All posts by Phil Boyce

ALiENS #17: iT’S GOOD FOR YOU, BOY. EAT iT

This cover by Robert Mentor (Sex Warrior, Star Wars, Vamperotica Magazine) is partially obscured by the latest free gift of an Aliens postcard, one half of a set showing a xenomorph facing up to a Predator. Don’t be expecting the other half next month, it was given away with a totally different comic, Total Carnage. Having linking postcards seems a bit strange. Were we meant to send them to the same person? The other postcard also marks the beginning of a new Aliens/Predator crossover strip in that comic. Why is it not in this comic where it belongs? Damn, that’s not fair. An advert for this issue also featured in Jurassic Park #5’s review.

As per usual here’s the editorial page with all of the credits for the issue and we kick things off with another short two-part story from the pages of anthology US title Dark Horse Comics. Part one of Dan Jolley’s (G.I. Joe Frontline, Vampirella, Warriors) Cargo is eight pages long and full of classic Alien atmosphere.

Gerald Coile is a smuggler who’s getting out of the game by informing to the DEA and escaping to anonymity, but he can’t help making one last run. In this universe we know this is likely to be a bad decision. He delivers his illicit cargo to a large ship and when he sees no one about he takes control of one of its cranes to get it on board so he can get paid and skedaddle. He doesn’t notice something automatically release itself and fall back into his boat.

Once his cargo is in the hold he wanders around a bit and realises he’s completely alone and the ship is powered down. He decides to go and check on the cargo he’s still to be paid for. Noticing it has a bleeping video screen his heart sinks. A video of the man he informed on pops up and Gerry’s boat explodes thanks to that earlier device. I do love the explosion picture, the bright colours against the dark shadows on the water are great, John Nadeau’s (Star Wars X-Wing, Wolverine, Colonial Marines) art compliments the atmosphere perfectly. As for Gerry, that’s not the end of his problems as the cargo he delivered opens up…

Of course this asks a lot of questions, like how Vasco got hold of an alien, what he originally wanted it for and what is the reference to its “home”. But this is a short two-part story and those answers may or may not have be answered elsewhere. It doesn’t matter though, we’re here for this tale and it’s a classic Aliens set up. I’m looking forward to seeing how (or if) Gerry gets out of this one.

There’s more of interest in the Motion Tracker news section than there has been these last few months. Not necessarily tying in with Aliens but I do love a good contemporary news article in these old comics and this one is very 90s indeed. The Difference Engine movie never got made in the end but I remember playing The Chaos Engine game on a friend’s Commodore Amiga and it was actually based on the novel. I never knew that! Penal Colony would get made but was renamed No Escape and it had a comics adaptation too.

I’ve never seen Time Cop but I remember reading about its short-lived TV show sequel in the excellent TV Zone magazine in the 90s and it seemed like fun. As for news centred around the comic’s inspiration I’d say the news Alien³ is the first of the series to make profit is probably only how the studio’s creative accounting saw it and our previous prose story Tribes won a very well deserved award.

Part five of Michael Cook’s Crusade takes up 11 pages in the middle of the comic and Christian Gorny’s art has improved immensely! The aliens and action scenes in particular are wonderful. Why was it not this good previously? It’s revealed Rani the seer is searching for her missing childhood friend Martha and her narration is a welcome addition. Coupled with the upgrade in art it makes things a lot less confusing.

This chapter is their escape from the sewer but unlike previous entries it has satisfying character development too, thanks to there only being three characters now and the art making each more distinctive. Running from the aliens, Minecorp marine Channon saves Rani and one of the male Marines (his name isn’t given here and trying to work out who he was previously was impossible) but the narration tells us they couldn’t save her in return, so they made their escape without her. We think this is because Channon is about to be killed by the alien but it’s actually a smart bit of misdirection.

Instead, she faces it down, shoots it and for once in the Alien franchise doesn’t get covered in acid, so kudos to her! However, once out of the sewer a gun is held to her face by an unknown person. Rani and the male marine are all that’s left as far as they’re concerned and we find out the missing team they were sent to find included his wife. This changes Rani’s opinion of him. She knows he’s no solider (he’s actually a company man, not a marine as its turns out) and they disagree on pretty much everything, but she respects how much he believes in his wife’s abilities to survive.

They realise the horses that birthed the aliens had been drinking from the Thames, and if that’s how they got infected then the creatures must be all over the city by now, in every river and stream. The slower, quieter moments with proper dialogue instead of the forced ‘chat’ of the earliest chapters and the upgrade in art have really surprised me, and raised Crusade’s prospects immensely.

The Technical Readout is getting less and less technical as the comic goes on, unfortunately. This month it’s about Dropship markings, nothing more than a few identical drawings of drop ships coloured differently. Much better as a feature is the next Q and Aliens, with the trickier questions from readers put to the publication’s experts.

That’s an interesting image by John Bolton and the Question of the Month has a fun answer, staying within character and defending the company, and I like that comparison to bees. But most intriguing is the mention of Skeleton Crew magazine and why its Aliens Special was withdrawn from sale. The magazine was actually created by this comic’s Dave Hughes but as it says here it’s a rare issue and the only one I can’t track down on eBay. Possibly a future special feature for the blog.

Chris Warner’s Colonial Marines is next and with their APC damaged they’re awaiting rescue from their second dropship when loads of finned aliens with fish tails instead of legs break through the surface of the kelp beds. There’s even one huge mother of an aquatic alien who clearly wants to challenge Daryl Hannah as the Queen of the mermaids.

While it should be a tense scene with nowhere to run except to sit on top of their APC and fight off hoards of aliens (why not go inside the heavily armoured vehicle?), unfortunately this usually superb strip has gone in the opposite direction of Crusade. Here, there are just too many characters who all look like each other. I can’t even tell who Lt. Henry is, who I’d been enjoying so much in previous issues, so this means I’m suddenly not as invested as I was in what happens. Eventually Vasquez arrives piloting the dropship and rescues everyone, redeeming herself after she’d previously froze on the spot mid-battle. There’s a funny reference to this on the final page and this is pretty much all we get as far as character moments go. The first disappointing chapter in this lengthy tale.

Next is a follow-up feature to the excellent alien autopsy from #11. This time, Jim Campbell’s Under the Knife cuts deep into a facehugger and its alien egg or, to give it its proper name, the ovomorph. I’ve been really looking forward to this and, as it’s once again written from the perspective of the future scientists doing the dissecting, it’s another fascinating read. For starters, I never thought of the eggs as separate lifeforms until now. It makes sense, of course.

Jim gives us a reason as to how they survived so long on LV426 before discovery in the first film, something which is key to the aliens’ survival. How the egg detects potential hosts makes these things even creepier and how it can configure a facehugger in much the same way as an alien adapts to its host is really well written. In fact, the whole feature is brilliantly written. Again.

The apparent science behind the actual face-hugging is compulsive reading, from how it’s awoken to how it samples its host’s respiratory system to determine the best way to keep them alive. Then the fact the alien is created inside the host rather than being implanted actually pairs up with the prequel movies decades later. Towards the end I did laugh at the typically horrific reasoning of the company when it reveals the only thing stopping them from carrying on their research!

Believe it or not we finish on a four-page humour strip. Not that you’d know it from the first few pages. Coming straight after the dissection feature the images on the first page instantly set me on edge. Aliens: Taste is written by Edward Martin III (a Dark Horse US editor for Dark Horse Presents, Aliens and Predator), drawn by Mark Nelson (Graphic Classics Bram Stoker, Native American Classics, Rosebud), coloured by Ray P. Murtaugh (Splatter, Star Wars, Elementals) and lettered by Willie Shubert (Legends of The Dark Knight, Deathstroke, Robin).

The narration talks about life forms dying of ennui (boredom, lethargy), then builds tension as it talks about those of us who experience bits of danger everyday, then those who like it for the adrenalin rush, those who seek it out, right up to those who actively court danger. All the while the facehugger is slipping further out of its egg until it lunges towards the reader… but a giant clawed hand grabs it before we turn to the final page below.

I didn’t expect this to be a funny strip until I actually read it and got to this page. It was certainly a surprise inside the pages of this particular comic! This many issues in and Aliens continues to shock us in terms of its horror stories and now a shock dose of humour. One of the very best all-round issues yet, it begs the question of what will #18 contain to improve upon it? We’ll find out together on Tuesday 18th November 2025.

iSSUE 16 < > iSSUE 18

ALiENS MENU

CHATTiNG WITH TONY HUSBAND

I never got to meet Tony Husband before his passing in October 2023. I’d always wanted to, but we can all have good intentions to do something but never get around to it, never considering one day it could be too late. I did get to speak to him on the phone a couple of times though. On these occasions I’d sent a message to Tony asking something specific about OiNK and instead of writing back he took the time to call me and we’d chat at length about the comic.

After all these years he was still so enthusiastic about it, so eager to share stories about its making, taking every chance he could to praise those who worked on it. Some of the information Tony gave me on those calls has already found its way into posts throughout OiNK’s read through. As for everything else we chatted about I’ve now decided to sum it all up and remember what a generous man Tony was with his time.

“The rock and roll madness,” was how Tony remembered OiNK. “Mark (Rodgers, fellow editor) was the glue, he was the drummer.” He  continued, “Bob Paynter loved working with us three, there were no egos working on the comic. Basically it was rock and roll, our offices were in the same building as Happy Mondays, Dave Hassle, the Hacienda DJ was next door, downstairs were Marc (Riley) and Frank (Sidebottom). It was like being in a band.”

He described the OiNK team as “all fantastic people”, and that there were “so many ideas we could’ve had an extra comic every week.” He lavished praise on the team, describing how much he loved getting to work with mates from Punch and Private Eye, trying out different styles of strips and content for the comic. “Lew (Stringer) is one of the great comics artists in the country still,” he said. “Jeremy (Banx) was fabulous and we just let his head go wherever it led.”

Tony felt OiNK lasted
the right amount of time

Tony also told me some of the funny stories that occurred during OiNK’s time, such as when he and (fellow editor) Patrick Gallagher were invited to London to appear on a breakfast TV show. They thought they were heading down to promote OiNK because it was appealing to a new demographic of young readers. But the first question foisted upon them (in relation to a Madvertisement in the preview issue) asked if they felt joking about smashing up friends’ bicycles was the “right message to send”, spectacularly missing the point of the humour in favour of some sensationalism.

According to Tony it was worth the sudden shock and typical faux-offence from the presenters for five minutes because his and Patrick’s expenses were all paid for, including travel and a night in a 5-star hotel! But that’s not the end of the story. On the return train Tony brought out onto the table a few small bottles of booze he’d sneaked out from his hotel room’s courtesy bar, thinking they’d have a tipple on the way home, only for Patrick to empty out a plastic bag full of every single bottle from his room! By the time they hit Manchester they could barely walk off the train.

I’ve previously covered how Tony met Patrick through Mark and he elaborated on this, telling me they’d meet over several drinks between local pubs and their own flats, the immediate chemistry setting into motion what would eventually become OiNK. Graham Exton was also in those early ‘meetings’ and at one stage IPC‘s Group Editor of Humour Bob Paynter wanted to meet with the team to discuss the possibility of the comic. He wanted to do it somewhere secret to stop word getting out. The solution was to meet at Manchester airport, but it ended up being on the same day that, according to Tony, “all the cartoonists in the world” arrived on their way to Tenerife for a cartoon convention and they all recognised Tony!

Another tale Tony couldn’t help laughing along with as he told it happened not long after publisher IPC Magazines had had to deal with that famous complaint to the Press Council. After it was settled Tony received a phone call from Youth Group Managing Director John Sanders telling him, “this latest story has gone too far, we’ll have to close OiNK!” Only it wasn’t John. Patrick had got one of his mates who did accents to impersonate him! Then, the following week Tony phoned Patrick to tell him something in the comic had upset a family and John’s legal team was on it, but there were concerns they could end up in court. All nonsense of course!

The Manchester music links to OiNK couldn’t have been any clearer when you take a closer look at the comic. For example, the inclusion of contributors such as Frank and Marc (who had previously been in The Fall), or Tony’s own punk band strip, The Slugs (drawn by Les ‘Lezz’ Barton). Tony also brought in Jon Langford of The Mekons to draw some strips and full-page images and the band starred in a couple of photo stories. Then Jon’s other band, The 3 Johns also featured in OiNK on the page of Janice Pong’s (Tony’s) interview with lead singer of The Cult, Ian Astbury. In the review of that issue you’ll find out what Tony told me of that experience.

As for OiNK’s demise, Tony admitted the change to a weekly comic wasn’t their decision and it was a real strain. “Fortnightly was when it was best”, he said and I have to agree. He also wasn’t pleased with another change when Robert Maxwell’s Fleetway Publications took over as publisher: “The weekly was on shit paper.” He also explained that W.H. Smith’s nonsense with top-shelving OiNK didn’t help but once Maxwell took over, “the accountants moved in and killed it.” This was in comparison to IPC. “iPC loved the attention OiNK got in the press,” he said. “Especially the celebrity attention.”

At one point he received a phone call from Yorkshire TV who wanted to do a TV version of OiNK, but Fleetway insisted the three men pay any OiNK artists working on the show out of what they were personally paid by the TV network, all while Fleetway reaped the rewards. OiNK may have been independently produced and the contents largely remained creator-owned, but Fleetway still owned the entity called ‘OiNK’. So in the end they refused the deal and after the comic’s cancelation they took Yorkshire TV up on their offer directly, creating the award-winning (and very OiNK-like) Round the Bend.

Tony said he thought of a certain Neil Young lyric when he reminisced about OiNK. The song My My Hey Hey includes the line, “Better to burn out than fade away” and thinking back Tony felt OiNK lasted the right amount of time. While it wasn’t their decision to cancel it, he truly believed if it had carried on indefinitely it may have become tired and lost its edge; the time was right to move on and have OiNK go out while it was still on top form.

The last time I spoke to Tony he was still hard at work. He had his own music studio, he was cartooning for Private Eye and could often be seen on Countryfile on BBC One. Several years before he had also released a new book and he was still travelling around meeting and talking to others about it. Take Care Son is the tale of how dementia slowly took Tony’s dad from his family and friends. The title is a reference to the last words his dad said to him before he passed and the story is framed within a touching, moving chat between the two men.

One final little tale Tony told me to finish on. Over the years since OiNK finished he’d meet fans who would tell him how important it had been to them and he’d give away signed issues here and there, until he’d none left. In the end, much to his surprise, his wife bought the whole collection on eBay for around £300 for him! From creating it, to buying it all back from a reader.

I may never have met him in person but it didn’t feel that way on the phone. Tony was so enthusiastic, so open, so friendly and was so genuinely caring it felt like I’d known him all my life and we were having a friendly, very funny catch up on both occasions. I guess in a kind of way that’s exactly what I was doing. OiNK was such a huge part of my life (and still is) that I felt I knew Tony personally from the moment I picked up the phone.

That’s just the kind of person he was. A genuine soul. One who is greatly missed.

CREATiNG OiNK MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 12

SATURDAY 15th OCTOBER 1988

Were you thirsty on the morning of Saturday 15th October 1988? You could’ve grabbed a free can of Tango with your copy of Marvel UK’s The Transformers and Visionaries #188! You could’ve used it to cool yourself off from Jeff Anderson’s hot cover, or after lumping the hefty 19th issue of the publisher’s The Real Ghostbusters all the way home.

There were no extra pages behind Brian Williamson and Dave Elliott’s cover but the whole issue was printed on matte paper that had a lovely look (giving the false impression of the paper really soaking up the solid black inks) and heavier feel to it. Inside, there was a musical strip starring The Ghostie Boys backed up with a look at spiritual musical instruments in Spengler’s Spirit Guide, such as the Nullify Flute which could cancel out all music but offered “no protection against Tiffany”.

Jeff’s cover depicted a scene from Firebug, a one-off story needed for scheduling reasons but which (like most such tales in Transformers) was great. It had an original and honest-to-gosh happy ending that raised a smile, accompanied by a reader on the letters page saying such UK strips were intelligent while the American ones were stupid! Dreadwind scolds him for being harsh, “After all, we do see fit to showcase their stories in our Transformers comic.” How kind. So, what else was up for grabs?

Thundercats (already minus the Galaxy Rangers) changed up a bit, with an emphasis on appealing to younger readers with the extras first, strip second, and the beginning of what seemed like endless frequency changes. So Count Duckula joined the Marvel Bumper Comic? Now that’s yet another reason to add it to the (long) list of potential real time read throughs on the OiNK Blog.

Having now started watching Doctor Who from the (very) beginning I can better appreciate the magazine’s focus on classic tales such as Keys of Marinus here, complete with its scuba gear-wearing ‘aliens’, although an interview with my first ever Doctor would’ve sealed the deal for me anyway. I never realised Alf’s monthly lasted even this long and below is the advert of his I mentioned last week that made us giggle while not actually featuring the titular star.

This was typical of a few of the adverts for his comic which told us nothing about it but did include a surreal joke showcasing the humour we could find inside (I assume). It may sound strange nowadays, but there was no regular Marvel UK comic starring the classic Super Heroes at the time. After Spider-Man and Zoids and before The Incredible Hulk Presents fans had to make do with specials and annuals, such as the one advertised here.

Next week a new addition to the Marvel fold mentioned above gets their own winter special, and I’m aghast I never picked it up! You can find out who I missed out on when their advert appears here in seven days alongside another checklist. Until then, why don’t you let me know if you remember reading any of the issues above by leaving a comment here or on the socials below? G’wan!

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TRANSFORMERS 188 (Instagram)

TRANSFORMERS & ViSiONARiES: PART TWO

WEEK 11 < > WEEK 13

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: HORACE (UGLY FACE) WATKiNS

Two years ago now we lost one of the greats. I don’t just mean one of the great OiNK cartoonists, or even one of the greatest humour cartoonists of all. I mean we also lost a great human being, OiNK co-creator Tony Husband; a wonderful man whose personal ethos would often form the basis of his cartoons. In the pages of OiNK this was felt most clearly with Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins.

Beginning with gags revolving around others’ reactions to his appearance, the stories soon became filled with teachable moments for the young readers about never judging someone by their looks and the importance of being kind. Of course, these were always wrapped up with great comedic timing, out-there plots and plenty of silliness. As a result Horace endeared himself to us and became one of those OiNK stars that fans on social media often asked for updates on.

Tony was more than happy to oblige the now-adult pig pals, drawing up sketches of Horace’s life after his slapstick-filled childhood and football star teen years. The first time I saw him since the pages of OiNK was when the original version of this blog hit its one-year anniversary. Back then I wasn’t even aware Tony was following the blog, so you can imagine my surprise when this plopped through my letterbox back in 2015. What a lovely gesture.

It was also nice of Horace and Mandy, Uncle Pigg, Kid Gangster and even Mary Lighthouse to reunite for me too.

By the 2020s Horace had long retired from football and was working as an optician. It was later revealed (we’ll get to that next) he’d set up his practice in Los Angeles and was making a mint from providing better vision to the rich and famous. Although perhaps this cartoon shows he’d have been better off letting some of his patients keep their eyesight as it was. But that’s Horace for you, putting everyone else first.

As with the rest of these images, Tony posted them to the OiNK Facebook group and I thought you might like to see them if you haven’t already. Tony even went so far as to write up a little Zoom call he had with Horace around the time that particular app was taking off during the Covid pandemic. As you’ll read for yourselves Horace is very much an adult now, his time within the world of children’s comics having long since past. The shock of that change just adds to the ludicrousness of this.

Well that’s a shame about Mandy, isn’t it? But isn’t that always the case when a TV show finishes and we get a reunion years later, or a sequel to a favourite movie? In those examples of course it’s usually because one of the two actors doesn’t want to come back. Instead, Tony just decided it’d be funnier if they’d had some awkward break up and hinted that she’s now a drug dealer. Add in the unfortunate nickname for his new partner the fact Tony went so completely in the opposite direction of a children’s comic is just so funny.

As for Mandy, Tony gave us a little bit of an update on her too. It would seem she became a bit of an anti-masker during Covid, although not for the silly conspiratorial reasons people gave at the time.

Before you get upset that Mandy went and had plastic surgery after the life-affirming messages at the heart of hers and Horace’s romance in the pages of OiNK, it looks like he’s only gone and done it too! Our last update on Mr. Watkins shows us he looks quite a bit different today, with all of that Hollywood money being used in the typical Hollywood way. Although, at least in his case he’s still recognisable and his chosen t-shirt has also got one last message for the child in all of us.

The main thing, of course, is that he’s happy. That’s the important thing. After essentially seeing him grow up in OiNK it felt like we knew this scrappily illustrated character and the sometimes cruel world he inhabited. We cheered him on and he prepared us for some of life’s lessons along the way. He’ll always have a special place in my comics-loving heart and I’m very grateful to Tony for giving us this chance to catch up with Horace and Mandy and have a few final chuckles with them.

NEW OiNK MATERiAL MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 11

SATURDAY 8th OCTOBER 1988

It feels like no time at all between each part of this series. The weeks are really flying in. It’s reminding me of how much I loved getting new comics every single week and this week 37 years ago was no exception, with The Real Ghostbusters #18 (cover by Brian Williamson and Dave Hine) waiting patiently at my newsagent’s. For my friends the 187th edition of The Transformers and Visionaries (cover by Andrew Wildman) provided all the entertainment they’d need that morning.

The Ghostbusters met Mother Nature this week in a nice ecological tale before three ghosts appeared in their fire station HQ to play cards with Peter. This strip included a memorable moment when the Grim Reaper said he’d go blind with this next hand… and proceeded to pick his eyes out of his sockets! Meanwhile the gigantic Metroplex made Godzilla look more like that rooster from the Kellogg’s advert as he went on a rampage after being woken up from beneath Autobot City.

There’s also a famous page in Transformers history where a conversation between Ultra Magnus and Soundwave is laid out on the page as a homage to a Batman/Joker scene from The Killing Joke. Batman fans can check it out at the link below. Also, the Visionaries began another excellent story that would be their final new comic strip, ever. An excellent week already for Marvel UK but what else was available? To begin with, Transformers fans would definitely have been making a return visit to the newsagent for what was surely an unmissable issue of Dragon’s Claws.

It was one of the very best of their run and because they were up against that Transformers comics creation, Death’s Head! The full review of that one is in both the Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head real time read throughs on the blog. The Galaxy Rangers story sounds completely bizarre this week, even more bizarre than the millennia-spanning crossover in the pages of Flintstones and Friends, and was the content of the Alf Autumn Special originally intended as a hardback book?

In weeks four and five we saw one-page comic strip adverts for Marvel UK titles, an idea by editor Richard Starkings. The idea was that they could be reused over and over and act as a sample of the kind of strips and art prospective readers would find in their comics. While the Doctor Who Magazine advert below is enjoyable, Richard told me he felt it missed the point of the brief by producing a comical take instead of an example of the magazine’s art. Written by friend of the blog and DWM editor at the time , John Freeman and drawn by Nick Miller, it actually reminds me of a scene in OiNK’s time travel issue when Uncle Pigg comes up against the ‘Butcherleks’ as he introduces the comic to Earth’s inhabitants of the future!

The other advert was a one-off page created by the Transformers comic to promote not only the Cybertronians’ own superb annual but also those of the two cancelled comics that shared the back up strip space (not at the same time). Although, if readers had read the Visionaries comic as stated here they’d have been disappointed with the news the strip was a reprint, especially since it was only a handful of months since its original publication. Despite that, it’s still a favourite annual of mine and a jewel in my collection.

Next week that Alf special gets an advert that made us laugh even though it didn’t involve the titular alien and Thundercats would begin its confusing period of not knowing how often it wanted to appear! Do you remember any of these specific issues released this week way back in time? Did this issue of Dragon’s Claws introduce you to the freelance peace-keeping agent? Did anyone actually build Bedrock?

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TRANSFORMERS 187 (Instagram)

TRANSFORMERS & ViSiONARiES: PART TWO

DRAGON’S CLAWS 5

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZiNE POSTS #135 & #147

TRANSFORMERS ANNUAL #4 (Instagram)

ViSiONARiES ANNUAL

WEEK TEN < > WEEK TWELVE

MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST MENU

Oh, and just to be clear, I love that Kellogg’s advert.