OiNK Blog

COMiNG UP: THE OiNK! BOOK 1989

22 December 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

I can remember my disappointment the first time I saw this full-page advert for the second OiNK! Book. Why was it 16 pages less than the previous year’s? The wonderful J.T. Dogg cover softened the blow though. When I saw it in the shops as a kid it felt very light in my hands, the glossier yet thinner paper and the page count made it feel more like a Holiday Special than a sequel to the best edition of OiNK ever. However, come that Christmas season when I finally got to read it any reservations I had soon evaporated.

It certainly stands out on this back page advert from the final edition of the comic, doesn’t it? The finished book’s logo colours would be swapped around and it’d stand out even more, as you can see in the image at the very top of the post. It’s a very different book from last year and focusses on larger strips for some of our favourite characters. So, in the review this Christmas Day expect a crossover event between Pete Throb and Pigswilla, the return of Ham Dare and a simply enormous Burp strip as The Smelly Alien From Outer Space makes a long-awaited return (in a story that taught me something about growing up, believe it or not).

In three days, crack open that once-a-year-socially-acceptable-in-the-morning booze and have a chuckle along with highlights from “Britain’s Craziest Comic Book”, The OiNK! Book 1989.

GO TO THE OiNK! BOOK 1989

CHRiSTMAS 2023

COMiNG UP: OiNK! #68

28 October 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

The following post was originally written for Thursday 19th but was held back after the sad news of Tony Husband’s passing

Back in #60 of OiNK the reservation coupon held a hint that changes were afoot, a hint that would only be picked up on with hindsight. Likewise, looking back on last month’s issue the same coupon told a tale by its very absence, replaced as it was by one for 2000AD. At the time we had no idea what was about to happen. Well, unless you also collected Buster and had seen the news up to seven days beforehand. Instead, for us the next issue was all about that Frank Sidebottom cover!

I love Frank’s (Chris Sievey) retort when Little Frank asks him if he was ever small like him and the little bit of extra information about when we could pick up our copy on the day (albeit the issue actually came out between five and seven days later, more on that in the review). Having Frank on the cover meant his strip was to be the main highlight of the next big, fat porker of a monthly OiNK and as a kid I couldn’t wait! You can see what all the hype was about and if it was justified (it was) on Sunday 22nd October 2023.

GO TO iSSUE 68

COMiNG UP: BUSTER

15 October 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

This was the day back in 1988 when the 68th edition of OiNK was due on the shelves, but it didn’t appear. It would be a full week late for me, finally appearing the following Saturday, 22nd October. This was potentially deliberate according to co-editor Patrick Gallagher and I’ll talk about that in the issue’s review. However a week before it arrived, behind this innocuous Tom Paterson cover of Buster, was some terrible news for any pig pals who happened to read OiNK’s sister comic.

Images taken from previous **OiNK** strips
drawn by *Lew Stringer* and *Mike Green*

Describing Pete Throb, Weedy Willy and especially Tom Thug as “funsters” doesn’t give me much confidence that the editor of Buster understood these characters or the sense of humour OiNK readers had. Indeed, Lew Stringer has told me about how he changed some popular aspects of his strips for the merge. Will they still be recognisable as the characters we’ve grown to love for two-and-a-half years? Will they still be just as funny when translated to the pages of a more traditional comic, the likes of which OiNK was created to counter and would often ridicule?

You’ll find out in one week. On the same day as the review of OiNK #68 I’ll be taking a look at the first four issues of Buster to contain these favourites. They were the only issues to feature the name of the comic they came from on the cover and at the time I only ever bought the first of them. Why? You’ll find out in seven days on Sunday 22nd October 2023.

GO TO BUSTER MERGE

OiNK MAiN MENU

COMiNG UP: OiNK! #67

13 September 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

Finally Mary Lighthouse (critic) is back in an honest-to-gosh comic strip in the next issue of OiNK! A regular occurrence during the fortnightly issues, she’s only made fleeting appearances on the likes of the Grunts letters page for a long time now. That situation is about to be corrected in a few days. However, she may have had the Next Issue promo from #66 all to herself but it’s a certain smelly superhero who’ll be the cover star, backed up with a mammoth ten-page story.

That’s right, #67 sees the long-awaited return of David Haldane‘s Rubbish Man to the pages of the comic in an epic dose of silliness. Marc Riley‘s Harry the Head is back at full strength too in a full-page funny, Kev F Sutherland continues to dominate the monthlies, and Lew Stringer and Andy Roper team up for a superb spoof of a 60s Beano adventure strip. It’s definitely not to be missed, so plop back here on Sunday 17th September 2023 for OiNK #67, our penultimate issue no less!

GO TO iSSUE 67