Tag Archives: Patrick Gallagher

THE PiGGiN’ GREAT SHAUN THE SHEEP!

28 May 2024 Phil Boyce 2 Comments

On this day back in 2010 the 30th episode of season two of Shaun the Sheep was broadcast by the BBC. Based on characters created by the legendary Nick Park, (spun off from a one-off appearance in a Wallace & Gromit special) the incredibly successful Aardman Animation series was created by Richard Starzak and developed by him, Alison Snowden and David Fine. What they developed was a genuinely funny silent comedy series adults get as much of a kick out of as the kids do. Even so, I didn’t discover it myself until a Christmas special many years later.

Now part of my yearly festivities, I was sore from laughing so much the first (and subsequent times) watching it and went on to view the two full-length movies and several of the regular episodes. Now, after the announcement of a long-awaited new series in 2025, the OiNK Blog is taking a close look at one episode in particular, called The Big Chase. Why has Shaun appeared on the blog? It can’t just be because there are pigs involved. Here’s a hint.

That’s right, that’s co-creator and co-editor of OiNK, Patrick Gallagher. He and fellow writer Craig Ferguson created what is a fan favourite episode to this day and one which encapsulates the madcap hilarity perfectly. To mark the 14th anniversary of its original broadcast I asked Patrick about writing the story and working on the series and his insights make for great reading.

If you’re unfamiliar with Shaun, he’s what’s described as “an unusually clever sheep” who tries to bring a bit of fun and excitement to the mundane daily life on Mossy Bottom Farm (a name which wouldn’t have felt out of place in OiNK). This usually results in lots of frantic slapstick involving Shaun and all of the ensemble cast of sheep, as well as sheepdog Bitzer (my personal favourite) and the dimwitted and completely unaware human, The Farmer. While Bitzer is constantly trying to keep the sheep in line, the friendship he and Shaun share when things go horribly wrong is one of the highlights.

The Big Chase revolves around young Timmy going for a joyride on The Farmer’s expensive new quad bike and the panicked flock giving chase in everything from a tractor to a shopping cart. It’s up to Shaun and Bitzer to rescue Timmy and get everyone back to the farm before they’re discovered, which they do by commandeering a pizza delivery driver’s scooter. So far, so utterly brilliant!

The episode also involves three joyriding pigs, whose car comes complete with an appropriate licence plate for this blog, and a little old lady who nearly gets knocked down several times before she has her wooly hat taken in the chaos. She joins the pigs to chase down Shaun and Bitzer while Timmy and the flock inadvertently run riot.

OiNK Blog: So Patrick, how did you become involved in the series for this episode?

Patrick Gallagher: “The offer of a commission came totally out of the blue, actually. Following the broadcast of the phenomenally successful debut series in 2007, and with the world clamouring for more farmyard frolics from Shaun and the flock, Aardman Animation approached my agent, Dominic Lord at JFL, and invited Craig and me to pitch ideas for the upcoming second series. It was a big surprise, a tremendous honour and an offer Craig and I couldn’t refuse. We had previously collaborated on several high-profile TV shows, including Spitting Image, The Russ Abbot Show and The Basil Brush Show.

“The Naughty Pigs who antagonise the sheep at any given opportunity could inexplicably turn up in their own ‘chavmobile’.”
Patrick Gallagher

“Furthermore, as a co-creator, I had Round the Bend under my belt and was also involved in co-developing Hangar 17. Therefore, writing for Shaun the Sheep would be a much-welcomed addition to our portfolios. The idea Aardman chose to commission out of the handful we submitted was The Big Chase, in which Timmy the baby sheep drives off on the Farmer’s brand new quad bike, sparking a whirlwind of uproarious chaos.

“However, there was a long wait before we got the green light. It was over a year before Aardman’s Development Executive, Dick Hansom (editor of blog comics Jurassic Park and the forthcoming Aliens! – Phil), wrote with the good news. He explained that the delay was due to the expense of making the quad bike, which they had to balance out with cheaper episodes, and eventually did.”

OB: The quad bike does look great but to have this little insight into the decision making because of it is interesting. They must’ve really liked your script. You co-wrote it with Craig, but given how central pigs are to the plot, would I be correct in assuming they were your idea?

PG: “Not entirely; it was a joint decision. We had free rein to use any of the Shaun the Sheep characters, and Craig and I agreed that The Naughty Pigs, who antagonise the sheep at any given opportunity and could inexplicably turn up in their own ‘chavmobile’, would be the perfect foils to instigate mayhem and hilarity in our vehicular-themed episode.”

OB: How appropriate! Can you give us a little insight into what it was like to work on the show for Aardman? And did you ever get to visit the studio and see it being animated? Did the finished product stray from your script or remain close to it?

PG: “It was an absolute dream to work on the show. I’d been a big fan of Aardman since 1977 when I first saw Morph, their claymation character which I loved, on CBBC‘s Take Hart. But Craig and I had to be on top form, as it would demand a lot of hard work and expectations were stratospheric. Shaun first appeared in Aardman’s Academy Award-winning film, A Close Shave. Therefore, the bar for the writing of the TV series had already been set high – literally – to Hollywood standards.

“I found it quite refreshing to focus solely on the action and dismiss any dialogue, in the fashion of writing a silent movie.”
Patrick Gallagher

“Not that we needed reminding, but as we presented our concept to the producer, Gareth Owen at Aardman’s Bristol studio, the gleaming golden Oscar statuette perched behind him caught my eye. And with its shimmer, I could have sworn it whispered, “Time to shine, boys!” But that meeting was the only time we visited the studio. The final produced show remained really close to our original script; however, we expected tweaks since we overwrote the episode by a couple of minutes. Moreover, we would naturally welcome any supplementary changes by Aardman, as they would only enhance the production further.

“On a more specific writing note, we adhered to the three-act structure for the seven-minute episode. The main plot centred on Shaun and the flock chasing after Timmy and their attempts to get him off the quad bike and back to the farm safely before the farmer found out. And the subplot revolved around the old lady’s efforts to retrieve her hat, which had bizarrely become caught up in the chase along with the naughty pigs as she tried to cross the road.”

OB: It all seems so chaotic when watching it, with more and more layers of comedic situations being added on top. It’s really quite a genius piece of writing, and the animation is just absolutely incredible. How difficult (or not) was it to write comedy for a show where there’s no speech whatsoever? Did your background in the visual comics medium help?

PG: “Personally, I found it quite refreshing to focus solely on the action and dismiss any dialogue, in the fashion of writing a silent movie. But overall, I’d say it was as equally challenging to write it without dialogue as it would have been with dialogue. Either way, we still had seven minutes to fill. And yes, I do think my background in comics helped, as I’ve always thought visually and storyboarded my comic scripts for Buster, Whizzer and Chips, OiNK and all the other Fleetway titles I cut my teeth on.”

OB: Should OiNK pig pals see this episode, at least parts of it and especially that licence plate, as a bit of a homage?

PG: “For my part, most definitely. Although the idea of the pigs’ ‘chavmobile’ licence plate reading ‘OI NK 5’ wasn’t scripted by Craig and me. It was the animators who came up with that notion, so it was just coincidental. Or perhaps, more probably, it was a case of serendipity at play, orchestrated psychically by Uncle Pigg from his tropical retirement island.”

OB: Thanks for your insights, Patrick. It’s a perfect seven minutes of unadulterated laughs. Is there anything else about it that you’d like to share with us?

PG: “Yes, just a couple of things. It was brilliant to be associated once again with the ridiculously talented Dave Alex Riddett, the lighting cameraman for The Big Chase. Dave was the genius animator who, 21 years earlier, had been responsible for producing Round the Bend’s iconic stop-motion serials The False Teeth from Beyond the Stars and Attack of the Atomic Banana, which I had written with my dearly departed co-writers Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers. On top of that, Dave was the cinematographer on the Oscar-winning A Close Shave, so we knew that our episode was in the safest of hands before it was broadcast globally.”

PG: “In terms of figures, the series is seen in 170 territories throughout the world but it’s difficult to estimate how many people have watched it. However, according to YouTube, Shaun has amassed 1.7 billion views on their platform alone. Also, in 2010 following its broadcast Shaun the Sheep Series 2, which included our episode, was honoured with three distinguished awards: The Writers’ Guild Award for Best Children’s Television Drama/Comedy, The BAFTA Children’s Award for Best Animation and The International Emmy Award for Best Children and Young People’s Programme.

“And finally, the crowning achievement for Craig and me came in 2011 when a compilation DVD was released featuring eight standout episodes from the second series, including ours. The highlight? The DVD was titled The Big Chase, and our eponymous episode topped the bill as the lead show in the collection… from that very series that swept the board at the 2010 awards ceremonies.”

Blimey. My thanks to Patrick for chatting with me about this particular highlight of his illustrious career. As a viewer Shaun more than deserves all of the praise and awards bestowed upon him. This episode in particular showcases the incredible comic timing of the animators, surely no easy task when animating modelling clay frame by frame. An amazing achievement and I for one am looking forward to the new series. In the meantime there are 159 episodes over six series to catch up on first!

There are also the specials of course, including The Flight Before Christmas which must be watched by everyone during the next festive season after you read this! I know I will be. Again.

Click here to watch The Big Chase on the BBC iPlayer

The Flight Before Christmas is on Netflix. Shown on the BBC every year, keep an eye on the blog’s socials for news of when it pops up on the iPlayer too.

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YOU CAN QUOTE ME… WELL, THEM!

26 April 2024 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

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

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

STEVE McGARRY

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

DAVID LEACH

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

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

JEREMY BANX

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

LEW STRINGER

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

DAVEY JONES

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

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

KEV F SUTHERLAND

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

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

GRAHAM EXTON

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

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

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

DAVY FRANCIS

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

PATRICK GALLAGHER

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

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

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

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OiNK! HOLiDAY SPECiAL 1989: HAMMING IT UP

25 March 2024 Phil Boyce 2 Comments

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.

OiNK BOOK 1989 < > WiNTER SPECiAL

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COMiNG UP: OiNK! HOLiDAY SPECiAL 1989

25 March 2024 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

As the weather begins to change for the better it reminds me this time of year was when the Holiday Specials started to appear on the comic shelves. As the OiNK Blog is all about reading those classic comics in real time we’ve enjoyed some great special editions around March and April over the past few years, and 2024 is no exception. In fact, it’s extra special because for the first time in three months we welcome back our “prime porky publication” with the OiNK Holiday Special 1989!

Regular readers may remember how the last issue of our favourite comic came with a free preview issue of Wildcat and how back in 1988 this felt like Uncle Pigg was handing the baton over and I began collecting that comic from its premiere issue. Well, things came full circle in the final issue of that sadly short-lived fortnightly, because after the sad announcement that it was merging with Eagle came much happier news.

While it may try to convince us OiNK had never “got the chop”, we knew the chances of seeing much of our favourite characters again was pretty slim. After all, in the final issue Uncle Pigg was only able to tell us about the 1989 annual and this special, so even with this upbeat advert I was still sad to think this could be the very last one. But then, of course, I perked back up again because there was new OiNK to read! (In hindsight, we now know there were also two further special to come.)

This issue of Wildcat went on sale on the same date as the OiNK Holiday Special 1989 so expect the full review tonight! No prizes for guessing what one of the highlights will be. Catch you later!

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THE OiNK! BOOK 1989: SHORT BUT OH SO SWEET

25 December 2023 Phil Boyce Leave a comment

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.