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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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SPEAKEASY #76: ‘PAPER PRESS PiGS

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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.

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OiNK! HOLiDAY SPECiAL 1989: HAMMING IT UP

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Ham Dare, Pig of the Future makes the cover of OiNK for the first time and it’s only taken for the comic’s cancellation for it to happen! I’d always assumed he’d made the cover each time he returned to the pages of OiNK since his stories were such big events, so it was a surprise to find out this was the only time. The OiNK Holiday Special 1989 is the third spring/summer edition and was promised to us way back in October the previous year when Uncle Pigg made that fateful announcement in the final issue.

It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally here (in fact work began on it so far in advance of its publication, as per usual for special and annuals, we’re treated to the lovely original logo), although it’s a bit of a strange one and feels much more like the next monthly issue than a holiday special. Not only did the monthlies have the same amount of pages as the specials, this one is clearly made up of content that went unused after the comic was cancelled rather than brand new material. So there are no themed summer holiday stories and one Rotten Rhyme even mentions Christmas approaching. As an adult some other things stand out by their very absence.

“Slap my snout and call me Porky – there’s something dashed odd going on around here…”

Ham Dare (Lew Stringer)

With Tom Thug and Pete and his Pimple having made the leap over to Buster they’re nowhere to be seen here, although thankfully their creator Lew Stringer is still on hand to write the wonderful Ham Dare story. Although, OiNK favourites not contributiung this time out include Ian Jackson, Jeremy Banx and David Leach among others, so there’s no Burp, Hadrian Vile or Psycho Gran. But let’s not dwell, let’s concentrate on what is here and start off with that headline act.

Dynasty of the Dinosaurs was originally written by Lew and drawn by the incredibly talented J.T. Dogg for OiNK way back when it was a weekly, believe it or not. The monthlies may have been twice the size but there were three less issues in an average month so there must have been a lot of leftover material from the weekly comic. As such, Ham Dare is presented in its original five individual chapters, each with their own very unique cliffhanger.

The story follows on from the one in The OiNK! Book 1988 over a year ago and sees our hero and his (and I quote) “chubby sidekick” Pigby go through some sort of space disruption and apparently land on another planet, a planet inhabited by English-speaking dinosaurs in tight flight suits. It’s already way out there and has all those knowing nods this wonderful Dan Dare spoof revels in, but then we get to that final panel above and the plot of this serial reveals itself.

Ham sums up the mystery in one handy speech bubble, complete with a typical Pigby response and then hilariously gets away with one of his trademark silly ideas. Although, this time it actually makes some kind of sense. Or maybe I’ve just been reading OiNK for too long. The main dino dude is called Bad Rep and he explains that Earth is known throughout the universe as the most evil planet in existence.

Then this very funny spoof suddenly poses an ethical question

Of course the Meekon has to be behind everything and as he hovers in his frying pan he does what all good baddies (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) do in classic action strips and explains the whole plot to our heroes. I remember being absorbed by all of this as an 11-year-old, having learned about the extinction of the dinosaurs at school and seeing it all turned on its head in typical OiNK fashion. As an adult it’s just as entertaining.

In the penultimate chapter Pigby’s umbrella makes for a quick escape as well as a couple of puns and we get to see how Earthlings are seen across the galaxy. But it’s not just the T-rex causing problems, Ham and Rigby come up against Triceratops and others, who Ham thinks aren’t a threat because they were vegetarian dinosaurs… before he gets a clobberin’. Then this very funny spoof suddenly poses an ethical question.

This reminds me of the Fourth Doctor posing a similar one when he was given the chance to wipe out the Daleks before they were even created. It leads nicely on to the final double-page spread and a moment that struck me as a kid and which, as with the best moments of OiNK, has stayed with me in my head ever since. These are usually comedic moments but in this case it’s something more profound.

Beginning with a nice reference to Dan Dare’s creator and original artist in the title caption, we get more silliness and an overly-easy resolution by Ham as always (who remains cool as a cucumber throughout) before we see something he doesn’t; we see the results of him putting everything back the way it was. It’s this moment involving a dinosaur mother and her child that provided a surprisingly tender moment and pulled on the heartstrings of readers. Knowing it was coming this time around doesn’t make it any less so either.

In an interview with Dan Dare fan magazine Spaceship Away, Lew said about this scene, “Having mainly written and drawn basic slapstick comedy before I welcomed the opportunity to write something with a bit more depth. People have said to me they found the dinosaur extinction scene to be quite harrowing when they were kids. I remember the emotions I felt writing that part so I’m glad it came across in the story. Apologies for causing any kids distress when they read it though!”

I asked Lew myself about this moment and he explained it was actually very OiNK-like. “One of the qualities of OiNK was that it allowed us to do something like that at times,” he says. “I think it’s more effective for a humour comic to include an unexpected emotional moment (as Tony did sometimes with his Horace strip). We knew the readers were intelligent enough to appreciate it.” We certainly did, Lew. An example of Tony doing just that is coming up too.

“Wondering what your favourite OiNK chums have been doing since OiNK stopped appearing last November?”

Uncle Pigg

In the middle of the issue is a seven-page piece I assumed would’ve been created by co-editor Patrick Gallagher but he assures me it wasn’t. Unfortunately, he doesn’t recall who it was. Whoever it was takes the opportunity to bring us up-to-date on some of our favourite characters’ lives since OiNK was cancelled. Alongside the examples below the Torture Twins have also been employed in schools as a replacement for the cane, Mary Lighthouse is happy editing all of our kids’ TV shows until they’re unrecognisable and Cowpat County has been concreted over and turned into the ‘Patworld’ theme park!

As a child I loved seeing some old faves all together again but now it’s clear these are recycled panels from previous strips, even the picture of Uncle Pigg is from a newsagent reservation coupon. A strip by Patrick follows this in which our porcine editor makes an appeal to his readers for financial aid, telling us of all the woes that’s befallen him and his staff since OiNK ended, most horrifying of all being those that now had to work for Buster comic!

In the end it’s all a con and as the readers throw their money to help Uncle Pigg he summons his private helicopter to whisk him back off to those tropical islands he told us about when he signed off in #68. I have to say that while it’s funny (and as a kid I hoped the bit about having “an appeal every year” meant there’d be yearly specials forever) for young me it seemed out of character. While he loved his money Uncle Pigg always put his readers first and here he was grifting them instead. Nowadays though, it’s just silly fun and I suppose it’s in keeping with the likes of GBH. Speaking of which…

They may not have been a one-hit wonder but Bros did seem to be here one second and then gone the next. I remember some friends being obsessed and I even bought the (terrible) Marvel UK special! Here, GBH took advantage of the teen crazes of the time and then the comic tested fans to see if they were as obsessed as they’d made themselves out to be (with a brill Wilkie mini-strip underneath). I love the ‘Gros’ logo spoof of the real one and I wonder if, had OiNK continued, would the band have been a regular target. Looks that way.

Rick Astley is still going strong though, which I was pleasantly surprised to find out a couple of years back when he popped up on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. Can’t keep a good 80s icon down.

The next page is by an artist who makes his sole contribution in this issue and that’s a shame because if this is anything to go by I’d loved to have seen more from him. José Luis Prats Cruz is a cartoonist from Southern Spain and has continued to work in the industry ever since, although his work has eluded me until now. Signing as’Ozeluí‘, if you search online you’ll find most of his cartoons have no speech just like this instant OiNK classic. You can check out his most recent work on his Instagram account. What a shame he never got to create anything else for us pig pals.

In the final issue a strip called The Pigpen of Fear presents The Spine-Tingling Tale of The House at No.13 Veryscary Avenue was billed as the first in a new series by Davey Jones. It didn’t feel odd to have it billed as such, even when no more would be coming, because OiNK was always doing things like that. Well, as it turns out it was intended to be a series after all. Not only that, but the second strip is one of my very favourite OiNK strips of all time.

The Pop-Up Toaster of Doom sees Jim and Peggy Watkins meet their comeuppance when they cross the wrong shop keeper. Complete with the scary pig character as the narrator, it’s a perfect spoof of TV shows such as Tales From the Crypt. Right from the off it pokes fun at the conventions of such shows, like the name of the shopkeeper being so obvious, and of course since this is by Davey there are a ton of background jokes to spot too.

The main gag here is that there’s nothing sinister or evil happening at all but it’s still dressed up as a horror story. Everything is completely ordinary. Even the shop itself is a red herring and in the end the horrible outcome for the couple is that they’ll just take the toaster back to the shop. It’s ingenious ludicrousness by Davey as per usual and one that had me roaring as a kid. It’s one of those occasions when it makes me laugh even more so as an adult too.

It’s the funniest strip in the issue and one of the funniest OiNK produced. Unfortunately, just like the monthlies there are reprints here too, five pages in total. In fact, the final three pages of the comic are ones we’ve seen before, which ends things on a bit of a downer for regular readers. But just before those is a new four-page Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins strip which finally concludes his long-running story with the happy ending he always deserved. It’s his and Mandy‘s wedding day!

Horace may have evolved completely from those early joke strips to an ongoing serial about the difficulties he faced thanks to his looks, but co-editor Tony Husband never forgot it was meant to be daft too. Horace’s ongoing football soap opera was wonderfully random and he faced everything from a stalker to a radioactive monster (in fact, they were both the same person). However, his strips taught us much along the way about never judging others based on their looks and that we shouldn’t let others who judge us unfairly hold us back. Yes, OiNK was a daft comic but Horace’s strip sat comfortably alongside the non-smoking, anti-bullying and anti-bigotry messages to teach its young readers the right lessons in life, without us ever being aware that’s what they were doing.

Three months was a long time to wait for new OiNK material, however the next issue wouldn’t be released for another six! The Holiday Special 1989 may have been an additional monthly issue of OiNK rather than a summery feast, but it was no less fun to take another bite of that pork pie. I never saw any adverts for the OiNK Winter Special because I wasn’t collecting any of the comics it would’ve appeared in so it was a wonderful surprise when it popped up in November 1989. I can’t wait to read it for the first time since! That next crackling issue will be here on Saturday 2nd November 2024.

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THE OiNK! BOOK 1989: SHORT BUT OH SO SWEET

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Released towards the end of the summer in 1988 and advertised in the final two issues of OiNK, after the comic’s cancellation it felt like a long time coming for The OiNK! Book 1989 to finally fall into my trotters on Christmas Day that year. As I mentioned in the preview post, with a reduction in pages from the previous annual and a thinner paper stock it really does feel a lot smaller this time around. But it’s still 68 pages (including cover) of prime pork. That’s got to be reason enough to celebrate, surely?

The cover by acclaimed OiNK illustrator J.T. Dogg (real name Malcolm Douglas) is equal parts gorgeous and gruesome, with some little icky details for kids to pour over. It’s bold and brash and certainly stood out amongst the other children’s annuals, just like OiNK always had. In fact, it stood out even more than it had in the adverts because they decided to swap the colours of the logo around, possibly because it would work better against that dark brown background. I think it works much better this way (and we still get the pink regardless).

That background gives a hint as to what was on the back cover. I remember seeing it in the shop and half expecting it to be the rear of the butcher’s head, this cover clearly being a riff on the piggy face from The OiNK! Book 1988 and I laughed quite loud when I turned it over that first time. We’ll get to that at the end, we’ve the insides to cover first, beginning with the obligatory welcome page with something you’d only see in OiNK at the time: credits.

Genius scriptwriting from Lew after he was told by co-editor Mark Rodgers only the first two pages would be printed in colour

Uncle Pigg may be relying on more easily managed cards rather than an artist chiselling the names into stone like last year, but this bright and colourful welcome was just what the piggy ordered when I opened it on Christmas morning. Even today it feels like reuniting with old friends. Yes, the comic may have only ended two months ago but Ian Jackson’s contributions were becoming rarer so this is a wonderful return to form. It’s great to see certain names back too, especially Jeremy Banx who had left when the comic went monthly. 

Halfway through reading the book it was clear to me what I was going to highlight first and it’s more gorgeousness from J.T. Dogg, this time written by Lew Stringer. That combination can only mean one thing, it’s Ham Dare: Pig of the Future. Last seen in The OiNK! Book 1988 I’d always remembered Ham and Pigby in serialised stories, yet only their first one was published that way. Here they get a three-page tale with a genius piece of scriptwriting from Lew after he was told by co-editor Mark Rodgers that only the first two would be printed in colour.

Normally a comic would just carry on regardless on to the black and white page but if something is “normally” done then we should really know by now that’s not what OiNK would do. Actually having it referred to is genuinely funny and Malcolm’s work is no less lovely. The third and fourth panels of that page in particular had me roaring, between the name of the weapon beam (and the reason for it) and the name of The Weakun’s henchman!

Ham Dare would return in the OiNK! Holiday Special 1989 the following year and make the cover for the only time, with a story originally written as his second serial and I for one can’t wait. There’s another serial of sorts in here, a set of four mini-posters based on Jeremy Banx’s original Butcherwatch idea, however this time each one is drawn by a different artist. Eric ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson, Mike Higgs, Les ‘Lezz’ Barton and Banx himself. What a team! Of course, Jeremy has to have the last word, right at the very end of the book.

We just never knew when Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith would pop up, did we? While there are still three special editions of OiNK to come between now and April 2025 this book feels like an end to the regular comic. Yes, this was already in the shops and Santa already had it saved for me, but with Jimmy bursting through to threaten pig pals at the end it felt like the perfect way to wrap things up. It was like he was telling us he was always going to be about, even if the comic wasn’t.

Obviously what he says about OiNK was no longer going to be the case, but that’s because this page was created a long time before the book was published, long before the comic even went monthly, back when Jeremy was still contributing. Someone else from back in those mists of time who makes a rather brief return here (courtesy of Ian Jackson again, written by Mark Rodgers) was Hadrian Vile and his diary. It may only be half a page, and the captions aren’t typed out, but boy was I happy to see him again no matter how briefly.

Way back in the preview issue’s review I mentioned how Burp’s story in OiNK would culminate in an epic tale that taught a very young me about puberty. You may have thought I was joking. Well, maybe it was a slight exaggeration. Raging Puberty is a huge eight-page Burp strip from Banx, set in the far future and recounting an ancient rite of passage amongst the alien species, using our pal (their “lost son”) as an example.

I read and enjoyed this strip during Christmas 1988, particularly the daft fight that takes place, the imaginative weaponry and the funny designs. However, skip forward a few years and a young teenage me decided to reread the book for the first time since. I saw this next strip in a completely different light. I thought, “How did they get away with this?” on more than one occasion while outrageously laughing (before taking it to school to show to all my friends, obviously).

Straight away the descriptive captions are classic Banx, reminiscent of some absolutely brilliant Burp strips in the later fortnightlies when he was often given a double-page spread to fill with his unique style of storytelling. Even though this is a comic strip the words alone paint such a picture that the images are barely needed. But what on Earth (or elsewhere) has this got to do with the title and the reason I found it so funny a few years later? The answer is found on the next page.

Not exactly subtle and that’s why I couldn’t believe OiNK, a children’s comic, got away with this. But even beyond The Round Furry Things there’s so much to laugh along with here, such as the grizzled old warrior who was tired of being a boy and Burp’s innocence at what he thought being a grown up was all about. Then there’s the dramatic change in angle with the lone caption, “and Burp had a very sweet tooth.” It reminds me of that famous, “and the dolphin’s name was Keith” moment from Jeremy’s Mr Big Nose in #22.

I’ve really missed his work in the comic.

I’m not sure if it’s just a good gag or if Jeremy was making a bit of a point with the first panel on the fifth page, but I think it’s both funny and poignant that battle cries and fear sound exactly the same. Then the story takes a brief break to detail Gunk’s weapon of choice, the Mauser! Only Jeremy could come up with a gun that feeds electricity to a small rodent’s fear receptors to provoke it to do a literal death stare. The silencer is just the icing on the cake.

Arguably the next page is even funnier. The fight escalates, Burp using his unique bodily functions we’ve all come to know and love and be grossed out by, then as it’s all building to a climax the story casually breaks again to have a closer look at another animal-based weapon. Burp is usually a pacifist but it suits him, doesn’t it? We even get a bit of Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront, although that would definitely have gone over my head in 1988.

It all has to end in an even sillier manner and it does so with aplomb. As a fan it’s fun to see the insides of Burp’s body again and how the little fellas do all their hard work for nothing. On the final page is a message that as a kid I took to mean we should never want to grow up, that adults are just silly, so why would we want to be them? As an adult now and looking around at the world today, I think that message is pretty much on point.

Jeremy Banx was both shocked and dismayed, joking about how concerned he was for my wellbeing

So anyway, a few years later I hit that time when things start to change and life can feel very confusing. It wasn’t something we talked with our friends about, we didn’t realise what was going on after all, but then I happened to read this again. I’m not going to say things suddenly made sense! (Did you read it?!) But it was enough for me to realise I wasn’t alone and it could be something to look back on and have a giggle about, so it couldn’t be all that bad.

I once mentioned to Jeremy how a young and impressionable me viewed this strip in my early teenage years and he was both shock and dismayed, joking about how concerned he was for my wellbeing. Typical Jeremy response. So, having been mentioned in the very first OiNK review on the blog we’ve now finally covered it and finished our regular read through, coming full circle. I’ve loved seeing this again after all these years.

Moving on and yes, the dreaded reprints we saw a handful of in the monthlies have even made their way into the annual, introduced by Uncle Pigg, promoted as a way for readers to check out what they may have missed out on. Even though I’d only started reading OiNK at #14 as a child there were still a few strips here I’d read before. But, even though I hadn’t read the majority I still felt these dampened the book as a whole, especially considering there’d already been a page cut.

As it turns out there are ten pages of reprints, meaning there are actually only 54 interior pages of new content. That’s only six more than the recent monthly issues or a Holiday Special. Even as a child I was very aware of this. These reprint pages are really the only place you’ll find mini-strips too. The rest is made up of much larger fare. There’s even a three-page Psycho Gran and a five-page Spectacles of Doom (which you can see some of in artist Andy Roper’s obituary).

The new content here is superb, second-to-none and some of the very best OiNK ever produced

This means the book is a rather quick read, especially if you skip the reprints. According to co-editor Patrick Gallagher cost cutting is partly to blame after Fleetway Publications took over from IPC Magazines (who had published the first half of OiNK’s run including the first book) and OiNK had survived the first round of cancellations. There’s a chance all the larger material here was already complete when Fleetway started to see the comic’s fortunes in a more negative light during the latter weeklies/early monthlies, and maybe the plugged was simply pulled on the rest of the book.

When OiNK’s stablemate titles such as Buster and Whizzer and Chips had 112 pages in their annuals for the same price (albeit cut down from 128) you couldn’t help but feel short changed as a pig pal. The new content here is superb, second-to-none and some of the very best OiNK ever produced! But I can’t help but wonder how amazing this book could’ve been! It could even have topped the previous one. With silly pages like this next one, it’s easy to see how.

Only in an OiNK Book could such a simple, cheeky gag like this take up a full page and be illustrated and coloured so gorgeously. However, even with all of these brilliant highlights I think I may have saved the fan favourite for last, at least as far as my memories are concerned. That’s because in 1988 it was so exciting and so funny to see two of Lew Stringer’s creations in the same strip, especially when they’re Pete and his Pimple and…. Pigswilla!

Actually, we even get Tom Thug popping up too (alongside his own snowy, Christmassy strip elsewhere), so that’s two-thirds of the Buster mergers included and it’s nice to see Pete reading OiNK again instead of that other comic. Ignore the heartbreaking caption about OiNK still being a periodical and watch as Pete’s pimple becomes the latest giant monster that only an equally giant robotic pig can save the world from.

I just love that panel showing us the pimple “terrorising the cities”. It may only be a small cameo for Pigswilla’s final appearance but we did get a superb epic strip for him back in #66 so this is a nice little addendum to say goodbye. Not that it would’ve been written as one but it works nicely anyway. When reading children’s stories to my friends’ kids I think I’ll stick to the moon being made of cheese, though. (Also, did you ‘spot’ the slightly obscured dig at W.H. Smith?)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at just some of the highlights from The OiNK! Book 1989. In more recent years I’ve seen some pig pals online somewhat dismiss it as nothing more than an inferior version of the first one. I hope I’ve been able to enlighten you a little on why some of the changes may have occurred and, most of all, shown you that the content in it is top notch OiNK all the way. Yes, it’s a little frustrating because this could’ve been a classic OiNK Book through and through, but the team still produced some of their very best work for it. If you see it on eBay you should definitely splash out the few quid it’ll cost you for some of the best laughs you’ll ever get from a comic book.

Just like last year the outro concludes what began earlier and, while it’s yet another example of the book publicising the ongoing comic after it was canned, it’s another great page by Ian Jackson. It’s always funny to see Mary Lighthouse get her comeuppance too, isn’t it? With superb script work throughout, plenty of laughs to be had, some stunning artwork and some gorgeous colours, The OiNK! Book 1989 may feel a little unfinished but as a way of ending the regular run of OiNK during the festive season it’s a pretty perfect piggy publication.

Just that back cover to go before I let you get back to that selection box you promised yourself you wouldn’t open again until Boxing Day. That hint on the front I alluded to earlier looked a bit like a wood effect finish behind the butcher’s head, don’t you agree? There’s a good reason for that.

BUSTER MERGE < > HOLiDAY SPECiAL 1989

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Book Reviews, OiNK Contributors, OiNK Reprints

THE TOM PATERSON COLLECTiON: A BONKERS BOOK!

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The name Tom Paterson is synonymous with British humour comics, his madcap style appearing in an eclectic array of titles such as Beano, Shiver and Shake, Buster and many more. The most famous characters he has drawn include the fondly remembered Sweeney Toddler, Calamity James, Bananaman and Buster himself. There’s one other that will most likely have been forgotten by many though, namely The Wet Blanket.

By the time I started collecting OiNK I’d missed this strip but I’d already been introduced to Tom’s work. While I’d found my brother’s Beano wasn’t really to my taste at the time (I was the perfect target audience for OiNK), there was one strip which most definitely was. I remember pouring over all of the funny background details in Calamity James, the incidental randomness in the visual gags often being funnier than the story itself. This was the genius of Tom’s style and now here’s The Tom Paterson Collection, a hardback collection full of his work available from Rebellion and their Treasury of British Comics range.

This is just one of several chapter title pages showing which comics the following strips were pulled from and as you can see our favourite comic is represented here too. In fact, upon its release this book was the first time OiNK reprints had been made available for purchase ever since its final special in 1990. Included here are two double-page spreads from early issues, Testing Time and The Wet Blanket himself, who even makes an appearance on that fantastic cover drawn by Tom.

A kind of super villain, Wet Blanket was a “miserable so-and-so” whose sole job was to ruin everyone else’s fun. He would’ve made for a brilliant regular character but alas that wasn’t to be and this was his sole appearance. This makes it all the more surprising that he’d appear on the front cover but I think he deserves a place there, the strip is that good! Clearly Tom still has a soft spot for him after all these years.

OiNK co-creator Patrick Gallagher told me they would’ve loved to have had Tom on board as a regular but his work load was just too large to accommodate them. With spreads such as Testing Time above, taken from #1 of OiNK it’s such a shame he couldn’t have let his imagination run wild on a regular basis for Uncle Pigg. So the question is, with only four pages from OiNK in here, will this 200-page book appeal to pig pals? The answer is a resounding yes!

On one of the opening pages is the list of writers including Tom, Mark Bennington whose Buster strips I’ve covered before on the blog and most excitedly regular OiNK contributor Graham Exton and OiNK co-creator/co-editor Mark Rodgers. With these names you know you’re in for a treat. The comics featured alongside OiNK are Buster, School Fun, Nipper, Jackpot, Shiver & Shake, Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee, Wow! and Cor!, as well as some of Tom’s own personal strips and unpublished works.

Also included are little pieces by professional fans of Tom’s including Lew Stringer and Graham and friend of the blog Jamie Smart (Bunny Vs Monkey, Looshkin, Wubble) who has always said OiNK was a big inspiration to him, as was Tom.

Picking out highlights for this review was never going to be easy!

A strip riffing on James Bond and featuring a comical shark was always going to be put to the top of the list for me, as was this Captain Crucial strip, a character I’d never heard of before. That “The Craziest Characters Are Always in Buster Comic” banner along the top is proving true here and it’s used several times for different strips, namely Lucy Lastic, Sportsfright, Thingummy-blob, Coronation Stream, Monty’s Mutant Mutt, Teenage Mutant Turnips and more.

My favourite Buster strips in this book are dated around 1989 onwards and they’re enough to make me regret not placing a regular order when OiNK merged into the comic. If only I’d stuck with it after that first and only issue I bought back in 1988 I’d have been treated to a bloody funny comic if these strips by Tom are anything to go by. Oh well, that just makes this book all the better as I’m getting a snapshot of the very best from that comic in one volume.

Just one look at the contents page will back that up. As well as those already mentioned there’s Crowjack, Felix the Pussycat, Grimly Fiendish, School Belle, Watford Gapp who is another new one to me as well as being a brilliantly funny rapping strip, and many more including a favourite of mine from the days of the Big Comic Books, Strange Hill. I found the Ghost Train here particularly funny and there’s that old staple which I think Tom and Lew drew better than anyone: the slap-up feed! Classic.

It wouldn’t be a Tom Paterson book without a certain little baby boy causing all manner of hell for his poor parents, so I’m very happy to say there’s a sizeable chunk of Sweeny Toddler here. Including content from both Whoopee and Whizzer & Chips, a total of 30 pages are given over to the miniature terror and every single one of them is a classic. Of course, if you know me you’ll know I’m a sucker for a Christmas comic so naturally I was overjoyed to see this full-page panel when I turned a page.

I also laughed out loud (genuinely) when I saw a certain trademark of Tom’s used as a substitute for a Christmas stocking. In fact, I wonder just how many smelly socks there are in this book? These 30 pages of Sweeny Toddler are worth the price of admission alone. Reading them now I’m beginning to think the same could’ve been said of those other 80s comics too. Even though OiNK was the only one that seemed to speak to my sense of humour, these strips by Tom were all hidden gems to me, and I’d happily have spent more of my pocket money on some of those comics at the time if I’d known just how good his contributions were.

Of course Rebellion would include this classic spoof Judge Dredd cover and strip and that wasn’t the only time Sweeny took on a different persona for a good ol’ parody. However, changing the entire cover Whoopee logo included for that 2000AD riff was inspired! I said it was difficult to pick highlights but that’s definitely one of them and there are 200 pages of that sort of thing in total. UPDATE: Check out the comment OiNK writer Graham Exton left on this post for a little more info on this piece of comics history!

The book is £14.99 and worth every single penny. In fact, it feels like a bargain to me at that price. There’s also an exclusive cover based on that Whoppee one when purchased through the Treasury of British Comics online shop. Not since The OiNK! Book 1988 have I enjoyed, and laughed as hard with, a humour comics book this much and since that OiNK tome remains my very favourite to this day, I hope that shows how much high regard I have for The Tom Paterson Collection.

Available pretty much everywhere, this would make a fantastic Christmas present for any humour comics fan, pig pals included.

To see one more mini-strip by Tom from that aforementioned OiNK! Book 1988 you can check out its review.

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