Tag Archives: David Leach

Creating OiNK

YOU CAN QUOTE ME… WELL, THEM!

Leave a comment

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!

CREATiNG OiNK MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

OiNK Media Coverage

SPEAKEASY #76: ‘PAPER PRESS PiGS

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 MEDiA COVERAGE

MAiN OiNK MENU

Comic Reviews, OiNK Contributors

NOUNS: A DAViD LEACH EXPERiMENT

Leave a comment

I need to explain the premise of this comic’s existence before the review, so bear with me. Okay, so Web3 is a new-fangled idea for the next version of the internet which is meant to de-centralise the whole thing away from the small group of companies some feel have too much control over it. Web3 is based around things you may have heard about such as blockchains and token-based currencies and NFTs. (If you’re having to search for meanings for these terms I sympathise.)

It has its sceptics who believe it would simply take control away from one group of people and place it in the hands of another and that without regulation a whole heap of trouble could be the result (but Elon Musk hates it so it has that going for it). The push continues and many are behind the idea. I personally have no opinion because I’m lost already and I’m the one writing this introduction! Anyway, this is where the ‘Nouns’ come in.

You know that whole NFT craze that seems to have died a death? That’s what these are. Every day (apparently forever) a new Noun character will be created and sold at auction. Despite that character being bought by someone it remains devoid of ownership rights and anyone can use that character in any way they see fit. Seems counterproductive but apparently if they’re popping up everywhere then that’ll increase their worth to the person who owns them. Clear? Nope? Thought so, but this is where we find ourselves.

Whether this reverses the downward trend to obscurity that NFTs seem to be on is anyone’s guess but we’re here to read this premiere issue of a new comic based on the idea. Why? Because it’s been written by OiNK’s very own David Leach of Psycho Gran and Dudley DJ fame. In a nutshell, apparently public domain brands are going to “change the game”, the plan being that creators could then concentrate on the quality of what they produce and smaller creatives could share this space. So as a starting point does the Nouns comic work?

The story concentrates on a group of Nouns (basically human bodies with a wide range of completely random heads, anything from an onion to an old boot) making a pilgrimage to Nountown, where all of their kind came from, to meet their creator. It’s all quite overwhelming to begin with; it feels like all the characters are trying to talk at once in a sort of random, unfiltered fashion, perhaps like that used online by people who would have these as their avatars.

Over the first few pages it has a feeling of promoting these NFTs rather than telling a good story or developing characters, but thankfully this seems to be by design. It gives us a sense of their chaotic nature and the world in which they inhabit. In the second half of the comic it settles a bit, we get a decent (and funny) plot and two or three of these strange creatures come to the fore to become genuinely identifiable and likeable. 

It’s all drawn endearingly by illustrator Danny Schlitz, David handles the lettering too and colours are by Braga. It looks like a fun, innocent little children’s comic and for the most part it is. There’s some nudge-nudge, wink-wink bits of non-explicit adult humour that teenage readers will get a kick out of and which I found genuinely funny, but for the most part it’s child-friendly. Different audiences will get different things out of it, basically.

Pay attention and there are some genuinely hilarious callbacks to earlier scenes and dialogue towards the end of this first chapter. Once the plot itself gets going it’s fun and topical too. I won’t ruin it for you because it’s a nice surprise and the best part of the comic, so I wouldn’t want to take that away from the experience for any potential readers. I’ll just say it’s bang up to date and involves climate change, fast food and veganism in a clever way that’ll have you laughing.

The narrative captions in particular have many of the best lines. It’s a shame then that a few spelling and grammatical errors seem to have slipped through. These give it a sense of maybe being somewhat rushed to get it out into the market (while the market these are based on is crashing). I may be wrong of course, but it’s just the feeling I get. David’s name is also spelled wrong on the credits page so it may have been more to do with the editing rather than our lettering friend. These few errors (and it’s only a few) don’t take away from the fun to be had though.

At the end of the comic are adverts for various other projects based on Web3 and Nouns and they all went over my head but then again I’m not the target audience for such things. Speaking of which, this comic does have a very specific target audience, basically those clued into everything it’s based upon. I am very much not one of those people, so the fact I genuinely found this to be such a good laugh should say a lot.

I can see what the comic is attempting and it’s an audacious idea. Based on its originality alone it deserves some success. With David at the helm it has a good chance. As a fan of his OiNK work there are moments here that harken back to the best of his Psycho Gran strips and that same sense of dark, chaotic humour. It’s not often a truly experimental comic comes along and as pig pals I’m sure we can all appreciate that.

Nouns is a mini-series from Titan Comics and is available from all good comic book stores.

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS’ RELEASES MENU

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

Comic Reviews, OiNK Contributors

MONOLiTH: AN ACE ODYSSEY

Leave a comment

Hot on the heels of Lew Stringer’s Fanzine Funnies which reprinted the misadventures of The Prisoner’s large white ball, including his attempts to get another acting job after the cult television series ended, comes fellow OiNK cartoonist and Psycho Gran creator David Leach’s Monolith. Based upon the flat matte slab and key mysterious element at the centre of the plot to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, just like the Monolith itself this is a comic of few words. Or rather, no words for the most part.

While it only appeared in two films (Stanley Kubrick’s original and 2010: The Year We Make Contact) it appears their lack of a long and satisfying Hollywood career wasn’t for the lack of trying. Each of David’s three A5-size comics features 25 full-page movie poster-like illustrations of the Monolith in key leading roles from some of the most successful and memorable films in cinematic history. Naturally I’ll start with my favourite movie of all time.

While I half expected the Monolith to be in place of the shark, with perhaps a corner poking out of the water, the point here is that they’ve auditioned for lead human roles in all of these films, in this case the character of Quint from Jaws who was just perfectly played by Robert Shaw. Another Steven Spielberg movie favourite of mine is also a highlight from this first issue, as is a certain slice of 80s cinema magic starring the hugely missed Prince.

As you can see there are no captions or movie titles on any of these and part of the fun is the surprise when you see an image and realise it’s one of your favourite films. There were a couple here and there throughout the three issues that took me a few seconds to work out which film they were simply because I wasn’t that familiar with the original promotional image, but needless to say you should know them all, or at least the vast majority.

The middle issue starts off strong with a Free Willy piece, the best page in the whole issue for me. I just found it so funny to see this great lumbering rectangle replace the natural, elegant imagery of an orca. (That’ll be one hell of a belly flop.) So maybe he could’ve been Jaws’ shark after all. The Monolith’s impression of a Dalek somehow captures the cheap and thrown-together feel of those 60s serials, and for me David’s take on The Exorcist poster is infinitely better than the movie was.

At the rear of each issue are the answers to which movies have been pastiched and the Monolith explains why he didn’t get each and every part. For a movie prop they’ve certainly been subjected to an awful lot of allergies in their professional career. Thankfully that didn’t stop them from enjoying a full and fulfilling life if #3 is anything to go by. After a handful of new movie posters the rest of the final issue is made up of photos from the Monolith’s personal albums, beginning with that fateful audition day.

As well as having the obligatory James Bond movie poster this issue has images of all the key moments from an average person’s life. Such events as their first bike, first school play, Hallowe’ens and Christmases and even graduation are all given a new, and very funny, makeover thanks to David’s imagination.

This is just a small selection of the 75 illustrations David has completed for Monolith. Everything from Alien to Singing in the Rain, from Citizen Kane to Dirty Dancing is included. But you don’t have to take my word for how enjoyable this mini-series is, also included is a page of praise from some of those given an early look at the comics including a couple of notable OiNK alumni, namely co-creator Tony Husband and cartoonist Davey Jones.

Comedian Rob Deering gets the best quote, though: “Thanks – I’ll have a look and get back to you.”

This irreverence kind of sums up David’s work better than anything. If you were a fan of his OiNK contributions then I can’t recommend these highly enough. At £5 per issue you can get yours from Dead Universe Comics in Aylesbury by contacting them on 07852 836307.

Go on, treat yourself, or since the festive season is just around the corner throw a Christmas hint at a loved one!

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS’ RELEASES MENU

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

OiNK Comic Reviews

OiNK! #51: OFTEN COPiED…

Leave a comment

The latest cover from Lew Stringer is one of my most memorable simply because of how inventive it is. Surely OiNK’s was one of the best comic logos ever created, right? Of course I could just be biased, but the logo co-editor Patrick Gallagher created always seemed so bold, so different and so joyful as a kid. It still gives me all the feels today. Tom Thug appearing behind a sea of it is a great idea and you can take a look at the original artwork and the overlaying of the logos in a post on Lew’s own blog from 2015 when it was up for sale.

On the Grunts page Uncle Pigg tells us how the audience reading OiNK is rather different from the one it was originally created for, apparently now mainly made up of teenagers and young adults. I asked co-editor Patrick Gallagher, who also compiles the Grunts pages, how they found this out.

Patrick says, “When we said the audience had changed, I think that was based on audience research from Fleetway plus our original audience (like yourself) was getting older too, but we couldn’t disregard the ‘Whizzer and Chips and Buster‘ younger end of the audience, hence plugging Tom and Pete later in those particular comics (which didn’t cost anything).”

This would in turn lead to the comic slowly changing over the course of the weeklies until it rebooted itself as a monthly “magazine”, to quote #63. For now though, let’s concentrate on the issue at hand and inside our cover star had a page-and-a-half to cause chaos with and a cut-out mask on the back cover (which you’ll see in a future post) so he’s very much the star this week. His strip has a new guest star too, in the shape of his newly created brother.

Like all the best Tom Thug strips it moves into brilliantly scripted slapstick, only it’s not Tom who’s the main recipient of Lew’s penchant for comic violence this time. Well, apart from the front door, with that funny little detail of the wall going down to the brick from the force of Ernie’s entrance. Ernie would be back in the next issue before leaving for good (adding this little fact after reading the next issue seven days later). It’s always fun to see their mum too, what with her being the complete opposite of everyone else in this little dysfunctional family.

“Today’s the day we discover the teddy bear’s graveyard.”

Burp, Jeremy Banx

Reading this in this digital world we now find ourselves in I can’t help but think, given Tom’s attitude towards the army and what he thinks his brother actually does, that our resident bully would definitely have a flag or a football top as his Twitter profile avatar. Lew has said before that Tom would definitely be a cowardly internet troll today. Also, is it just me or does Tom’s mum remind anyone else of their own mum in the 80s? It’s uncanny. Must be the hair.

Moving on to Jeremy Banx’s Burp and I was delighted to find out I was initially wrong about having seen the last of a certain character. Back in #32 in a bid to fix a little girl’s broken teddy bear our friendly smelly alien mistakenly created sentient life. Puzzled by the toy’s lack of organs, skeleton, brain or in fact anything, he thought this was the cause of the girl’s heartbreak so he brought Alvin to life, only for us to see his owner tear him limb from limb in a game of doctor and patient. He returned in #46 and ended up sizzled like a well done steak.

It’s always fun to see another ludicrously-named gadget Burp just happens to have either lying around or invented, with appropriately hilarious results. Will Alvin reappear in the remaining issues that include Burp? Well I’m not going to try and answer that since I was so wrong last time, but given how some of his internal organs have become recurring characters I’d love to see the bear and the coffin pottering about in the background of his spaceship! (UPDATE: Ahem… they did indeed just the following week.)

I showed the punchline from last issue’s Billy Bang and then realised I haven’t showed a full strip of Billy’s since way back in #4’s review when he was drawn by Shiloe (Viz’s Simon Donald). Nowadays Eric ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson has the duty of exploding the bad tempered lad every week and the puns, which had started to become a little repetitive, are now fresh and funny again thanks to a mixture of writers taking on the task. This week it’s the mysterious ‘Griffiths + Kane’. Also watch out for the facial expression of the fish in the water which I just love.

Billy’s original creator Mike Knowles even admitted he never thought the character would last because of the limited premise but he did, passed on to other creative teams as the comic evolved over time. This ever-shifting roster of talent defied odds again and again and he’d remain a regular all the way through to the end. Well, when I say “regular”, even before the reduction in pages (with #45) OiNK’s roster of regular characters was too big for any one issue.

While all other humour comics had a set amount of regular strips which would neatly add up to the amount of pages needed OiNK was (as always) different. It still had those strips which would appear every fortnight/week, but there were a load of characters that were still deemed regulars who didn’t appear all the time. It was always exciting when your favourites popped up and it kept things fresh, and if OiNK had continued for years and years I’m sure we would’ve seen the return of some of those absent these past couple of months.

Horace Watkins by Tony Husband
Cowpat County by Davy Francis

Here’s a perfect example. Two strips we’d all agree were main OiNK strips. Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins continues with his ever-more-ridiculous spoof football drama, a strip which appeared in all but one issue. Then we have Cowpat County which appeared in the first 14 issues (plus the preview) but as new characters were introduced it began to appear irregularly, sometimes every issue, sometimes there’d be a gap. Its length also became more fluid, appearing as mini-strips as well as full pages.

I don’t think any pig pal would argue this made Cowpat County any less of a regular strip, it was just the OiNK way of doing things. In fact, it’s been a while since we got a full page from Davy’s Farmer Giles and it’s an extra special treat to see one in colour, complete with what has to be described as a ‘classic’ joke, surely? Speaking of regulars though, the absence of The Sekret Diary ov Hadrian Vile Aged 8 5/8 Years is glaringly obvious. This is the first regular issue he hasn’t appeared in. Some good and bad news about that in a few issues’ time.

I’m sure we can all agree with the trouser press

One of those characters introduced back in #15 when OiNK’s line up got a shake-up was Lew Stringer’s Pete and his Pimple. This issue sees the first of the reader suggestions for a solution to Pete Throb’s massive spot problem. First asked for in #45 these ideas came thick and fast for the rest of OiNK’s run, starting points for the majority of Pete’s strips to come. I’ve included this one here for two reasons. The first is simply because it’s the first one and I wanted to mark the occasion, the other is for its co-star, the trouser press. Read it, enjoy, and when you get to the final panel you’ll understand.

I’m sure we can all agree with the trouser press in this situation. (There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.) The colouring might seem a bit odd on first glance but I think it works. There were a few pages which would feature two set colours on this thinner matt paper instead of the various grades we got even in black and white strips on the glossy pages (up to #35) and the higher grade matt used for the remainder of the fortnightlies (beginning with #36). A lot of traditional comics had examples of one colour being used to make certain pages stand out, usually red.

OiNK’s contemporaries like Buster and Whizzer and Chips had a lot less colour than OiNK despite being eight pages longer, and would still use the one colour to set some of those apart, but mainly they were in black and white. Billy Bang and Tom Thug also use just the two tones in this issue to produce the feel of a colour page. I think Wilkie does it best since he has a lot of water in his strip, and in Tom’s look closer and you’ll notice only the small tub of water and the inflatable ring are coloured. But the effect works, cleverly highlighting these items before they became part of the slapstick.

It was rare for Psycho Gran to get a full-colour strip. Fans are used to seeing David Leach’s gorgeous technicolour in her stories today in new digital and physical comics he releases now and again. In OiNK her strips would be of varying length but always in black and white so it’s a lovely surprise to see her latest in colour, albeit limited due to the page stock. Also, for once she’s acting in self defence and not inflicting her unique sense of humour upon others.

I’ll be covering the little old lady’s post-OiNK life at some point on the blog but in the meantime it’s a bit of a shock to realise that after this she’ll only appear in one more regular issue before the comic’s cancellation!

If there was ever an OiNK cartoonist who liked to make sure readers got plenty of value it was Davy Francis. Some of the biggest laughs have come from the backgrounds in Davy’s strips, the incidental moments happening behind the main characters, the little gags squeezed into spaces usually left for scenery by others. While little one-off Mabel the Model doesn’t have as many as some of his previous, this particular one had me giggling with its nod to a favourite TV show.

Davy would always elaborate upon the script in his art and Mabel’s script was written by Hilary Robinson (2000AD, Mindbenders, The Worm: the longest comic strip in the world) who you can read all about on her page of the Women in Comics Wiki, including details of her scripts for 2000AD and what ultimately happened to that working relationship. Just like Davy (and myself), Hilary is a resident of Northern Ireland and I assume a friend of Davy’s. Unfortunately, this would be her only contribution to the comic.

Another newsagent reservation coupon by co-editor Patrick Gallagher rounds off another review. I can confidently say last week’s issue (the celebratory 50th) wasn’t a fluke, OiNK really has settled into its weekly guise; it’s back to its random nature, as evidenced with Tom Thug’s larger than normal strip above most of all. Some missing characters have also popped back in and best of all, until it changes format again we have another 11 weeks of this to go! The next one of which will be reviewed in seven days on Saturday 25th February 2022. See you then.

iSSUE 50 < > iSSUE 52

OiNK READ THROUGH MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU