In 2026 I’ll be starting a new regular series for OiNK’s pig pals, specifically those pig pals who wrote in to Uncle Pigg and had the thrill of seeing their name in the comic. Grunts was the letters page which had everything except letters on it! Drawings, celebrity spoofs, newspaper clippings (about OiNK or anything pig-related really), jokes for Nasty Laffs & Specs… you name it and the young readers had thought about it and sent it in.
To kick things off, here’s something special for the holidays: The Grunts Celebrity Special! Whether it was a reader spotting one of their favourite 80s celebs name-checking their favourite comic, a bonafide celeb pig pal themselves getting in touch, celebs partaking in an OiNK photo shoot voted for by readers or a politician meeting one of the editors. These appearances kind of went over my head as a kid, however as an adult it’s fun to see the waves this very different comic was making in the world of 80s entertainment.
As I sit here enjoying my glass of Red, Red Schloer we begin with #10’s Grunts, back when readers were lining up to send their problems in to be laughed at by their porcine pal, and the first celebrity appearance is UB40 frontman Ali Campbell! It’s a quote from another magazine spotted by Rupert French from Congleton in Cheshire and Uncle Pigg uses it to request readers let him know of any stars who Can’t Help Falling In Love With OiNK.
The next big musical name to grace the pages was Ian Astbury of The Cult who really was a true fan of the comic. Ian even bought OiNK mugs and t-shirts before he was interviewed by co-editor Tony Husband in the guise of Janet Street Porker, OiNK’s resident entertainment reporter. A quick preview of this appeared on the Grunts page of #15, below.
As I noted in the review for #16 this was quite the scoop for a children’s comic and a very surreal moment for Tony, seeing as how he was a fan of The Cult too. The MADchester music and cultural scene in 80s Manchester is well documented and has been the subject of many a documentary. It was a centre of talent, innovation and creativity, and OiNK was right there at the centre of it. Not only physically (given the office’s proximity to those in the scene) but also in its popularity with bands, singers, writers and more. You can read a little bit more about this in the issue’s review and in the post about my phone chats with Tony.
Below The Cult interview you can see the newsagent reservation coupon and a band called The 3 Johns, who I’d never heard of before this. This was actually another band of Jon Langford’s. Jon’s art can be seen in a few issues of OiNK after he was brought on by Tony and he and his band The Mekons starred in a couple of photo stories too! Also in #16 was a rather original competition, in which one lucky (depending on your point of view) reader could win a pop concert in their home. Le Lu Lus (or ‘Lelu Lu’s’) contacted OiNK as fans themselves and became the prize.
It’s time to Say Hello… to the next celebrity guest on the Grunts page of #22. Where this photo came from is anyone’s guess. Was it in a magazine like above? Is the excellently-name Ferny Bubble of Wandsworth, Southwest London a friend of Marc Almond’s? Or just a very keen pig pal? Marc of course was best known for being one half of Soft Cell, whose Tainted Love is still a floor filler (at least in my living room) to this day.
Not even celebrities were immune from Uncle Pigg’s jibes! As we …Wave Goodbye to Marc check out that Read All About It box next to him. This was the first time a press clipping about OiNK appeared in the comic as the wider printed media started to sit up and take notice. You can read all of the many clippings the editors loved showing off in their own blog post.
Half a year after their pop music special the OiNK team put together another musically-themed issue with #29 and it contained a few links back to the previous one, the biggest one being a full-page strip to announce the winner of the concert-in-your-home competition. Martin Benster was lucky he lived in Prestwich. Prestwich is a part of Greater Manchester and the OiNK guys couldn’t afford to send the band further afield so they were always going to choose someone local!
If you head off to #29’s review (don’t forget to come back) you’ll also see one of those great Mekons photo stories.
Two weeks later came the results of the OiNK Awards, in which readers had been given the chance to vote for their favourite (and least favourite) celebrities in a variety of daft categories. Biggest Wally, Worst Pop Song and Unfunniest Comedian were just some of the awards the kids had their say in choosing. While most of the winners were represented as Spitting Image Workshop puppets, BBC Radio DJ Steve Wright was game for a laugh and appeared in person to be presented with his Most Irritating DJ award by fellow DJ John Peel.
There’s one more special appearance in OiNK by a well-known public figure and it’s back to the Grunts page itself. Unlike most other comics OiNK included reader contributions in its specials and annuals, and in the pages of the second OiNK Holiday Special up popped the then-Health Minister Edwina Currie alongside Frank Sidebottom and co-editor Patrick Gallagher… not that Uncle Pigg appreciated this description!
This was part of the big anti-smoking push that OiNK was also a part of with its free Smokebuster Special given away to schools in the north of England. At a special event involving a bunch of lucky pig pals the press were in attendance including the South Manchester Reporter, which appears to have been Patrick’s old stomping ground.
There’s a rather funny story (infamous in the history of OiNK) related to just after this photograph was taken. The three editors (Patrick, Mark Rodgers and Tony) and Frank (Chris Sievey) saw all of the children back to the railway station and got them onto their respective trains home. Then all four of them lit up! The thing is, the press hadn’t left yet. But hey, this was all about stopping the kids from starting and they were out of sight, so you can’t fault the team’s ultimate goal. You can read highlights from the special Smokebuster edition of OiNK and its clear message in its own full review.
That’s our quick tour through the celebrity cameos from OiNK’s run. If you remember having something printed in the pages of the world’s funniest comic please get in touch via the contact form on the blog, or through social media (links in the main menu) or email at OiNK.Blog@iCloud.com. The new Grunts series is due to begin next September and will be updated quarterly with all of the reader submissions from the issues released over that time, and it’d be great to speak to some of those featured. Have you still got your Piggy Pink Prize?
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