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Creating OiNK, OiNK Contributors

OiNK iNTERViEW SERiES: PART TWO

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Welcome to the second of four parts to this OiNK Interview Series, in which I sent the same four questions to some of OiNK’s greatest talent and I’m publishing their answers all together, one question at a time. The response to last week’s post has been phenomenal and the blog’s stats have been skyrocketing. Every time this happens it’s always great to know I’m not alone in keeping this wonderful comic close to my heart all these years later.

Last week I asked the team what their fondest memory of their time on OiNK was and many of them mentioned working as part of this particular team. Suitably then (even though I sent all of the questions at once) this second question digs down into those previous answers a little. It seems those creating OiNK enjoyed reading it just as much as we did!

QUESTION TWO

Whose work did you admire the most in OiNK?

LEW STRINGER
Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla,
writer of Ham Dare

“Difficult question because with so many different styles everyone brought something fresh and exciting to the comic. Jeremy Banx was always one to watch because he pushed the envelope with what he could get away with. J.T. Dogg did spectacular work of course and I was pleased with our collaboration on Ham Dare, Pig of the Future. It was also good to see David Leach’s style develop. Psycho Gran is such a great character and I’m pleased he still creates new stories for her today.”

DAVY FRANCIS
Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb,
Doctor Mad-Starkraving

“There were so many artists I admired on OiNK but my absolute favourite is Ed McHenry. He introduced me to dip nibs and they were a real game changer in how my style looked. I’m very lucky I met Ed, he is a true gentleman who loves his work. Fun fact: He was a drummer for Roy Orbison in the sixties. Fun fact 2: I hitched a lift in Roy Orbison’s white Rolls Royce.”

DAVEY JONES
Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom,
Kingdom of Trump

“There were loads of really good artists working on OiNK, Lew Stringer and Ian Jackson spring to mind. I think it was Jeremy Banx’s stuff that struck me the most. It was very funny, and unlike anything I’d seen in British kids’ comics before. There was one Burp strip about him going on holiday to a secluded planet, and he’s inadvertently brought along a wasp in his spaceship which escapes onto the planet, and he knows then that he can never return – the presence of the wasp has ruined his paradise. I don’t know why that has stuck in my head all these years.”

PATRICK GALLAGHER
co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang,
designer of the OiNK logos

“Ian Jackson’s.”

KEV F SUTHERLAND
Meanwhile…, The Three Scientists,
March of the Killer Breakfasts

“I loved Frank Sidebottom‘s stuff, and was also a fan of his music, so being in the same comic as him was a thrill. I thought Jeremy Banx and Lew Stringer‘s stuff were the funniest. Lew is the deserved star of the comic and it’s no surprise that his was the work that carried on into Buster.”

GRAHAM EXTON
writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes,
Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car

“This is tough, as there were so many great writers and artists. I was very partial to Ian Jackson‘s covers and Hadrian Vile strip, and I always found Jeremy‘s nose-related strips hilarious.”

IAN JACKSON
artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins,
OiNK Book 1988 covers

“Jeremy Bank‘s Burp.”

ED McHENRY
Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages,
Igor and the Doctor

“Awkward question. Let me explain. When each new copy of OiNK appeared, I would clip out my stuff, this was then placed in my safe deposit box at my bank, the rest of the issue was then used to line the bottom of our budgerigar’s cage. So tell me, did I miss anything good?”

DAVID LEACH
Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ

“I admired them all. I felt humble to be in the same comic, it was a comic that made me laugh. I loved the different styles, I genuinely don’t think I had a favourite, although the three artists I felt symbolised OiNK were Husband, Stringer and Banx.”

STEVE GIBSON
artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements,
Ponsonby Claret

“Favourite OiNK artist? Banx. No question. Funny, witty and a great writer/cartoonist. I loved getting to see his original art. Only met him once in London for about 4 seconds as I had to dash back for a train.”

JEREMY BANX
Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith

“So much good stuff to choose from. So many talented artists and writers. Mark Riley‘s Harry the Head always sticks in my mind. Loved the simplicity of his drawings and his daft ideas.”

Can I just say I agree with every single answer here? I’d have been useless if someone asked me this question. My answer would’ve been as long as this whole post. Our next question is one I’ve been particularly looking forward to. After reading about them admiring each other’s pages we ask about their own creations. It should be an interesting one (again). Come back next Saturday, 14th December 2024 for the responses to this:

What’s your personal favourite piece
you contributed to OiNK?

QUESTiON ONE < > QUESTiON THREE

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OiNK iNTERViEW SERiES: PART ONE

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Welcome to first post in what should be a fascinating four-part OiNK series this festive season. I came up with some general questions about our favourite comic and handed them over to no less than 11 of OiNK’s finest contributors. Every Saturday between now and Christmas Day I’ll publish all of the responses for each question in turn, so we can get an insight into what it was really like to be a part of the world’s greatest comic.

The OiNK team have always been so forthcoming with information ever since the blog began and their enthusiasm for the comic hasn’t diminished one iota in the decades since they first tickled our funny bones. It’s been a joy to put these posts together and reach out to some of my comics heroes. So what’s the first question?

QUESTION ONE

What’s the fondest memory that comes to mind
when you think back to OiNK?

DAVY FRANCIS
Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb,
Doctor Mad-Starkraving

“Fondest memory was meeting all the artists and writers at the OiNK launch party. It’s a bit of a lonely profession drawing cartoons and comics so it was great to meet up and yack about drawing and comics.”

DAVID LEACH
Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ

“That first UKCAC show in 1988, I think, when I got to meet other cartoonists for the first time. I met Davy Francis, Lew Stringer, Davey Jones, Ed McHenry and Banx. It was wonderful. I felt I’d found my people.”

DAVEY JONES
Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom,
Kingdom of Trump

“Probably just that sense of open-mindedness you got from the editors. My main point of contact was Mark Rodgers and I’d send him script ideas which he’d either approve or turn down. But you always felt that he’d be open to any kind of silly ideas. I remember buying a volume of Spike Milligan’s Goon Show scripts from a jumble sale, and for a while after that the stuff I was submitting was a bit Goon-ish. So you felt you could sort of muck about and try out different things.”

STEVE GIBSON
artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements,
Ponsonby Claret

“Memory? I remember meeting Mark and Tony (Husband) and Pat (Gallagher) as they were cobbling the first few issues together. They were working from inside a cupboard in Manchester back then. It was hard to tell them apart because we all had hair then, including Pat. It felt like an exciting time to draw comics, and I could always meet a deadline because I learned to draw in my sleep thanks to Pat nagging me. Hey Pat! How are you?”

PATRICK GALLAGHER
co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang,
designer of the OiNK logos

“Meeting up with Tony and Mark immediately after we received the news that OiNK had been formally commissioned.”

IAN JACKSON
artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins,
OiNK Book 1988 covers

“Photo story shoot with Mark Rodgers dressed as aliens, and his girlfriend Helen as someone we were trying to abduct from a local park.”

ED McHENRY
Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages,
Igor and the Doctor

“Printed on quality paper with excellent colour reproduction, everybody could sign their work or get a printer credit, well paid and all your artwork returned. What’s not to like as they say.”

GRAHAM EXTON
writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes,
Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car

“Visiting Tony‘s house with Mark was brilliant because Tony was such a nice chap. I noticed his stack of Peter Hammill albums in a corner – we bonded over music. We also had a fun time discussing Uncle Pigg‘s helpers, the Plops.”

JEREMY BANX
Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith

“A lot of fond memories. Getting the ideas and drawing them up against the clock was hard work but fun. Meeting up with the other OiNKers at conventions and stuff was a highlight. I remember, with great fondness, the process of getting the idea that Burp‘s organs should be independent living beings with their own ecology. Also when I realised that his liver should be Dr Devious, the notorious super villain. The nice thing about that was it felt like the character was revealing himself and it almost wasn’t me doing the work at all.”

LEW STRINGER
Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla,
writer of Ham Dare

“There are lots of happy memories but I think just having regular work in an IPC comic for the first time felt like a major achievement, even though I’d been contributing to Marvel UK for a few years by then.”

KEV F SUTHERLAND
Meanwhile, The Three Scientists,
March of the Killer Breakfasts

“It was my big break, so the best thing was being a proper professional comics creator at last. I was holding down a day job and doing my OiNK work at night, and it had taken a whole year of sending something off every single week before I got in. I would send something to 2000AD who’d say ‘you’re too cartoony, you should send it to OiNK’, and to OiNK who’d say ‘you’re too action-y, you should send it to 2000AD’. OiNK broke first.”

And so it begins! Even though very few of the OiNK team ever worked from their Manchester offices, you’d never think it from these replies. They were clearly a fantastic team, whether they ever met each other or not, and admiring of everyone else’s creations. It pleases me no end that it seems OiNK was such a great comic to work on. Make sure you come back next week, Saturday 7th December 2024 for question two, which will be:

Whose work did you admire the most in OiNK?

See you then.

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DAViD LEACH CONQUERS THE UNiVERSE #3: DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TALK (AND TALK)?

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Did you know OiNK cartoonist David Leach is also a secret agent who has saved us from Godzilla-like monsters and Predator-like alien invasions? Well, if you didn’t pick up the first two issues of his occasional comic series David Leach Conquers the Universe now you know! It’s been a long time coming (#2 was released seven years ago) but #3 has finally arrived and is available now for all pig pals to buy.

In his four-issue series David’s character is self-deprecating, sarcastic and skilled at annoying the baddies with his endless patter, all the while being a hilarious spoof of action movie stars. This issue moves into familiar James Bond territory with a villain who has a suitably outlandish scheme, living in a secret lair with a band of minions (in this case a faceless robotic army). We even get a brilliantly funny ‘Q’-type scene in which he picks the most useless piece of tech imaginable, one which you instantly know is setting up a very specific pun for later in the issue, making the pay off even more satisfying (and hilarious).

As in the previous issues we get strange interludes of some people bent over a tabletop role-playing game who seemingly control the scenarios in which David finds himself. His reference to the mysterious “They” shows us he’s clearly aware of some higher power but it always comes across as conspiratorial, leading to ridicule from his family in a great opening scene where he’s hired for a new top secret job right in front of them.

My favourite moment is when he’s reminded about how he’s meant to keep a low profile in his role as a secret agent for M.A.R.S. (not Destro’s organisation in G.I. Joe, the acronym here is much better) before being lectured about appearing on Come Dine With Me, something the real David actually did back in 2013! I nearly bust a gut laughing at this moment.

I won’t give too much away here about the villain, his profession or his overall plan because it’s one of the highlights of the issue. What I will say is, after Godzilla and Predator, David clearly had his eyes on the Bond franchise next and as a fan of those films I can say he does not disappoint! Having met already, a later scene has our sort-of-hero notice something different about the man who now holds him at gunpoint.

The character of David here has an innate ability to talk. In fact, very often throughout the series his mouth gets him into all sorts of trouble because he doesn’t seem to have a brain-mouth filter. Just how much of the fictional David is based on the real-life one? I couldn’t possibly answer that, but you do come away with the impression that he’s having a good laugh at himself throughout these comics.

There are so many hilarious moments here and it’s so difficult not to tell you about more of them because they’re that good! It’s a catch-22 situation of course; I want to tell you more about the contents so you know just how brilliantly funny it is and you’ll want to buy it, but if I do so it’d ruin those moments for you and you wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Plus, this is David’s job, for which he deserves to be paid for his work and at a measly £4.99 this is a bargain for the amount of laughs you’ll get in return.

Not only was I delighted to see a third issue after I’d assumed there’d be no more, the addition of the new ‘#3 in a four-issue series’ banner on the cover shows there’s another on the horizon. With said banner and the open ending (the panel below is not it) I do hope this means David has already begun working on it and we won’t have to wait as long for the conclusion.

Why have I reviewed the third issue first? Simple, because it’s new and, while I will be adding older comics released by OiNK’s cartoonists as the blog continues, any new releases will get covered straight away. No, you don’t need to have read the first two issues of David Leach Conquers the Universe to enjoy this one, but they’re all so good why wouldn’t you?

Published by Aylesbury comics shop Dead Universe Comics their website is down at the time of writing but it’s easy to order by phone. They’ll be happy to take your order on 07852 836307 and for £4.99 you’re going to get 36 pages chock full of brilliant art and even better laughs.

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PSYCHO GRAN COMIC CAPERS CAVALCADE #3: REVENGE iS A SWEET OLD LADY

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Before you go and search through the blog to find reviews of the first two issues of David Leach’s Psycho Gran Comic Capers Cavalcade I’ll tell you know you won’t find them. Yet. This blog was relaunched in 2021 and the previous two editions were released before that. Psycho’s earlier Cavalcades will eventually get included but for now I’m concentrating on the brand new issue that David has released through Dead Universe Publishing. Featuring a selection of strips originally released digitally in Aces Weekly this is their more natural home, on the printed page. And what lovely printed pages they are; 36 high grade glossy A4 pages and a thin card cover, really bringing David’s gorgeous colours to life.

Presented in “Widescreen Psycho Vision” the original landscape format for the digital comic means the reader has to turn this on its side, making the pages feel much larger when held, almost like a Psycho Gran broadsheet! It adds to the appeal and uniqueness of the comic and feels like a natural fit for what David has produced for us.

There’s a bit of a theme with some of the stories (all multi-page affairs apart from the front cover) as we meet some of her friends from the Netherworld who make up her book club. This seems appropriate given how it’s been emphasised before how old she must be and yet she just keeps on going. Speaking of her innate ability to give a middle finger to the Grim Reaper she goes up against what is surely her biggest foe to date: Covid.

As an obvious fan of the character from right back when she first appeared in OiNK #15 (my second issue as a kid so she was there from the beginning for me) is it just me or for a split second do you almost feel sorry for the virus here? Just for a second though. I won’t give anything away but you know she’ll come out on top of this fight. It’s how she manages it that makes us laugh. You’ll just have to buy the comic to find out for yourself. This strip is worth the entry fee alone.

Among the remaining stories we see her visit the grave of her deceased husband in what starts out as a surprisingly touching strip that slowly begins to wander back into familiar territory, bringing with it an ever-broadening smile from the reader. Her book club then returns in the largest strip of the issue with some imagery which definitely wouldn’t have made it into the pages of the kid-friendly OiNK!

This particular story also involves a trademark of Psycho Gran as she takes revenge out on those in the world that really deserve it, like in previous issues where she went up against pavement jumping cyclists or footpath hogging joggers. There’s a feeling these are being ticked off David’s own personal hit list of pet peeves and they’re always the funniest of all the strips.

Those who con little old ladies out of their money, polite queue jumpers in supermarkets and show-off swimmers in the local pool should all watch out from now on. Then, just as you think the comic couldn’t possibly surprise us any more it brings a brand new look to the character with a cheery, saccharine reboot as ‘Psycho Granny‘ in the style of old school traditional British humour comics, the type that OiNK itself was created in response to.

As it is this is already a funny take on the whole premise, never mind the ending which I won’t spoil for you, although I’ll just say it’s another reason for pig pals to get their trotters on this comic. So how do you do so? Aylesburty comic shop Dead Universe Comics have published the Psycho Gran Comic Capers Cavalcade series for David and if you’re not in the area you can order from them by giving them a bell on 07852 836307.

At £4.99 this is a bargain for all OiNK fans and fans of highly original, genuinely very funny comics in general. On the inside back cover is a comics checklist of sorts, of all of David’s physical releases to date. Psycho Gran Comic Capers Cavalcade #3 is the perfect starting point for anyone wanting to get into the modern publications from anyone in the OiNK team and an absolutely essential purchase for dedicated pig pals.

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Creating OiNK

YOU CAN QUOTE ME… WELL, THEM!

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A few years back I wrote an article about OiNK for a fan-produced magazine called Comic Scene. It’s a magazine that has been cancelled, returned in a different format and cancelled again more times than Uncle Pigg has had hot swill. The article was for their ambitious but ultimately factual-error-filled (and also cancelled) partwork series History of Comics. To accompany it I also wrote about my top six issues of OiNK and was able to get some fantastic quotes from some of the comic’s team to use as a box out.

For whatever reason neither of these were used. I thought not including the quotes from these incredibly talented cartoonists (who had all happily got back to me with their thoughts) was particularly surprising. Well, to mark the 1986 release date of OiNK’s preview issue (and the first OiNK review on the blog) here are the quotes I was able to muster in time for the article’s original deadline but which never saw print for whatever reason. They’re a nice little insight into the making of OiNK and I’d like to thank everyone for contributing at the time.

STEVE McGARRY

“It was more than an honour to be asked to contribute to those first few issues of OiNK, it was a damned inconvenience.”

DAVID LEACH

“Working on OiNK was a fantastic experience, it featured my first professional cartoon character and it marked the start of my professional career as a freelance cartoonist.

“I got to meet life-long friends and it got my foot in the door. As such it holds a soft spot in my dangerously enlarged, erratically beating heart. OiNK was the start of my professional career as a cartoonist. I had seen a preview copy of the comic and just knew I had to be in it. I contacted Bob Paynter, Group Editor of Humour Comics at IPC at the time and he offered to send my work sample to OiNK if I did a job for Whizzer and Chips. I ended up drawing a four issue pull-out strip called Phil Fitt and Brad Habit, which got published and in return my sample strip for Psycho Gran got sent off to OiNK and that was that!”

JEREMY BANX

“Working on OiNK was hard work and great fun. I’d never expected to work in comics so it was a strange adventure for me. I learnt a huge amount and it certainly changed the general direction of my travel.”

LEW STRINGER

“OiNK came along at just the right time for those of us who were still new to the comics business. We were full of ideas and still young enough to be able to relate with what the readership wanted. It gave us the perfect opportunities to develop our craft and come up with strips that wouldn’t fit in with the more pedestrian formularised comics. It was such a fun time to work in comics. We all had a great time and I think that shows in how fondly OiNK is still remembered all these years later.”

DAVEY JONES

“Thinking of OiNK, I reckon the main thing I remember is how open they were to stuff which wasn’t necessarily in the traditional British comic format. They liked the more familiar style of Buster/Whizzer and Chips style strips as well of course, but were also happy to look at stuff that was a bit different. I really liked the things that Jeremy Banx was doing with Burp the alien, which were sometimes these short, funny science fiction stories, and I hadn’t really seen anything quite like it in comics. So you felt like you didn’t need to follow any particular formula when submitting scripts, just think of daft stuff that they might find funny.

“The other thing that occurs to me is how encouraging [co-editor] Mark Rodgers was. I’d send him the scripts first, and quite often he’d turn them down, but he went to some trouble to explain where I was going wrong (the stories were too complicated, or I was trying to fit too much in etc.) which I appreciated a lot, because he could have just stamped the word REJECTED on them.”

KEV F SUTHERLAND

“In 1986 I was desperately trying to break into comics so I was sending something, at least every week, to both 2000AD and OiNK. OiNK would reply saying my stuff was too superheroey or dramatic and that I ought to send it to 2000AD, and 2000AD would reply saying my stuff was too funny or cartoony and I should send it to OiNK. It took a year until, finally, it was OiNK that broke under the pressure and let me in with, I think, a Rotten Rhymes script which they let me draw.

“I then got increasing amounts into the comic, especially my Meanwhile… strips which ran to a page each, reaching a climax with #68, a third of which was written and drawn by me (including The Plop Factory, a parody of Stock Aitken & Waterman in the style of an EC Comics horror story). That was the final issue of OiNK, and I was back where I started, desperate to break into comics.”

GRAHAM EXTON

“By an eerie coincidence, all of us who contributed material for Rrrassp! comic (as OiNK was first called) wrote strips featuring pigs. So Bob Paynter suggested making pigs the main theme. I’m not sure if it was my idea, but Mark and I both liked the Tharg and Stan Lee characters who communicated on the 2000AD and Marvel letters pages, hence Uncle Pigg. I think the Plops were my idea, but given the theme of pigs they were pretty well inevitable. They were based on Leo Baxendale‘s squelchies who were Grimly Fiendish‘s minions years before Despicable Me.

“Mark and I met with Tony [Husband, co-editor] in his home and I was struck by his lovely paintings and impressive collection of Peter Hammill LPs. I have not met Patrick [Gallagher, co-editor] in person though we are Facebook buddies. I was impressed with his ability to mimic other artists’ styles. Mark and I did a few fumetti [photo stories] when he and wife Helen came to visit me in South Andros, Bahamas. We roped in our neighbours too.

“The funniest strips I was involved with were the two Herbert Bowes ones. He had a lot of things up his nose. Jeremy Banks’ art made them super funny. The third one involved the Starship Enterprise (up his nose), but I couldn’t make it work, so never finished it. My all-vegetable theatre strip (with fab Ian Knox art) festered in my brain for many years before emerging, butterfly-like, as Tatertown, a strip I give away on Facebook. I did it mostly to learn how to use Photoshop, but it now has a life of its own.”

DAVY FRANCIS

“I loved working for OiNK. As well as scripted stories, I was allowed to use my own jokes, so I would send off scripts – thumbnails, really – and if I got a yea, then I’d draw it and send it off. I was doing Ciderman at the same time, and working in the Housing Executive full time, so it was a very busy time. However, I loved it. One mystery remains: what happened to the German version of OiNK? It ran for 3 issues, but I’ve never seen a copy.”

PATRICK GALLAGHER

“From my earliest recollections of OiNK, going way back to its development stage when Tony, Mark and I had never produced a comic before, or suffered the logistical nightmare such a dream job brings, it all felt excitingly experimental and risqué. Those feelings became the form and the norm that remained right up until the final issue, which I think gave OiNK a certain sense of unpredictability and edge throughout its life, with room for error and genius in varying measures.

“Yes, some things worked better than others; OiNK was never perfect but what carried it through was its ‘voice’, which never faltered. That was the combined comedic soul of Tony, Mark and me. That is what I am most proud of and what our brilliant contributors latched onto to make OiNK something special.”

These were from a few years ago, before this version of the blog was even launched and since then more of OiNK’s creative team have reached out to me for the blog and other reasons, hence the non-appearance of some key names above. It actually gives me an idea for the future but I won’t say anything yet in case I jinx anything. Thanks again to everyone above and to everyone who has been such a great source of information, OiNK and otherwise!

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