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Creating OiNK

THE OiNK SCRAPBOOK

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These days we can document our lives as much (or as little) as we like thanks to the phones that never leave our vicinity. In fact, now I’ve a cat living with me it’s become my camera that just so happens to have a phone built in. Back in the 80s the process of getting our hands on the photos we’d taken was a more involved process, for me it required trips to the local chemist and at least a 24 hour wait and everything! So we were a lot more selective with our documenting back then.

Over the last several years some of the OiNK team have either very generously sent me photos or shared them on the Facebook group which I’ve then saved. This has endied up becoming a little collection of its own. So I thought the festive season, when we’re taking lots of photos to capture new memories with each other as well as thinking back to our own younger days, would be the perfect time to show these off in a kind of random scrapbook-like post. And here we are.

Let’s kick off with Jeremy Banx (Burp, Mr. Big Nose).

“So this is me posing in front of some pictures I’d drawn of Supercar when I was about 4”, Jeremy tells me. “I’m looking dubious because my dad or my gran or maybe both had told me by taking the photo it would make my drawings come to life just like on TV. This of course did not happen and I’ve never trusted anyone since.”

Jeremy’s photo reminds me of the comics my friend Roger and I created as kids. Roger created The Battle-oids, The School Busters and The Wally, while I created WarBots, The Real Smoke Busters and The Idiot. (Hey, he inspired me!) Also, together with our friend Bruce we made a monthly comic for our primary school classroom called The Moo! But anyway, back to the OiNK team and David Leach (Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ) 

“Reading that article again after all this time is funny”, said David when I asked him about it. “The strip I’m working on in that picture is the birthday strip for the OiNK anniversary issue, where Psycho emerges from a birthday cake. The story about me working for Bob Godfrey is true, he was the first person I worked for as a cartoonist, I did that for a year drawing Henry’s Cat. I was Bob Godfrey’s ghost artist.”

At the end of the article a potential new OiNK character who never made it into the comic is revealed. “Brian Damage was something I was noodling with back then, but never got beyond the planning stage, although he did become a female character called Maxine Damage: Hit Girl for Hire, that was drawn by Jim Cheung and scheduled to appear in a Marvel UK comic magazine I developed called HYPER. It was to be a frenzied monthly anthology based on the style of Japanese Manga and would have featured a strip called B.O.B about a sentient walking bomb walking through a battlefield in search of his target written by Banx.”

Co-editor Patrick Gallagher has shared a plethora of old photographs both online and over our email exchanges, often jazzing them up with graphics and behind-the-scenes insights, such as these example. Below, you can see OiNK photographer John Barry with a rather familiar looking crocodile in front of him, but it’s the unfinished sculpture in the background that caught my eye, hence the superimposed OiNK Book 1989.

As described by Patrick, “John also helped out when we were pitching the TV show Round the Bend. Here he’s sculpting a model of Doc Croc in clay and on the desk in the background is a cast from a previous sculpt based on the butcher on the cover of The OiNK Book 1989. Also on the desk is a junior hacksaw he moulded from Play Doh.” Typical Patrick!

You’ll also see in the background Ian Jackson’s cardboard cutout of Mary Lighthouse from the first OiNK Holiday Special casting a beady eye over John’s work. Speaking of Round the Bend, it was co-created by OiNK’s three editors, Patrick, Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers and was nominated for a Royal Television Award. Tony shared these photographs from the night of the awards event, the first showing (from left-to-right) Patrick, Mark and Tony, while the second also includes Mark’s partner and friend of the blog Helen Jones, and rather randomly Rory McGrath!

“Patrick, Mark and me at the Royal Television Awards with Round the Bend,” said Tony. “Where we came runners up so we got pissed, and me and Rory McGrath were nearly thrown out for shouting abuse at Richard Stilgoe, who was doing a set and we thought he was smug and shit.” (Stilgoe is a songwriter, musician and broadcaster and has contributed lyrics to Cats, Starlight Express and The Phantom of the Opera, in case you didn’t know.)

These weren’t the only photos in Tony’s archive. Next up is a wonderful collection of polaroids and snaps by OiNK photographer Ian Tilton that Tony scanned in, mainly of #30’s OiNK Awards when they worked with the Spitting Image Workshop to produce an apparently star-studded event. You’ll also see one of the actual celebrities, John Peel amongst the chaos, a photograph taken of Marc Riley as a disguised Snatcher Sam and Tony’s son, Paul Husband who you’ll also see in the next photo posing with some of his dad’s creations.

Today, Paul is a renowned commercial photographer and OiNK had its very own renowned snapper in the guise of Ian Tilton. That last photo in the collage was taken during the making of The Bully Who Went Bald in #2 and according to Tony, “With Marc all hunched over dressed like this, passers-by and car drivers were stunned and puzzled.” As for Ian, he has worked with such icons as Kurt Cobain, Iggy Pop and The Stone Roses, and has been praised by Q Magazine for “one of the six best rock photographs of all time”.

He also photographed the equally iconic (in my eyes anyway) cover to The OiNK! Book 1988 and there’s a special post about that cover and Ian’s other OiNK work which went up on the blog earlier this Christmas season. Something less plasticine based and more liquid based is next. Ian first met the OiNK guys at its launch party in some nice, plush pub in Manchester when he’d been asked to come along and take a portrait of the three editors for some pre-publicity. Family and friends were all watching as Ian attempted the photo session. “Attempted” being the operative word.

As told to me by Ian, trying to find Patrick, Mark and Tony had been difficult with the crowds in attendance, never mind trying to organise the three of them under his studio lights now that they were so drunk! Ian says it was great fun and the shots of them grinning and gurning were worth it. (I think we can all agree on that.) Not that they hung around though, they immediately ran back off to get even more drunk.

The next horrifying image is of Hunchback Boar of Scare Boars fame from #13, the last surviving member of the terrifying trio… or the only one we know the whereabouts of! According to Patrick he found him lurking under the lid of his scanner in the lead up to Halloween 2021, just in time for the review of 1986’s spooky spectacular. Check it out and you’ll even see a video of Patrick and the Scare Boar together again after two-and-a-half decades.

The next photos will be rather small when you click on them because that’s the size they were when shared by Patrick. First up is a photo of him and Marc Riley (of The Fall and BBC 6Music and creator of Harry the Head, Doctor Looney and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth) on holiday, followed by a shot of some lucky pig pals getting to sit in on the recording of the OiNK 45 record. Not only did they get to meet Patrick and Marc (fresh back from that holiday and rather tanned), they also hung out with Frank Sidebottom himself, Chris Sievey. Then, a photo of Patrick with someone who didn’t work on OiNK but who you just might recognise.

Patrick met David Bowie when he was tasked with looking after him for half an hour before the Mark and Lard radio show (Mark Radcliffe and our own Marc). The photo was taken by David’s manager and you can tell Patrick’s just a little bit happy, can’t you? While there were no mentions or clippings on the Grunts pages mentioning this particular celebrity, Patrick tells me David Bowie confirmed he was a bona fide OiNK reader!

I’m going to wrap up our OiNK Scrapbook with some of my own photographs. The first time I met Patrick was during the days of the old blog. He was on a family vacation in Donegal and took the rather long drive to Belfast (across the island!) to see me in my old house to discuss some future projects. Not long after that I then got to meet Lew Stringer (Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla) and Davy Francis (Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving) at the Enniskillen Comic Fest.

I’ve spoken with Patrick and Lew ever since and count them as true friends. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Davy a few times over coffee or a Greggs sausage roll, and I’m glad to say he’s an absolute gent and a really funny guy to hang out with. In the photo with Davy is the fantastic Jenika Ioffreda (Vampire Free Style) and the last photo was taken during what ended up being a simply hilarious chat in a local bar after the comic con with Lew, Ian Richardson (Sinister Dexter, Captain America, Judge Dredd) and the man who had us in stitches most of the night, Yanick Paquette (Wonder Woman, Batman Incorporated, Swamp Thing).

Yes, these last few aren’t from the time of OiNK but they’re most definitely memorable moments from the time of the OiNK Blog. Maybe one day I should share more of the behind-the-scenes of this site and the work (and fun) that goes into it, but for now we’ll close the OiNK Scrapbook. These photos are just the smallest of hints at what it must’ve been like to put our favourite anarchic comic together.

Wouldn’t it be great to know more…?

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iAN TiLTON CHAT: A TAiL TO TELL

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We all remember this cover. We all remember the back cover. But do you know about the original back cover? It’s time to, ahem, reveal all!

Back when I wrote the review for the fantastic OiNK Book 1988 during Christmas 2022 I credited Ian Jackson with the plasticine model. Not only had Ian produced model work for the first Holiday Special, this looked like his version of Uncle Pigg and, most of all, I’d been told by OiNK’s co-editors Patrick Gallagher and Tony Husband it was his handiwork! Fast forward to earlier this year and I asked Ian if he still had the model or at least any photos of the infamous original rear. I was surprised to be told by the man himself that he didn’t create it!

Unfortunately, despite months of research the artist responsible for this iconic cover remains unknown, however the person responsible for photographing it is another matter altogether. Meet Ian Tilton, OiNK’s resident photographer. He first met Patrick, Tony and Mark Rodgers when he was hired to photograph the OiNK launch party in a local Manchester pub. The idea was to get a portrait print of the comic’s three editors but this proved more difficult than expected thanks to the amount of booze flowing that night.

Ian told me that once he got a few photos the three of them instantly disappeared back into the crowd and to this day Patrick still can’t remember a thing about the party! Ian has been gracious enough to chat with me on the phone at length about working on OiNK and to send me photos of his original work. Yes, including the original version of this back cover to the first annual. I remember showing off this final published version with great delight to any family friends who visited us that Christmas season.

Ian told me how in October 1986 (well in advance) he was asked to photograph the roughly A4-sized model while leaving enough space for the title etc. He never met the artist and is also unaware of who created it. It was sent to him by the editorial team and the back cover arrived before the face. So he photographed the rear model on its own and took the pictures to the processing lab in Manchester where they knew him well. He left it there and told them he’d be back in a few hours.

The thing is, this original model was different in one way to what you saw on the book. When Ian returned to the reception he could see all the staff in the back looking out at him, which he thought was “a little bit strange”. Terry was the name of the man who did the actual processing and told Ian about the photo, “We’ve been handing these around, so everybody’s seen them… but what is it?” The thing is, Ian hadn’t told them anything and without knowing it was a plasticine model it looked like skin!

So here you go, pig pals, that original rear end that caused all the fuss!

Once he explained it, they were apparently very relieved it wasn’t a real growth on someone’s bum! “Don’t worry, it’s just plasticine!” shouted Terry to the rest of his team from reception. They’d been used to Ian bringing in photos of rock bands, so no wonder there was concern among them! The comic’s team loved it but IPC’s Bob Paynter got straight back to them and, while laughing, told them they’d never get away with it! So in the end the tail was moved to cover up the offending element.

The story is even funnier when you know Ian is a renowned rock photographer. One of his photographs of Kurt Cobain was hailed by Q Magazine as one of the six best rock photographs of all time, another of Ian Brown of The Stone Roses has gone down in history. On the phone he regaled me with tales of Iggy Pop, Nirvana, The Cure and Guns’n’Roses. I’ve said it before, OiNK had the greatest team behind it. This wasn’t Ian’s only OiNK cover either.

Fittingly for the timing of this post Ian also photographed the funny cover to the comic’s first Christmas issue and its iconic imagery of the Queen preparing to cook up a corgi. Ian has kindly shared some of the transparencies with me of the various poses that ultimately weren’t used. These were all taken in Ian’s own kitchen and behind the royal mask was his own personal friend, Sally.

Also above you can see a model that we know was definitely created by Ian Jackson, the one used for the first Holiday Special of a plasticine Uncle Pigg being fanned by a cardboard Mary Lighthouse (critic) on a tropical desert isle. You can clearly see the blue drape used as the background and the simple crumpled up material posing as the sea. It’s fascinating seeing how such an iconic cover was originally created using such cheap but ultimately creative methods. These photos were taken in December the year before the special’s release.

Sally wasn’t the only one of Ian’s friends to appear in OiNK. In fact, they were all enthusiastic to appear and that included Ian’s housemate, Alan Shaw. He appeared as PC Porker in Swindler Sid’s Great Lolly Folly in #7. The photo has been hand-coloured after the fact, although the strip was printed in black and white. Another of the photo stories Ian captured was printed in colour though, and luckily he still has the original.

Starring Marc Riley as Snatcher Sam, Ian hand-coloured the strip using photographic dyes. He’d shown the OiNK editors some record covers and promotional band pictures of The Membranes from the early 80s, thinking the style would be a good fit. He would go on to use the technique on a lot of music magazine covers from 1987 onwards and one such image could take a day-and-a-half to colour. It was a difficult task but I’m so happy he took the time to add some of it to OiNK’s pages. Apparently the OiNK team randomly named his work ‘Glechnicolour’, as opposed to Technicolour.

Finally, here’s a photo Ian took during #30’s OiNK Awards shoot of the late Tony Husband with the Spitting Image Workshop. Ian has kept all of his diaries over the decades and he was able to share the details for this one. It was taken on 18th March 1987 and he’d travelled to London in Tony’s white Ford Capri to meet with Spitting Image, then over to BBC Broadcasting House to photograph John Peel and Steve Wright for the same spread.

What started out as a quick query about the OiNK Book 1988’s cover artist resulted in so much more. It was a wonderfully funny conversation which also included some non-OiNK stories I just can’t share! So thank you so much to Ian for being so open and such great craic. It’s clear from our chat that his enthusiasm for his OiNK work continues to this day and I hope this has been a festive treat for all you pig pals out there.

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CHATTiNG WITH TONY HUSBAND

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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.

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OiNK iNTERViEW SERiES: PART FOUR

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It’s my birthday today! I can’t think of anything I’d rather post today than the final part of what has been a really enjoyable series focussing on OiNK’s wonderful creative team and their memories of producing one of my very favourite things in my whole life. It’s been a wonderful experience to put this together and get to ask these questions to some of my childhood (and let’s face it, adulthood) heroes.

Despite what the critics thought of it from the outside looking in, in reality OiNK gave us many great messages along the way. From anti-smoking to anti-bigotry, from never judging someone by their looks to being proud of who we are no matter what, all packaged up in comedy gold of course. So to wrap things up I was curious what messages the team had for us.

QUESTION FOUR

Finally, if pig pals could take one thing away
from your work on OiNK, what would it be?

DAVEY JONES
Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom,
Kingdom of Trump

“No idea how to answer this. There were a couple of strips in the later issues which I had to draw in a bit of a rush, and some of the drawing was very ropey. So if everyone would be kind enough to overlook the ropey drawings, it’d be much appreciated.”

DAVY FRANCIS
Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb,
Doctor Mad-Starkraving

“The friends I met, my fellow artists, the readers who are artists and writers themselves who say OiNK was such an influence on their work. I loved every minute I worked for OiNK, I would have done it for nothing!” (“What?!” – Uncle Pigg)

IAN JACKSON
Artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins,
OiNK Book 1988 covers

“It was great having fun with my mates on the project. Uncle Pigg was a tough bugger though.”

LEW STRINGER
Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla,
writer of Ham Dare

“I hope they enjoyed the irreverent style of fun and lunacy I tried to put into my work. We were allowed to be more edgy than other kids’ comics of the time. Little did we know how much children’s comics would be toned down in the years that followed.”

DAVID LEACH
Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ

“Don’t underestimate the elderly.”

GRAHAM EXTON
writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes,
Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car

“Just that I was proud to be a part of such an influential team. The current Beano owes a lot to OiNK.”

ED McHENRY
Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages,
Igor and the Doctor

“If any of the readers liked my stuff in the way I enjoyed certain artists in all the comics I read as a lad that would be nice.”

KEV F SUTHERLAND
Meanwhile…, The Three Scientists,
March of the Killer Breakfasts

“I’m just honoured to have been a part of such a landmark comic, so when they’re writing about it, I hope I get remembered occasionally, alongside the real stars.”

PATRICK GALLAGHER
co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang,
designer of the OiNK logos

“The joy and reward of working with Tony and Mark.”

STEVE GIBSON
artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements,
Ponsonby Claret

“I just want anyone who remembers OiNK (and I have met lots of fans who grew up reading it) to know that we had fun and I hope that a little bit of the cheeky anarchy that we intended stuck with all our readers to this day.”

JEREMY BANX
Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith

“Never trust your liver.”

I can’t thank everyone enough for taking part in this series! Everyone I reached out to couldn’t have been more helpful and it’s a testimony to how fondly OiNK is remembered by all that everyone was happy to take part and keen to reminisce. On a purely selfish basis it’s a brilliant birthday present to be able to present the now completed series of posts, too.

I hope pig pals have enjoyed this, and to everyone above I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what your fellow OiNKers (to quote Jeremy) have said too. I’ve waxed lyrical about how much OiNK has meant to me and the memories it’s brought back. It’s been a delight to see the same applies to those who worked so hard to entertain us for those few fantastic years.

BACK TO QUESTiON THREE

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OiNK iNTERViEW SERiES: PART THREE

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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?

QUESTiON TWO < > QUESTiON FOUR

OiNK iNTERViEW SERiES

CREATiNG OiNK MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

CHRiSTMAS 2024