Tomorrow sees the 35th anniversary of OiNK‘s sophomore release and just like the previous issue’s promo in the preview comic, the advert for #2 (on the back cover of #1) concentrated on the free gift. This time it would be a selection of stickers to make your own badges. The front cover of the next issue would provide some of the funniest examples, but if you can’t remember them you’ll just have to wait for the review.
Promo by Ian Jackson
So come back for #2 of OiNK any time from Monday 17th May 2021 onwards, for more highlights, more character introductions and definitely a lot more laughs from the pages of the greatest comic ever created. See you then.
This week has been a really hard one. I lost a dear friend to cancer, someone who I had known for over half my life. The funniest, kindest, most generous soul, I’m missing Elaine terribly. If I could have a moment of your time, I’d like to tell blog readers a quick story.
Last year Elaine was asking me about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life after I’d lost my job. I’d always wanted to create for a living but hadn’t got anywhere. Elaine asked me what I thought I needed to do and I knew the answer was simply “figure it out”, but I always followed this with excuses and doubts. I basically had no faith in myself to take those creative juices I felt when writing or cooking and turn them into something.
She had heard this all before from me and so her advice was simple and blunt. She looked me straight in the eye and simply said, “Just do it”. It was the shortest, most blunt, yet best piece of advice I’ve ever received. Thank you Elaine. ❤️
When I feel the procrastinator in me surfacing, or when I feel like being lazy, or when I’m struggling with writer’s block or struggling to come up with the next food creation, I know I’m going to hear her voice saying those words. I know they’re going to make all the difference, because in her memory I’m going to make sure they make all the difference.
This weekend is Elaine’s funeral and in lieu of flowers the family have asked people to donate to Macmillan Cancer Support, who provided support and who Elaine arranged fantastic Coffee Mornings for.
My best friend, and Elaine’s daughter, Vicki has set up a donation page in her name which you can find right here. I know readers of this blog won’t have known my friend, but I can’t stress enough how important Macmillan’s work is, from providing support to cancer patients, to end of life care and running hospices.
It’s something that has touched the lives of so many of us, so if you can spare even a little, no matter how small the amount, please do. Macmillan are doing wonderful work in helping cancer patients and their families and we never know when we may need their support.
Here’s something I never even knew existed until a few years ago. If you have a look back at the marketing leaflets distributed to newsagents across the UK before OiNK‘s launch, you’ll find reference is made to ‘Major Publicity’ in the shape of four-page ‘Blockbuster Advertisements’, whatever they were. Well, I’ve finally been able to get my hands on one and can now show it off for you.
These adverts took the form of four extra pages within Buster, Eagle, Whizzer and Chips, Roy of the Rovers, Battle and 2000AD comics, specifically the issues that went on sale on 3rd May 1986, the day #1 of OiNK hit the shelves. Since we’ve already seen examples of Buster and Whizzer and Chips in the marketing for OiNK, I thought I’d use an issue of 2000AD this time.
What’s strange is the lack of any promotion on the cover for the additional content which took the comic up to 36 pages that week. But then again, it’s not like it was easily missed when readers turned the page.
It all kicks off with an introduction drawn by Ian Jackson. It may only be four panels long, but in taking up a full page it makes a big impact, just as Ian’s work had in the preview issue. Unlike 2000AD, some of the comics had given away the free edition as well as including this a week later. Few IPC comics fans would’ve been unaware of OiNK’s arrival.
The advert opens up into the following double page spread, which lays out exactly what readers could expect from the mad new fortnightly.
Of course, with this being printed on newsprint the wonderful colour and grayscale shading of OiNK’s glossy paper are missing, but there’s still plenty to show off with the array of new characters and strips. The art is miles apart from the restrained feel of humour comics of the time and it must’ve been exciting to see such original content.
Tom Thug, The Street-Hogs, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins and Burp the Smelly Alien are among those included here, even if Burp is out of view. Although, I think the panel included is even funnier when used out of context here.
It’s a loud, proud announcement indeed.
The back page concentrates on the free gifts in the first two issues, in particular that flexidisc, surely the most surprising free gift to be given away with a comic. Also nice to see the beginning of the ongoing joke about Uncle Pigg doing everything for his readers when in actual fact he’s raking in the dough, even at this early stage.
It’s a little strange to promote the posters like they’re free gifts though. The OiNK Superstar Posters were absolutely incredible pieces by J.T. Dogg but they were very much part of the comic, taking up the middle pages every issue for the first few months. Oh well, it’s something a lot of comics did at the time to promote such things.
IPC may have decided not to go down the TV advertising route with OiNK, but I think this past month or so has shown just how much better the promotional push for it was as a result. You can check out several posts all about that on the blog already in the OiNK Pre-Release section, link below.
While OiNK‘s creators Tony Husband, Patrick Gallagher and Mark Rodgers assembled an insanely great mixture of various art styles from the best cartoonists and illustrators around, many would agree Ian Jackson‘s work is considered the seminal OiNK look. His main strips were Uncle Pigg, Mary Lighthouse and The Sekret Diary ov Hadrian Vile and his covers always elicited an excited reaction when I picked up the latest issue.
As well as his jagged, animated and highly original drawings he was also the person behind the covers which featured actual model work. Who can ever forget the famous OiNK Book 1988‘s pig face (and tail) and the first Holiday Special cover of plasticine and cardboard, which you can see at the top of this post.
To mark OiNK’s 35th anniversary, John Freeman has written a fascinating post all about Ian for his Down the Tubes website. When I was writing the previous version of the blog Ian was one contributor to the comic who remained an enigma, so I’m very happy to see this could be rectified this time around, starting with John’s research.
Above, you can see Ian with his brother, John Jackson a family law barrister in Leeds, who shared on Twitter this photo and a recent piece by Ian of the Sandsend valley where his shop, Wild Hart resides. It’s a gorgeous illustration and it reminded me of a certain other map of Ian’s I remember enjoying somewhat.
John’s post goes into more depth on Ian’s catalogue of work, such as his work for Punch magazine, which fellow OiNK cartoonist Jeremy Banx also contributed to. I wasn’t aware of a children’s cartoon co-created by Ian called Minuscule Milton, the art style of which is clearly recognisable. It’s a lovely looking thing indeed.
It also includes some more OiNK information, such as this quote from an interview in 2015.
“I received a phone call from cartoonist Tony Husband,” Ian recalls, “telling me of a new comic he and two other writers/ artists were putting together. TheOiNKwork (I drew Uncle Pigg, Mary Lighthouse and Hadrian Vile) gave me no alternative but to go freelance properly, so a month before my 21st birthday, I became my own boss.”
Created for CBBC and broadcast between 1997 and 1999 it tells the tale of a very, very tiny little boy who lives in a clock on a mantlepiece, with only his canine friend aware of his existence.
John has plenty of information on Ian’s further work in illustration, model building, cartoons and more on the Down the Tubes post. For any fans of OiNK it’s an essential read and you can even watch an episode of Milton’s show while you’re there.
Off we go! Happy 35th anniversary to my very favourite comic of all time and what I truly believe is still the funniest to ever grace shop shelves. The preview issue released the week before had prepared some for what was to follow, but the actual premiere issue made quite the impact all by itself with a free record on the cover and a matching cover image to promote it. This could not have failed to catch the eye.
We’ll take a closer look at the free gift in a bit but first let’s start with editor Uncle Pigg taking no nonsense from critic Mary Lighthouse on page two. Written by Mark Rodgers and drawn by Ian Jackson, these strips were a regular fixture for many of the early issues and starting in #3 would introduce the fortnightly subject of each issue. These subjects would include your traditional Christmas and Hallowe’en editions, but could also be anything from music, computer games or pets, to space, health or war.
There’s no subject this time obviously but there’s certainly an edge to the first few pages. Our editor introduces strips such as Ed Banger, the boy with the invincible headbutt and Mike and Spike, the naughty boy with a mohican and his equally naughty pet hedgehog. Both were drawn by Patrick Gallagher, who also put the cover together. Very modern, very 80s characters, both feel like they were intended to be regular fixtures, but Ed would only return once and after appearing in the preview issue this was Mike and Spike’s last strip.
But that was one of the things we loved about OiNK, the forever changing line up of regular, occasional and one-off characters kept things fresh and exciting rather than formulaic and predictable. In fact, it’s only upon looking back on the series I realise some of my favourite regular characters weren’t regular at all. But one thing we could always count on were spoof advertisements.
The half-page Uncle Pigg’s For Sale Column mimicked the kind of thing we’d see in local newspapers, except here they’re all being sold by one person, or rather pig. A precursor to the infamous GBH catalogue company in later issues, here everything is poor quality for extortionate prices. I particularly like the couple of running jokes, the ‘Barrel of Monkeys’ and ‘Live Shark’ gags rolling over into subsequent, even funnier adverts.
It might seem strange to have the above as one of our first highlights of the premiere issue rather than a strip, but these were ubiquitous with OiNK. However, only a few page turns later a strip was set to astound the eyes of the young readers used to black and white or one-colour pages in their comics. The Street-Hogs were ready to make their grand entrance.
Written by one of the comic’s three creators/editors Mark Rodgers, who wrote so much of OiNK, it’s a spoof of classic Saturday morning television serials and their constant, increasingly ridiculous cliffhangers and even more ludicrous heroic escapes. However, inspiration could be traced back to everything from the 60’s Batman to Starsky & Hutch.
It was all brought to life by the incredible talent of illustrator J.T. Dogg who, while comic artists usually drew their pages at a larger scale which was then shrunk down during publication, created his pages at the same size as the finished product. Knowing this fact makes his beautiful colour work even more incredible in my eyes.
No wonder the The Street-Hogs are so fondly remembered to this day by so many pig pals
Dirty Harry, Emma Pig, Hi-Fat and their informant Hoggy Bear would fight against the butcher mafioso and find themselves in one escape-proof scenario after another for the first 11 issues, returning later for further serials. As well as being hilarious, Mark’s scripts also brought a real adventure vibe to things, albeit in suitable OiNK fashion. No wonder they’re so fondly remembered to this day by so many pig pals.
The premiere issue saw some returning characters from the preview such as Burp,Weedy Willy and chat show host Terry Wogham met The Invisible Man, and there was the second OiNK Superstar Poster as well. This time it was Bacon Stevens (I’m sure Shaky would’ve approved) and friend of the comic BBC Radio DJ John Peel also got the OiNK treatment. New addition Hadrian Vile would prove to be an instant hit and appear in almost every issue too.
Burp by Jeremy Banx Weedy Willy written by Mark Rodgers, drawn by Mike Green Terry Wogham panel by Patrick Gallagher OiNK Superstar Poster by J.T. Dogg Hadrian Vile written by Mark Rodgers, drawn by Ian Jackson
One thing I particularly loved were the OiNK takes on children’s stories. We’d also get lots of cheeky digs at specific cartoons and toys but when OiNK took classic children’s book staples and created their own originals they were simply magical, and no pun is intended here.
Daz‘s The Wonderful Adventure of Billy Batt and his Magic Hat takes the idea of rhyming children’s stories, told in picture panels and captions, and illustrates it in what could be mistaken as a somewhat traditional fashion. That is, until you actually read it.
Daz (Dave Skillin) would contribute quite a few of these to the early issues of OiNK, each one starting off innocently enough, building anticipation in the reader. As I read them, I’m just waiting for that moment in each story when it starts to take a turn for the surreal, the comedic or the horrific. Then of course, they’re all capped off with a killer last line in the moral.
So, it’s time we talked about that free gift.
“Poo-poo, tinkle-tinkle, parp-parp, OiNK!”
Actual lyrics to The OiNK Song
Over a year later the team would bring us a record called The OiNK 45 which readers could buy through mail order. This is what I did back in 1987. It contained three songs, two of which had originally been on this special floppy flexidisc (although they were recorded and beefed up for The OiNK 45). Specially tuned to be enjoyed by young ears but excruciating for adult ones, The OiNK Song and The OiNK Rap were irritatingly catchy and I loved annoying my family with them at a volume they simply shouldn’t have been played at.
Along with silly dance moves (and alternative uses for the disc for those without record players) on a special double page spread were the lyrics. Whenever OiNK is brought up on some random social media chat it’s never too long before someone quotes the chorus of the song on the right!
Both were recorded by former member of The Fall, creator of Harry the Head and BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Marc Riley, The OiNK Song’s effect of multiple squeaky pigs being achieved by overdubs. Co-creator/co-editor Tony Husband produced some of the electric percussion for the rap song and, according to Tony recently, “that influenced Public Enemy and Run DMC and all those people Dr. Dre talks about as a major influence.”
To hear the full version of the songs I heard at the time you can check out the post all about The OiNK 45.
I’m very happy to see Tom Paterson return for the premiere issue after his Revenge Squad in the preview. Drawing another Pigg Tale written by Mark Rodgers, this strip makes the previous one look like a warm up. This is Tom without any of the constraints he had to work under elsewhere. It epitomises silliness and is chock-full of his trademark sight gags and background jokes. Take your time in reading this one.
Young hot dog salesman Jimmy Bung would save the world against a crazy array of villains by leaping into the nearest dustbin
I love all of the little incidental details such as the explanation of where Jonesy’s underwear came from, the sound effects and descriptive words used throughout and the obligatory bangers and mash. I even like his depiction of Uncle Pigg, even though by this time it was agreed he wouldn’t be a typical smelly pig. If Tom had been able to become a regular contributor his collection of strips by the end would’ve been second-to-none, but at least we can enjoy such brilliance as Testing Time.
One more highlight for this issue and it’s a rare colour outing for OiNK’s very own superhero. David Haldane contributed quite a few strips to the comic, including Hugo the Hungry Hippo and the dark humour of the Torture Twins. Rubbish Man was his main character, where young hot dog salesman Jimmy Bung would save the world against a crazy array of villains by leaping into the nearest dustbin and becoming the smelly superhero, with everything from cold custard to mouldy mashed potato at his fingertips. Quite literally.
Haldane’s style has changed somewhat from the preview; his outlines are chunkier, the panels are fuller and overall it’s a much bolder look. It’s all very random, like organised chaos, which suits the comic perfectly. I love it. From the gorgeous colour work to the handily bleeped out curse words, it’s the final strip of the issue and a great way to end things for now.
As first impressions go this has been a huge success and a joy to read from beginning to end. The sheer variety in the art styles alone was enough to make it stand out, but put those styles into genuinely funny strips, make them all different lengths, squeezing in as much as you possibly can to make use of every available space and print it all on extra large, glossy paper and what do you have? A comic like nothing else on the market. In other words, you haveOiNK.
Issue two’s review will be here in a fortnight on Monday 17th May.
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