Welcome to first post in what should be a fascinating four-part OiNK series this festive season. I came up with some general questions about our favourite comic and handed them over to no less than 11 of OiNK’s finest contributors. Every Saturday between now and Christmas Day I’ll publish all of the responses for each question in turn, so we can get an insight into what it was really like to be a part of the world’s greatest comic.
The OiNK team have always been so forthcoming with information ever since the blog began and their enthusiasm for the comic hasn’t diminished one iota in the decades since they first tickled our funny bones. It’s been a joy to put these posts together and reach out to some of my comics heroes. So what’s the first question?
QUESTION ONE
What’s the fondest memory that comes to mind
when you think back to OiNK?
DAVY FRANCIS
Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb,
Doctor Mad-Starkraving
“Fondest memory was meeting all the artists and writers at the OiNK launch party. It’s a bit of a lonely profession drawing cartoons and comics so it was great to meet up and yack about drawing and comics.”
DAVID LEACH
Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ
“That first UKCAC show in 1988, I think, when I got to meet other cartoonists for the first time. I met Davy Francis, Lew Stringer, Davey Jones, Ed McHenry and Banx. It was wonderful. I felt I’d found my people.”
DAVEY JONES
Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom,
Kingdom of Trump
“Probably just that sense of open-mindedness you got from the editors. My main point of contact was Mark Rodgers and I’d send him script ideas which he’d either approve or turn down. But you always felt that he’d be open to any kind of silly ideas. I remember buying a volume of Spike Milligan’s Goon Show scripts from a jumble sale, and for a while after that the stuff I was submitting was a bit Goon-ish. So you felt you could sort of muck about and try out different things.”
STEVE GIBSON
artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements,
Ponsonby Claret
“Memory? I remember meeting Mark and Tony (Husband) and Pat (Gallagher) as they were cobbling the first few issues together. They were working from inside a cupboard in Manchester back then. It was hard to tell them apart because we all had hair then, including Pat. It felt like an exciting time to draw comics, and I could always meet a deadline because I learned to draw in my sleep thanks to Pat nagging me. Hey Pat! How are you?”
PATRICK GALLAGHER
co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang,
designer of the OiNK logos
“Meeting up with Tony and Mark immediately after we received the news that OiNK had been formally commissioned.”
IAN JACKSON
artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins,
OiNK Book 1988 covers
“Photo story shoot with Mark Rodgers dressed as aliens, and his girlfriend Helen as someone we were trying to abduct from a local park.”
ED McHENRY
Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages,
Igor and the Doctor
“Printed on quality paper with excellent colour reproduction, everybody could sign their work or get a printer credit, well paid and all your artwork returned. What’s not to like as they say.”
GRAHAM EXTON
writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes,
Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car
“Visiting Tony‘s house with Mark was brilliant because Tony was such a nice chap. I noticed his stack of Peter Hammill albums in a corner – we bonded over music. We also had a fun time discussing Uncle Pigg‘s helpers, the Plops.”
JEREMY BANX
Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith
“A lot of fond memories. Getting the ideas and drawing them up against the clock was hard work but fun. Meeting up with the other OiNKers at conventions and stuff was a highlight. I remember, with great fondness, the process of getting the idea that Burp‘s organs should be independent living beings with their own ecology. Also when I realised that his liver should be Dr Devious, the notorious super villain. The nice thing about that was it felt like the character was revealing himself and it almost wasn’t me doing the work at all.”
LEW STRINGER
Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla,
writer of Ham Dare
“There are lots of happy memories but I think just having regular work in an IPC comic for the first time felt like a major achievement, even though I’d been contributing to Marvel UK for a few years by then.”
KEV F SUTHERLAND
Meanwhile, The Three Scientists,
March of the Killer Breakfasts
“It was my big break, so the best thing was being a proper professional comics creator at last. I was holding down a day job and doing my OiNK work at night, and it had taken a whole year of sending something off every single week before I got in. I would send something to 2000AD who’d say ‘you’re too cartoony, you should send it to OiNK’, and to OiNK who’d say ‘you’re too action-y, you should send it to 2000AD’. OiNK broke first.”
And so it begins! Even though very few of the OiNK team ever worked from their Manchester offices, you’d never think it from these replies. They were clearly a fantastic team, whether they ever met each other or not, and admiring of everyone else’s creations. It pleases me no end that it seems OiNK was such a great comic to work on. Make sure you come back next week, Saturday 7th December 2024 for question two, which will be:
Whose work did you admire the most in OiNK?
See you then.
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