OiNK Blog

OiNK’S 40th ANNiVERSARY

OiNK’S COMiCS CUTS: OiNK ON KEV F’S PODCAST

5 June 2026 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

Five years ago, almost to the day, I told you about OiNK cartoonist Kev F Sutherland’s brand new podcast, Comic Cuts. Known around the sty for his hilarious Meanwhile… series and two of my own personal favourites from OiNK’s entire run (The Three Scientists and The March of the Killer Breakfasts), Kev’s podcast was full of enthusiasm for the comics medium and provided plenty of entertainment to boot.

In recent months his current batch of episodes have been dropping and the latest one at the time of writing should be of particular interest to pig pals. For the uninitiated, you’ll probably want to know the set up of the series first. To quote the man himself from the beginning of the episode, “We’re looking at a panel, and we comprise a panel, there’s a few of us. So the panel sees a panel, and we talk about the comics from the panel we discuss.”

Simple, right? Basically, Kev invites on two guests with ties to the comics industry. Each brings with them a panel (or a series of panels) from a favourite comic. The other guest then has to describe it to the listener (although the image is also in the promo art for the episode and shown on the YouTube version) and guess the comic it came from. Previous guests have included Psycho Gran’s very own David Leach and OiNK fan and Beano artist Laura Howell. The current episode doesn’t feature anyone from OiNK, instead it features the comic itself.

Is that image a spoiler? Well, as soon as any pig pal sees the cover image for the episode they’ll instantly recognise Ian Jackson’s handiwork and maybe even the strip itself. Children’s book illustrator Liz Million is the OiNK fan who has provided for the podcast the full page (four panels) of #14’s The Hold Up written by Mark Rodgers and drawn by Ian, and it’s up to comics writer and artist Rich Johnston to work out where it’s from. I’m not going to give anything away, you’ll have to listen to it for yourselves to find out if he’s successful or not.

In amongst the gameplay is plenty of reminiscing about OiNK and some lovely insights from Kev about working on the comic. In particular, I like the little bit about Meanwhile at the Ball from the final issue, #68. As long as you can grit your teeth through the two guests (but NOT Kev, to be fair) stating OiNK was a kid’s version of a certain adult comic (grrrr!) there’s plenty to enjoy here. You can either watch the episode on YouTube on your next train journey or even take Kev into the shower with the audio version. (Just don’t tell him you did that.)

To find out more about the series in general, and the man himself, you can read my original post from June 2021 when Comic Cuts had just been launched.

KEV F’S COMiCS CUTS

OiNK: A SHORT TAiL

30 May 2026 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

As announced in the post introducing OiNK’s 40th anniversary , the funniest comic ever created is getting its very own documentary. It’ll be a short film, running to 15-20 minutes but aims to pack as much as possible into its runtime. The people behind it are Claire Bend and Rob Reed of Bread and Butter Films, who reached out to me last summer in their research of OiNK, and to ask if I’d like to be filmed for it too!

Our original Zoom chat may have been hampered by an audio-only link (thanks to my home internet) but we chatted at length and had a great laugh along the way. I was confident OiNK was in safe hands as they began to talk to some of its contributors throughout the rest of the year. Originally, I had planned to make the trip to England to see them but unfortunately in the end I just couldn’t. But that didn’t stop Claire and Rob, who were determined to include me in the film.

So, a couple of weeks ago I found myself very excitedly setting up part of my living room for another call (this time with a faster connection and video intact). Surrounded by my favourite comic (and my phone camera precariously held up by anything I could find) I had a great time discussing all things OiNK. Claire and Rob are a joy to chat to and I can’t wait to see the finished film.

While I can’t give too much away yet about what I know, I did ask if I could turn the tables on them for the blog. I’m pleased to say the bribes worked, so here are both Claire and Rob to tell you all about an honest-to-gosh OiNK short film you’ll get to see later this year! Enjoy.

OiNK Blog: What attracted you to OiNK as a possible documentary subject?

Claire Bend: I have a long list of ideas for films that no one will pay me to make, and OiNK had been on there for a while. I’d done some work for Lakes International Comic Festival and came to realise that a lot of the creators of OiNK had gone on to do other brilliant, interesting things. And as I began to mention OiNK to more people, I began to see that it had a real cultural impact. Rob and I had met through work and on some long car journeys to filming locations we’d chatted about the idea and both thought, if no one else is making it, I suppose we should.

Rob Reed: Claire used to work at a creative agency I sometimes freelance with and getting to know each other through those chats we discovered we shared a similar taste in films, music, hobbies etc. and comics was one of them. I grew up a huge comics fan in Essex but it was so hard to get anything from the local newsagent that wasn’t the Beano or the odd Marvel comic. OiNK wasn’t on my radar at the time but since making the film I realised that I did recognise some of the covers from the comics shop I used to have to travel to in the nearby town. I was a huge fan of Round The Bend which the same creators went on to make for TV so it was brilliant making that connection. When Claire was telling me all about OiNK, its origins and her passion for it, I knew it would make a great subject for a documentary. As a filmmaker I’m a huge believer of just getting started on something that interests you and see where it leads. Thankfully the journey with this so far has been one of the most enjoyable experiences yet for something I’ve worked on. Also there are hardly any documentaries on British comics and it’s a hugely overlooked part of British pop culture.

OB: So what we all really want to know is which OiNK contributors can we expect to hear from?

Rob: We were so glad to spend time with and interview Patrick Gallagher [above – Phil] the sole remaining member of the original trio as Mark [Rodgers] and Tony [Husband] have both sadly passed away. There’s Lew Stringer [below] and David Leach [he and Helen Jones can be seen further below] alongside a few other contributors. I’m really pleased we hear from Laura Howell who was a huge OiNK fan growing up and then went on to be the first regular female artist to draw for the Beano and Viz.

Claire: Loads! But there are so many we haven’t interviewed (yet) because Rob keeps telling me we only have 15 minutes and I have to stop now. We haven’t spoken to [Jeremy] Banx or Ian Jackson for example, but we’re hoping that we might be able to keep working on the film and add in some more creators if we can (please email us!). There are people you will know like Lew and Patrick, and a few people you may not know, like OiNK fan Dr Nik Taylor [Director of Teaching and Learning for the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Huddersfield… and a practicing magician]. Oh, and some bloke called Phil [sounds like an eejit].

OB: Were there any revelations about OiNK we can look forward to hearing about?

Rob: Nothing I would say surprising but it’s been so great to hear all the memories and stories from all the creators. It’s also funny hearing how their own recollections of certain moments can vary from person to person.

Claire: I’m not sure if we’ve uncovered any shocks, but hearing all the brilliant creators talking about their memories of the time has been such a lovely experience. I feel really honoured that everyone has been so willing to take part and has been so welcoming to us.

Rob: The main point that has been hammered home is that it definitely wasn’t Viz for kids!

OB: Indeed! Did you read OiNK yourselves as children? What are your fondest memories? But if you didn’t read it as a child, what did you think when you read it as an adult?

Claire: I was 7/8 yrs old when I read OiNK and remember feeling incredibly smug that I was allowed it and my best pal was not. Thanks mum! It was a very different experience to reading Twinkle comic for girls. I particularly loved the GBH products, how they seemed to critique the adult world, they gave me excellent grounding for my ‘E’ grade in Media Studies A-level many years later. I bought a pile of copies from eBay during lockdown to see if it was as good as I’d remembered and found I still enjoyed the Torture Twins very much and Frank Sidebottom of course, who was a huge figure in my childhood. Frank had a daytime digital radio show that I used to listen to at my desk in work. I emailed him during his show once and to my delight he sang, “She’s called Claire Bend, she really is”, which was one of the best days ever.

Rob: I didn’t read it as a child. As I previously mentioned it wasn’t something I saw or could buy in my local newsagent (unless it had been put higher up with the mountain of ‘adult’ reading material). It’s a shame as I would’ve loved it. Reading it as an adult and for film research has been great. I think there’s a real lack of media made today across most art forms that is funny, smart, subversive and just plain weird. Silliness and joy within comedy seems to be at a premium these days and I would like to see the dial shift a bit more towards that.

OB: With that in mind, what do you think the overriding message of the documentary is?

Rob: I guess the main thing I’ve taken from it is just how much impact a cult comic that ran for a couple of years in the late 80s can have. Both in terms of giving the fantastic contributors to OiNK a wonderful start to their careers and also seeing how its tone and style has permeated into things like the Beano and Aardman’s animations, with it’s influence still being felt.

Claire: That the impact of the comic reached far beyond its short run. And, “If you can’t fight, wear a daft hat”. (May not be a real quote.)

OB: With this being a short 15-minute film, what other plans do you have for all of the footage you’ve shot?

Claire: There will be so much that doesn’t make it into the film. No fixed plans as yet, but we’d love to find a way to share more with the fans.

Rob: The final cut may end up being longer! Haha. We’re still working out what to do with all the extra material. We would love to take this further and expand the film into something longer but first we’ll see what the response is like and have a think. We’ll definitely be putting out exclusive extra clips and are working on ways the fans can be involved in the film.

OB: So the big question is where and when will pig pals actually get to see the OiNK documentary? Are there plans to release it online?

Claire: We’ve got a preview at MaccPow at the end of June which is brill because it’s where we did our first interviews last year, and everyone at the festival was so supportive. And as long as we don’t get any boos or rotten fruit thrown at us, we’ll arrange some more showings as soon as we can. We’ll let you know!

Rob: After that we’d love to screen at other festivals and comics conventions. Ultimately it will end up online for everyone to enjoy and OiNK Blog will be the first to know about it!

Huge thanks to Claire and Rob for agreeing to this, for including me in both their research and interviews, and for doing the project in the first place!

As Rob says, the OiNK Blog will be the first place to know when the film is in its final finished state and ready to be released to the sties of the general public, so make sure you follow along by subscribing to the blog or joining in on socials (menu at the top of the page). For news on preview showings at comic cons this year you can follow the film’s Instagram account.

UPDATE: You can now check out a preview post of the film from its first cut.

OiNK DOCUMENTARY PREViEW

OiNK’S 40th ANNiVERSARY

Creating OiNK, OiNK Media Coverage

CRiKEY! LOOK! OiNK!

4 April 2026 Phil Boyce 4 Comments

Dave Huxley may have only contributed to three issues of OiNK but that didn’t stop the Crickey! fanzine from asking him to talk about the comic back in 2008. Dedicated to the nostalgia of classic British comics, Crikey! kicked off as a quarterly before it quickly became bi-monthy, eventually added more colour and ended up with a proper distribution deal before distributors Borders collapsed, taking the magazine with it.

I’ll admit this is the only issue I’ve read and that’s because I saw the OiNK logo on it while browsing eBay, and the corresponding article is one of the main highlights of the issue. It isn’t an interview, it’s actually written by Dave himself and at times it can be wonderfully insightful. Sadly, it kicks off with the Viz comparison, despite that comic not being mainstream at the time nor an influence on the OiNK creative team. And, Tom Thug a “Viz-like character”?

Interestingly, Dave wasn’t hired by the team to create his first piece, the Mona Lisow (the name given to it by the editors), instead he sent it in unsolicited and they saw in him a potential part of the team. He returned in #43, my favourite regular issue and the second Christmas edition with The Hamformers and there’s a funny story included here about his kids appearing on that one.

Dave says he had more ideas to come after his third and final piece, The Statue of Piggery in #55 but never had the chance to develop them due to OiNK’s cancellation. Although, since his first page appeared in #36 and OiNK lasted until its 68th issue I wish he’d developed them a bit quicker! While it’s an interesting article, unfortunately there’s a glaring error included.

I’m not talking about some of the grammatical mistakes or even the misspelling of Mark Rodgers’ name. While Crikey! had a habit of including factual errors in its articles in its early issues, when someone who worked on a comic (albeit briefly) is the guest writer I suppose you’d expect it to be accurate. Unfortunately, the fanzine’s lack of fact-checking is clear when Dave spins the tale of why OiNK ended up cancelled.

Yes, the Janice and John strip did lead to a complaint being lodged with the Press Council and W.H.Smith (R.I.P.) did top-shelf it, but that strip was published right back at the beginning, in #7. It wasn’t the reason the comic was cancelled nearly two-and-a-half-years later! That myth of the complaint bringing about the end of OiNK did circulate at one time though, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too harsh on Dave either.

However, the fact remains that it’s just not true. I’ve covered the evolution and eventual cancellation of OiNK in-depth throughout its real-time read through. Put basically, when Fleetway took over all of IPC’s comics they placed them into sales groups and if the combined sales of each group wasn’t good enough they’d all be cancelled. But OiNK survived its group’s culling; its sales were impressive to IPC (about 100,000 per issue) but Fleetway wanted more. The publisher changing it to a weekly and then to a larger monthly were well-meaning changes but ultimately they are what led to a decrease in sales, long after the complaint shenanigans.

Also, I was aware of Dan Dare and knew who Mary Whitehouse was, so they were hardly included for mature readers.

Despite these errors it’s still nice to read how OiNK was held in such high regard by one of its contributors many years later, even when he only had a very limited amount of work for it. While it doesn’t apply to OiNK, I do agree with Dave’s final sentiment. It’s something that’s still very much prevalent today.

While we’re here I spotted a few little moments elsewhere in this issue that might be of particular interest to OiNK Blog readers. In an article about Warrior comic V for Vendetta is included (although I think the writer has twisted the story to suit his own politics) along with some of David Lloyd’s artwork. This was between 1982 and 1985, the same time David was producing the gorgeous artwork for the first two Knight Rider Annuals that have featured on the blog.

In a quick look at the short-lived Thunder we have brief mentions of Dusty Binns and The Terrible Trail to Tolmec, drawn by Ring Raiders’ Geoff Campion (also misspelled) and Wildcat’s Massimo Belardinelli respectively, and both artists also contributed to licenced anthology horror comic Super Naturals at different stages.

Elsewhere, there are a few articles about girls’ comics, one of which asks why girls enjoyed them so much? It seems to have been too much to ask that Crikey! hire a woman to answer the question, though. Gil Page, who was still working for Egmont at the time spends much of an article about classic comics bitching about the modern market, which is a bit surprising given his employer. Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of this sort of thing throughout, which dampens the reading experience. For example, an otherwise interesting article about Commando loses me the moment the writer starts to complain about today’s “politically correct world”. Sigh.

This has been a curious little read. I’ve heard a lot of good things about later issues, especially when other comics professionals came in to write about their work and I can’t fault the ambition of the comics fans who put this together in the first place. While this particular issue hasn’t really been for me, it’s always good to see OiNK get some love long after it was gone.

PRESS-iNG PORK: OiNK’S PRESS CLiPPiNGS

4 February 2025 Phil Boyce 1 Comment

Throughout OiNK’s run Uncle Pigg liked to show off how well received his comic was with the public (and even on one occasion how badly received it was, but more on that later in the year). As well as the kids telling him how awesome he was, he’d print newspaper and magazine articles that highlighted his piggy publication. The cover of one issue was even devoted to quotes like some kind of blockbuster movie.

For this post I’ve collected together all of the press clippings from throughout the run, beginning with #22. This was in the pre-internet days when a comic had to be on the shelf for a while to get noticed, then by the time the piece about OiNK was written, printed, noticed by the comic and then reprinted there (and remembering publishers work issues ahead at a time) it was months before they starting showing up on the Grunts page.

“A global platform for emerging talent in fashion, music, art and culture”, back in the 80s i-D obviously weren’t too happy with the amount of licenced comics on the shelves, but they took the time to highlight original publications for the kids and ours was included. This fleeting mention was just the beginning of OiNK’s impact with the British press, the next example being just three issues later in #25.

Obviously The Guardian needs no introduction and this clipping comes via another Irish reader. Again, it’s a brief mention but comics rarely got any positive light in the press at the time, so any mention at all was a big win. Then below, by #37 Fleetway Publications may have just taken over the printing of the comic but they were more than happy to share the feedback about what had been IPC Magazines’ OiNK.

The Sunday Times piece was the first we’d hear about W.H. Smith’s stupid decision (although a previous newsagent reservation coupon did allude to it), and the so-called ‘reason’ behind this will be the topic of a blog post in a few months. ‘Zzap!’ is actually Zzap! 64, the Commodore 64 computer gaming magazine and you can read the full article, which was a preview of the OiNK game in a post already up on the blog.

According to OiNK’s co-editor Patrick Gallagher, Mary Whitehouse was aware of OiNK and its spoof portrayal of her, and her team were watching the comic closely for libel although no action was ever taken. The image of Mary Lighthouse used by the News on Sunday is a perfect caricature of the conservative activist, almost like they chose the image that most closely resembled her!

The celebratory 50th issue had two clippings to show off the comic’s growing status in the press and it describes OiNK as a “new fortnightly”, although it does mention the change to weekly. Obviously 40-odd issues of a fortnightly was still deemed ‘new’. OiNK should’ve still been in the early years of its life, reminding us of how the comic was ultimately robbed! We’ll return to that Sunday Times piece further down this post.

The second clipping from #50 is from none other than NME (New Musical Express), and only in describing OiNK could “snot nosed cousin” be seen as a compliment. The magazine obviously focussed on OiNK’s musical parodies and when you see them all written out like this you realise just how many there had been! You can check out The Mekons on the blog in their photo story in #29 and the Ian Astbury interview with Janice Pong (in reality Tony Husband) in #16’s review.

In #52 a clipping from Escape magazine saw OiNK listed in their Hip Parade where readers voted on their favourite publications, and it included a little sample of the Uncle Pigg and Mary Lighthouse strips we loved so much during the comic’s fortnightly days. This won’t be the last we see of Escape’s chart either. But first, I mentioned a blockbuster movie-like cover, didn’t I?

For #54 OiNK gave us just a sample of all of the press coverage it had been gathering. Working our way down this impressive list, the Fantasy Advertiser quote came from an article written by Lew Stringer marking OiNK’s release, we’ve seen The Sunday Times and The Guardian already and as for The Press Council (of all people!) just keep an eye on the blog for that one (which I’ve already hinted at a couple of times in this post).

Sounds was a music newspaper along the lines of NME but sadly we never got to see the actual article this quote was taken from, and I love what the comic has decided to highlight from NME’s piece. How very OiNK! The News on Sunday obviously hadn’t made it far beyond its OiNK article in #37 above, and Escape brings up the rear.

Moving on to the monthlies we now find ourselves with the first of the bumper issues, #63. Relaunched for a new target audience, a plethora of press clippings were included on the Grunts page (or OiNK’s Piggin’ Crazy Readers as it was now known) with the tagline “New readers start here”.

Mainly they’re different bits of the articles we’ve seen already, however it’s nice to see more of that Sunday Times piece that was unceremoniously cut off in #50 just as it started talking about the eco-message in Jeremy Banx’s Burp strips. At the bottom you’ll see a clipping from The Sunday World, a tabloid rag available this side of the Irish Sea that likes to preach morality while sowing lies, hatred and division. So kudos to OiNK for proudly proclaiming how it reported on the comic’s existence.

Oh, and if you’re interested in the issue they’re criticising it’s #47, which was on sale at the same time as OiNK’s Smokebuster Special was distributed free to schools in England, but that would be seen as a positive so obviously the tabloid wouldn’t mention it. You can see the OiNK calendar with the offending football match and as for the “walrus with an alien coming out of its mouth”? Really, Sunday World? That would be horrible! It’s actually Burp the Smelly Alien’s sentient stomach spitting out a live oyster. Get it right! (Just goes to show you how closely these critics paid attention to what they were criticising.)

The final press clipping is from #64 and it updates us on OiNK’s standing with the readers of Escape magazine, whose votes saw our piggy pink publication skyrocket from 28th position to 17th since just three photos ago. From everything included throughout this post OiNK seemed destined to last and last, to soar ever higher in Escape’s charts and give us many more years of prime pork.

Unfortunately, just four issues later it would all come to an end. But OiNK’s legacy is still intact. It’s a legacy which some lesser informed commentators dismiss as one that caused complaints and controversy, but as you can see the reality was very different and so much better!

Christmas, OiNK Media Coverage

SPEAKEASY #81: A CHAT WiTH MARK RODGERS

12 December 2024 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

Just five short months after the previous issue of Speakeasy that featured on the blog came their Christmas issue, complete with snow and holly on the title (as it should be) and our piggy publication got a headline mention too. That’s because inside there was a massive double-page spread all about our favourite comic.

OiNK featured in the earlier issue in a much smaller way. Here, an unknown writer (no credit is given so it could be anyone out of Cefn Ridout, Dick Hansom, Bambos Georgiou and Nigel Curson) chats to OiNK co-creator/co-editor Mark Rodgers and the big news was that OiNK was finally going weekly with #45!

I remember the first time this was announced in the comic and I was absolutely thrilled. The loss of some key characters to a semi-regular basis and a reduction in pages was a bit of a shock though. If I’d been reading Speakeasy I’d have had a heads up and Mark’s explanation about some characters being on a regular rotation makes perfect sense. If only the comic itself had told us this at the time, maybe more readers would’ve stayed around.

There are a handful of previews for the new weekly strips here, showcasing Lew Stringer’s main characters who would now always have full pages to themselves. David Haldane’s are shown in their entirety and Billy Brown’s Black Hole was a one-off but even on such a smaller scale Simon Thorp’s detailed artwork still looks the part. Two-thirds of it are shown here even though we wouldn’t see it in OiNK until #68, the final issue!

“The pigs started taking over. We eventually decided to call it OiNK.”
Mark Rodgers

The piece begins with the well-known tale of how OiNK’s three creators (Mark, Tony Husband and Patrick Gallagher) met and, once we get to the point in the story where OiNK received its name, the writer takes every opportunity to insert a surprisingly well-crafted pig pun. The article focusses on OiNK’s independence and what set it apart from its contemporaries. Most interestingly, Mark likens OiNK to its stablemates when they were younger comics, when they pushed the envelope with their own rebellious senses of humour.

But by the 80s what was once rebellious had become stagnant. OiNK was their attempt at rekindling that same feeling for the modern audience. I’ve no doubt those that complained about OiNK failed to see the similarity to the comics from their own youth. Other interesting tidbits here include Mark admitting the humour was going to be gently changed to appeal to the middle-ground of their readers’ ages, Burp is misspelled throughout for some reason, and the DallasEnders photo strip mentioned wouldn’t actually see the light of day until #63, the first monthly.

“It’s going back to the basics of children’s humour comics really.”
Mark Rodgers

Lew Stringer also pops up towards the end when he’s asked about his involvement with the weekly relaunch. To help with the quicker turnover of issues Lew was asked to design half a dozen of the covers, three of which he would draw himself and the rest would be handed over to others. Lew discusses the idea behind them and it’s interesting that he came up with a theme for them in response to the fact the issues themselves would no longer be themed. Clever.

There’s one point here that’s particularly relevant. Mark talks about some of the more popular characters and how readers could identify with them. They were highly exaggerated versions of us and our likes, dislikes and behaviours of course, but it meant we could laugh at ourselves alongside the celebrity spoofs and random characters inside the comic. In a world where certain corners of the internet bemoan comics (and other mediums) wanting to create identifiable characters for modern audiences, it’s clear they don’t know their own comics history. It’s always been a thing, whether in superhero comics or silly ones about pigs and plops.

It’s time for a quick look at some other little bits that caught my eye as I read this edition of Speakeasy. Some things never change, as some got into a tizzy over new Bible-based comics. They were reported on as “obscene” and “degrading”, created by “perverts who should be prosecuted”. Reported as such in a tabloid that had topless women every day and another that constantly runs bikini photographs of celebrities the second they are of legal age.

A paragraph about the atrocious ratings of a Marvel TV series ends with the first news of one of my favourite shows of all time, the 80’s War of the Worlds. Well, the first season was ace and ahead of its time, a superb sequel to the 1953 movie and which had a clear multi-year arc long before Babylon 5. But then the studio began interfering. When they didn’t get their way they fired show runner Greg Strangis, relaunching it with a completely different season two which was lame, contradicted everything that had come before and killed off any non-white characters (but I’m sure that was just a coincidence, right?). Am I still bitter all these years later? You betcha.

Marvel UK’s licenced comics get an update (the update for Fleetway would have you believe they only published 2000AD), however there’s no word on those Action Force issues being the last. Then there’s a rather familiar name associated with an anti-smoking campaign and I for one would be happy to be incorrectly identified as that person. Finally, Pat Mills and Hunt Emerson brought us a role-playing game book that just might have a point behind it. It’s subtle.

That brings us to the end of another look at Speakeasy, a time capsule for the comics scene of the 80s. I know it was publisher Fleetway’s idea to turn OiNK into a weekly but Mark seems genuinely enthusiastic for its potential. It’s always enjoyable to read about his love of the comic, it’s so infectious. Christmas 1987 was such an exciting time for pig pals, with the very best issues of OiNK the team produced, the first OiNK Book and news of the weeklies to come.

Very happy memories indeed and you can relive them (or discover them for the first time) in the OiNK Real-Time Read Through. Enjoy!

GO TO SPEAKEASY 76

CHRiSTMAS 2024

SPEAKEASY #76: ‘PAPER PRESS PiGS

18 April 2024 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

This is #76 of Speakeasy, a sort of newspaper about the UK comics industry which began life as a fanzine in 1979 and would go on to become a monthly resource for comics fans and the industry for over 120 issues, all the way through to 1991. Above is the front cover as it would’ve been seen on the shelves, fitting in perfectly with all of the other similarly-sized UK comics. However, that wasn’t its true front page.

I think this was rather neat! It opens out to tabloid size and is printed on similar newspaper stock. With 20 of these huge pages there was certainly plenty to read in the days when we relied on print publications to deliver us our comics news. Bambos Georgiou, who drew Blimey! It’s Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters (after Lew Stringer’s early issues) was editor at one stage, although by now that job was Richard Ashford‘s.

Bambos is credited as the ‘UK Correspondent’ but in reality publishers Acme Press Ltd was the creation of his, Richard, Cefn Ridout and Dick Hansom, who readers of the blog may know better as the editor of Dark Horse International’s Jurassic Park and Aliens comics. The connections with other blog comics continues as Death’s Head/Dragon’s Claws/The Sleeze Brothers editor (and friend of the blog) Richard Starkings designed the logo.

It’s a meaty read and there’s a lot packed onto each page but I did spot this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to Visionaries, although it’s short on details. This issue of Speakeasy went on sale on this date back in 1987 and the American Visionaries comic would launch as a bi-monthly in November, not coming over to this side of The Pond until Spring 1988. Also, the less said about that He-Man movie the better, yes? I still shudder with the memory of the one night I watched it back then!

So anyway, why am I showing you this issue of Speakeasy? Simple, it’s because OiNK gets a mention. This shouldn’t really be surprising news when you spot a page summing up a lot of that month’s releases, however there’s more to it than that as far as OiNK is concerned. It mentions the banning of the comic from the kids’ shelves in W.H. Smith (boo!) and the surprising revelation to me that John Menzies didn’t stock it at all!

I remember visiting a John Menzies in Oban in Scotland as a teen, when we spent summers in a small village in the highlands of Scotland, and I’d spend my hard-earned waiting staff wages on games for my Commodore 64 that was waiting for me back home in Northern Ireland. If I’d known, I’d have went elsewhere. However, as you can see the column here says they were only losing OiNK about 10,000 sales per issue. Yes, it’s not to be sniffed at when you’re the publisher, but when OiNK was selling 100,000 and more per issue I honestly thought the figure would’ve been higher.

I do like the fact Speakeasy calls for its readers to do the complaining now and gives us the address to write to one of the newsagents in question. “Bring Back the Bacon to Where It Belongs!!” Love it! You can check out the reviews for the two issues mentioned here, #34 and #35 on the blog. No mention though of how these two issues saw the transition between original publisher IPC Magazines and Fleetway Publications.

This full-page advertisement for that year’s UK Comic Art Convention stood out to me as well thanks to a couple of photographs I’d already seen that were taken at this very event. You’ll see Tom Thug and Pete and his Pimple cartoonist Lew Stringer’s name on the page as a confirmed guest, alongside OiNK contributors Kevin O’Neill and Dave Gibbons and several of the talented creative team from Marvel UK’s Transformers.

Not mentioned are more of Uncle Pigg’s finest workers who all appeared at an OiNK panel during the weekend. Below are two photographs kindly supplied by Lew showing the team taking questions from the audience with their 80s hair dos in all their glory (and Lew rocking the OiNK t-shirt).

In the first photo (from left to right) we have the panel’s moderator Theo Clark, then Lew himself, Ed McHenry (“swigging pop” according to Lew), David Leach, Davy Francis hidden behind him and Jeremy Banx! In the second photo you can see Ed more clearly and on the far left is Viz co-creator Chris Donald. OiNK was at the height of its popularity at this point, (despite the best efforts of the aforementioned newsagents) having just enjoyed its first anniversary, the release of its first Holiday Special, the first annual was in the can and some of the comic’s best issues were about to hit the shelves.

Also of note to blog readers (and readers of its social media) is a little bit about Transformers and Action Force (G.I. Joe), namely Dave Gibbons drawing the cover to #133 of the former which is worthy of a mention in the news and there’s also a preview of his art. Action Force gets more space here with the announcement of a monthly comic to compliment the weekly, for sale both in the UK and as a way of repackaging British stories into a smaller comic to sell in the States.

The thing is, while it states here that this new comic would be released in a few months, Action Force Monthly wouldn’t appear until the following summer after the weekly had already been cancelled and merged with Transformers. It’s interesting to see it wasn’t originally planned as a replacement for the cancelled weekly but instead fans of Duke, Snake Eyes and Scarlett were meant to have both a weekly and a monthly to enjoy every month.

OiNK may have only got a small mention here but I’m always on the look out for my favourite comic of all time popping up in media of the day. It was nice to see it being taken seriously in the pages of Speakeasy and the call for support to get it back among the children’s comics. Speakeasy itself is a fascinating snapshot of the medium in the 80s and if you’re a fan of the decade’s comics you could do worse than picking up a few issues to see how your favourites were reported on.

GO TO SPEAKEASY 81

OiNK! iN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS!

24 September 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

These two issues of OiNK were linked by a somewhat famous incident in the life of the comic when #64 published what was initially just another funny page. However, it resulted in a follow up in #67 when it became the topic of conversation in a rather important place in the UK. I don’t think many of our comics have the honour of being a search result on the government’s website, but that’s certainly the case with OiNK. Let’s start at the beginning.

Back in the review for #64 I highlighted writer Howard Osborn‘s Ten Things You Need to Know About the New Poll Tax, retooled as a way of taxing parrot owners across Great Britain, which made about as much sense as the real thing. It was a hilarious piece of satire at a time when Margaret Thatcher’s Poll Tax on the mainland (it never made it over here to Northern Ireland) was getting ridiculed across the media, from the news to Spitting Image. Now a children’s comic was having a go too.

As I said in the review certain points of this feel very prescient, which is actually something I’ve noticed in a lot of OiNK’s more satirical jokes recently. The Poll Tax itself was so universally hated I can remember it being on the news constantly, even though I never paid attention to such things at a young age. The aforementioned latex puppets probably helped in that regard.

Fast-forward three months and #67 had the blurb, “As read in the House of Commons!” emblazoned on the cover. Inside, Uncle Pigg announced that a young pig pal by the name of William Pickering had reached out to local Labour MP Jeff Rooker, who the comic describes as William’s “pal” and showed him OiNK’s piece, for which Howard finally received the writing credit. Uncle Pigg thought readers might like to know his fine publication was then spoken about (and even quoted) in the corridors of power.

It’s quite funny to think this happened at the time, our little comic being referred to by the government and not in a critical way like some late Northern Ireland politicians who had wanted it banned. Instead the rebellious, anarchic OiNK was being held up by a government official, albeit as an example of the contempt felt by the populace for the party in power. But that’s not the end of this particular story.

OiNK had proved its point beyond its wildest dreams

The text is from Hansard, the official record of the UK parliament. “From what I remember, Hansard made contact with us and informed us,” OiNK co-editor Patrick Gallagher told me. “It’s what we pay our taxes for, particularly Poll Tax in this case.” Just for the blog, Patrick reached out to Uncle Pigg on his tropical retirement island for comment, who snorted, “The impression I got was that they [Hansard] were a fan. Don’t forget, we also made an excellent impression on Edwina Curry so we were well respected and talked about in certain quarters of the government, too.” Indeed, here’s a photo from the Smokebuster Special promotion to prove his point.

The parliamentary records are much more accessible today thanks to the Internet and a quick search for ‘OiNK’ in the year 1988 brings up the full session from that day. This includes the complete exchange between Rooker and fellow MP Patrick McLoughlin who, in typical Conservative fashion, completely ignores the point of why the comic was quoted in the first place.

OiNK’s inclusion by Rooker was to show how the tax was so widely unpopular that even children were mocking it. Rooker also clearly explained he didn’t read comics and that a young child of a constituent had pointed it out to him. Despite all of this, the Tory member accuses Rooker of having nothing better to do than read comics, which just showed everyone McLoughlin had no good response to OiNK’s ribbing. He really should’ve just stayed seated and quiet.

So there you go, the day OiNK was read out in the House of Commons. If you’d like to see it on the government’s website for yourself you can check it out at this link, although the screenshot above is all there is on OiNK. I loved the original piece by Howard and seeing the ruling party’s pathetic response just makes it all the funnier. OiNK had proved its point beyond its wildest dreams.

OiNK Media Coverage, OiNK Merchandise

CRASH #42: A SPECTRUM OF PiGGY PiNK

26 June 2022 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

In 1987 “The Mag That Saves Your Bacon”, Sinclair ZX Spectrum computing magazine Crash (which ran for 98 issues between 1984 and 1992) approached IPC Magazines about interviewing the OiNK editors regarding the comic for a special preview of the forthcoming computer game. During these conversations the idea of producing a special edition of the comic to give away inside Crash came up. Co-creator/co-editor Patrick Gallagher told me the magazine’s publishers Newsfield were receptive to the idea, very open-minded about what it could contain and paid the OiNK team to produce it. That issue of Crash went on sale today 35 years ago.

So, with a special feature and an extra edition of my favourite comic of all time I just had to track this down on eBay. This is the only issue of Crash I’ve ever read. I found myself reading more than just the OiNK related pages too and have included some highlights I found particularly interesting below. First up though is the interview and a special page from Frank Sidebottom. The comic itself I’ll keep for a review post of its own, which you’ll be able to read in a few days. So what exactly would an issue of Crash involve? Here’s the contents page, with a little guest appearance from a certain explosive personality.

What it means by “it’s not really page 59″ is the fact the free comic was in the centre of the issue so if you opened at page 59 it would plop out. The title of the interview is another reference to George Orwell‘s Animal Farm, which OiNK parodied in #30, on sale at the same time coincidentally enough. In the editorial Roger Kean kicks things off by pointing out the free comic and the article, noting this is the first time they’ve ever teamed up with another publication.

Graeme Kidd‘s article is longer and more in-depth than the one featured in Zzap!64 the month before. While the Zzap preview had told the origin story of OiNK, Crash spoke with Tony Husband directly and there’s some wonderful pieces of information for pig pals. Zzap mentioned the initial idea had been for a fanzine, here Tony is able to elaborate on the reasons behind that. The initial chance meeting in a local library between Patrick and Mark Rodgers (both working on Whizzer and Chips without knowing each other) is also mentioned, a tale I’ve heard before briefly but again there’s more detail here.

“It’s a success story the comic’s creators hardly dreamed of.”
Graeme Kidd, Four Legs Good

There are some little factoids for fans such as OiNK’s sales, the dummy issue being met with a divided opinion at IPC Magazines but ultimately championed by the people who would make the call (Youth Group Managing Director John Sanders and ‘John Painter’ is an error, that should be Bob Paynter Group Editor of Humour Comics), the original strategy in its creation and how the idea of putting together a small, weekly comic was changed to a larger, fortnightly one. Of course, that weekly format is the one OiNK would eventually turn into (much to the annoyance of some).

There’s a funny moment when we find out a certain comics publisher wasn’t too happy with OiNK spoofs of their characters (one example mentioned can be seen in #18‘s review) and a horrific episode for a young reader whose mum showed just how hypocritical those who think they’re morally superior to others can really be (like certain scaremongering tabloids). At the end there’s a very quick preview of the game which, after painting a fascinating picture of the comic, shows us probably the most uninspired screenshot possible.

To see the original Janice & John strip Tony mentions check out #7‘s review and for OiNK’s response to the complaint make sure to read #28‘s!

Over the page from this piggy pink spread we get a little something extra from Frank Sidebottom in the shape of a guide to computers, which is really a competition page with rather wonderful prizes. If I’d known Crash had a free issue of OiNK and the chance to win original artwork, t-shirts, mugs etc. I’d have been all over this as a child, even if I wouldn’t own my own computer for another four years.

I must add a little caveat here. This doesn’t look like Frank’s usual handwriting and it’s been signed “Topbottom”. I initially thought he’d been in a rush to complete it for Crash’s deadline and that was the reason for the change in style slightly, but some fans believed it wasn’t his work when I initially shared this post on social media. I checked with Patrick who can’t remember if that was the case, but he’s certain Chris (Sievey, the man behind the mask) wouldn’t have knowingly let anyone else do it, especially if it meant copying his OiNK work. So I’m going to say it was him.

Just wait and see Frank’s contribution to the OiNK pullout comic, it’s proof indeed of just how much he’d put into his work for kids.

So that’s OiNK’s contribution to the magazine itself and strangely enough I can’t find evidence of the all-important game review in any following issue. Does this not bode well for the quality of the finished product? No, even if the game had been absolute trash the magazines of the time would’ve reviewed it and given it an appropriate score. But from my extensive research into the rest of that year’s issues (and those from 1988 as well) it just wasn’t reviewed by Crash. However, Zzap!64 did so watch out for that soon.

The debut of the brand new 007,
Timothy Dalton!

Back to Crash and as I said the free comic will be getting its own review post (as well it should) but I wanted to highlight two particular features in the magazine that stood out for me personally in this delightfully retro read. I’m a big fan of both James Bond and Nintendo, so first up was news of not only the next Bond computer game but also the brand new movie it was based on, The Living Daylights and the debut of a brand new 007 which is always an exciting occasion.

That actor of course was Timothy Dalton, who is still my favourite in the role to this day. His second movie, Licence To Kill is not only the best Bond film in my opinion it’s also my second favourite movie of all time (behind only Jaws, in case you were wondering). Unfortunately, with MGM going bankrupt a year or so later the movies paused until the mid-90s and by that stage Dalton wanted to move on. But The Living Daylights is a superb film and here Curtis Hutchinson took a look at its stunt work. Special mention must also go to that gorgeous Oliver Frey cover above! That would’ve made for an excellent poster but alas it was only ever to be found in A4 size and covered with text.

There’s also an advertisement for the game, which like a lot of our gaming adverts back then didn’t include a single screenshot. The Spy Vs Spy game was also a favourite later on when I got my Commodore 64, based upon characters from Mad Magazine, itself one of the influences behind OiNK’s sense of humour and satirical edge.

I do love a good contemporary retro article about new releases in the things I’m interested in. It’s always fascinating to look back at how they were written about at the time. The next thing I want to show you is another such example. As a kid I remember friends getting so incredibly hyped over new Nintendo consoles but I only became a fan later down the road with the Game Boy and GameCube machines. These days I’m fanatical about my Nintendo Switch and so this was a very enjoyable read about “Mattel’s Nintendo”. Mattel helped Nintendo with distribution in the UK but it was wrongly labelled as their machine and simply called “a Nintendo” by many at the time.

What’s lovely and quaint here is how the ZX Spectrum range of computers are compared very favourably to the flashy new Japanese console by Crash’s whole team. Of course this is a Spectrum magazine and so it was always going to be that way. I remember later issues of Commodore Format in the mid-90s comparing the ageing machine (which I still adored and used even then) favourably against the latest gaming tech. Bless. This article in particular is like a snapshot of the industry at the time. Oh, and for those Nintendo fans reading, the news pages carried information on a price cut to the system already but it must’ve been too late to edit the article. The two bundles had been chopped down to £99.99 and £155.00, which was fierce competition for the home computers of the day!

This has been a surprisingly magical trip down memory lane, one I’ve enjoyed immensely. Don’t forget about that Zzap!64 preview of the game and a Retro Gamer article from 2021 has also featured on the blog, containing an interview with the man behind the game. But we’ve not quite finished with this edition of Crash, as the free comic is still here waiting to be seen by blog readers. I’d assume for many it’ll probably be the first time you’ll have seen it too. It’s blog review will be here in a few days. After that the Zzap!64 review of the OiNK computer game itself will reveal how good/bad it turned out, which you’ll be able to read from Saturday 9th July. Later in the year I’ll have some articles from my own teenage favourite, Commodore Format to share later with you too. Plenty to het stuck into then. Bye for now.

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