When I bought my first ever comic (or rather, my parents bought it for me) it was OiNK #14. I was instantly hooked. I still am 35 years later. As enthralled as I was with the 32 pages of hilarity, I was even more excited for what was to come. The idea of returning to these funny characters (who were like nothing I’d ever experienced before) every fortnight was incredibly exciting and Uncle Pigg made sure those excitement levels would remain sky high until the next issue with not one, but two Next Issue promos.

The first was for the free gift to end all free gifts as far as I was concerned. It wasn’t a small double-page poster, it wasn’t a badge and it wasn’t a Highland Toffee Bar. It was a giant, three-part calendar poster drawn by Ian Jackson himself. The first part on its own promised to be huge. What on Earth was the finished article going to look like on my wall?! Well, in the present day it hangs on my home office wall and even as a fully grown (physically at least) adult it’s still giant!

But that wasn’t all. I’d missed out on The Street-Hogs and J.T. Dogg‘s incredible artwork in the early issues, so I wasn’t prepared for Ham Dare: Pig of the Future. I was aware of Dan Dare and the Eagle comic, probably from my brother or my friends, so I knew what this was parodying but I’d no idea just how much fun it was going to be. This preview of the art, the promise of new characters and that free gift had me convinced and my first ever regular comic order was placed with my newsagent alongside it.

Come back on Monday 15th November 2015 to check out the full review.

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