All posts by Phil Boyce

OiNK Merchandise

PORCiNE PROMOS: OiNK’S MERCH ADS

2 Comments

Right from the off OiNK was different in every way, even with its fan club. Older readers of this blog will have had (or will have known someone who had) the famous Gnasher furry badge as a child from Beano’s fan club. But OiNK went one better. Not only could we proudly display a piggy pink badge of Uncle Pigg (at a time when boys weren’t meant to like anything pink), we could own a lucky butcher’s foot too!

Throw in some funny stickers, a letter from the editor and a lucky number with which you could win a prize if it was selected in the comic, and the Pig Pack was born! Advertised from the very start in the free preview issue, it cost only £1.00 plus a whopping 12p for postage. Now don’t you feel old? Well, prepare for that feeling to return several times throughout this post as we take a look at the adverts for OiNK’s unique range of merchandise.

In the 80s our licenced (eg. Transformers) and action comics (eg. 2000AD) contained adverts for a plethora of related items to spend our parents’ money on, but humour comics didn’t really. Some had fan clubs or competitions for themed t-shirts, posters etc., but OiNK was determined to be unique. We weren’t limited to the usual stuff and, despite not actually joining the Pig Pack, by buying the comic and some merch I still felt I was in a special club! For the actual club, the comic would theme adverts to match the issues, such as the Skeleton Crew disastrously taking over the comic, or for issues based around crime, Hogmanay, Valentine’s and time travel.

I personally owned two pieces of merchandise back in the 80s and I’ve been lucky enough to obtain them again as an adult. Regular readers will know of the fate of my original OiNK mug (left behind when I was fired from a job at 19) and my OiNK 45 record (left under a skylight window on a hot day!) and how I came to acquire them again (through the very kind Helen Jones for the mug and eBay for the record).

The mug was first advertised in only my second issue as a child (#15) but I didn’t order one for myself until much, much later in the run, just before the comic turned monthly. I remember receiving it and suddenly the logo was different to the comic’s, although I always preferred the original one from the cup and I cherished it for years.

Above is the original mug advert, followed by the one that first appeared in #22, the Magic & Fantasy Issue, although it was also used in following issues. The one on the bottom-left was a one-off inside the second Holiday Special and finally Charlie Brooker’s Transmogrifying Tracey was the star (kinda) of the final advert style created and the one I believe I ordered from.

While the mug was available for the rest of OiNK’s run, the record only had a limited pressing and only available for a short time. There was a little mention at the bottom of a Grunts letters page in #36 telling us of a musical treat to come and on page three of #37 a little hype was built up. I actually own the original art of this thanks to it being part of a page Davy Francis gave me several years back.

This was a lovely additional treat when Davy handed me his classic ‘Neely Dunn’ Cowpat County strip (which you can read in #37’s review). Assembled by co-editor Patrick Gallagher, you can see those musical notes were just marker pen over the top of a photograph and how it was all assembled via various pieces of paper glued together.

The first advert, below, certainly grabbed my attention because I can remember pestering my parents with it! This was as different a piece of comics merchandise as you were ever likely to get and I just had to have it! This was the kind of thing you’d only have seen in OiNK, thanks to the musical talents of Marc Riley (Snatcher Sam), Chris Sievey (Frank Sidebottom) and co-editor and writer Tony Husband.

The same advert would appear the next issue in black and white with a different photograph, then two smaller ads followed before they disappeared from the comic forever. You can find out all about this exciting piece of merch in its own blog post, where you can listen to all three of the songs and even check out the recommended dance moves!

Two OiNK goodies I particularly coveted as a kid but never ordered for whatever reason were items of clothing. The t-shirt appeared very early in the run and would be available for purchase all the way to the end. Just like the club membership and the mug it also received a variety of adverts. Below is the original as it appeared in #8, as well as those from the War Special (#20) and the All-Electric Issue (#23). Bringing up the rear is the one from the final months of the comic and clearly Uncle Pigg wasn’t beyond using emotional bribery to make a buck.

With the gift of hindsight I see there were adult sizes and I curse myself! Not that I would’ve wanted to order an adult size back then, and I doubt my parents would’ve wanted to splash out for two different sizes for me to wear at different points in my life. I may not be able to walk the streets of Belfast proudly sporting that smile-inducing logo but thanks to a fellow pig pal I do finally have the version I wanted as a child, albeit to frame and hang on my wall. You can check that out in a post from Christmas Day 2025.

The t-shirt, pig pack and mug could be seen as the three main pieces of merchandise, seeing as how they were advertised more than any other. They’d often appear alongside each other and I’m sure the page below will be very familiar to any pig pal reading this. (Note the addition of a piggy pink comb now, too!) This was printed in almost every issue over the course of several months in 1987, during what I call the Golden Age of OiNK when it was at its height for me personally.

The second piece of apparel had the best tagline in a clothing advert ever in my opinion. “Get sweaty! Get shirty! Get this sweaty shirty!” is one of those OiNK lines that fans quote to each other today when reminiscing about their favourite comic (alongside, “And the dolphin’s name was Keith” and the OiNK Song chorus, among others). At over a tenner, in comparison to the rest of the items it was expensive for the 80s.

The first time I got to see what the OiNK sweatshirt actually looked like (since our ads were drawn rather than photographed, with the exception of the Pig Pack above) was during Christmas last year when I invited other fans to show off what they still owned. It’s a… unique fashion item. This full-page advert for it first appeared in #42, the Fantastic Fashion Issue funnily enough!

Despite the logo change with the first monthly issue the following year, the sweatshirt, t-shirt and mug would continue to be advertised as-is (the second advert above replacing the original for the sweaty-shirty), with no new merch for the new logo ever appearing. In fact, the final piece of merchandise we’d see popped (no pun intended) up in the final weekly just before the new look would make its logo redundant.

I never saw the bubblegum in my local sweet shop and, just like the sweatshirt, didn’t even see a photograph until that same post from last Christmas in which Patrick himself held up a surviving empty box. I can’t help but wonder, what if OiNK had remained as the popular fortnightly comic from its heyday and had continued on for more years to come. What other merchandise would we have seen Uncle Pigg churn out to fill his coffers?

The fact the Round the Bend TV series was originally planned as an OiNK show fills the imagination with what could’ve been. That was a quality, award-winning series and if it had been tied in with our comic as intended maybe this post would’ve ended up being twice as long! As it stands, there are still plenty of items I’m trying to get my trotters on, but for now I’ll just have to look at these adverts and dream.

OiNK MERCHANDiSE MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

Comic Reviews, Dracula

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA #2: HUNGRY LiKE THE WOLF

Leave a comment

This evocative cover by John Bolton (Jurassic Park, Aliens, Black Dragon) shows us Count Dracula descending on poor Lucy Westerna (played by Sadie Frost in her first film role) and it has me wondering exactly what the comic will show from certain scenes in the film. We’ll find out as we creak open the coffin lid and gaze upon #2 of Dark Horse International’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But first, I assumed my copy would be missing its free gift and was very happy to be proven wrong with this glossy movie poster still attached to the staples!

Returning to the opening pages and again Anthony Hopkins’ voice welcomes readers to the second chapter of the movie adaptation, which three weeks ago I praised for its art direction, style and atmosphere. Although, at times it could be confusing to anyone who hadn’t seen the film in a while. This was because some scenes didn’t translate that well to the page. Fortunately, this time around there’s less of this criticism to be found.

We kick things off with Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) trying to find his way out of the castle and instead traipsing through a living nightmare, before trying and spectacularly failing to kill the Count while he sleeps. (This moment in the film belongs to Gary Oldman!) Over in England a vast storm unlike anything ever recorded has hit the country and we may be missing the powerful music from this moment but it plays in my head as I read the following few pages.

As we see the animals going wild and a wolf escaping the zoo, the rain soaking Lucy and the storm getting worse, we know it’s all because the ship with Dracula on board is getting ever closer, hence his eyes in the sky watching over everything. While the film offered no narration for this moment it was clear what was happening. It’s a very stylised moment, very Coppola, and can’t have been easy to bring to the page.

Any fan of the film will know what’s coming next

It works better than last issue, but of course I’ve seen the film recently so I don’t know how easily it could be followed without narrative captions for new readers or lapsed viewers. I personally like the fact there aren’t captions, just the diary entries now and again. It matches the film in this regard, but in a different medium should it have contained more text? The jury is out, but if you know the film (or even the original story) you’ll enjoy this sequence and the lovely, shadowy art once more by penciller Mike Mignola, inker John Nyberg and colourist Mark Chiarello.

Any fan of the film will know what’s coming next and it relates to what I said about the cover. While there’s no obvious nudity it’s still surprising to see the scene play out in a comic if I’m honest. Although, without all of the dramatic build up and the actual horror and suspense leading up to this moment it feels a bit random and gratuitous.

After this terrifying sexual encounter comes one of my very favourite scenes in the whole film, when Dracula and Mina meet properly for the first time on the streets of London and simply chat. Gary and Winona Ryder were perfect in this scene and it pretty much all plays out in the comic, taking up eight pages in total of Roy Thomas’ adaptation (his script lettered by John Costanza). Of course the medium doesn’t lend itself to translating the slow, deliberate acting in what is a touching, yet mysterious scene (unless you read it that way of course), but the art remains fascinating.

Their initial introduction ends on this image of a bat rising out of the scene against a pure white background. This is an example of the comic taking inspiration from the visuals of the film and producing its own to get across narrative elements of the story it may have otherwise struggled with. Opposite from this is the rear of the poster so coincidentally this feels like a natural chapter end in itself.

The comic has also improved its translation of such moments to the page. Take when Arthur Holmwood (Carey Elwes) comes to check on his fiancée Lucy, who has been in the care of Dr. Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant). The visual moment in question is actually a scene transition after Arthur agrees to bring in Van Helsing, finally admitting to himself there’s something ‘else’ wrong with his love.

Lucy is holding onto her dress collar and we zoom in past it to see the two red holes in her neck where she was bitten by Dracula in his monstrous wolf man form. Just like in the film, as we get closer to the bite marks they turn into his eyes and then into the eyes of the wolf that had escaped from the zoo. This transition takes us back to the London scene, ending with ol’ Drac easily taming the wolf, and the wolf then letting Mina pet it; a key moment in the development of our lead characters’ relationship.

While earlier in this review I did lament how some scenes could’ve done with more explanation and room inside the comic, I’m glad to say the London scene isn’t the only one that gets space to breathe. Some of the smaller moments are actually given prominence, such as when Dracula arrives at the window of Lucy’s bedroom. 

This could’ve been summed up in a couple of panels but instead it’s presented in a way that adds such atmosphere to the comic. In that regard I think it’s the best example to sum up the title as a whole and a page that could be framed for the wall by anyone who’s a fan of the film. Perhaps alongside that poster.

Moving on to the extra features and again it’s made up of Inside Dracula and Bloodlines, the making-of and news pages respectively. It’s here I take issue with one of the headlines on the cover. “Interviews (plural) with the cast of the smash-hit movie”, editor Dick Hansom boasted. What we actually get are two pages with small profiles of six of the cast members. For three of them we get some quotes taken from actual interviews elsewhere and a fourth where the quote is from Francis Ford Coppola instead.

There are some interesting nuggets here, such as Francis’ insistence on a young cast in keeping with the novel (which went against the grain of previous adaptations) and Winona’s role in getting the whole thing started in the first place, which was touched upon last issue. I can sympathise with how reading the novel is described as a “formidable task” and in Sadie’s profile the comic mentions “the much-publicised sensual aspects”, which you just know referred to what British tabloid rags thought were the most important scenes in the film.

Bloodlines rounds up the movie’s takings so far and the glut of vampire flicks which went into production off the back of the news Francis Ford Coppola was making Dracula. News of Tale of a Vampire has a different feel to it now, after we tragically lost the great Julians Sands in 2023. I’d never heard of this film but the role seems just perfect for him so I’ll probably track it down on a streaming service and check it out.

The mystery behind Innocent Blood’s release was probably more to do with its complete flop in the States than with our movie. Described on Wikipedia as a “mixture of the vampire, gangster and buddy cop genres” but with a ton of nudity and gore, it doesn’t scream ‘John Landis’ to me. As for Interview With the Vampire, I can’t find proof of Sting being approached but coincidentally Julian Sands was considered!

Then, on the glossy inside back cover is the first of Dark Horse International’s subscriptions pages for their range, something I would become very familiar with towards the end of the same year when I discovered their Jurassic Park. I started reading that comic from #6 and by then two of the three titles below had already been cancelled and replaced by others, which probably shocked the publisher as much as the readers, given what they were based on.

On the back page is the same Aliens advert from last time promoting #9 of that comic and its brand new UK strip, the review of which will be up on 18th February 2025. For now Dracula slinks back into his coffin to await the next review of his own comic. This is the most promising movie adaptation yet on the blog, so let’s hope #3 continues the trend on Sunday 2nd March 2025.

iSSUE ONE < > iSSUE THREE

DRACULA MENU

OiNK Media Coverage

PRESS-iNG PORK: OiNK’S PRESS CLiPPiNGS

1 Comment

Throughout OiNK’s run Uncle Pigg liked to show off how well received his comic was with the public (and even on one occasion how badly received it was, but more on that later in the year). As well as the kids telling him how awesome he was, he’d print newspaper and magazine articles that highlighted his piggy publication. The cover of one issue was even devoted to quotes like some kind of blockbuster movie.

For this post I’ve collected together all of the press clippings from throughout the run, beginning with #22. This was in the pre-internet days when a comic had to be on the shelf for a while to get noticed, then by the time the piece about OiNK was written, printed, noticed by the comic and then reprinted there (and remembering publishers work issues ahead at a time) it was months before they starting showing up on the Grunts page.

“A global platform for emerging talent in fashion, music, art and culture”, back in the 80s i-D obviously weren’t too happy with the amount of licenced comics on the shelves, but they took the time to highlight original publications for the kids and ours was included. This fleeting mention was just the beginning of OiNK’s impact with the British press, the next example being just three issues later in #25.

Obviously The Guardian needs no introduction and this clipping comes via another Irish reader. Again, it’s a brief mention but comics rarely got any positive light in the press at the time, so any mention at all was a big win. Then below, by #37 Fleetway Publications may have just taken over the printing of the comic but they were more than happy to share the feedback about what had been IPC Magazines’ OiNK.

The Sunday Times piece was the first we’d hear about W.H. Smith’s stupid decision (although a previous newsagent reservation coupon did allude to it), and the so-called ‘reason’ behind this will be the topic of a blog post in a few months. ‘Zzap!’ is actually Zzap! 64, the Commodore 64 computer gaming magazine and you can read the full article, which was a preview of the OiNK game in a post already up on the blog.

According to OiNK’s co-editor Patrick Gallagher, Mary Whitehouse was aware of OiNK and its spoof portrayal of her, and her team were watching the comic closely for libel although no action was ever taken. The image of Mary Lighthouse used by the News on Sunday is a perfect caricature of the conservative activist, almost like they chose the image that most closely resembled her!

The celebratory 50th issue had two clippings to show off the comic’s growing status in the press and it describes OiNK as a “new fortnightly”, although it does mention the change to weekly. Obviously 40-odd issues of a fortnightly was still deemed ‘new’. OiNK should’ve still been in the early years of its life, reminding us of how the comic was ultimately robbed! We’ll return to that Sunday Times piece further down this post.

The second clipping from #50 is from none other than NME (New Musical Express), and only in describing OiNK could “snot nosed cousin” be seen as a compliment. The magazine obviously focussed on OiNK’s musical parodies and when you see them all written out like this you realise just how many there had been! You can check out The Mekons on the blog in their photo story in #29 and the Ian Astbury interview with Janice Pong (in reality Tony Husband) in #16’s review.

In #52 a clipping from Escape magazine saw OiNK listed in their Hip Parade where readers voted on their favourite publications, and it included a little sample of the Uncle Pigg and Mary Lighthouse strips we loved so much during the comic’s fortnightly days. This won’t be the last we see of Escape’s chart either. But first, I mentioned a blockbuster movie-like cover, didn’t I?

For #54 OiNK gave us just a sample of all of the press coverage it had been gathering. Working our way down this impressive list, the Fantasy Advertiser quote came from an article written by Lew Stringer marking OiNK’s release, we’ve seen The Sunday Times and The Guardian already and as for The Press Council (of all people!) just keep an eye on the blog for that one (which I’ve already hinted at a couple of times in this post).

Sounds was a music newspaper along the lines of NME but sadly we never got to see the actual article this quote was taken from, and I love what the comic has decided to highlight from NME’s piece. How very OiNK! The News on Sunday obviously hadn’t made it far beyond its OiNK article in #37 above, and Escape brings up the rear.

Moving on to the monthlies we now find ourselves with the first of the bumper issues, #63. Relaunched for a new target audience, a plethora of press clippings were included on the Grunts page (or OiNK’s Piggin’ Crazy Readers as it was now known) with the tagline “New readers start here”.

Mainly they’re different bits of the articles we’ve seen already, however it’s nice to see more of that Sunday Times piece that was unceremoniously cut off in #50 just as it started talking about the eco-message in Jeremy Banx’s Burp strips. At the bottom you’ll see a clipping from The Sunday World, a tabloid rag available this side of the Irish Sea that likes to preach morality while sowing lies, hatred and division. So kudos to OiNK for proudly proclaiming how it reported on the comic’s existence.

Oh, and if you’re interested in the issue they’re criticising it’s #47, which was on sale at the same time as OiNK’s Smokebuster Special was distributed free to schools in England, but that would be seen as a positive so obviously the tabloid wouldn’t mention it. You can see the OiNK calendar with the offending football match and as for the “walrus with an alien coming out of its mouth”? Really, Sunday World? That would be horrible! It’s actually Burp the Smelly Alien’s sentient stomach spitting out a live oyster. Get it right! (Just goes to show you how closely these critics paid attention to what they were criticising.)

The final press clipping is from #64 and it updates us on OiNK’s standing with the readers of Escape magazine, whose votes saw our piggy pink publication skyrocket from 28th position to 17th since just three photos ago. From everything included throughout this post OiNK seemed destined to last and last, to soar ever higher in Escape’s charts and give us many more years of prime pork.

Unfortunately, just four issues later it would all come to an end. But OiNK’s legacy is still intact. It’s a legacy which some lesser informed commentators dismiss as one that caused complaints and controversy, but as you can see the reality was very different and so much better!

OiNK MEDiA COVERAGE MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

Competitions, Transformers: Generation 2

THE OiNK BLOG COMPETiTiON: FEBRUARY 2025

Leave a comment

Well here’s something new for the blog to mark the 400th post! Collecting complete runs of classic comics isn’t easy (or cheap) and when it comes to those last, elusive issues it’s inevitable those I need to buy will be bundled in with doubles of issues already purchased. Unlike those Panini sticker albums we had as kids there’s no one I can swap these doubles with, but instead of trying to sell them back on to eBay I’ve decided on something different for my readers.

For the rest of this year I’m going to run a monthly competition with some of these extra issues. Think of it as a thank you to everyone for your continued support. On the 1st of each month a new competition will begin and you’ll have 14 days to send me your answer to a question relating to the comic I’m giving away. Then the winner will get to show off their luck the following month! So which comic am I giving away first?

During February we’ll reach the halfway point in the real time read through for Transformers Generation 2. In order to get a full set I ended up with a few copies of #1. You’ll see in the review that two versions were available. There was a regular issue and one with a lovely, shiny gatefold front cover. I have two copies of this latter special edition and you could get your trotters on one of them this month. (In fact, after taking that photo I’ve decided I’ll throw in the few random doubles I have from the rest of the run too!) The question is:

Q) I read the original Marvel UK Transformers in real time for over seven years on the blog’s Instagram. How many posts did I end up making on the social media app to cover the whole run?

I’ll be trying to make sure the questions aren’t easily searched online, so if you don’t know the answer you’d better dig into the blog, you’ll find the answer in here somewhere! When you’ve got the answer you can either email it to me at oink.blog@icloud.com (All emails will be deleted after the winner has been selected, I’m not fancy enough to have a newsletter or stuff like that), or use the contact form on the right-hand side of your desktop screen or scroll down under this post to the very bottom on mobile. Your entry must be with me by midnight on Friday 14th February 2025.

I’ll then reach out to the winner on the 15th to ask for their postal address. Unfortunately, due to rising postage costs the competitions are only open to UK and Ireland readers. If you win I’ll ask if you could take a photo of you with your prize for inclusion in the next month’s competition post. You don’t have to, but you do get to show off if you do.

I have a pile of doubles from various comics titles covered on the blog sitting next to my desk, so make sure you check back on the 1st of each month to see what’s next and good luck if you’re entering this month.

COMPETiTiONS MENU

Comic Reviews, OiNK Contributors

LEW STRiNGER’S COMiC SAMPLER: S-AMPLE LAUGHS

2 Comments

Originally created for the 2024 London Comic Con, Lew Stringer’s Comic Sampler does exactly as you’d expect with a title like that. Inside its card sleeve is an abundance of Lew’s characters in a seemingly random selection of reprints that shows off the wide variety of funny strips he’s produced over his career. Beginning with a small introduction and a sample of his earliest work from Marvel UK’s The Daredevils, it’s a smorgasbord of delights for fans.

Transformers fans are well catered for with Robo-Capers and a couple of Combat Colin strips, the first of which features not only the debut appearance of his archenemy The Brain, but also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo from none other than OiNK’s brainless bully, Tom Thug. Tom also appears in a small cover strip from his time in Buster comic and Lew’s perennial superhero Brickman is also here.

Above is a sample of the second Combat Colin strip printed in digital anthology comic, Aces Weekly. So for any Transformers UK readers out there it’s a new adventure for you to enjoy. Alongside this new (for me) Colin strip there was another duo I’d never read anything of before, namely Tough Guy and Scruffy from the pages of Triffik! comic, a two-page story from the front and back cover of that publication. Here’s the first page.

Triffik! was a very short-lived comic, lasting only 12 weeks in the early 90s, a time when I’d moved on from humour comics as a child (hey, we all make mistakes). Lew’s Tough Guy strip is fun and at the end there’s a small advert for a free digital comic collecting together his misadventures over those 12 issues, so watch out for a review of it soon on the blog. (Or, you know, go and download it now from Lew’s site, what’s stopping you?)

The whole comic is printed in monochrome which adds a lovely retro, homemade fanzine kind of feel to it. On Lew’s blog he elaborates on why even the cover itself is in black-and-white when his reprint collections usually have a colour front page. “Why is the cover monochrome?,” says Lew. “Mostly to keep the costs down for this one-off special, but also I wanted to go ‘back to basics’ and do an entirely black and white comic like I used to many years ago.” And now, Daleks!

Haha, I have to admit I did chuckle at the “Oops, too late” bit of that Christmas with the Daleks strip. Lew’s comical killers pop up every month in Doctor Who Magazine, a publication I personally only buy irregularly so it was nice to get a glimpse of Lew’s work I usually miss out on. Similarly, the back page has another I hadn’t read before, namely a Sgt. Shouty strip from The 77.

Robo-Capers, two Brickman strips, two Combat Colin strips, Tom Thug, Tough Guy and Scruffy, Derek the Troll’s hilarious spoof role-playing game, the Daleks and Sgt. Shouty, packaged together on high quality A5 paper (with card cover) and all for only £3.50. If you’re a fan of any one of the aforementioned characters then you really can’t miss out on Lew Stringer’s Sampler Comic.

When I decided to include this in a future OiNK Contributor Releases review it was available on Lew’s eBay page. However, as is the way with small press comics, at the time of writing the comic has currently sold out but that doesn’t mean it won’t make a return at some point as other titles of Lew’s have, so go to his shop and see what you fancy. *

In the meantime, make sure you also check out the Contributor Releases page of the OiNK Blog for more of Lew’s comics (link at the bottom of this post) and Lew’s own blog to keep up to date on his latest published work as well as news of future comic releases, such as the fact there’s brand new Brickman coming this year as mentioned in this comic! So bookmark his site now, pig pals!

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS’ RELEASES MENU

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

(* Due to some ridiculous changes eBay are introducing, Lew will no longer be selling his comics on it. His original artwork will remain, but he’s currently considering options for where to sell his comics. As soon as he decides I’ll update all blog links.)