I hope you’ve all been enjoying this fascinating look into the creation of OiNK from some of its incredible creative team. In case you’re stumbling upon this series for the first time, I sent four questions to some of OiNK’s greatest talent and every Saturday during the build up to Christmas I’m publishing all of their responses, one set at a time.
The third question is the most personal. Working on a funny comic isn’t easy. We were laughing with the turn of every page but it must’ve been exhausting to come up with all of that comedy gold week after week. We’ve established they all loved their time on OiNK and each other’s work, but is there anything of their own that they’re particularly proud of?
QUESTION THREE
What’s your personal favourite piece
you contributed to OiNK?
DAVEY JONES
Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom,
Kingdom of Trump
“I suppose it’d be a half page strip called Henry the Wonder Dog, because that was the first one I’d got accepted, and my first bit of paid cartooning work. When I finished my A-Levels in the summer of 1986 I started bombarding OiNK with ideas, and at the beginning of August got a note from Mark saying “Success at last, can you draw this one up and send it to Patrick.” I was chuffed to bits, and remember that evening going down The Barrels (still my favourite pub in Hereford) to show off.”
STEVE GIBSON
artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements,
Ponsonby Claret
“Personal fave: Judge Pigg. I wanted to do more 2000AD parodies (Strontium Pigg, Rogue Porker, ABC Piglets) but alas we were too busy and the guys at 2000AD don’t like us mere cartoonists taking the pee-eye-double-ess out of their serious characters.”
IAN JACKSON
artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins,
OiNK Book 1988 covers
“Various covers plus a black and white two-page school story.”
PATRICK GALLAGHER
co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang,
designer of the OiNK logos
“Chaotic issue eight cover with the skeleton staff member.”
DAVID LEACH
Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ
“It’s either my fully painted poster of Psycho Gran in the annual, The Good, The Bad and The Very Old. Or it’s the one pager where PG is waiting for a bus.”
DAVY FRANCIS
Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb,
Doctor Mad-Starkraving
“My favourite piece of work is the Cowpat County page with Cyril the Sheep. A lot of my workmates at the time were put into the strip (including Cyril). We had a real laugh when it was printed. It was one of those strips that nearly writes and draws itself.”
GRAHAM EXTON
writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes,
Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car
“The All- Vegetable Theatre Company, which became Tatertown on Facebook. Herbert Bowes is a close second.”
ED McHENRY
Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages,
Igor and the Doctor
“I was very pleased with the two double-page spreads I did, one for the 50th birthday party and the other for the anniversary portrait, both these featured all of OiNK’s regular cast of characters.”
LEW STRINGER
Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla,
writer of Ham Dare
“Another question that’s hard to answer but I was very pleased with the Pete and His Pimple pull-out comic I put together. It was nice to do a longer story. Another favourite was the one-off half pager Thick As Thieves about the bungling crooks. I was inspired by the old time British comedy movies for that one.”
JEREMY BANX
Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith
“That might be the Burp one when he had to fight for those round squishy ball things; thus ensuring his puberty and subsequent transition to manhood. I think it was in a special? A reader messaged me a few years back to tell me it had helped get him through the whole painful process when he was a boy. The mind boggles.”
Ahem… I then admitted to Jeremy that reader had been me! To which he replied, “Oh excellent. I seem to remember you saying it had some sort of beneficial effect. I hope you weren’t just being polite.” Not at all , Jeremy! To any of you out there who may be a bit confused by this, check out the review for The OiNK Book 1989!
KEV F SUTHERLAND
Meanwhile…, The Three Scientists,
March of the Killer Breakfasts
“I did a couple of short stories I was really proud of. That one with the Three Scientists who travel back in time, then compare watches, but because they’ve all travelled the same amount their watches don’t show any difference. I still don’t think I’ve seen that gag being done (cue a dozen people telling me they’ve seen it in everything from Futurama to Rick & Morty. Well I haven’t seen it, and dammit I did it first!) I was also proud to have coined the phrase, “Would you Adam and believe it?” in one of my strips, which went on to be used a lot by Marc and Lard.”
The pages mentioned here really are the crème de la crème of what OiNK had to offer, and where possible I’ve included links to those specific issues so you can relive some personal giggles this Christmas. Just one more question to go, so don’t miss out on the answer to this on Saturday, 21st December 2024:
Finally, if pig pals could take one thing away
from your work on OiNK, what would that be?
OiNK Blog 