So OiNK cartoonist Kev F Sutherland’s Kickstarter was a success and now his Shakespeare Comic is out there in the wild. A large-format, 32-page colour comic with samples of seven adaptations of some of William Shakespeare’s most-loved works. First impressions are good. It’s bright, it’s colourful, looks like a lot of fun and all printed on great quality paper, belying the fact it’ll only cost you four quid. The cover certainly catches the attention, right?
The cynical reviewer or social media commentator might see this as a marketing ploy, each strip a sample of one of Kev’s graphic novels. They’re only a few pages long and will suddenly just stop, but Kev has been very clear all along that this comic was going to be a sampler. Instead of trying to decide which one of his Shakespeare books you’ll buy first, you can spend a little less and try them all out in one neat little package. So did I come away wanting to read more?
“The story so far: Punk rocker Joe Hamlet learns his dad was killed by his Uncle Claud, he’s just mistakenly stabbed Ophelia’s dad, Polonius, and no one’s taking it well…”
Hamlet Prince of Denmark Street
The first thing I noticed was that the art style is looser than Kev’s more detailed work in OiNK, in the full-colour strips anyway. There are two that were originally published in black and white (now coloured) which are a bit more like what I was expecting. That’s not to say his other strips aren’t fun. They took a bit of getting used to but once I did I appreciated how the style lent itself more to the fast and frenetic retellings of these classic tales. The amount of story he can fit into four pages testament to this.
For example, I really enjoyed Romeo and Juliet. Kev takes some of the well known lines from the play, ones that’ll be easily understood by kids and intersperses them with modern language for a laugh. These also sum up bigger chunks of the classic text, speeding up the story. I’ll admit I’ve not read much Shakespeare so a lot of this is new to me, so I think any child who might be reading these in school will get a bigger kick out of them. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy them, I really did, I just know those familiar with the plays will get more of the knowing nods and spoof moments than I did.
I particularly chuckled at Midsummer Night’s Dream Team, which sets the play in a heist movie. The four-page sample here doesn’t really reflect that aspect of the graphic novel but it does have a classic movie nightclub vibe to it which I loved. The back and forth between the characters using classic prose and those that don’t is the best use of this comedic style in the whole comic. The way Boots pharmacy and a “nookie room” are slipped in here really did make me laugh!
The way some of the Shakespearean-type characters’ facial expressions react to these modern interpretations are fantastic and it’s also one of the best-looking strips (it’s one of those more detailed black and white ones with new punchy colour). The use of the nightclub setting also allows Kev to have people singing along to songs, the lyrics of which are classic verses from the play. Put all of this together and it’s probably the best example of what Kev is doing with this series of graphic novels and it’d be top of my list to purchase as a result.
Two brand new books are also sampled, namely King Lear and Twelfth Thing, which retells Twefth Night as another movie trope, the monster flick. Although, the sample used doesn’t actually include any monsters, strangely enough. This does make for a funny line at the end though, when it plugs the book so that you can “read the bits with monsters in”. Rounding things off are comic versions of Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard The Third, a funny character who you’d swear was an original Kev F creation!
I have to say it was a bit of a shock to see the word “pished” and a couple of characters smoking in a children’s comic. Saying that, given the original material this is based on I doubt it would appeal to primary school kids. But for those young teens beginning to read Shakespeare in English class this could be just the tonic they need to make it through the sometimes heavy text. It could also help them more easily understand the original stories, so they could end up enjoying the plays more than they otherwise would have.
One lovely addition here is actually an advert. Kev teaches comics masterclasses across the UK and Ireland, something you’ll often see him promoting on his socials. The advert he’s produced for these is a funny strip in its own right (and looks a lot more like Kev’s OiNK work into the bargain), but more than that it shows you just how fantastic these classes could be for the kids at your own child’s school. I wish I’d had something like these when I was young. I’ve included the page here because I think they sound wonderful.
Shakespeare Comic is available now from Kev’s online shop for only £4 plus postage. It’s just about as original a comic as you’re likely to read and I’m positive that if any of your children are reading Shakespeare at school they’ll find a lot to love in Kev’s books, never mind the positive effect they could have on their learning. This way, they can also try them all out first.
To finish on, a personal highlight from the comic. On the inside back cover (and also included as an A3 poster) is a map of the UK showing where each of the main characters from the plays were based. Also included (in roughly the right spots) are Kev’s illustrations of the Kickstarter backers and, well…
“What’s going on inside that head inside that head?”
Jon
I’ve heard some ill-informed opinions about the movie Frank over the years, particularly when it was first released from people “outraged” that it told a different story to Chris Sievey’s, that the main character had a different voice, that the mask was slightly different etc. The usual kind of gatekeepering you’d expect from other fandoms, but I’m very happy to say that for the most part when the film was explained to them, and more importantly when they watched it, opinions changed. Let me be clear, this film is fantastic. It really is.
It’s co-written by Jon Ronson, a friend of Chris’ and a member of Frank Sidebottom’s Oh Blimey Big Band for three years, his screenplay based on an article he wrote for The Guardian newspaper. Chris okay’ed the script before his passing and, importantly, it was never meant to be a biopic. However, as OiNK writer Graham Exton said, “It had a lot to say about him. It was weird, funny and touching. (I suspect Chris was, too.)”
OiNK co-editor and friend of Chris’, Patrick Gallagher said in response to Graham, “I loved the movie too and you’re spot on, the movie totally reflected Chris. I could identify with a lot of the band scenes as I played guitar in Frank’s Oh Blimey Big Band alongside keyboard player, Jon Ronson. I thought Fassbender did a great job, too!” As I’ve said before, I knew little of Frank Sidebottom beyond OiNK and his children’s TV appearances, and after watching Being Frank a couple of weeks ago I feel this movie also taught me a lot, even if it is fictional. It’s also very funny!
Frank kicks off with the character Jon, played by Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars, Peter Rabbit, The Revenant) desperately looking for lyrics inspiration in anything around him as he goes about his life, and these scenes had me laughing straight out the gate! How he meets the film’s version of Frank echoes how Jon Ronson met Chris is real life, and throughout there are little scenes and character moments that hark back to their real life friendship.
I was surprised how quickly I accepted the voice of this Frank, a regular-sounding, deep (non-nasally) voice with a slight echo. From the moment he first appears on stage at a gig he’s a fully-embodied character and Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, Steve Jobs, 12 Years A Slave) does an incredible job of acting with that huge, static face. From seeing clips on chat shows when it was first released, I’d no idea this was such a full-blown comedy, one that lovers of Sidebottom’s alternative style will adore.
Filmed mainly in Ireland, Jon thinks he’s there for a weekend gig but ends up living with the band in a remote cabin as they prepare (and prepare and prepare) to record an album, the state of his mind over this period encapsulated with his increasingly dire tweets. The supporting cast members are all crazy in their own way, and I particularly loved Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight, Donnie Darko, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) as the gloriously psychotic theramin player, Clara. How these people cope with being in Frank’s band is where most of the film’s darker humour comes from.
By the time of their first rehearsal I got the impression Jon Ronson was having a ball spoofing his time in the Oh Blimey Big Band, exaggerating key characterisations of Frank while delving into the psychology of someone living behind a façade. It’s completely nuts, yet when the characters of Jon and Frank have their first private chat it’s relaxed and rather sweet, with Frank’s new habit of describing his facial expressions beneath the mask a particularly hilarious addition.
When we see how Frank gets his inspiration, describing to Jon how you can write a song about anything (Jon struggled to write lyrics because he thought he needed a core style), it’s very ‘Frank Sidebottom’ and reminded me of both Chris’ and Frank’s songs we heard during Being Frank. Moments like this are both funny and touching, when this most inhuman-looking of characters shows he’s more human than most. The effect he can have on complete strangers exemplifies this but I won’t spoil those lovely surprises for you.
The music itself feels a lot like our Frank’s, while having its own style. It has that random factor but the finished songs are darker, not the happy, funny ones we were used to in the 80s and 90s. Then again, if the film had tried to copy that style the songs would’ve paled in comparison. While the character can also be somewhat dark at times this makes his lighter, more human moments all the more wonderful.
For example, we become used to the songs they’re producing and their overall style, so when Frank gets to sing his “Most Likeable Song Ever” it reminded me so much of Frank Sidebottom that I absolutely roared with laughter! This is a man who just wants to be liked, but who struggles between wanting to be accepted and keeping true to the music. This juxtaposition leads to both heartfelt moments and great comedy; you genuinely never know where this film is going to go next! Even in the saddest moments there can be a sudden gag that’ll have you laughing with surprise.
This may be a completely fictional character but he’s very much based on our Frank. As such, the film is hilarious, strange and random, and has a heart of gold. It’s a film that’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Then, given what I knew about it going in from its marketing at the time, the ending is a big surprise. When it finished I immediately wanted to put it on again because I just know there’ll be more fun to pick up on with repeated viewings.
Any fans of Frank’s work in OiNK and his children’s TV appearances need to watch both Being Frank and Frank. You’ll learn so much about the character and the man behind him from both movies in completely different ways. Frank in particular is a truly unique film experience, the likes of which you’re never likely to have again! When Frank was reviewed in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw summed it up by saying, “Frank works as satire, as memoir, as comedy bromance, but it works mostly because it is just so weird”. Or as Patrick said to me just this week, “It captured the spirit without pretending to be the man.” I concur completely.
Remember, please support actual shops and independent sellers. For example, at the time of writing Frank is available on DVD from HMV for only £6.99 or you can try various eBay sellers for the BluRay.
Yes, it surprises me too that it’s taken me this long to watch Being Frank, Steve Sullivan’s 2018 documentary about Chris Sievey’s life and his career behind the papier-mâché mask. It’s even more surprising when I tell you I’ve owned the BluRay for about five years and only took the cellophane off this week. Sometimes we just accrue things we’ve every intention of getting around to but time just sips away. Time to correct this particular oversight.
What a brilliant documentary film this is! I’ll admit, all I knew of Frank was from OiNK and his appearances on children’s TV in the 80s and 90s. As such, it swelled my heart to see him walking about with OiNK and No.73 badges as well as clips from the latter and Motor Mouth’sAndy Crane, with Frank sneaking about in the background. So I was feeling like a big child and extra comfy with the film as it got started.
There are plenty of sweet home videos of Chris and the story of how he met his wife Paula is a particular highlight of the early segments. You’ll be amazed at the combined Sgt. Pepper and Dalek bedroom mural he painted for his baby too! You see, this isn’t just the story of the megastar-to-end-all-megastars, this is a very human tale of the man behind the mask and it was all brand new to me.
I knew nothing about The Freshies, his band from his early days with “27 consecutive flops”. Chris’ passion never relented despite that achievement. Their music is great but just came at the wrong time, when being “cool” was the big thing in the charts. The Freshies were bright, bubbly and fun, and definitely not “cool”. Their song, I’m in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Check-out Desk is dead catchy and was due to be a hit, but events conspired against them. For example, a strike by the BBC’s technical staff cancelled their big Top of the Pops performance to promote it.
There are multiple stories of Chris’ brilliantly planned publicity stunts, such as stealing headed paper from a record company and sending out mass invitations for a secret event. The event was the debut of a new song and music video, but after all that effort Chris brought the wrong type of video cassette. His sense of humour in the face of adversity is truly inspirational.
His visionary genius is often on display, like creating a vinyl record with a song on one side and computer programs on the other that could be loaded into a Sinclair Spectrum for an animated lyric video. This was in the early 80s! The selection of talking heads also in awe of him include the likes of poet John Cooper Clarke (who calls him a pop music writing genius), radio DJ Mark Radcliffe, friend and band member Jon Ronson, OiNK co-editor Patrick Gallagher, his brother and musician Mike Gallagher, and comedians Ross Noble, Johnny Vegas and John Thomson.
Frank himself was created as a fancy dress costume for a party and afterwards was intended to be used as a Freshies super fan character, but of course he ended up taking on a life of his own. When the version of Frank we all know and love is properly introduced we visit his hometown of Timperley via the board game featured in OiNK. He could be up all night finishing his OiNK pages, often advised to trim bits off to give himself less work but he never considered doing such a thing.
Patrick reminisces about how often Chris would miss deadlines but the end result was always worth it. And that phone number he often printed in OiNK? That was his real home number, and Paula and his grown up kids remember just how many hundreds of calls they received as a result! Don’t be expecting a long OiNK section but that’s because there’s so much story to tell here. We do see TV clips featuring the comic though and throughout the film there are loads of things he referenced in his pages that you’ll spot and enjoy. For example, seeing his friends dressed just how he drew them in OiNK.
”Badly played, barely rehearsed bad versions of other people’s songs and people loved it,” says Chris’ brother Martin at one stage. How very true of the Oh Blimey Big Band. It’s at this point we get to one of the main themes of the film. His friends explain how Chris was living in an altered reality; when he was Frank he really was Frank. They say he was a genius but they were convinced there were two distinct personalities involved. This would eventually form the basis for Jon’s script for the Frank movie.
At one stage we actually see him take the mask off, but not before he’s ensured he’s out of sight of his fans and any children. Seeing his nose strapped up to maintain the voice and the amount of sweat pouring off his face, you begin to get the idea of just how hard it was to be Frank. His star was rising, opening for Bros with hilariously disastrous results, then playing the Reading ’92 festival where we hear 10,000 people cheering him on and singing his awful songs back at him!
It’s when we see clips of his Fantastic Shed Show that the story begins to turn, its success leading Chris off the rails with drugs, alcohol and affairs, the break up of his marriage and slipping into depression. After being so happy chasing his dreams for so many years of, for this to happen when he gets there is heartbreaking. This part of the documentary is particularly hard to watch, simply because we’ve grown to love the man so much by this stage and genuinely worry for him.
Eventually a job on the set of Bob the Builder helped get him back on his feet (there’s a funny story about how he got that job too) and he even reconciled with Paula. When he then resurrects Frank it’s all part of a very specific five-year plan, the culmination of which would see him get the credit he deserved for the character, and the film takes us through this phase of his life one year at a time.
The Frank Sidebottom renaissance was fantastic (it really was), with Timperley tours, a new TV show and even an incredible Frank stop-motion animated short! I dare you not to shed tears of joy with Chris’ Christmas present to his son at this point, which I won’t spoil for you. The increasing joy I felt as each year panned out inevitably led to 2010, his final gig on 11th June and his passing on the 21st. The fifth year of his plan was never to be. This was gut-wrenching.
If it sounds like the majority of this documentary with its roller coaster ride of emotions was all new to me that’s because it was. To be honest, I didn’t know how much I’d enjoy it before I put it on. I remember my mum couldn’t stand Frank when he appeared on TV. He was an acquired taste that’s for sure, so would my now-adult brain react as well as young me did to his contributions in OiNK?
The biggest surprise was discovering just how much I would’ve loved him outside of the world of OiNK and children’s telly if I’d known about it; he was an alternative comedian before I discovered the genre in my teens. All the clues were there in OiNK of course, but when it ended I never followed Frank any further. I really missed out. I loved this kind of humour in my teens (mainly thanks to Friday nights on Channel 4 in the 90s) and this realisation, the sheer fun of Chris’ comedy and his joy and passion for life was a delight to discover here, making the sudden end all the more heartbreaking, even though I knew it was coming.
This is a long review but believe me I’ve edited it down as much as possible without losing any of the things I just had to tell you about, and this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s included in this 100-minute film. Originally a Kickstarter project (the list of supporters at the end is incredible) it’s widely available today. For example, at the time of writing you can buy the DVD for £6.99 or the BluRay for £5.99 from HMV’s online store (please support real shops like HMV, not that other online monopoly).
Just one word of warning before you do settle down to watch Being Frank, though. His Tax Song is awful, truly awful and deliberately so… but it’ll be stuck in your head for days. Trust me!
The Gift is exactly what it says on the tin, an absolute gift of a wee comic that’ll simultaneously have you roaring with laughter while pulling on your heart strings. As you’d expect coming from Davy Francis (Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving, Cowpat County) it’s as unique a comic as you’re likely to find. Even its creation was very ‘Davy’.
A few months back I was having coffee with Davy and Peter Duncan of Belfast’s Sector 13 Comics when Davy pulled out a selection of random little bits of paper of various types and sizes. On each was drawn one panel of a story. He’d been randomly drawing each image whenever the mood took him on whatever he had to hand. What I saw that day was brilliant and deserved to be seen by others.
Peter was of the same opinion and had the means to make it happen. Sector 13 originally began by creating and publishing the entertaining 2000AD-inspired Sector 13 comic. In recent years they’ve branched out into publishing comics by other local writers and artists. Their latest release is Davy’s The Gift, which comes in a small square format in keeping with his original sketches.
It was released during the Enniskillen Comic Fest and there was something of an embargo on story or even character details beforehand as no one wanted to give anything away before its publication. Hence why I’ve waited until now to review it for the OiNK Blog, so that I can give you a few details in this review, although I’ll make sure not to spoil anything for you.
Part of the joy of this comic is not knowing anything about it beforehand, but that could make for a somewhat bland review. So what can I tell you? It involves a Bruce Wayne/Batman-type character called Dwayne Castle, who lives in a castle. His alter ego is… The Rook. Along with his Alfred-like butler friend the set up is a very funny take on the original Batman legend but it goes much farther than that.
How it develops is the part I don’t want to tell you about because it’s the whole point of the comic. It’s strange to be highly recommending something when I can’t mention the main plot point. What I can tell you is how funny it is. Any fan of Davy’s from OiNK or any of the other publications he’s appeared in over the years will instantly take to this, whether you’re a Batman or superhero fan or not. Thankfully, Sector 13 haven’t tidied the images up too much so you can still see the different types and shapes of paper Davy used, giving it the feel of him sharing each one with you personally and an insight into his crazy cartoonist mind.
Davy’s inimitable style shines all the more here, possibly because he was originally only drawing these for his own amusement. As such, you can feel the love that went into each image and when you read the dedication to his late dad at the beginning you’ll understand why. Having read this dedication you’ll then feel a lump build up in your throat as you read the second half of the tale, the half I’m not going to discuss.
Well, I say ”read”, but this is a silent comedy. There are some of Davy’s trademark background gags like shop signs etc., but other than those this is without speech or narrative captions. Each image takes up a full page and acts like a snapshot of a particular part in the lives of the two men at the centre of the story. Some spoofs of DC comics and scenarios from well known aspects of Batman’s life act as funny little pages in their own right, but it’s the overall story that makes this worth every penny.
I really can’t recommend this enough. Now, £7.00 might sound like a lot for a silent comic, especially since every page has just the one panel, but at 52 pages there are a lot of images here to savour. That’s the way to read Davy’s comic, taking your time to enjoy each individual drawing, laughing along with the gags and allowing yourself to get emotionally invested as it develops beyond what you thought it would be when you ordered it from Sector 13’s website.
Which you really must do. You won’t want to miss out on the experience of this one.
On this day in 2010 we sadly lost Chris Sievey, known to many as Frank Sidebottom. His passing reminded me of how much I loved his contributions to OiNK and, after reading the three editions I still owned from childhood, I began tracking them all down. So it was Frank who pulled me back to the world of OiNK after decades away. On this day, sixteen years later, as part of OiNK’s 40th here’s the first of three posts remembering Frank.
I loved this comic. This was my complete collection of regular issues before they went to another home. Back in 1991, BBC Two began repeating the classic Thunderbirds series at teatime on Fridays and, even though I was approaching 15-years-of-age and in grammar school, I became hooked and watched it with my parents every week. Fleetway soon released Thunderbirds The Comic and with its mix of gorgeous 60s comics serials, stunning new cutaway posters from Graham Bleathman, new strips and features it was a quality read. I bought it for over a year before believing I was too old for comics (don’t we all make that mistake for a while?) and missed out on a certain cameo later in its run.
You see, a megastar-of-megastars was also a big fan, namely Frank Sidebottom (aka Chris Sievey) and he’d pop up in the comic for a brief interview conducted by none other than Gerry Anderson himself. We’ll get to that eventually but by way of a build up I thought I’d begin by showing you all those times Frank brought a bit of Supermarionation to the pages of OiNK, most of which I haven’t shown you before. Frank joined the team in #16 and just five issues later in the Valentine’s issue he drew this wonderful strip starring two of his own puppets, Little Frank and Little Denise.
On a personal side note, I can remember around Christmas 1991 I discovered a double-bill video of the movies Thunderbirds Are Go (which Frank and Denise are sneaking off to see) and Thunderbird Six. I can remember the thrill of realising these had been cinema releases and rushing home to watch them for three hours. I think I wore that tape out!
Just a little while after the lovey-dovey issue came the first OiNK Holiday Special. You know the one, with the plasticine Uncle Pigg on the cover and a cardboard Mary Lighthouse fanning him on a desert island (classic Ian Jackson work). Inside was a space-based board game by Frank that tied in with his comic strip. Look out for Thunderbirds 3 and 5 making cameos, and for one of the playing pieces!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the other favourite references of mine in this piece, such as Tom Baker’sFifth Doctor as another character piece. Or how about the Button Moon Heinz Baked Beans tin, the TARDIS, a multitude of other Gerry Anderson creations, Steven Spielberg, Roger Moore (I assume because of Moonraker), the Time Tunnel and more. I find how unfair the game is to anyone playing as Little Frank so funny too, as is that random space elephant square. Although, what’s wrong with wearing glasses, Frank?
I never played it and I doubt many did, but those that convinced their family or friends to give it a go must’ve had a laugh. Chris’ love of the shows he grew up with is apparent throughout his time in OiNK, as you can see with this pin-up from #66, just a couple of months before the comic’s cancellation. Again, Supermarionation programmes feature heavily among the vast array of merchandise he’s clearly never wanted to part with from childhood.
I was aware of Thunderbirds when I was reading OiNK as a child, we all were, but it wasn’t until a few years later that I became obsessed and the references became all the funnier for it. This brings us back to the early 90s and Thunderbirds The Comic from OiNK’s own publisher. In later issues Gerry Anderson contributed a regular page to the comic (via Simon Archer, the author of his biography), answering fan questions and keeping the kids clued in on the latest news of his new series and repeats of the classics.
Sometimes he’d speak to people who had worked on Thunderbirds to give readers even more of an insight into the making of their favourite show. On one occasion he spoke to a celebrity super fan, who even contributed their own self-portrait in character as International Rescue’s arch nemesis, The Hood. Although, it’s clear this was a general chat about all of Gerry’s series given how few of the answers pertain to this comic’s title.
It’s still a fun little addition and the answers are very Frank (oh, that could be a pun). Eventually, other Gerry Anderson series would be repeated on BBC Two and some would get their own Fleetway comic in pretty much the same vein, although none would last very long and they’d all end up merging into this one (some series would just start out as back up strips here rather than get their own title). Thunderbirds The Comic was very much the Buster of the Supermarionation line.
Later in life I’d fall in love with Thunderbirds all over again thanks to the newer Thunderbirds Are Go series which used CGI for the characters and craft alongside wonderfully intricate models for their sets and backgrounds. It was during this time I splashed out on the Thunderbirds The Comic complete set with the intention of covering it on the blog. However, flicking through them to check for missing pages or damage I soon realised why I’d stopped collecting it as a teen; when the classic reprints stopped the new stories just weren’t a patch on them and I never cared for any of the other puppet shows that found their way into the contents. But at least I did find this little gem of a Frank Sidebottom contribution to share with you.
As I’ve previously stated, OiNK’s 40th anniversary celebrations wouldn’t be complete without a celebration of Frank Sidebottom and over the next few weeks I’ll be watching for the first time the movies Being Frank (the documentary about Chris’ life) and Frank, the fictional story based on the character and written by one of Chris’ band friends, Jon Ronson.
I’ll admit I know little about Frank or Chris beyond what I’ve learned from OiNK and my research into his contributions to the comic, so I’m very much looking forward to both of these to learn more about the man himself and the psychology of becoming a different persona once the papier-mâché mask was put on. I can’t think of a better time to rediscover Frank Sidebottom.
Electric Soup was “Scotland’s Adult Humour Comic”, with 17 issues released between 1989 and 1992 followed by a 10th anniversary special a while later in 1999. Think Viz but with thick regional accents in every panel and plenty of jabs at local politicians, celebrities and even whole Scottish cities. There was quite the collection of these inside Davy Francis’ shoebox so I was looking forward to seeing plenty from the Cowpat County creator.
Unfortunately, as I began to flick through them I soon came to realise this was a case of Davy’s friends being inside rather than the man himself. Thankfully, eventually his unique art style popped up in #16, the penultimate issue of the run and the last of the regular issues in this box. He also returned for the 10th anniversary special. Altogether we’ve got three new strips from Davy and one spoof I’m sure fans of the blog will enjoy. First up, a rather more adult (and Scottish) spin on one of OiNK’s favourite spoof targets, Desperate Dan of The Dandy. Although fans of another OiNK Blog comic should get a kick out of this too.
As a pig pal it’s strange to see bad language in one of Davy’s strips but I’m not for one second saying it shouldn’t have been, this is an adult comic after all. There are less of the usual background gags than we were used to with his OiNK pages but I did laugh at the picture of mother. Davy’s Predator isn’t half bad though, right? (Obviously look beyond the glasses.) His Desperate Dan is how I imagine a 90s Hollywood live-action take on the character would be, so it feels perfect for the time of this comic.
Moving on to the anniversary special and I have to warn you about this next strip. It’s blurred until you click on it for a reason. It’s very adult and I didn’t want the images just sitting out there on the blog for all to see as you scroll on your morning commute. Originally drawn by Tommy Somme in the regular comic, for the 10th anniversary special Davy took over art duties for Helmetman. Now, you know this is an adult Viz-like comic, so just think about what that superhero name could mean for a second before deciding to click.
I’ll admit this is only here because it was drawn by Davy, who was creating a follow-up for an established strip, one that readers had an expectation of. I’ve never been a fan of this type of humour though. Maybe OiNK spoiled me. Yes, OiNK could be cheeky at times but it was done in a genuinely original, funny way and the comic was hilarious at all times whether it was one of those moments or not. Humour that relied solely on shocking the reader is a one-trick pony to me and grows tired very quickly. Unfortunately for me, the vast majority of Electric Soup is like this.
Frustratingly, it needn’t have been this way. In the few strips that don’t use overly adult themes as the sole gag (“Ooh, nude bits and extreme language in a comic! Hehehe, aren’t we hilarious”) there are some genuinely brilliant moments. Davy himself supplies one in The Y Front which, apart from the occasional rude joke, reminds me very much of his OiNK strips. By this I mean every panel has something to laugh at, with plenty of sight gags that take the narrative captions and turn them into something else entirely, leaning heavily into the ridiculously bizarre.
It’s just gloriously stupid. If Electric Soup had more of this kind of adult-enough humour I’d have loved these comics. Davy wasn’t the only contributor capable of realising there’s more to comedy for grown ups than boobs and genitalia. While Frank Quitely could be just as guilty as the rest, he also had the ability to see beyond the shallow schoolboy jokes and give us something properly funny. In fact, the final strip I want to show you is his but with the sheer amount of gags and silliness you’d swear Davy had written the script.
It’s a spoof of Alien³, so for the second time there’s something here that readers of the Aliens section of the blog should find funny. I really enjoyed this film as a teen and as an adult I think the Special Edition is fantastic, so much so I’d rank it right alongside the first two movies. Thankfully, I can still have a giggle at the things I love when their spoofs are done well, and this is done very well indeed. Much like Davy’s Y Front (oo-er!) every panel had me chortling; it’s just relentless, especially if you know the film well.
See? No need for the so-called “adult humour” that just ends up being adolescent and childish. This Alien³ strip and Davy’s non-blurred pages above show that at least some of the people behind Electric Soup were genuine comedic talents. It’s just a shame their work is hidden amongst such unfunny nonsense. Maybe if I was a teenager I’d have laughed at the rudeness here the first time I saw it, but after growing up with the quality of OiNK I doubt it.
You can thank me later for trawling through all of these for the few gems within. Looking at some of the magazines still inside the shoebox I’m a bit concerned about having to do so all over again with titles such as Sweet FA and UC. But then again, I knew this going in and having a quick flick through they seem more professional, genuinely aimed at adults with a proper sense of humour and include more OiNK contributors. So while the subject matter of football (or the Sunday Sport!) might not appeal to me I’m still looking forward to the gems I can locate for you in the next part of this series later in the year.
Kev F Sutherland contributed so many great gags to the second half of OiNK’s run. Hugely prolific, he even had his name attached to ten pages of the final issue! His Meanwhile… series was a personal favourite of mine and, alongside such brilliant contributions as the pun-packed March of the Killer Breakfasts and the hilarious Three Scientists, OiNK kickstarted his comics career which has spanned titles as varied as Beano, Red Dwarf Smegazine and Ghost Rider 2099! Now, he’s kickstarting something else. (See what I did there?)
Kev has released five Shakespeare graphic novels in recent years and now he’s raising funds to publish the first ever Shakespeare Comic! This will contain a selection of strips from the graphic novels already out in the wild, as well as two brand new strips from upcoming books based on Twelfth Night and King Lear, the former changed into a monster movie called Twelfth Thing… you get the drift.
Those reprints aren’t just straight copies either. Any that were originally printed in black and white have now received a full coating of colour, and they’re resized. Kev explains this means each page of the comic will contain the same amount of strip as two from the books. Bargain. Seeing as how his books were mainly only available from him directly at cons, festivals and his school art masterclasses, this is a great way for fans far and wide to get hold of them.
The 32-page full-colour comic also comes with a large poster of Shakespeare’s Britain. Not only does this contain ol’ William’s characters in the places where their stories are set, Kev is also giving readers the chance to have their caricature drawn on the map where they live! Sounds good, doesn’t it?
£10 will bag you the comic itself, signed by Kev, and the poster. The next level up is the one where your face could be drawn (in a very Kev F way, obviously) on the map and that’ll cost £30. Finally, there’s a £60 option for anyone who’d like their company name and logo (or, again, their caricature) on the map poster.
Kev only needs £250 to reach his goal and at the time of writing this, just a few hours after it was launched, he’s already at £218. Oh, no, hang on, wait… £248! That’s me on the map, then. Obviously it’s going to reach its target (and then some) so it’s guaranteed to be published and I’ve a feeling you’ll want to bag a copy of this one for yourself. Whether you’re familiar with the works of Shakespeare or not, this is by one of OiNK’s most consistently funny cartoonists so you know it’ll be a great laugh either way!
Head on over to the Kickstarter campaign before 12:41 on the afternoon of Saturday 13th June 2026 to grab yourself a copy. I’ll be telling everyone all about it right here on the OiNK Blog when it arrives, so you won’t want to be left feeling you missed out!
WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS: I was just about to hit ‘Publish’ on this post and the Shakespeare Comic has hit its goal! Wonderful news!
OiNK’sDavy Francis (Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving) and I both live in Belfast and I’ve been lucky enough to meet up with him on a few occasions now, whether that’s over a coffee or a Greggs. Always a great laugh, on one of those days he very generously sent me home with a heavy shoebox full of a random selection of magazines which Davy or friends of his had contributed various comic strips to.
Instantly I thought this would make for a great post on the OiNK Blog. A selection of new gags from Davy? What’s not to love, right? However, not only did I discover so much good material by him that I’d need more than one post just for those, there was also plenty from other OiNK cartoonists! So in the end there was only one solution, a series of posts about Davy’s Shoebox.
There are some publications with multiple issues and they’ll get their own instalments in this series, but I’m kicking things off with a bit of variety first and the selection of other random titles. We begin with Red Dwarf Smegazine from Fleetway. Davy appeared in two of the issues in the box including this very final issue, #9 of volume two.
Alongside articles and interviews the magazine had a selection of strips, some adapted episodes while others were new adventures for guest characters such as Ace Rimmer and Duane Dibbley. Lasting for 23 issues altogether, the last issue is double-length to include conclusions of all the strips and any already-written features. As such, Davy’s Cred Dwarf strip gets twice as much space as in previous issues, hence why I’ve chosen to highlight this last instalment.
Written by Steve Noble (who I can’t find any other credits for) and lettered by Woodrow Pheonix (The Sumo Family, Ecco the Dolphin, Sugar Buzz!), it’s set inside the Total Immersion Red Dwarf Videogame from the Back to Reality episode (a fan favourite), hence why the regular characters look the way they do. Here, the end of the story is all just a long walk to a Christmas pun and the final panel does sum things up somewhat, doesn’t it?
Davy wasn’t the only OiNK alumni in the pages of the Smegazine. Kev F Sutherland (Peter Porter Post Office Sorter, Rotten Rhymes, Meanwhile…) contributed his art to the Androids spoof soap opera and in the final issue a Madvertisement of sorts, Dwarf Eager, coloured by Lucy Allen. There’s something very ‘GBH’ (OiNK’s spoof mail order company) about this and Kev has certainly packed plenty into this little half-page. It’s the final strip of the magazine’s run.
Not to be confused with the clothes shop of the same name, DV8 was an independent newspaper that folded up to fit on the magazine shelves (like the previously-covered Speakeasy). Focussing on Belfast’s cultural scene it included a lot of comics gag pages and even a photo strip from the team behind the Hole in the Wall Gang. It was released monthly between 1992 and 1996. The editorial team received paramilitary threats when an issue released after the IRA ceasefire had a union flag in Irish colours on the cover. It folded soon after.
This was the first on-sale issue after a free preview. A lot of the pages contain cartoon strips from one artist and just a few pages in we’re treated to Davy’s. As you can instantly see from the very first panel this is much more adult-orientated output from Davy, although it’s still very much the same sense of humour we all grew up with in OiNK, just for a different audience.
It’s very ‘Northern Ireland’ too. I did chuckle at the “Didn’t feel a thing”! Across the way Davy’s good friend and fellow Uncle Pigg employee, Ed McHenry (Wally of the West, Igor and the Doctor, OiNK puzzle pages) gets his own space to shine and right in the middle are two little individual panels that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the pages of OiNK, especially the one with the sheep. Ed’s other strips are more adult but I wanted to show these off on their own because it felt like I was reading new OiNK material.
The final publication I want to pull from this time is in a similar format, at least physically.
Created by several cartoonists fed up of how they were being treated by the industry, Duck Soup was another independent newspaper-like magazine that very much feels like the funnies section we used to get in newspapers, only here it’s all funnies! It’s a rather strange reading experience given the large format and the physical feel of it, while the reading experience is very much that of a comic. It’s definitely unique, that’s for sure.
It was distributed nationally but WHSmith only took it on for a six week trial then cancelled all their orders when they deemed the content unsuitable, again deciding what the rest of us were allowed to read and find funny (this was a year before they’d throw a hissy fit over OiNK). What a shame they’re no longer on the high street, eh? Sadly, this resulted in the magazine folding after six issues because, despite its popularity, without Smith’s distribution they just couldn’t break even.
Davy doesn’t actually feature in this issue of Duck Soup but some of his OiNK pals do and that’s why he’s kept it safe in this box. Up first is Ed again and on his first page Girth stood out because I recognised him from the very last issue of OiNK, published over two years later. Not only that, but upon refreshing my memory with that issue I see he was actually named Girth there too. He was a one-off in OiNK so this was a nice surprise.
Later, Ed brings us more substantial strips including Norbert Wibble Schoolboy Detective, who also appeared in DV8. It’s just plain daft and I was smirking away to myself as the captions took over more and more of each panel, then laughed when I read those final points! While the next character I want to highlight may not have gone on to appear in OiNK like Girth did, he still feels very familiar.
Jeremy Banx’s (Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Butcher Watch) Norman Spittall has a strikingly familiar appearance and in these random life moments feels somewhat like a precursor to Mr. Big Nose, although they were very much different characters. Norman got his own book and animated series called The Many Deaths of Norman Spittall in 1997, so luck definitely didn’t improve after Duck Soup! I’ll have to grab a copy of the book sometime if these examples are anything to go by.
The much-missed Tony Husband (OiNK co-creator/editor, Horace ‘Ugly Face’ Watkins, writer of too much OiNK goodness to mention) also pops up which was a lovely, somewhat emotional surprise. Tony’s work in OiNK often didn’t shy away from pointing out the wrongs of the world to its young readers and how Tony felt about certain topics, particularly those involving animals. Here, he combines this with his hatred for war. In fact, the mid-80s fear of the threat of nuclear war is at the forefront of many of the cartoons throughout this issue from many of the contributors.
It’s quite striking how similar some of this is to comments we can read online today, particularly the similarity between Frank the frog and a certain type of person found of socials. It’s also striking how this could easily have been printed today and it’d be just as relevant. That would be a depressing thought if it weren’t for Tony’s ability to make us laugh at ourselves.
The middle pages are of the same higher grade as the cover and open out into a spoof of The Sun (surely already a spoof newspaper). On the back of this are more cartoons, some of which are by Pete Dredge (Master T, Dimbo, Young Arfur in Buster) under the banner War Cry. This pull-out of sorts is packed full of such gags, bringing some levity to a time when adults weren’t as blissfully unaware of the Cold War as I was as a child.
This has been a fun start to delving into this box of treats, hasn’t it? Next time, we’ll be concentrating on the many issues of Electric Soup in it (they must’ve run out of ducks). I’d never heard of the publication before and according to the covers it’s “Scotland’s Adult Humour Comic”, so expect to move further away from the kind of stuff we’d find in OiNK. However, I’m sure it’ll still be ‘very Davy Francis’. That’ll be in a couple of months’ time.
Finally Brickman #2 is here. After the brilliant first edition of collected strips from the character’s past I’ve been eagerly awaiting this (the middle issue of a three-issue mini-series) and it comes with four extra pages, a Combat Colin strip and even some extra features. Taken from the pages of Lew Stringer’s own Yampy Tales comic and the Brickman Begins book, the 27 pages of strips are again packed with enough gags to fill multiple issues.
It may be reprints but the new cover brings things bang up to date, especially that “moron cap” on one idiot’s head. Little gags like this are hidden away on every page throughout, and where the first issue aimed its social commentary jokes at Thatcher’s 80s Britain, here 90s culture is very much in the crosshairs. As a teenager of the 90s I was much more aware of the world around me and so a lot of these gags were even funnier to me than the previous issue’s.
We kick things off with a four-page Combat Colin serial from Transformers and it’s one of the most memorable of his entire run. Anyone who read the comic at the time will remember Colin and Semi-Automatic Steve ending up in a very Portmeirion-esque village along with a large collection of heroes and villains. Lew is a huge fan of the original The Prisoner TV series and this works as both a spoof and a love letter to it. It’s also how I was first introduced to Brickman as an 11-year-old reader.
It wasn’t until decades later I found out he wasn’t just a funny creation for this one Combat Colin strip. The main bulk of this issue sees Brickman returning to Guffon City after his adventure with Colin and Steve brought him out of retirement. But it’s been many years since he revealed his identity and left and his return sees a somewhat different city, filled with crime. But this is a Lew Stringer comic and the abundant crime problem isn’t anything like you’d expect, as you can see.
Anyone who has seen the Christian BaleBatman trilogy will know how hated the hero was when he returned and here, many years before those films Brickman (aka Loose Brayne) is met with hatred and fear, even from Commissioner Moron. We also get a funny recap of the character’s origin story without rehashed gags and with cameos from Colin and Steve, which are always going to be funny!
Lew takes plenty of opportunities to poke at the conventions of superhero stories, with a particular slant towards the already silly 60s Batman, as seen here in The Mad Cobbler’s overly elaborate and very slow, tedious death trap. As per usual, nothing is safe from Lew’s satirical pen. Sidekicks, last-minute escapes, villain reveals and of course comic book violence are all ripe for the Brickman treatment.
While there is a “Mature Readers” label on the cover there’s nothing overly inappropriate for slightly younger readers out there if you wish to share the laughs with your kids. As Lew explains in the editorial, “Although the story doesn’t quite venture into Viz territory, it is aimed at an adult readrship”. That adult audience will most likely get the most from it, but it’s also an excellent introduction to slightly more grown up humour for any teen readers out there.
Just like when I reviewed the previous issue I don’t want to give away too much. Some of my favourite moments are so good I’m gagging to share them with you because I just know they’d convince you to rush out and buy this. (Or, since this is 2026, rush to Lew’s online shop and click on it.) But if I did that I’d ruin the surprises and it’s the sudden jokes that come right of nowhere that happen to be my favourites.
So I guess you’ll just have to trust me. The panel below did make me laugh out loud though, particularly that 90s cultural reference. You might need to explain the occasional moment like this to your teenagers but for those of us who were around at the time the comic also succeeds in taking you right back with its gentle ribbing and/or outright mockery. So, despite never having read the bulk of this before it still made me feel like a kid again with the surprising amount of reminiscing I did about that rather strange decade.
The ending is also well thought out and turns an evil scheme on its head in an original, funny way, and for a moment I wished that things in today’s world could be fixed just as easily and enjoyably. There are also a couple of special features, the one about fanzines in the 1970s being my favourite because it took me back to the 90s again, to a time when I was creating a monthly fanzine on my Commodore 64 computer. Lew’s good times reminding me of my own.
All-in-all I’ve giggled, I’ve guffawed and I’ve finished the comic with a huge smile on my face. Does that sound good to you? It should, and you can get your own grubby little mitts on Brickman #2 for just £5.00 plus p&p via Lew’s own KoFi shop. While there, don’t forget to sign up for regular updates via his KoFi blog too. One more issue to go then and with promises of more colour and even brand new material, it sounds like Brickman #3 will be even better! What are you waiting for? Go and get caught up now.
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 HumourBob 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 DirectorJohn Sanderstelling 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’sFleetway 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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