot point. What I can tell you is how funny it is. Any fan of Davy’s from OiNK or any of the other publications he’s appeared in over the years will instantly take to this, whether you’re a Batman or superhero fan or not. Thankfully, Sector 13 haven’t tidied the images up too much so you can still see the different types and shapes of paper Davy used, giving it the feel of him sharing each one with you personally and an insight into his crazy cartoonist mind.
Davy’s inimitable style shines all the more here, possibly because he was originally only drawing these for his own amusement. As such, you can feel the love that went into each image and when you read the dedication to his late dad at the beginning you’ll understand why. Having read this dedication you’ll then feel a lump build up in your throat as you read the second half of the tale, the half I’m not going to discuss.
Well, I say ”read”, but this is a silent comedy. There are some of Davy’s trademark background gags like shop signs etc., but other than those this is without speech or narrative captions. Each image takes up a full page and acts like a snapshot of a particular part in the lives of the two men at the centre of the story. Some spoofs of DC comics and scenarios from well known aspects of Batman’s life act as funny little pages in their own right, but it’s the overall story that makes this worth every penny.
I really can’t recommend this enough. Now, £7.00 might sound like a lot for a silent comic, especially since every page has just the one panel, but at 52 pages there are a lot of images here to savour. That’s the way to read Davy’s comic, taking your time to enjoy each individual drawing, laughing along with the gags and allowing yourself to get emotionally invested as it develops beyond what you thought it would be when you ordered it from Sector 13’s website.
Which you really must do. You won’t want to miss out on the experience of this one.
On this day in 2010 we sadly lost Chris Sievey, known to many as Frank Sidebottom. His passing reminded me of how much I loved his contributions to OiNK and, after reading the three editions I still owned from childhood, I began tracking them all down. So it was Frank who pulled me back to the world of OiNK after decades away. On this day, sixteen years later, as part of OiNK’s 40th here’s the first of three posts remembering Frank.
I loved this comic. This was my complete collection of regular issues before they went to another home. Back in 1991, BBC Two began repeating the classic Thunderbirds series at teatime on Fridays and, even though I was approaching 15-years-of-age and in grammar school, I became hooked and watched it with my parents every week. Fleetway soon released Thunderbirds The Comic and with its mix of gorgeous 60s comics serials, stunning new cutaway posters from Graham Bleathman, new strips and features it was a quality read. I bought it for over a year before believing I was too old for comics (don’t we all make that mistake for a while?) and missed out on a certain cameo later in its run.
You see, a megastar-of-megastars was also a big fan, namely Frank Sidebottom (aka Chris Sievey) and he’d pop up in the comic for a brief interview conducted by none other than Gerry Anderson himself. We’ll get to that eventually but by way of a build up I thought I’d begin by showing you all those times Frank brought a bit of Supermarionation to the pages of OiNK, most of which I haven’t shown you before. Frank joined the team in #16 and just five issues later in the Valentine’s issue he drew this wonderful strip starring two of his own puppets, Little Frank and Little Denise.
On a personal side note, I can remember around Christmas 1991 I discovered a double-bill video of the movies Thunderbirds Are Go (which Frank and Denise are sneaking off to see) and Thunderbird Six. I can remember the thrill of realising these had been cinema releases and rushing home to watch them for three hours. I think I wore that tape out!
Just a little while after the lovey-dovey issue came the first OiNK Holiday Special. You know the one, with the plasticine Uncle Pigg on the cover and a cardboard Mary Lighthouse fanning him on a desert island (classic Ian Jackson work). Inside was a space-based board game by Frank that tied in with his comic strip. Look out for Thunderbirds 3 and 5 making cameos, and for one of the playing pieces!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the other favourite references of mine in this piece, such as Tom Baker’sFifth Doctor as another character piece. Or how about the Button Moon Heinz Baked Beans tin, the TARDIS, a multitude of other Gerry Anderson creations, Steven Spielberg, Roger Moore (I assume because of Moonraker), the Time Tunnel and more. I find how unfair the game is to anyone playing as Little Frank so funny too, as is that random space elephant square. Although, what’s wrong with wearing glasses, Frank?
I never played it and I doubt many did, but those that convinced their family or friends to give it a go must’ve had a laugh. Chris’ love of the shows he grew up with is apparent throughout his time in OiNK, as you can see with this pin-up from #66, just a couple of months before the comic’s cancellation. Again, Supermarionation programmes feature heavily among the vast array of merchandise he’s clearly never wanted to part with from childhood.
I was aware of Thunderbirds when I was reading OiNK as a child, we all were, but it wasn’t until a few years later that I became obsessed and the references became all the funnier for it. This brings us back to the early 90s and Thunderbirds The Comic from OiNK’s own publisher. In later issues Gerry Anderson contributed a regular page to the comic (via Simon Archer, the author of his biography), answering fan questions and keeping the kids clued in on the latest news of his new series and repeats of the classics.
Sometimes he’d speak to people who had worked on Thunderbirds to give readers even more of an insight into the making of their favourite show. On one occasion he spoke to a celebrity super fan, who even contributed their own self-portrait in character as International Rescue’s arch nemesis, The Hood. Although, it’s clear this was a general chat about all of Gerry’s series given how few of the answers pertain to this comic’s title.
It’s still a fun little addition and the answers are very Frank (oh, that could be a pun). Eventually, other Gerry Anderson series would be repeated on BBC Two and some would get their own Fleetway comic in pretty much the same vein, although none would last very long and they’d all end up merging into this one (some series would just start out as back up strips here rather than get their own title). Thunderbirds The Comic was very much the Buster of the Supermarionation line.
Later in life I’d fall in love with Thunderbirds all over again thanks to the newer Thunderbirds Are Go series which used CGI for the characters and craft alongside wonderfully intricate models for their sets and backgrounds. It was during this time I splashed out on the Thunderbirds The Comic complete set with the intention of covering it on the blog. However, flicking through them to check for missing pages or damage I soon realised why I’d stopped collecting it as a teen; when the classic reprints stopped the new stories just weren’t a patch on them and I never cared for any of the other puppet shows that found their way into the contents. But at least I did find this little gem of a Frank Sidebottom contribution to share with you.
As I’ve previously stated, OiNK’s 40th anniversary celebrations wouldn’t be complete without a celebration of Frank Sidebottom and over the next few weeks I’ll be watching for the first time the movies Being Frank (the documentary about Chris’ life) and Frank, the fictional story based on the character and written by one of Chris’ band friends, Jon Ronson.
I’ll admit I know little about Frank or Chris beyond what I’ve learned from OiNK and my research into his contributions to the comic, so I’m very much looking forward to both of these to learn more about the man himself and the psychology of becoming a different persona once the papier-mâché mask was put on. I can’t think of a better time to rediscover Frank Sidebottom.
There’s something strange (in the neighbourhood?) going on with the speech balloons on Brian Williamson’s and Dave Harwood’sThe Real Ghostbusters cover, while the triumphant return of Geoff Senior to the front page of Transformers and Action Force heralded an exciting beginning inside.
A couple of weeks ago messed up speech was also main gag of the prose story and cover for The Real Ghostbusters, however this time it does so in a different way. Instead of nonsense, Egon’s and Winston’s speech patterns were swapped in a funny tale written by one of the comic’s best writers, Dan Abnett. Speaking of writers, Jane Fabian is a wonderful addition if her Super Bowl strip is anything to go by.
In Transformers, that fantastic cover heralds the start of UK stories written and drawn specifically for the new 5-page black and white format, and it shows! Aspects of Evil told five individual stories with a linking theme of the most evil characters in Transformers lore, beginning with one of the better developed Decepticons, Scorponok. It’s a packed little tale and Jeff Anderson really shows us what can be achieved without colour, upping the ante with his superb inking.
Why did our two top-selling comics get such a raw deal on the checklist?
On a quick separate note, this issue of Transformers and Action Force also contains the first advert for Hasbro’s new Pretender Classics range. The Pretenders had an outer shell (usually human-like or some horrible monster) with the Transformer inside. The Classics were all large humans wearing intricate sci-fi military gear but inside were characters such as Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jazz and Starscream. Their release really excited me as a child because I’d missed out on those toys as I became a fan after they’d originally been discontinued. So why did I never asked Santa for any?!
Back to the checklist and Thundercats steals the top position as it always does, albeit this time it’s taken until its second week on sale thanks to the Doctor. So the only new information here is for our two weeklies, everything else has already been covered. Although, it does beg the question of why our two top-selling comics got such a raw deal on the checklist. They may have always been first and second on the list but the ‘Don’t Miss’ spot seems to be given almost solely to the monthlies.
Transformers has only had that honour three times in nearly a year and the Ghostbusters once, with even its milestone 50th issue passed over while others such as Thundercats hogged the limelight, sometimes two weeks in a row with the same issue. Other comics such as the Marvel Bumper Comic disappeared completely from the checklist after only a few entries. As a promotional tool it’s a great idea but sometimes I do question its contents.
At least next week there’s a brand new, sleazy (or is that “Sleezy”) comic that readers definitely wouldn’t want to miss! See you then.
It’s been a long time coming, 37 years in fact, but finally I’m going to find out how Wildcat’s Turbo Jones strip ends, thanks to the first of Rebellion’s graphic novel collections. Containing all of Turbo’s strips from the entire Wildcat series, including the Winter and Holiday Specials, it’s the strips from the merge with Eagle that I haven’t read yet. As such, I was a bit disappointed to find out on the contents page the character didn’t last long in that comic. Oh well, let’s dig in to what’s here.
A word of warning, I’m looking at these as classic strips just like the rest of Wildcat, so while this is a review of a book on sale it could contain some spoilers if you’re thinking of buying it and would prefer to go in fresh. After an introduction by Wildcat’s creator-editor Barrie Tomlinson, the preview issue and all 12 Turbo Jones strips from the regular comic, we get to Eagle and Wildcat and the conclusion to the Trial of Death Turbo had been forced into at the end of his own comic.
After the big build up the trial itself only lasts one issue before Turbo and Robo spot the Arglon army moving towards Borovia. Seeing a way back in with his former allies, Turbo assembles the army before promptly kills a dissenter! Then the rest just fall in line. What? Throughout Wildcat, Turbo was always quick to anger and get into a fight. Some leader of the human race, right? He was always taught the error of his ways though, but not here. It doesn’t feel right when I think back to Wildcat and the stories it told, the characters and situations it involved, and the morals it portrayed for the kids.
Then the battle-to-end-all-battles is hyped on one page as a fight that will be taught to successive generations, before it gets wrapped up after one page. Even more incredulously, after this one defeat the entire Great Ark council of talking skeletal heads just self-destructs. So no answers about who they were or their history. Nothing. After such great pacing, world building and storytelling in Wildcat this feels very rushed, which is all the more frustrating since I never bought the merged comic and have waited all these years for this!
As our heroes leave to return to the ship they crash land. Again. In what feels like a tacked-on two-part story they meet the Sens Protens, a race of psychic aliens who Turbo instantly distrusts and even gets into fist fights with. But it’s actually a funny little tale, from beginning as it does with Turbo and Robo about to be sacrificed by the aliens, to them becoming best friends within a few pages. However, just as it feels like it’s getting going it ends. Again. The problem is that Wildcat was meant to contain long-form storytelling. There were no individual tales as such in each of the main strips. Instead, they were designed to be never-ending, naturally moving from one scenario to the next. I loved that about it. But of course this simply wouldn’t work in Eagle.
There were four main character strips in Wildcat plus the anthologies, the Wildcat Completes. There was only room for two at a time in Eagle, and the little panel at the end of the above story tells the reader Loner’s story would restart the following week. It’s painfully obvious Turbo’s was curtailed to make room for other strips in a shared environment. Then there’s another two-part tale which ends with news of Joe Alien returning, so Turbo was clearly also used to fill some gaps between strips in Eagle.
It’s a shame, because the character development for Turbo was excellent in Wildcat, yet here it has to stop in order to get the stories told quickly and out of the way. As such, he’s back to being the person he was at the beginning, including shouting constantly at poor old Robo, their developing friendship in Wildcat all but forgotten. Robo also never stops calling him ‘Master’ despite protestations, which I’ll admit does lead to some laughs when Turbo tells him off for it at the most inopportune of moments.
There’s a scene where Turbo is furious when an alien kills a human upon meeting because it deemed them unimportant. Bit of a cheek getting angry about that considering his own actions when meeting some of the more imaginatively designed alien characters! Speaking of designs, the art is as superb as always. Ian Kennedy gets top artist billing despite only drawing the first two strips (however he did design all of the main characters and the Wildcat itself). Vanyo is our most prolific artist here and their monsters are as imaginative as always. I’m sure these would’ve thrilled Eagle readers just as they did for me in Wildcat back then.
There are a few one-shot stories for Turbo as well. Some are a bit like the Wildcat Completes, however whereas those were satisfying and told a complete (clue is in the name) tale with a proper beginning, middle and end, these Turbo Jones stories feel frustratingly short. One introduces two species of fish-like aliens with what seems like really interesting origins, and in another a full-scale intergalactic war forms the background to the story, but both of these are just dropped, never to be heard about again. Were these ideas of Barrie’s he was originally going to flesh out in Wildcat later on?
There are other genuinely funny moments, such as when we see Robo trying to calm a terrified Turbo. As it turns out, this heroic, chisel-chinned leader of humans who takes no nonsense from any alien monster is terrified of the dentist. The final Eagle tale then shows just how horrible humans can be and questions whether we deserve to settle on another planet at all. It’s something Wildcat often considered in its stories. This tale seems to mirror the real world even today and the hateful minds of far too many people. Thankfully, the more enlightened version of Turbo Jones is on hand to make them see sense. In his own way, naturally.
I’ve loved rereading the Turbo strips from Wildcat again, it’s just frustrating how the epic nature of that comic had to be so obviously cut short because of the limited space and time available in the comic it merged into. If anything, the stories I’ve finally read now for the first time only confirm just how different Wildcat was, and just how original its style of storytelling was compared to the more episodic nature of its contemporaries. However, I still look forward to seeing how Loner’s story pans out in the second graphic novel. He proved very popular with Eagle readers and hung around for a lot longer as a result (his book is somewhat thicker than Turbo’s).
For now, volume one ends with the strips from the Wildcat specials and a selection of covers and pin ups featuring characters from the Turbo Jones strip. Unfortunately, the gorgeous cover for #1 by Ian isn’t included. Parts of it are used for the book’s cover but it still would’ve been nice to see it in full colour alongside the rest. That kind of sums up the continuation of the story after Wildcat’s premature end. What’s here is good but it could’ve been so much more, reaffirming my belief that the end of Wildcat was one of the cruelest cancellations in comics history.
That stipple effect on Brian Williamson’s and Dave Hardwood’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters really was ubiquitous with Marvel UK at the time, wasn’t it? While on Transformers and Action Force, Simon Coleby joined the team with his first cover and he impressed from the start!
That skateboard story emblazoned on the cover of The Real Ghostbusters would end up becoming very familiar to readers. Not only would it pop up again in a Collected Comics special, but also twice more in the regular comic before the end of its run. This issue also contained the announcement of the sequel movie. This was the first mention of Ghostbusters II despite its release being just a few months later. The comic would go all-in with promotions, competitions and even serialised the adaptation as its first imported back up strip.
The exciting news in Transformers was that from next week the UK stories would finally be written for the new 5-page black and white format. Survivors came to an entertaining and somewhat intriguing ending this issue, setting up a superb character arc for Decepticon Pretender Beast, Carnivac. Having allied himself with Autobots, he witnessed his friend Catilla’s murder and left the team, swearing vengeance against the Decepticons but going out on his own, not wishing to endanger his new sort-of-allies. A superb character and some great stories to come. On the letters page a fan complained that Combat Colin wasn’t in one issue, so Dreadwind promised it wouldn’t happen again… “until next time”!
Well there you have it, the milestone issue of Doctor Who Magazine did get top billing after all. I still think he should’ve been given the honour last week when it was just released, but I suppose the crossover between the Time Lord and Death’s Head was equally as exciting an event and an executive decision was made. What’s shocking about this week’s checklist is that a new issue of Thundercatswasn’t given the ‘Don’t Miss’ slot. That’s a first for this series!
Last week, Popeye showed up to promote his own monthly comic and unlike the checklist entries it wasn’t much of an event for me personally because I was never a fan of the cartoon. However, I was very much a fan of the cartoon characters starring in their own Marvel UK summer special this week! I’m not sure why one of them is dressed as a magician to promote it, though. Probably something to do with a strip inside but it’s a strange choice without context.
I have happy memories of renting Tom & Jerry videos from my local shop as a child, often containing well over an hour of hilarious cartoons. The store only had a few of their tapes so I became very familiar with them. As did my parents! I have a distinct memory of laughing really hard (and my parents enjoying watching me) at the episode where Tom was a classical pianist and Jerry was asleep inside the piano, and once woken by Tom’s playing his revenge was taken in the usual, highly original variety of ways.
However, I never bought any of their comics. I remember seeing them advertised but still images were never going to be as funny as the high octane insanity of the cartoons as far as I was concerned. Did I miss out? If you picked this up (or any other Tom & Jerry comics) let me know, I’m intrigued as to how they could possibly translate successfully to the page. After this special Clearmark obtained the comics licence in the UK and the next year released a monthly Tom & Jerry comic which lasted only seven issues.
Next week Geoff Senior finally returns to cover duties to launch Aspects of Evil in Transformers, so you won’t want to miss that in just seven days.
Electric Soup was “Scotland’s Adult Humour Comic”, with 17 issues released between 1989 and 1992 followed by a 10th anniversary special a while later in 1999. Think Viz but with thick regional accents in every panel and plenty of jabs at local politicians, celebrities and even whole Scottish cities. There was quite the collection of these inside Davy Francis’ shoebox so I was looking forward to seeing plenty from the Cowpat County creator.
Unfortunately, as I began to flick through them I soon came to realise this was a case of Davy’s friends being inside rather than the man himself. Thankfully, eventually his unique art style popped up in #16, the penultimate issue of the run and the last of the regular issues in this box. He also returned for the 10th anniversary special. Altogether we’ve got three new strips from Davy and one spoof I’m sure fans of the blog will enjoy. First up, a rather more adult (and Scottish) spin on one of OiNK’s favourite spoof targets, Desperate Dan of The Dandy. Although fans of another OiNK Blog comic should get a kick out of this too.
As a pig pal it’s strange to see bad language in one of Davy’s strips but I’m not for one second saying it shouldn’t have been, this is an adult comic after all. There are less of the usual background gags than we were used to with his OiNK pages but I did laugh at the picture of mother. Davy’s Predator isn’t half bad though, right? (Obviously look beyond the glasses.) His Desperate Dan is how I imagine a 90s Hollywood live-action take on the character would be, so it feels perfect for the time of this comic.
Moving on to the anniversary special and I have to warn you about this next strip. It’s blurred until you click on it for a reason. It’s very adult and I didn’t want the images just sitting out there on the blog for all to see as you scroll on your morning commute. Originally drawn by Tommy Somme in the regular comic, for the 10th anniversary special Davy took over art duties for Helmetman. Now, you know this is an adult Viz-like comic, so just think about what that superhero name could mean for a second before deciding to click.
I’ll admit this is only here because it was drawn by Davy, who was creating a follow-up for an established strip, one that readers had an expectation of. I’ve never been a fan of this type of humour though. Maybe OiNK spoiled me. Yes, OiNK could be cheeky at times but it was done in a genuinely original, funny way and the comic was hilarious at all times whether it was one of those moments or not. Humour that relied solely on shocking the reader is a one-trick pony to me and grows tired very quickly. Unfortunately for me, the vast majority of Electric Soup is like this.
Frustratingly, it needn’t have been this way. In the few strips that don’t use overly adult themes as the sole gag (“Ooh, nude bits and extreme language in a comic! Hehehe, aren’t we hilarious”) there are some genuinely brilliant moments. Davy himself supplies one in The Y Front which, apart from the occasional rude joke, reminds me very much of his OiNK strips. By this I mean every panel has something to laugh at, with plenty of sight gags that take the narrative captions and turn them into something else entirely, leaning heavily into the ridiculously bizarre.
It’s just gloriously stupid. If Electric Soup had more of this kind of adult-enough humour I’d have loved these comics. Davy wasn’t the only contributor capable of realising there’s more to comedy for grown ups than boobs and genitalia. While Frank Quitely could be just as guilty as the rest, he also had the ability to see beyond the shallow schoolboy jokes and give us something properly funny. In fact, the final strip I want to show you is his but with the sheer amount of gags and silliness you’d swear Davy had written the script.
It’s a spoof of Alien³, so for the second time there’s something here that readers of the Aliens section of the blog should find funny. I really enjoyed this film as a teen and as an adult I think the Special Edition is fantastic, so much so I’d rank it right alongside the first two movies. Thankfully, I can still have a giggle at the things I love when their spoofs are done well, and this is done very well indeed. Much like Davy’s Y Front (oo-er!) every panel had me chortling; it’s just relentless, especially if you know the film well.
See? No need for the so-called “adult humour” that just ends up being adolescent and childish. This Alien³ strip and Davy’s non-blurred pages above show that at least some of the people behind Electric Soup were genuine comedic talents. It’s just a shame their work is hidden amongst such unfunny nonsense. Maybe if I was a teenager I’d have laughed at the rudeness here the first time I saw it, but after growing up with the quality of OiNK I doubt it.
You can thank me later for trawling through all of these for the few gems within. Looking at some of the magazines still inside the shoebox I’m a bit concerned about having to do so all over again with titles such as Sweet FA and UC. But then again, I knew this going in and having a quick flick through they seem more professional, genuinely aimed at adults with a proper sense of humour and include more OiNK contributors. So while the subject matter of football (or the Sunday Sport!) might not appeal to me I’m still looking forward to the gems I can locate for you in the next part of this series later in the summer.
Five years ago, almost to the day, I told you about OiNK cartoonist Kev F Sutherland’s brand new podcast, Comic Cuts. Known around the sty for his hilarious Meanwhile… series and two of my own personal favourites from OiNK’s entire run (The Three Scientists and The March of the Killer Breakfasts), Kev’s podcast was full of enthusiasm for the comics medium and provided plenty of entertainment to boot.
In recent months his current batch of episodes have been dropping and the latest one at the time of writing should be of particular interest to pig pals. For the uninitiated, you’ll probably want to know the set up of the series first. To quote the man himself from the beginning of the episode, “We’re looking at a panel, and we comprise a panel, there’s a few of us. So the panel sees a panel, and we talk about the comics from the panel we discuss.”
Simple, right? Basically, Kev invites on two guests with ties to the comics industry. Each brings with them a panel (or a series of panels) from a favourite comic. The other guest then has to describe it to the listener (although the image is also in the promo art for the episode and shown on the YouTube version) and guess the comic it came from. Previous guests have included Psycho Gran’s very own David Leach and OiNK fan and Beano artist Laura Howell. The current episode doesn’t feature anyone from OiNK, instead it features the comic itself.
Is that image a spoiler? Well, as soon as any pig pal sees the cover image for the episode they’ll instantly recognise Ian Jackson’s handiwork and maybe even the strip itself. Children’s book illustrator Liz Million is the OiNK fan who has provided for the podcast the full page (four panels) of #14’sThe Hold Up written by Mark Rodgers and drawn by Ian, and it’s up to comics writer and artist Rich Johnston to work out where it’s from. I’m not going to give anything away, you’ll have to listen to it for yourselves to find out if he’s successful or not.
In amongst the gameplay is plenty of reminiscing about OiNK and some lovely insights from Kev about working on the comic. In particular, I like the little bit about Meanwhile at the Ball from the final issue, #68. As long as you can grit your teeth through the two guests (but NOT Kev, to be fair) stating OiNK was a kid’s version of a certain adult comic (grrrr!) there’s plenty to enjoy here. You can either watch the episode on YouTube on your next train journey or even take Kev into the shower with the audio version. (Just don’t tell him you did that.)
To find out more about the series in general, and the man himself, you can read my original post from June 2021 when Comic Cuts had just been launched.
I instantly remembered this issue’s story when I read Egon’s silliness on Anthony William’s and Dave Harewood’s cover to The Real Ghostbusters, and what Jeff Anderson’s cover to Transformers and Action Force promised and the reality inside were quite different things.
Reprints were everywhere at the time and Transformers would eventually explain to its readers it was to allow the US strips to get ahead again and the three-story/black and white format was to combat rising costs. I wish they’d explained straight away though, it could’ve stopped some from leaving and missing out on some truly amazing UK and US stories over the next 111 issues. As a teen I’d never read Wanted Galvatron Dead or Alive so I was a happy little reader getting to enjoy new-for-me Death’s Head!
Anthony Williams was one of the very best artists on The Real Ghostbusters. As entertaining as the cover is, it doesn’t do him justice compared to some of the strips he illustrated. Dan Abnett’s prose story represented by that cover is completely daft, but then again what should we expect from the person who wrote every single one of those hilarious Spengler’s Spirit Guides? Name-Gremlin was just an excuse for lots of silly sounding names. This isn’t a complaint. Far from it. It’s brilliant and even surpasses Dan’s usual quotient of laughs.
Another strange choice for top billing on the checklist this week. While a new issue of Death’s Head was always going to be celebrated, having a milestone 150th issue of one of your biggest titles released this week and it not getting the ‘Don’t Miss’ spot seems strange, especially as how new issues of Doctor Who Magazine frequently got that honour. At the time of writing this post the mag is currently at #630, so marking the 150th of this monthly is making me feel really rather ancient.
The Seventh Doctor guest stars in Death’s Head of course, so perhaps we can forgive Marvel UK this once for its choices, as long as the big issue of DWM gets the same treatment next week, I say. This particular story was another wonderful addition to the Freelance Peacekeeping Agent’s résumé with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, especially with his own time machine. Although, the ending is a dubious one. It goes against the Doctor’s character in a pretty essential way, almost ruining the whole issue for me. You can read my full review at the link further below.
This week’s advert isn’t for a new comic but rather a series of new books.
I have a distinct memory of obtaining the money for one of these books but only vague ones about the contents. I remember being in a local bar having lunch with family. I would’ve been around 11-years-old and I was given money to play a fruit machine but I had to do so with an adult (technically it was gambling), so a family member played it with me. I won some money, argued over having to give half of it to the person that supervised me and then went to a nearby shop and bought the book with the shark on the cover. (Regular blog readers will know I’ve always had a soft spot for anything with comical sharks.)
While researching for this post some Ghostbusters fan sites have these books listed as collections of strips from the comic. I was sure the book was a prose story with rather large writing and big illustrations which took up most of each page, and I seem to remember it didn’t take me long to read it. Thankfully I eventually found some eBay listings for the other books in the series and my ageing memory was proven right (so you Ghostbusters Wiki pages need to update yourselves). For a moment I thought I’d gotten it mixed up with one of my many, many other Real Ghostbusters books. (I had so many!) Ah, the joys of getting old. Thanks Ghostbusters and Doctor Who!
I’m off to console myself about my advancing years, I’ll see you all back here in seven days when we’ll see if the checklist can make things up to the Time Lord and the latest contemporary ad is (like last week) for a comic based on a classic cartoon, but this time one I actually liked. See you then.
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 the big question is where and when will pig pals actually get to see the OiNK documentary? Are there plans to release it online?
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.
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’sCombat 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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