It is with a heavy heart that I find myself writing this, having found out about the recent passing of Ronald Charles Tickner, better known to OiNK readers as Ron Tiner. Lew Stringer recently broke the news on his own blog and reminisced about the fan favourite five-part Sherlock Hams serial he wrote and which Ron drew so brilliantly.
Born on 8th May 1940 in Borden in Kent, due to his family’s finances he never attended art college and was completely self-taught. That didn’t stop him from passing his knowledge and skills on to the next generation though, as later in his career he taught illustration and sequential narrative at Swindon College for several years around the turn of the millennium.
He had a prolific and varied career in comics and humour magazines which included everything from Punch and Brain Damage, to Tammy and Jinty, to Hotspur and Battle Action. In OiNK he drew some of the best spoofs of 80s culture and celebrity the comic produced. Sherlock Holmes wasn’t the only one to be given the OiNK facelift thanks to Ron, with David Attenborough and Duran Duran among the list.
His art first popped up in #14, which was actually my first issue as a kid so he contributed heavily to my first impressions not only of OiNK but of comics as a medium. On first glance Ron’s work on The Unprofessionals could be mistaken for an official comic adaptation of the TV series, making the ludicrous scenario all the more hilarious.
Not exactly being mistaken for an official DC comic but loved just as much was his artwork for Mark Rodgers’ three-page Superham strip in #28, with Ron’s one and only OiNK cover, one of the most memorable of the whole run. Proving he was a go-to choice for some of the larger assignments Ron also brought his unique comedy stylings to classic literature with King Solomon’s Swines which ran for two months in the comic.
One of his pieces that hasn’t been seen on the blog before is MANK, another spoof strip, this time of the 80s transforming toy line and cartoon, MASK. This wonderful creation rounded off the first OiNK Book in style and has all the markings of a classic Ron piece. OiNK was never full colour, usually about a quarter of each issue was, the fact so many of Ron’s strips were printed this way is testament to his unique, bold and brilliant art style.
After comics Ron worked as a book illustrator, contributing artwork to classic texts for Oxford University Press and Penguin Classics, and later writing his own books about illustrating. Coming full circle back to who he spoofed above, Ron’s book Investigating Sherlock Holmes is a real labour of love. It recreates the time and place of the stories with illustrations, maps, historical photos and a lot more, creating a new, immersive look at the character.
It’s no exaggeration to say Ron’s work on OiNK was always a highlight of any issue he appeared in, and some of the finest examples of parody from the comic. He made an impression on me from the moment I picked up my first issue and to this day when I introduce OiNK to new readers Ron’s work can be guaranteed to be on the list of examples I show off. He’ll be much missed.
(John Freeman’s Down the Tubes website has a wonderful in-depth In Memoriam for Ron which you can read here.)
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