The Gift is exactly what it says on the tin, an absolute gift of a wee comic that’ll simultaneously have you roaring with laughter while pulling on your heart strings. As you’d expect coming from Davy Francis (Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving, Cowpat County) it’s as unique a comic as you’re likely to find. Even its creation was very ‘Davy’.
A few months back I was having coffee with Davy and Peter Duncan of Belfast’s Sector 13 Comics when Davy pulled out a selection of random little bits of paper of various types and sizes. On each was drawn one panel of a story. He’d been randomly drawing each image whenever the mood took him on whatever he had to hand. What I saw that day was brilliant and deserved to be seen by others.
Peter was of the same opinion and had the means to make it happen. Sector 13 originally began by creating and publishing the entertaining 2000AD-inspired Sector 13 comic. In recent years they’ve branched out into publishing comics by other local writers and artists. Their latest release is Davy’s The Gift, which comes in a small square format in keeping with his original sketches.
It was released during the Enniskillen Comic Fest and there was something of an embargo on story or even character details beforehand as no one wanted to give anything away before its publication. Hence why I’ve waited until now to review it for the OiNK Blog, so that I can give you a few details in this review, although I’ll make sure not to spoil anything for you.
Part of the joy of this comic is not knowing anything about it beforehand, but that could make for a somewhat bland review. So what can I tell you? It involves a Bruce Wayne/Batman-type character called Dwayne Castle, who lives in a castle. His alter ego is… The Rook. Along with his Alfred-like butler friend the set up is a very funny take on the original Batman legend but it goes much farther than that.
How it develops is the part I don’t want to tell you about because it’s the whole point of the comic. It’s strange to be highly recommending something when I can’t mention the main plot point. What I can tell you is how funny it is. Any fan of Davy’s from OiNK or any of the other publications he’s appeared in over the years will instantly take to this, whether you’re a Batman or superhero fan or not. Thankfully, Sector 13 haven’t tidied the images up too much so you can still see the different types and shapes of paper Davy used, giving it the feel of him sharing each one with you personally and an insight into his crazy cartoonist mind.
Davy’s inimitable style shines all the more here, possibly because he was originally only drawing these for his own amusement. As such, you can feel the love that went into each image and when you read the dedication to his late dad at the beginning you’ll understand why. Having read this dedication you’ll then feel a lump build up in your throat as you read the second half of the tale, the half I’m not going to discuss.
Well, I say ”read”, but this is a silent comedy. There are some of Davy’s trademark background gags like shop signs etc., but other than those this is without speech or narrative captions. Each image takes up a full page and acts like a snapshot of a particular part in the lives of the two men at the centre of the story. Some spoofs of DC comics and scenarios from well known aspects of Batman’s life act as funny little pages in their own right, but it’s the overall story that makes this worth every penny.
I really can’t recommend this enough. Now, £7.00 might sound like a lot for a silent comic, especially since every page has just the one panel, but at 52 pages there are a lot of images here to savour. That’s the way to read Davy’s comic, taking your time to enjoy each individual drawing, laughing along with the gags and allowing yourself to get emotionally invested as it develops beyond what you thought it would be when you ordered it from Sector 13’s website.
Which you really must do. You won’t want to miss out on the experience of this one.
Electric Soup was “Scotland’s Adult Humour Comic”, with 17 issues released between 1989 and 1992 followed by a 10th anniversary special a while later in 1999. Think Viz but with thick regional accents in every panel and plenty of jabs at local politicians, celebrities and even whole Scottish cities. There was quite the collection of these inside Davy Francis’ shoebox so I was looking forward to seeing plenty from the Cowpat County creator.
Unfortunately, as I began to flick through them I soon came to realise this was a case of Davy’s friends being inside rather than the man himself. Thankfully, eventually his unique art style popped up in #16, the penultimate issue of the run and the last of the regular issues in this box. He also returned for the 10th anniversary special. Altogether we’ve got three new strips from Davy and one spoof I’m sure fans of the blog will enjoy. First up, a rather more adult (and Scottish) spin on one of OiNK’s favourite spoof targets, Desperate Dan of The Dandy. Although fans of another OiNK Blog comic should get a kick out of this too.
As a pig pal it’s strange to see bad language in one of Davy’s strips but I’m not for one second saying it shouldn’t have been, this is an adult comic after all. There are less of the usual background gags than we were used to with his OiNK pages but I did laugh at the picture of mother. Davy’s Predator isn’t half bad though, right? (Obviously look beyond the glasses.) His Desperate Dan is how I imagine a 90s Hollywood live-action take on the character would be, so it feels perfect for the time of this comic.
Moving on to the anniversary special and I have to warn you about this next strip. It’s blurred until you click on it for a reason. It’s very adult and I didn’t want the images just sitting out there on the blog for all to see as you scroll on your morning commute. Originally drawn by Tommy Somme in the regular comic, for the 10th anniversary special Davy took over art duties for Helmetman. Now, you know this is an adult Viz-like comic, so just think about what that superhero name could mean for a second before deciding to click.
I’ll admit this is only here because it was drawn by Davy, who was creating a follow-up for an established strip, one that readers had an expectation of. I’ve never been a fan of this type of humour though. Maybe OiNK spoiled me. Yes, OiNK could be cheeky at times but it was done in a genuinely original, funny way and the comic was hilarious at all times whether it was one of those moments or not. Humour that relied solely on shocking the reader is a one-trick pony to me and grows tired very quickly. Unfortunately for me, the vast majority of Electric Soup is like this.
Frustratingly, it needn’t have been this way. In the few strips that don’t use overly adult themes as the sole gag (“Ooh, nude bits and extreme language in a comic! Hehehe, aren’t we hilarious”) there are some genuinely brilliant moments. Davy himself supplies one in The Y Front which, apart from the occasional rude joke, reminds me very much of his OiNK strips. By this I mean every panel has something to laugh at, with plenty of sight gags that take the narrative captions and turn them into something else entirely, leaning heavily into the ridiculously bizarre.
It’s just gloriously stupid. If Electric Soup had more of this kind of adult-enough humour I’d have loved these comics. Davy wasn’t the only contributor capable of realising there’s more to comedy for grown ups than boobs and genitalia. While Frank Quitely could be just as guilty as the rest, he also had the ability to see beyond the shallow schoolboy jokes and give us something properly funny. In fact, the final strip I want to show you is his but with the sheer amount of gags and silliness you’d swear Davy had written the script.
It’s a spoof of Alien³, so for the second time there’s something here that readers of the Aliens section of the blog should find funny. I really enjoyed this film as a teen and as an adult I think the Special Edition is fantastic, so much so I’d rank it right alongside the first two movies. Thankfully, I can still have a giggle at the things I love when their spoofs are done well, and this is done very well indeed. Much like Davy’s Y Front (oo-er!) every panel had me chortling; it’s just relentless, especially if you know the film well.
See? No need for the so-called “adult humour” that just ends up being adolescent and childish. This Alien³ strip and Davy’s non-blurred pages above show that at least some of the people behind Electric Soup were genuine comedic talents. It’s just a shame their work is hidden amongst such unfunny nonsense. Maybe if I was a teenager I’d have laughed at the rudeness here the first time I saw it, but after growing up with the quality of OiNK I doubt it.
You can thank me later for trawling through all of these for the few gems within. Looking at some of the magazines still inside the shoebox I’m a bit concerned about having to do so all over again with titles such as Sweet FA and UC. But then again, I knew this going in and having a quick flick through they seem more professional, genuinely aimed at adults with a proper sense of humour and include more OiNK contributors. So while the subject matter of football (or the Sunday Sport!) might not appeal to me I’m still looking forward to the gems I can locate for you in the next part of this series later in the summer.
OiNK’sDavy Francis (Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving) and I both live in Belfast and I’ve been lucky enough to meet up with him on a few occasions now, whether that’s over a coffee or a Greggs. Always a great laugh, on one of those days he very generously sent me home with a heavy shoebox full of a random selection of magazines which Davy or friends of his had contributed various comic strips to.
Instantly I thought this would make for a great post on the OiNK Blog. A selection of new gags from Davy? What’s not to love, right? However, not only did I discover so much good material by him that I’d need more than one post just for those, there was also plenty from other OiNK cartoonists! So in the end there was only one solution, a series of posts about Davy’s Shoebox.
There are some publications with multiple issues and they’ll get their own instalments in this series, but I’m kicking things off with a bit of variety first and the selection of other random titles. We begin with Red Dwarf Smegazine from Fleetway. Davy appeared in two of the issues in the box including this very final issue, #9 of volume two.
Alongside articles and interviews the magazine had a selection of strips, some adapted episodes while others were new adventures for guest characters such as Ace Rimmer and Duane Dibbley. Lasting for 23 issues altogether, the last issue is double-length to include conclusions of all the strips and any already-written features. As such, Davy’s Cred Dwarf strip gets twice as much space as in previous issues, hence why I’ve chosen to highlight this last instalment.
Written by Steve Noble (who I can’t find any other credits for) and lettered by Woodrow Pheonix (The Sumo Family, Ecco the Dolphin, Sugar Buzz!), it’s set inside the Total Immersion Red Dwarf Videogame from the Back to Reality episode (a fan favourite), hence why the regular characters look the way they do. Here, the end of the story is all just a long walk to a Christmas pun and the final panel does sum things up somewhat, doesn’t it?
Davy wasn’t the only OiNK alumni in the pages of the Smegazine. Kev F Sutherland (Peter Porter Post Office Sorter, Rotten Rhymes, Meanwhile…) contributed his art to the Androids spoof soap opera and in the final issue a Madvertisement of sorts, Dwarf Eager, coloured by Lucy Allen. There’s something very ‘GBH’ (OiNK’s spoof mail order company) about this and Kev has certainly packed plenty into this little half-page. It’s the final strip of the magazine’s run.
Not to be confused with the clothes shop of the same name, DV8 was an independent newspaper that folded up to fit on the magazine shelves (like the previously-covered Speakeasy). Focussing on Belfast’s cultural scene it included a lot of comics gag pages and even a photo strip from the team behind the Hole in the Wall Gang. It was released monthly between 1992 and 1996. The editorial team received paramilitary threats when an issue released after the IRA ceasefire had a union flag in Irish colours on the cover. It folded soon after.
This was the first on-sale issue after a free preview. A lot of the pages contain cartoon strips from one artist and just a few pages in we’re treated to Davy’s. As you can instantly see from the very first panel this is much more adult-orientated output from Davy, although it’s still very much the same sense of humour we all grew up with in OiNK, just for a different audience.
It’s very ‘Northern Ireland’ too. I did chuckle at the “Didn’t feel a thing”! Across the way Davy’s good friend and fellow Uncle Pigg employee, Ed McHenry (Wally of the West, Igor and the Doctor, OiNK puzzle pages) gets his own space to shine and right in the middle are two little individual panels that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the pages of OiNK, especially the one with the sheep. Ed’s other strips are more adult but I wanted to show these off on their own because it felt like I was reading new OiNK material.
The final publication I want to pull from this time is in a similar format, at least physically.
Created by several cartoonists fed up of how they were being treated by the industry, Duck Soup was another independent newspaper-like magazine that very much feels like the funnies section we used to get in newspapers, only here it’s all funnies! It’s a rather strange reading experience given the large format and the physical feel of it, while the reading experience is very much that of a comic. It’s definitely unique, that’s for sure.
It was distributed nationally but WHSmith only took it on for a six week trial then cancelled all their orders when they deemed the content unsuitable, again deciding what the rest of us were allowed to read and find funny (this was a year before they’d throw a hissy fit over OiNK). What a shame they’re no longer on the high street, eh? Sadly, this resulted in the magazine folding after six issues because, despite its popularity, without Smith’s distribution they just couldn’t break even.
Davy doesn’t actually feature in this issue of Duck Soup but some of his OiNK pals do and that’s why he’s kept it safe in this box. Up first is Ed again and on his first page Girth stood out because I recognised him from the very last issue of OiNK, published over two years later. Not only that, but upon refreshing my memory with that issue I see he was actually named Girth there too. He was a one-off in OiNK so this was a nice surprise.
Later, Ed brings us more substantial strips including Norbert Wibble Schoolboy Detective, who also appeared in DV8. It’s just plain daft and I was smirking away to myself as the captions took over more and more of each panel, then laughed when I read those final points! While the next character I want to highlight may not have gone on to appear in OiNK like Girth did, he still feels very familiar.
Jeremy Banx’s (Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Butcher Watch) Norman Spittall has a strikingly familiar appearance and in these random life moments feels somewhat like a precursor to Mr. Big Nose, although they were very much different characters. Norman got his own book and animated series called The Many Deaths of Norman Spittall in 1997, so luck definitely didn’t improve after Duck Soup! I’ll have to grab a copy of the book sometime if these examples are anything to go by.
The much-missed Tony Husband (OiNK co-creator/editor, Horace ‘Ugly Face’ Watkins, writer of too much OiNK goodness to mention) also pops up which was a lovely, somewhat emotional surprise. Tony’s work in OiNK often didn’t shy away from pointing out the wrongs of the world to its young readers and how Tony felt about certain topics, particularly those involving animals. Here, he combines this with his hatred for war. In fact, the mid-80s fear of the threat of nuclear war is at the forefront of many of the cartoons throughout this issue from many of the contributors.
It’s quite striking how similar some of this is to comments we can read online today, particularly the similarity between Frank the frog and a certain type of person found of socials. It’s also striking how this could easily have been printed today and it’d be just as relevant. That would be a depressing thought if it weren’t for Tony’s ability to make us laugh at ourselves.
The middle pages are of the same higher grade as the cover and open out into a spoof of The Sun (surely already a spoof newspaper). On the back of this are more cartoons, some of which are by Pete Dredge (Master T, Dimbo, Young Arfur in Buster) under the banner War Cry. This pull-out of sorts is packed full of such gags, bringing some levity to a time when adults weren’t as blissfully unaware of the Cold War as I was as a child.
This has been a fun start to delving into this box of treats, hasn’t it? Next time, we’ll be concentrating on the many issues of Electric Soup in it (they must’ve run out of ducks). I’d never heard of the publication before and according to the covers it’s “Scotland’s Adult Humour Comic”, so expect to move further away from the kind of stuff we’d find in OiNK. However, I’m sure it’ll still be ‘very Davy Francis’. That’ll be in a couple of months’ time.
It’s my birthday today! I can’t think of anything I’d rather post today than the final part of what has been a really enjoyable series focussing on OiNK’s wonderful creative team and their memories of producing one of my very favourite things in my whole life. It’s been a wonderful experience to put this together and get to ask these questions to some of my childhood (and let’s face it, adulthood) heroes.
Despite what the critics thought of it from the outside looking in, in reality OiNK gave us many great messages along the way. From anti-smoking to anti-bigotry, from never judging someone by their looks to being proud of who we are no matter what, all packaged up in comedy gold of course. So to wrap things up I was curious what messages the team had for us.
QUESTION FOUR
Finally, if pig pals could take one thing away from your work on OiNK, what would it be?
DAVEY JONES Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom, Kingdom of Trump
“No idea how to answer this. There were a couple of strips in the later issues which I had to draw in a bit of a rush, and some of the drawing was very ropey. So if everyone would be kind enough to overlook the ropey drawings, it’d be much appreciated.”
DAVY FRANCIS Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb, Doctor Mad-Starkraving
“The friends I met, my fellow artists, the readers who are artists and writers themselves who say OiNK was such an influence on their work. I loved every minute I worked for OiNK, I would have done it for nothing!” (“What?!” – Uncle Pigg)
IAN JACKSON Artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins, OiNK Book 1988 covers
“It was great having fun with my mates on the project. Uncle Pigg was a tough bugger though.”
LEW STRINGER Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla, writer of Ham Dare
“I hope they enjoyed the irreverent style of fun and lunacy I tried to put into my work. We were allowed to be more edgy than other kids’ comics of the time. Little did we know how much children’s comics would be toned down in the years that followed.”
DAVID LEACH Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ
“Don’t underestimate the elderly.”
GRAHAM EXTON writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes, Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car
“Just that I was proud to be a part of such an influential team. The current Beano owes a lot to OiNK.”
ED McHENRY Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages, Igor and the Doctor
“If any of the readers liked my stuff in the way I enjoyed certain artists in all the comics I read as a lad that would be nice.”
KEV F SUTHERLAND Meanwhile…, The Three Scientists, March of the Killer Breakfasts
“I’m just honoured to have been a part of such a landmark comic, so when they’re writing about it, I hope I get remembered occasionally, alongside the real stars.”
PATRICK GALLAGHER co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang, designer of the OiNK logos
“The joy and reward of working with Tony and Mark.”
STEVE GIBSON artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements, Ponsonby Claret
“I just want anyone who remembers OiNK (and I have met lots of fans who grew up reading it) to know that we had fun and I hope that a little bit of the cheeky anarchy that we intended stuck with all our readers to this day.”
JEREMY BANX Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith
“Never trust your liver.”
I can’t thank everyone enough for taking part in this series! Everyone I reached out to couldn’t have been more helpful and it’s a testimony to how fondly OiNK is remembered by all that everyone was happy to take part and keen to reminisce. On a purely selfish basis it’s a brilliant birthday present to be able to present the now completed series of posts, too.
I hope pig pals have enjoyed this, and to everyone above I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what your fellow OiNKers (to quote Jeremy) have said too. I’ve waxed lyrical about how much OiNK has meant to me and the memories it’s brought back. It’s been a delight to see the same applies to those who worked so hard to entertain us for those few fantastic years.
I hope you’ve all been enjoying this fascinating look into the creation of OiNK from some of its incredible creative team. In case you’re stumbling upon this series for the first time, I sent four questions to some of OiNK’s greatest talent and every Saturday during the build up to Christmas I’m publishing all of their responses, one set at a time.
The third question is the most personal. Working on a funny comic isn’t easy. We were laughing with the turn of every page but it must’ve been exhausting to come up with all of that comedy gold week after week. We’ve established they all loved their time on OiNK and each other’s work, but is there anything of their own that they’re particularly proud of?
QUESTION THREE
What’s your personal favourite piece you contributed to OiNK?
DAVEY JONES Henry the Wonder Dog, Pop-Up Toaster of Doom, Kingdom of Trump
“I suppose it’d be a half page strip called Henry the Wonder Dog, because that was the first one I’d got accepted, and my first bit of paid cartooning work. When I finished my A-Levels in the summer of 1986 I started bombarding OiNK with ideas, and at the beginning of August got a note from Mark saying “Success at last, can you draw this one up and send it to Patrick.” I was chuffed to bits, and remember that evening going down The Barrels (still my favourite pub in Hereford) to show off.”
STEVE GIBSON artist Judge Pigg, countless GBH Madvertisements, Ponsonby Claret
“Personal fave: Judge Pigg. I wanted to do more 2000AD parodies (Strontium Pigg, Rogue Porker, ABC Piglets) but alas we were too busy and the guys at 2000AD don’t like us mere cartoonists taking the pee-eye-double-ess out of their serious characters.”
IAN JACKSON artist Mary Lighthouse, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins, OiNK Book 1988 covers
“Various covers plus a black and white two-page school story.”
PATRICK GALLAGHER co-creator and co-editor of the whole shebang, designer of the OiNK logos
“Chaotic issue eight cover with the skeleton staff member.”
DAVID LEACH Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ
“It’s either my fully painted poster of Psycho Gran in the annual, The Good, The Bad and The Very Old. Or it’s the one pager where PG is waiting for a bus.”
DAVY FRANCIS Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb, Doctor Mad-Starkraving
“My favourite piece of work is the Cowpat County page with Cyril the Sheep. A lot of my workmates at the time were put into the strip (including Cyril). We had a real laugh when it was printed. It was one of those strips that nearly writes and draws itself.”
GRAHAM EXTON writer Fish Theatre, Herbert Bowes, Murder in the Orient Express Dining Car
ED McHENRY Wally of the West, umpteen OiNK puzzle pages, Igor and the Doctor
“I was very pleased with the two double-page spreads I did, one for the 50th birthday party and the other for the anniversary portrait, both these featured all of OiNK’s regular cast of characters.”
LEW STRINGER Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla, writer of Ham Dare
“Another question that’s hard to answer but I was very pleased with the Pete and His Pimple pull-out comic I put together. It was nice to do a longer story. Another favourite was the one-off half pager Thick As Thieves about the bungling crooks. I was inspired by the old time British comedy movies for that one.”
JEREMY BANX Burp, Mr. Big Nose, Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith
“That might be the Burp one when he had to fight for those round squishy ball things; thus ensuring his puberty and subsequent transition to manhood. I think it was in a special? A reader messaged me a few years back to tell me it had helped get him through the whole painful process when he was a boy. The mind boggles.”
Ahem… I then admitted to Jeremy that reader had been me! To which he replied, “Oh excellent. I seem to remember you saying it had some sort of beneficial effect. I hope you weren’t just being polite.” Not at all , Jeremy! To any of you out there who may be a bit confused by this, check out the review for The OiNK Book 1989!
KEV F SUTHERLAND Meanwhile…, The Three Scientists, March of the Killer Breakfasts
“I did a couple of short stories I was really proud of. That one with the Three Scientists who travel back in time, then compare watches, but because they’ve all travelled the same amount their watches don’t show any difference. I still don’t think I’ve seen that gag being done (cue a dozen people telling me they’ve seen it in everything from Futurama to Rick & Morty. Well I haven’t seen it, and dammit I did it first!) I was also proud to have coined the phrase, “Would you Adam and believe it?” in one of my strips, which went on to be used a lot by Marc and Lard.”
The pages mentioned here really are the crème de la crème of what OiNK had to offer, and where possible I’ve included links to those specific issues so you can relive some personal giggles this Christmas. Just one more question to go, so don’t miss out on the answer to this on Saturday, 21st December 2024:
Finally, if pig pals could take one thing away from your work on OiNK, what would that be?
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?
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:
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!
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.
This is a nice little bonus post even if I do say so myself. Although I can’t take any of the credit, that must go to ten of OiNK’s top contributors who each decided to tell us a little bit about themselves in the second Holiday Special, released in March 1988. Sprinkled throughout the issue were fun little quarter-page profiles containing a self-portrait of some sort and a description of the cartoonist or editor in their own words.
The last part of that sentence is key. Don’t be expecting any actual real information here. This is OiNK after all. If you chose ten of its talented team and asked them to tell the readers something interesting about themselves do you really think they’d waste that opportunity with actual facts? Or would you prefer they took the chance to use their unique senses of humour to have a laugh instead? It’s a no brainer. Let’s kick things off with the three people responsible for OiNK in the first place, shall we? Here are the comic’s creators and editors. These were the people in charge!
I particularly like Patrick Gallagher’s pen name and his unique way of presenting his age, and it’s hilarious to have the incredibly talented Mark Rodgers’ profile presented as so amateurish. Tony Husband’s artistic depiction of himself is so funny but poor Paul Husband! If you take a look at the very first OiNK, the special preview issue, you’ll see he doesn’t actually look like Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins. If readers had wanted to see what all three of these individuals really looked like they would’ve had to check out the article in Crash magazine from the previous year.
As a kid I never knew of Crash (or the unique free edition of our comic tucked away inside that issue), so as far as I was concerned these profiles were the closest I was going to get to really knowing those who made us laugh so much. As a kid I had no idea it was Patrick and Mark who had appeared in photo stories such as Castaway and Star Truck previously. The latter also starred Tony albeit behind an evil alien (chicken) mask, but we never knew who they were in those strips. That’s what makes these silly not-so-fact files so funny of course; this is how readers would imagine the amazing talent behind the comic. It’s just a shame we didn’t get more!
Ian Jackson is synonymous with OiNK and did appear in a photo story alongside Mark way back in the Valentines issue but, like Tony, he was behind expensive (not really) alien special effects. In fact it was only two years ago, not long after I started this website, when John Freeman‘s Down the Tubes website published a spotlight article about Ian that I finally found out what the person behind Uncle Pigg, Mary Lighthouse and Hadrian Vile looks like.
This imaginative profile not only sums up his wacky sense of humour with far-fetched nonsense, he also manages to highlight the truth about being a cartoonist
Marc Riley appeared as another anonymous kind-of-actor in Star Truck but was probably best known for portraying Snatcher Sam during the first year of the comic and The OiNK! Book 1988. The grisly world of punk rock he refers to is The Fall, the band he was a part of for four years between 1978 and 1982 before forming The Creepers. Of course, Frank Sidebottom needs no introduction or indeed a silly drawing! We all knew him from countless children’s television appearances already and the man behind the papier-mâché, Chris Sievey, was always so brilliant with his fans that of course he’d take any opportunity to give them a chance to get in touch directly.
Below is David Haldane’s profile, he of Hugo the Hungry Hippo, Rubbish Man and Torture Twins fame and this imaginative profile not only sums up his wacky sense of humour with far-fetched nonsense, he also manages to highlight the truth about being a cartoonist! Then Steve Gibson, who’d go on to produce a range of very adult comics after OiNK brings us a depiction of himself that’s really rather disturbing and perfectly illustrates (no pun intended) his art style. If you’re interested in a full-page strip of that Judge Pigg he’s drawing then check out the review for #58.
Quite a few years ago now, perhaps about a decade back I had the pleasure of meeting Davy Francis a few weeks before Christmas and had the chance to purchase some of his original OiNK artwork which currently takes pride of place on my wall. I didn’t even know he lived in Belfast like me until I was at a film festival earlier that year, and while chatting about comics to someone and mentioning OiNK they told me they knew Davy. An absolute gent with a brilliant sense of humour and an incredible caricaturist his contribution here keeps to the theme of telling us absolutely nothing about him and instead giving us a good chuckle.
Like Ian and David, Davy works his usual signature into his profile so readers can instantly recognise who this is and then we finish the Holiday Special off with Davy’s good friend Ed McHenry. The drawing in Ed’s is in my mind probably the most accurate, based on my completely unknowledgeable assumptions about cartoonists’ work areas. I really like how he’s tried to incorporate as many of the little random details from his description into the drawing too, it’s packed full of little sight gags and details. Absolutely classic Ed.
A few months after the special one more profile appeared in one of the monthly issues, OiNK #66. While it got my hopes up there’d be more in future issues this was sadly the last but it’s a nice little bonus. Especially since it’s by one of my favourite cartoonists of all time and was in an issue where he contributed almost a third of the contents! Lew Stringer is very much a child of the 60s and plays up to that here, beginning with the profile number being made up of three key 60s movie/TV/comic series. I just wish I’d thought of his excuse for why I sucked at school sports!
There we go. Don’t you feel completely informed about who made the funniest comic of all time? Me neither. Or maybe we should. The details may not be entirely accurate but they portray the sense of humour OiNK encapsulated, the craziness and imagination that captivated us and the combination of comic talent that was like no other. These great profiles inside the second OiNK Holiday Special may not have been an introduction to these cartoonists, but they could very well be the perfect introduction to OiNK itself.
OiNK Blog 