Back during OiNK’s weekly issues young readers were treated to five cut-out play masks. They were the typical fare we’d see in comics of the day. Super Naturals gave such masks away with their first two issues, albeit printed on glossy cardboard. OiNK’s may have been printed on regular paper and required gluing them to the customary empty cereal box to make them wearable, but these character faces were so much more entertaining.
Obviously a Dead Fred mask is the most suitable this time of year and in the above selection it’s the only one drawn by the character’s original artist, Eric ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson, the rest were drawn by Mike Peek. Thanks to co-editor Patrick Gallagher for confirming this after Mike mentioned drawing the Tom Thug one on the OiNK Facebook group. Tom’s face may have incorrect proportions (it isn’t as squished as it should be) but then again it had to fit our faces and none of us had a noggin like Tom’s!
They weren’t originally printed as part of any Hallowe’en celebrations. In fact, they were inside #51 to #55 during February and March 1988 but I thought they’d make for a fun extra post at this time of the year. If you do decide to print them out (and if you do I expect photos to the blog’s socials!) please note that to make sure they’re of a good enough quality when printed they are very big files. The pages were scanned in to measure 22cm across and 30cm top-to-bottom so they’re quite heavy on the memory front (between 15MB and 20MB each).
Also, don’t forget to follow Uncle Pigg’s instructions very carefully, folks. Especially step 3.
I didn’t include these in the reviews at the time because I wanted to keep them for a Hallowe’en after the regular issues had stopped. However, they were part of some of the very best weekly OiNKs and you can click on their covers above to go straight to them. #51 includes Pete and his Pimple and their trouser-press, in #52 Frank Sidebottom had an exclusive scoop about a top BBC radio DJ, #53 saw the debut of Wally of the West, the comic gave a clear (and rhyming) message to bigots in #54 and Tom Thug finally assembled his gang in #55.
Happy spooky season pig pals, and of course let’s not forget the true message of Hallowe’en: Christmas is coming!
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