I instantly remembered this issue’s story when I read Egon’s silliness on Anthony William’s and Dave Harewood’s cover to The Real Ghostbusters, and what Jeff Anderson’s cover to Transformers and Action Force promised and the reality inside were quite different things.
Reprints were everywhere at the time and Transformers would eventually explain to its readers it was to allow the US strips to get ahead again and the three-story/black and white format was to combat rising costs. I wish they’d explained straight away though, it could’ve stopped some from leaving and missing out on some truly amazing UK and US stories over the next 111 issues. As a teen I’d never read Wanted Galvatron Dead or Alive so I was a happy little reader getting to enjoy new-for-me Death’s Head!
Anthony Williams was one of the very best artists on The Real Ghostbusters. As entertaining as the cover is, it doesn’t do him justice compared to some of the strips he illustrated. Dan Abnett’s prose story represented by that cover is completely daft, but then again what should we expect from the person who wrote every single one of those hilarious Spengler’s Spirit Guides? Name-Gremlin was just an excuse for lots of silly sounding names. This isn’t a complaint. Far from it. It’s brilliant and even surpasses Dan’s usual quotient of laughs.
Another strange choice for top billing on the checklist this week. While a new issue of Death’s Head was always going to be celebrated, having a milestone 150th issue of one of your biggest titles released this week and it not getting the ‘Don’t Miss’ spot seems strange, especially as how new issues of Doctor Who Magazine frequently got that honour. At the time of writing this post the mag is currently at #630, so marking the 150th of this monthly is making me feel really rather ancient.
The Seventh Doctor guest stars in Death’s Head of course, so perhaps we can forgive Marvel UK this once for its choices, as long as the big issue of DWM gets the same treatment next week, I say. This particular story was another wonderful addition to the Freelance Peacekeeping Agent’s résumé with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, especially with his own time machine. Although, the ending is a dubious one. It goes against the Doctor’s character in a pretty essential way, almost ruining the whole issue for me. You can read my full review at the link further below.
This week’s advert isn’t for a new comic but rather a series of new books.
I have a distinct memory of obtaining the money for one of these books but only vague ones about the contents. I remember being in a local bar having lunch with family. I would’ve been around 11-years-old and I was given money to play a fruit machine but I had to do so with an adult (technically it was gambling), so a family member played it with me. I won some money, argued over having to give half of it to the person that supervised me and then went to a nearby shop and bought the book with the shark on the cover. (Regular blog readers will know I’ve always had a soft spot for anything with comical sharks.)
While researching for this post some Ghostbusters fan sites have these books listed as collections of strips from the comic. I was sure the book was a prose story with rather large writing and big illustrations which took up most of each page, and I seem to remember it didn’t take me long to read it. Thankfully I eventually found some eBay listings for the other books in the series and my ageing memory was proven right (so you Ghostbusters Wiki pages need to update yourselves). For a moment I thought I’d gotten it mixed up with one of my many, many other Real Ghostbusters books. (I had so many!) Ah, the joys of getting old. Thanks Ghostbusters and Doctor Who!
I’m off to console myself about my advancing years, I’ll see you all back here in seven days when we’ll see if the checklist can make things up to the Time Lord and the latest contemporary ad is (like last week) for a comic based on a classic cartoon, but this time one I actually liked. See you then.
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.
Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters comic appeared to be celebrating a week late on Brian Williamson’s and Nick Abadzis’ colourful cover on this day back in 1989. Rather simpler in design but probably more eye-catching was Jeff Anderson’s rather shocking cover to Transformers and Action Force (yup, G.I. Joe were back).
The story that stood out the most to me in the former was Culture Shock. Its main set up was Ray inventing something instead of Egon, even though Ray had done so before. But the strip stood out for a couple of other bizarre reasons. The first was the fact the invention was a blatant Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man) rip-off and Ray fights a random terror dog, the beasts from the original movie, with no explanation as to why one just pops up out of nowhere. Odd to say the least.
The UK strip in Transformers is again drawn by Dan Reed and I just love how his art looks in black and white, and this was before he knew they wouldn’t be coloured; when he does the level of detail he produces is second-to-none. The Classic Cover calendar is for May even though the month was about to end, the June one having been printed in error last month. Never fear, Lew Stringer’sCombat Colin was on the case and you can read it at the link at the bottom of this post.
On to the checklist details and Action Force (G.I. Joe) was back in Transformers after we said goodbye to the Visionaries for the final time last week. The Joes would remain with the comic beyond #300. The opening line to The Real Ghostbusters’ description will have that song stuck in your head all day, but other than that it’s an unremarkable checklist, the other three comics being repeats of last week’s entries.
It’s here that I actually take issue with things. Has interest in doing the checklist waned? Was it being phoned in? I said last week how I was surprised the special 50th issue of The Real Ghostbusters wasn’t the ‘Don’t Miss’ title when Action Force Monthly (which had been given the top spot) would be here for four weeks and could’ve been awarded it another time. To add insult to injury, it’s been given the spot again so there was no excuse last time.
Anyway, on with the latest contemporary comics ad.
I never realised there was a Marvel UK Popeye comic, but then again I was never the biggest fan of the cartoons. As a kid I felt the humour was outdated so it just didn’t appeal to me. (OiNK has a lot to answer for.) This advert isn’t exactly the most elaborate they’ve produced, is it? It looks like it’s been thrown together in rather a hurry, in fact. The comic itself wasn’t that popular either, lasting for only eight issues and one winter special before disappearing.
Next week there’s another odd choice made on the checklist as a big event issue of one of their biggest titles doesn’t get the attention it deserves and one of Marvel UK’s top-sellers gets the horrible “another chance to read” treatment. There’s another ad though, and it’s one that I may not remember from my comics but it does take me back to my childhood nonetheless. See you in seven.
The Mad Monk was a funny little three-panel strip from #28 of OiNK (the Fantastic Flying Issue), written by Graham Exton and drawn by Davey Jones. The character never appeared again, just another of those random little one-offs OiNK was so full of every issue. However, it may have been his last appearance but it actually wasn’t his first, as I’ve found out recently.
Regular readers of the blog will now know The Mad Monk first appeared in 1978 in Graham and OiNK co-editor Mark Rodgers’ university project, Germs where he was also drawn by Graham. All of Germs is now available to read on the blog and if you’ve done so already you’ll know there were a few precursors to OiNK strips and characters within its pages. This was one such instance.
However, not only do we get to see the origins of the strip in Germs as part of OiNK’s 40th anniversary celebrations, now we can get a little glimpse into how it also came to be in the pages of our favourite comic. “Just found an example of me making a pig’s ear out of an OiNK cartoon in early 1987,” related Davey when he found a note and pencil doodle of the strip and shared it on the OiNK Comic Facebook group a few years back.
“Script editor Mark Rodgers sent me the idea (by Graham Exton) and I drew it for OiNK #28 (May 1987),” he explained. “But why on earth did I give the mad monk those stupid little feathery angel’s wings, instead of the proper big wood and canvas constructions indicated in the rough, which would’ve been funnier and more ‘mad monk’-ish? In fact, the rough sketch is altogether better than my finished drawing. Sorry Graham, sob.”
Wanting to share this doodle and note from Mark with OiNK Blog readers, I asked Davey if he could tell us anything else about working on OiNK at this time.
OiNK Blog: Obviously The Mad Monk is a very short strip so I’m limited in what I can ask, but generally speaking how did you get involved with OiNK in the first place?
Davey Jones: When I was in sixth form at school I sent some samples of my cartoons to [Group Editor of Humour] Bob Paynter at Fleetway (or was it IPC then?) [it was IPC – Phil], who invited me to Kings Reach Tower for a chat and told me about OiNK, which was in the developmental stages. He sent my samples to Mark Rodgers, who wrote to tell me more about OiNK and suggested I send some ideas. So as soon as I finished my A-Levels I started bombarding them with scripts, and after a few weeks got something accepted. That was about it, really.
Henry the Wonder Dog was the first script of Davey’s accepted by OiNK, which he also drew. It was published to much giggles from readers in the first Halloween issue, #13.
OB: How did you find working with Graham, if you ever had any contact that is?
DJ: I didn’t have any direct contact with Graham until we connected years later through your OiNK page. I dealt pretty exclusively with Mark, although I did meet Tony [Husband] and Patrick [Gallagher] once or twice when I was living in Manchester, and would see Marc Riley when I’d drop into the OiNK office.
OB: I’ve spoken with other cartoonists like Lew Stringer who said he dealt pretty exclusively with Mark. How was he to work with?
DJ: Mark was great, always very encouraging and full of ideas and suggestions for how to improve a script. I’ll have a dig around and try and find some letters/scripts.
Watch out for more behind-the-scenes finds from Davey this Christmas (2026) on the blog, folks!
Thanks to Davey for taking the time to chat with me about The Mad Monk and OiNK in general. It’s always fun to peek behind the door of the sty!
It was a very exciting Saturday for me 37 years ago! Andy Lanning, Stephen Baskerville and John Burns teamed up for an excellent celebratory The Real Ghostbusters cover spoofing the cinema poster for RoboCop. Then, as an adult, having finally read the earlier issues of Transformers from before I started buying them as a kid, the return of Skids on John Stokes’ cover was equally as exciting.
Ecto-X was Egon’s newest invention and just like modern day automation it tried to steal their jobs! But just like modern AI it was a bit pants and it all went horribly wrong. At least in this comic it was beautifully drawn (unlike AI) and very funny. Like the first weekly (#14) it’s all one big story this week and ties in with the other features and prose story too. The Design-a-Spook competition was also launched. I drew a possessed HQ firehouse but never sent it in. You’ll never guess what someone else drew and won with?! Grrr!
In Transformers and Visionaries, Skids hadn’t been seen for 100 issues, languishing in the void after being displaced by time-travelling Cybertronians (it makes sense in context). He’s being stalked by inky black creatures from void space and Dan Reed was the perfect artist to bring these nightmarish creatures to life, and they look even better in black and white! His nighttime scenes in this story are particularly atmospheric. It’s the beginning of the Survivors arc, a brilliant months-long series of tales focussing on characters on both sides left out in the cold after the recent Underbase and Time Wars sagas. Some truly memorable times ahead.
In the other Transformers story, the wonderfully written, strong female leader of the alien planet just has to go against her character and fall for the male lead, doesn’t she? (In this case, Cloudburst’s Pretender shell.) Why did male writers always have to undermine the strong women characters they’d created? It so infuriating. Visionaries comes to its end (for the final time) and why the 50th issue of The Real Ghostbusters isn’t the big comic of the week on the checklist I have no idea.
That honour goes to the 13th edition of Action Force Monthly, or G.I. Joe The European Missions as it was called when exported. As exciting as it may have been to have Cobra going berserk in London, the milestone issue for the Ghostbusters really was superb and deserved that spot, especially as how this issue of Action Force could’ve been given the slot anytime over the next three weeks. Sometimes, I just don’t understand the choices made in these checklists. Oh well, part of the fun is seeing which one of our faves would make the cut each time.
No comics ads this week. No new ones at least. Next week however, a very popular cartoon character can be seen in an ad for their own monthly comic that I never even knew existed at the time. Until then, Make Mine… um, the MiNK Mlog.
Weedy Willy and Roger Rental, He’s Completely Mental are two of my most fondly remembered OiNK characters. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. We’re all familiar with their strips and art styles; Mike Green for Willy and Ian Knox for Roger. But that wasn’t always the plan.
Graham Exton went to university with one of OiNK’s three creator/editors, Mark Rodgers and I’ve previously shown the Germs comic they produced as part of their course. Graham was very heavily involved in OiNK in the early days, helping create characters, strips and the overall sense of humour as the dummy issue was put together in 1984 for IPC Magazines, the contents of which would be used for the Preview Issue two years later. Graham would contribute heavily to the early issues of the regular comic before moving to live in the Bahamas, which reduced his comics work somewhat. (Hey, it was the 80s, before the internet so seamlessly brought us all together no matter how far apart we were to adore each other’s cats.)
Graham created The Plops amongst others, including the aforementioned Roger and Willy. Not only did he create these two icons of OiNK, he also drew their strips when cartoonists were still being assembled. Ultimately, he’d be one of the comic’s main writers when it launched, for these two characters and plenty more. For OiNK’s 40th anniversary Graham has given me his kind permission to show pig pals those early, unpublished strips from the days when OiNK was first being put together. Some are still in their unfinished pencilled state, while a few of the Willy strips are complete and inked.
You’ll notice quite a difference between these and the characters we were eventually introduced to. Weedy Willy looks more like a regular boy, it’s his words and actions that give us the information (and the gags) on how weak and cowardly he is. Roger isn’t even called Roger! Barmy Barney was the precursor to Mr. Rental. As Graham explained to me, “I think it was Mark’s decision to use Mike Green’s weedy, spindly style for Willy rather than my more Baxendale-ish one. Similarly, Ian’s wacky style seemed better suited to the character [of Roger].”
The name Stuart Fellows also pops up in one strip, a name unfamiliar to me. “Stuart is an old pal from the Leeds days,” says Graham. “I expect he chipped in for that story. Most of our mates contributed ideas and scripts. You’ll see Keith Forrest’s name on Roger Rental stories, for example.”
Some of these early ideas of Graham’s would make it into OiNK in his scripts for Mike. A strip about Mandy’s recently deceased cat would be reworked and included in the Preview Issue and the introduction of Flash the dog, who now looked like it wouldn’t be too long until he joined Mandy’s cat, was used in the first regular issue. “The dog was named after a friend’s (school friend Rob) mangy mutt. Mike’s version was certainly weedier than mine, which is sort of generic IPC/Baxendale style.“
This was followed up in #2 with a reworking of a photography story. You can see Graham’s original completed strip and the full page from OiNK below to compare.
Graham would continue to contribute to OiNK via fax but less often, ultimately stopping altogether. “I continued to write Sweeny [Toddler for Whizzer and Chips] in South Andros, but dropped all the others on account of teaching,” he says. “Gums was the last to go. (I loved writing Gums. Such a narcissist prat!)” On that we can agree, I love that stupid ol’ shark!
“I continued to write and draw and started Tatertown when I was between jobs in Freeport, Grand Bahamas,” Graham continues. “That really improved my art, and I learned how to use Photoshop to colour the strips. Now I’m teaching comics colouring in my computer classes! One of my tenth grade girls is completely into it and coloured one of my Sweeny newspaper strips that never got published.”
Thanks so much to Graham for all of the great information and of course these original scans. I’ve always said I’d love to see the Creating OiNK section of the blog expand now that the full real time read through is complete, so this insight into the creation of these characters and their misadventures is gratefully received. I hope you all enjoyed it too, may there by many more to come.
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!
Lee Sullivan’s cover for this week’s Transformers and Visionaries combines the issue’s two robotic strips in one striking image rather than using a split screen, while Brian Williamson and Nick Abadzis provide us with my favourite of the four Real Ghostbusters in a solo role.
Sky Lynx was probably my favourite character from the cartoon, simply because he loved himself so much yet was so utterly charming and polite as he fawned. He doesn’t feature in any action this week, instead stealthily stalking Dreadwind, but it still made for an exciting cover even if Dogfight was in a different story. The female warriors are still portrayed poorly in unnecessarily scant clothing but at least they have a biting sense of humour when confronted by typical male arrogance.
At the time of writing this blog post one of The Real Ghostbusters strips feels rather relevant. All those fossil fuels we still continue to dig up are full of the haunted spirits of the creatures they come from. However, in a comic that has already had strong environmental stories, the solution is very strange. A deal is struck with the oil diggers that they’ll not harm the ghosts if the spirits ensure the well never runs dry. Not exactly sending the right message there, something the comic was usually very good at.
That wonderful Starscream tale ends in a surprisingly sad way as the maniacal not-quite-dead Decepticon pleads for release but two Nebulans slaughter him regardless. Death’s Head #7 continues to entertain with the funniest strip of his run and last week’s Doctor Who Magazine remains too. I’ve been informed it’s an Ice Warriors article, not strip, so in a comics checklist there’s no info on the actual comic story. Thundercats continues to limp on, again playing out like the weekly Ghostbusters comic but released only a fraction as often and already containing reprints. At least there was a new freebie to start collecting this month.
As promised, I’ve finally got a new contemporary comics advert to share with you. Now, as a huge fan of the cartoon and his humour strip in The Real Ghostbusters, you’d think I’d have been all over a Beano-esque humour comic with Slimer as the star, wouldn’t you? If you’re unaware of the comic in question, here’s a proper introduction to It’s Wicked after the teaser back in week 34.
At the time OiNK was still fresh in my mind, a comic that spoofed what it deemed to be the tired and safe comics of old. OiNK was a breath of fresh air, so It’s Wicked felt like a step backwards to me. To this 11-year-old it was using a new and exciting character to churn out the same old jokes that had originally put me off humour comics.
Plus, there’s the very obvious way It’s Wicked was a Marvel UK rip-off of Beano and The Dandy etc. Have a look at the cover of any issue and it just screams “DC Thomson could sue us for this”, from every part of its layout right down to the colours used on the logo! We wanted originality and using Slimer in this way felt cheap and nothing more than a ploy to sell us something pretty tacky. It’s Wicked would last for only 17 weekly issues and I never picked up a single one, and never felt like I was missing out. Did you try it? Was it as horrific as I assumed?
Oh dear, that was rather downbeat for the OiNK Blog, wasn’t it? Well, Marvel UK’s range did have its ups and downs, thankfully they weighed heavily towards the former. In fact, next week my own two comics have a big celebratory issue and the return of a favourite Cybertronian of mine. See you back here in seven, then.
This post is being written for OiNK’s Pre-Release section of the blog, and this is about as pre-release as you can get! We’re going right back to 1978, in fact. Back to OiNK co-creator and co-editor Mark Rodgers and writer Graham Exton’s university years and a special project they created, certain parts of which may be of particular interest to you pig pals out there.
“The Literature Degree that Mark and I were studying for at Leeds Uni had a publishing module, so we figured it would be fun to do a comic,” Graham tells me. That comic was Germs, the title an anagram of their initials (Graham’s middle name is Stafford). Looking back, it’s a fun little insight into the developing talents of both before they got their breaks in the comics industry, and you can read the whole thing in this post thanks to Graham.
Graham is very honest about what he thinks of the end result. “We did everything wrong, like drawing a whole page on A4 paper (not Bristol Board), not using scripts, lousy lettering, and cramming in so many pages we couldn’t break even when we sold it on campus,” he says. “Mark’s mum came to our rescue by charging 50p a copy to each customer at the British Legion she ran, then taking them back when they were ‘finished with’. She was brill, Our Shirl.”
Shirl wasn’t the only parent to help out. “My mum did the typing for the contents page on her fancy word processing computer,” recalls Graham. “Probably Ventura or some such. She had to figure it out herself as no one knew what a word processor was. It was the most professional part of the comic! So, like Ian Dury’sClever Bastards we had help from our mums. We learned a lot about publishing, which was great for Mark in particular.”
Eight years before OiNK hit shelves (six years before the team completed their dummy issue for the publishers as a proof of concept), there are hints within Germs of what was to come when they’d once again have the same level of creative freedom. While reading it you can tell that unique OiNK humour is in there, albeit in an early guise. There are plenty of spoofs, very random moments, strips referring to themselves as comic strips, even the way some of the titles are drawn feels familiar.
Mark and Graham were learning their craft, a craft they would both excel at, culminating in the comic we all love so much to this day
However, that’s not all. There are a few actual precursors to specific OiNK strips in here. The Mad Monk from #28 actually appears here in pretty much the same form, albeit drawn by Graham instead of Davey Jones. There’s also The Jolly Wedding, another one by Graham that would transform into a smaller three-panel strip drawn by the legendary Tom Paterson in The OiNK! Book 1988.
There are more too. “I liked Mark’s Police Vet strip [which would be developed further for the first book and #64], which involved getting a stuck Rhino out of a tree by chucking a brick at it,”says Graham. “Mark liked my Mad Monk strip, and had Davey Jones illustrate it for OiNK. Mark may have plundered a few others. There was one about a beach encounter where someone got hugged to death [turned into a page drawn by Lew Stringer in OiNK]. You can tell Mark and I grew up in the 60’s, when Bax and Ken Reid were at their wackiest and most violent.”
Yes, it’s rough around the edges but Germs should be seen in the context of when it was created, as Mark and Graham were learning their craft, a craft they would both excel at, culminating in the comic we all love so much to this day. There are some little treasures here though. Personally, I giggled at the array of different copyright notices, the depiction of an “Asst. Director”, all of the brill Bermuda ‘Narna (“Yoo hoo”) and the rendition of the 1812 Overture!
A rather simple Transformers and Visionaries cover by Jez Hall in comparison to the comic’s usual high calibre of front pages belies another excellent issue inside, while our characters’ dialogue on Dave Elliott’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters doesn’t make much sense given the image, which has been pointed out to me is a spoof of a Fantastic Four cover. This still doesn’t make the speech make sense and who out of this comic’s young audience would know an obscure FF cover? Weird choices abound.
In the American Transformers story the Mecannibals may have looked silly when we first met them but by now they were already among the best original creations the comic ever had. Pure evil with a comedic slant, I loved them! In the UK story the animated corpse of Starscream is the real highlight of the issue. Not confirming whether he’s actually living or dead, this had me glued to the story as a kid! Check out the link below to see Andrew Wildman’s depiction of him including some brilliant in-jokes.
In our other comic, main story Snack Attack had no dialogue whatsoever, playing out like a very funny silent comedy. A bold move for the strip that took up the most space in the issue. Spengler’s Spirit Guide tied in with this week’s prose story and included a spoof history of horror comics, while the Dead True series detailed a spooky urban myth tale centering around jealousy. Another great read all round.
Nice to see Visionaries actually getting a mention this week. In fact, Transformers gets a good chunk of the checklist to detail all of its strips beyond just credits for once. While the Mecannibals were a great addition to the story, the all-female warriors were sadly depicted as cringingly poorly as you can imagine. A bit of a spoiler about the true nature of Starscream there too! Also, you’ve just got to love some of the strip names the Real Ghostbusters team came up with.
Action Force Monthly and Death’s Head are the same issues as last time and if you haven’t checked out the latter before then you simply must read the highlights in the review from the comic’s real time read through, link further below. Such a funny story, full of slapstick. The big issue of the week was the latest Doctor Who Magazine, although I’m not sure if The Ice Warriors were the stars of the strip or a written article.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading some of the classic issues of the magazine for the blog and their rather unique output while the show was in its wilderness years. You can check out the latest of these in the Death’s Head section of the blog, an issue he made a tiny cameo in a few years after his comic ended. That’s us for now. Next time, we’ll finally get our next contemporary comics advert. It’s for a comic that really didn’t appeal to young me despite it starring a favourite cartoon and comics character. You can see what it was in just seven days.
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