Category Archives: OiNK Contributors

COLD WAR FRANK: MAY DAY POSTCARD

8 May 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

A good few years back a Twitter account grabbed my attention and that of many who were worried about where the world was headed, what with 2016 being the year of Brexit and Trump. Christopher Spencer, who goes by the name Cold War Steve online, is an award-winning Birmingham artist who uses his iPhone and iPad to create collages depicting politicians, celebrities and royalty in satirical pieces that helped lighten the mood for many across the country in what they felt were dark times. (Many of his pieces featured EastEnders actor Steve McFadden in character as Phil Mitchell looking on in disgust.)

To mark our extra Bank Holiday for the Coronation, Steve has created a huge piece of art for display in London and made it available for purchase as a large foldable postcard. The outer parts highlight the kind of work he is known for, with a savagely funny portrayal of those in power in the UK. However, in the middle is a positive look at the best this part of the world has produced. Right at the front of this celebratory section, arms raised and leading the pack, is none other than Frank Sidebottom!

Taken from his own website, Steve describes his latest artwork as follows:

“The exclusive triptych artwork was put together over the last few weeks as Chris took himself off Twitter and back off booze. It marks the Coronation of King Charles III and our national obsession with being ruled over by dubious individuals and their weird families and the total crisis in leadership of our absolutely pathetic and self serving establishment political class. But it is mainly a celebration of what we should really be reminding ourselves about our country, the true collective creativity, beauty in diversity and fundamental goodness that makes Great Britain really actually pretty great.”

That last sentence in particular sounds very OiNK-like.

This huge display is free to view day and night in East London and you can check out Steve’s website for directions if you’re in that part of the country and wish to pop by. If not, you can always purchase the large postcard version. I say postcard, the main image in the middle is about the size of an A4 piece of paper so it’s just a bit bigger than your average Blackpool ‘card.

“The must-have free-standing affordable art-piece for this year’s celebration of the King and Queen finally getting their proper crowns and all the inherited land they stole from the people centuries ago. We’re fantastically excited to see them in their gold carriage, I think it’s going to cheer everyone right up.”

It’s available for £15 including postage and £5 of this will go to CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), a charity that’s taking a stand against suicide. As their website explains, “This means standing against feeling hopeless, standing up to stereotypes and standing together to show life is always worth living.” Especially in these difficult times it’s a great cause and you can help.

I believe this is something Frank would’ve been completely behind.

You can visit Cold War Steve‘s website to check out this piece, the man behind it, see his full archives and visit his shop. He’s also on Twitter and Instagram and is prolific. So, follow him and you’ll know that when the news is getting you down you won’t have long to wait before Steve shares something to cheer you up and, most importantly, show you that you’re not alone.

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KEV F SUTHERLAND CUTS COMiCS: PODCAST NEWS

7 June 2021 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

Appearing mainly in later issues of OiNK, Scottish cartoonist Kev F Sutherland (known simply as ‘Kev F‘ in the comic) made quite the impression with his first published work. He went on to contribute to everything from Beano to Doctor Who Adventures via Toxic and Red Dwarf Magazine, and today performs as The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre and teaches masterclasses on creating comics in schools across the country.

In OiNK he drew some brilliant Rotten Rhymes as well as a selection of pun-filled one-offs such as The March of the Killer Breakfasts. The strips he’s probably most fondly remembered for are those in the Meanwhile… series, a random selection of stories of varying length with titles such as Meanwhile at the Funfair, Meanwhile at the Party, Meanwhile at the Ball or even Meanwhile at the Fish Market (from #63).

As you can see the end result was guaranteed to be anything but mundane. Each story would be set up in a similar way; a simple, quite plain setting soon spirals out of control towards a hilarious final panel. Always energetic and containing a great gag Kev himself mirrors his work, and its this enthusiasm that’s at the heart of his brand new podcast, Comic Cuts: The Panel Show.

“Every episode, the guests reveal a panel from a comic, we try and guess where it’s from, then we chat about it. Half an hour later hopefully we’ve learned something, or just shown off and had fun along the way.”
Kev F Sutherland

The premise is both original and wonderful. In each episode two guests bring along a favourite panel from a comic. It could be any comic from any genre, any publisher, any title and from any year. The other guest has to describe it to the listener, who then tries to work out if they can identify the comic it came from. Kev and the guest describing the panel are trying to work it out too and the banter along the way is always funny.

At the time of writing a handful of episodes are available and all are as enjoyable as each other, whether you’re familiar with the contributors or not. Episode one has Kev discussing panels chosen by writer, comedian and historian Iszi Lawrence (Netflix‘s The Lost Pirate Kingdom, BBC Radio 4‘s Making History) and comedian Doug Segal.

In episode two the guests are Manga artist Sonia Leong (Marie Curie: A Graphic History of the World’s Most Famous Female Scientist, Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived) and Beano artist Nigel Parkinson (Dennis, Bash Street Kids, as well as Thunderbirds The Comic and Stingray). Then Resident Alien co-creator Peter Hogan (also 2000AD and The Sandman Presents) and comedian & actor Bethany Black are the third episode’s guests. Quite the start.

Kev brings an unbridled sense of joy to the proceedings

Two of my favourite guests so far have been Beano‘s Nigel Auchterlounie (far too many Beano and The Dandy strips to count, including Dennis) and Laura Howell (Minnie the Minx, The Bizarre Adventures of Gilbert & Sullivan). OiNK’s very own David Leach also pops in, joined by Laura Watton, a renowned Manga-inspired artist and the chemistry between the three makes for some genuinely hilarious moments. Their episode features a Manga comic book series which sounds really fascinating and a panel from one of the most famous British cartoonists of all time. I just wish it had lasted longer than 30 minutes!

Listening to Laura describe the panel David brought is a real highlight. Her laughs and giggles at each new little detail she uncovers upon closer inspection brought a huge grin to my face. Kev himself brings an unbridled sense of joy to the proceedings and to say things can get rather crazy at times may sound like a cliché but that doesn’t make it any less true. I mean, are you expecting anything less from that man below?

To quote Kev, “Happiness is lining up guests for my new comics-based podcast. Tomorrow I start recording with guests you won’t believe. I’m looking at their CVs and we’ve got everything from Beano to Netflix, from Radio 4 to Channel 4. One guest drew the cover of a Kaiser Chiefs record and another was in a Fairy Liquid advert directed by Ken Loach. When they were five. I’ve got a mixture of comic creators and comedians (and RSVPs from a couple of invitees I thought would never say yes, and I’m blown away that they have). I hope this podcast works and I can get round to getting all these guests on it, cos they’re amazing.”

From the initial episodes I’d say it’s working very well indeed Kev. The format lends itself to a long-running series and I hope this will be the case. It certainly deserves to be a success. Kev seemed to announce it and then have the first episodes up within days, then to have so many more people recorded and their episodes in the bag so quickly just shows the dedication he’s putting into his new project.

Comic Cuts: The Panel Show is available now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts and you can also check out Kev’s official website right here.

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DEREK THE TROLL: A ROCK SOLiD RERELEASE

2 June 2021 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

Lew Stringer is synonymous with OiNK thanks to his creations Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple and Pigswilla alongside a multitude of one-off strips and the scripts for Ham Dare, Pig of the Future. I remember Lew being everywhere back in the 80s, popping up in my Transformers and The Real Ghostbusters comics as well as a slew of other titles. But before all this he’d created a certain smelly little troll by the name of Derek whose comic collection is available to buy again thanks to a second printing.

Derek the Troll was originally created in 1984 for a competition in the role-playing magazine Warlock. He may not have been the winning entry but the editors liked him so much he became a regular strip in every issue. When it folded Derek made the transition to White Dwarf for a few issues before he was retired in 1987. He made a return for the book You Are the Hero in 2013 and then most recently in digital comic Goof, the last issue of which was never released so hopefully we’ll get to see the conclusion to that story in the future.

So who is Derek? Well, in the world of role-playing games the trolls are a breed of character generally overlooked as grunts in bigger battles, cannon fodder for the enemy. Think vile, smelly, disgusting versions of pawns in chess. To quote Lew, Derek is “a likeable troll with obnoxious habits”, which sounds like a character OiNK fans can get behind. The strips are highly imaginative, given the almost limitless scope of the tabletop games universes he’s meant to be set in.

Sometimes Derek is downtrodden, sometimes he gets the upper hand, so you never know where each tale is headed. There are more fun monster designs, plenty of puns, a rhyming strip, a make-your-own-adventure strip and loads of genuine laughs. Included are all of Derek’s stories from the aforementioned magazines, the 2013 book and even the original story sent in as part of that competition, which sees print here for the first time.

But that’s not all. As noted on the cover, the complete run of a character called Rock Solid is also included and right at the back of the comic you’ll even find a little bit of Combat Colin.

Rock Solid is an egotistical, self-centred space hero whose ego is a lot more evident than any actual talent. Lew explains how Rock was difficult to write as he was deliberately created to be unlikeable, yet the readers had to enjoy the strip and want to see more. It’s a delicate balance and I think it works, even if by the end you’re hoping he’ll get his comeuppance. Does he? You’ll have to buy the comic to find out.

Rock Solid was created for early 80s independent comic Swift Sure and all five chapters of the story are present here, fifteen pages in total. Just as we’d later see with Combat Colin every week in the pages of Transformers, Lew’s ability to create enjoyable villains has always been strong. The gross Lucas Mucus is the highlight here and you can see him channelling his inner Tom Thug above. He’s a mutated human ruling over the gross alien race, the Grots. On this following page we’re introduced to their very alien language and the need for reader translations.

Rounding off the package are two half-page Combat Colin strips. This was originally released before Colin’s own series began, four issues of which have been published at the time of writing. Unfortunately, the website host of Lew’s online shop closed down a while back and his comics have been unavailable. But he’s now selling again through his own eBay seller’s page, starting with Derek’s comic.

Derek the Troll has 32 pages in total on very high quality paper with card covers and two pictures cards of Derek and Colin are also included. There’s an interesting editorial and under each strip you’ll find the original dates of publication and little snippets of information from Lew about each. All of this is only £6.50 including postage at the time of writing. It comes bagged and boarded, posted in a card-backed envelope to keep it safe in the post and every issue will be signed on the inside. So if you haven’t bought any of Lew’s independent comic releases yet make sure you start now with your own copy of Derek the Troll, then keep an eye on the blog for reviews of the other titles as they become available again.

To finish with, here’s a brilliant little sequence from the top of Derek’s final appearance in White Dwarf magazine. The magazine’s editors loved him but apparently opinion amongst readers was divided, so Lew decided to concentrate on his OiNK and Transformers work instead. I think this is a hilarious response!