PiGS APPROACHiNG: FREE GiFT ADVERT

On this day 35 years ago a little innocuous banner appeared along the top of the front cover to the latest issue of IPC Magazine‘s Buster comic. But this wasn’t going to be a poster, a badge, stickers or a boomerang as regular readers may have expected.

A boomerang? Yes, if you want to check out a very long list of the freebies given away by Buster throughout its decades-long life you can see that on the Buster Comic website. But for now, back to the issue at hand.

I decided to have a brief read of the comic too, checking out a handful of strips when I either remembered the characters or recognised the artist, such Tom Paterson‘s work above. I was quite surprised to see a handful of strips had signatures, such as Pete Dredge who would also appear in OiNK. It’s only a handful though and no writers are mentioned, something Uncle Pigg would put right very soon.

The details mentioned on the cover would amount to a half page advertisement at the end of an X-Ray Specs strip containing a piggy silhouette surrounded by one or two mentions of the new comic’s title.

Of course these could just look like sound effects to the uninitiated, so I like to think it peaked the curiosity of the young readers for what was to come in just seven days. With comics of the day being very similar in style and humour I don’t think anything could’ve prepared them for what they were about to read.

So we’re just seven days away from that free gift and just 14 away from the very first issue in this real time read through at the time of writing! It’s getting exciting here in OiNK Blog Towers and there are some extra treats in store between now and then too, so keep it tuned to the OiNK Blog, pig pals.

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SPACESHiP AWAY: LEW STRiNGER ‘HAM DARE’ iNTERViEW

The latest issue of Spaceship Away includes a feature which will appeal to fans of a certain OiNK sci-fi spoof strip. Writer of Ham Dare: Pig of the Future, Lew Stringer talks about the creation of the strip and the stellar (pun intended) artwork of J.T. Dogg that brought his creation to life.

On his own blog, Lew states, “The interview is part of a six page feature called The Fake Dan Dare Syndrome by Andrew Darlington which also includes other Dan Dare spoofs and related strips such as Danny Dare from Wham!. The article mentions that my Ham Dare plot bears a passing resemblance to the 1957 novel Wolfbane by Frederik Pohl…. which came as a surprise to me because I’d never even heard of that book until now!”

Lew discusses his working relationship with Malcolm, how they only met once at the OiNK launch party and communicated mainly by phone. Full scripts were sent to Malcolm and it was co-editor Mark Rodgers‘ idea to have him as the artist, lending a more direct homage to Dan Dare to the strip than the cartoonish art Lew had envisioned. He also talks about that dinosaur extinction scene and the emotions he felt writing it, which many pig pals felt when reading the surprisingly touching moment.

If you haven’t heard of Spaceship Away, it’s a fanzine concentrating on publishing brand new Dan Dare strips and new science fiction illustrated tales and prose stories, alongside factual articles on everything from the classic Eagle comic of the 1950s to modern day space exploration and science news.

This issue is #53 and is available for £8.95 or you can take out a year’s subscription for £25.50 (prices for Europe and worldwide readers are £11.50 and £31.00 respectively) and you can order it through their website now.

You can also read more information about the interview on Lew’s own personal blog, Lew Stringer Comics.

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SELLiNG THE STY: NEWSAGENT MARKETiNG

We’re approaching the beginning of my real time read through of this site’s namesake comic and I’ve got another treat in store for pig pals as we count down the days.

Last month I showed you an interview with John Sanders, IPC Magazines’ Youth Group Managing Director from the pages of industry magazine CTN, published in March 1986. Now we’re coasting through April and this month newsagents across the UK received word of that brand new comic John spoke about. OiNK was about to make its appearance but first of all those selling it had to be convinced to place orders, and hopefully sizeable ones at that.

Thanks to OiNK co-creator/co-editor and cartoonist Tony Husband for sharing these original four-page promotional leaflets. They’re certainly bright, colourful and eye-catching.

I love the written description beside the exhausted Uncle Pigg below, especially the “precocious” part. My first issue of OiNK was #14 and it instantly spoke to me, so I’m guessing that was an accurate description of me too. OiNK never spoke down to us, never treated us like little children. It felt like it was put together by a team who just wanted to make each other laugh and us pig pals were part of the gang. I believe this is the reason its humour stands up so well today and can still be enjoyed by anyone of any age.

Above was Tony’s original leaflet, below I’ve been able to get hold of individual page scans that are a bit better in picture quality. You can click on these to take a closer look.

At the time new comics would normally be marketed on television, such as the one for Marvel UK‘s The Transformers I showed you in that John Sanders post. But of course OiNK would be doing things differently and a big deal was made of the fact IPC were giving away their first ever preview issue. Not only that, it was a full-sized, 32-page free comic and packaged inside some of their best-selling titles, namely Buster, Eagle and Tiger and Whizzer and Chips.

The launch gifts are given prominent space here too, which is understandable when a free record is one of them. Also mentioned are the “Blockbuster Advertisements” which would show up between issues one and two in the pages of the three comics above as well as Roy of the Rovers, 2000AD and Battle. That’s a huge promotional push right there!

In case you’re wondering what “Fully S.O.R.” means, this stands for ‘Sale or Return’ and would refer to newsagents being able to return unsold copies and receive full reimbursement for them. This would encourage them to make bigger orders for those initial issues, safe in the knowledge they could push the comic in their stores with plenty on display without fear of losing any money.

So the comic was on its way and our newsagents were placing their orders. The next step was to make the potential readers aware of that fantastic free preview coming very soon.

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