A World-Wide Weirdies from Idea to Creation..

Hello Peter,

I have just been reading and looking at the scans on your blog for Ken Reids World Wide Weirdies. I was a big fan of these as a kid and had loads of Whoopee comics. I was very interested to see that you have a scan of 'The Marauding Mushroom' from Jan - March 1977. I thought you may be interested to know that I am the Jon Sampson from Surrey that you can see on the top the page. I hope my little story will interest you and give you a bit of background to that particular World Wide Weirdie.

I am very artistic and had (and still have) a very big interest in anything cartoony. I work as an illustrator and have had my own cartoon work published. As a child I was a big fan of certain comics including Whizzer and Chips, Cheeky, Buster and of course Whoopee. I must have been 9 or 10 when I sent in a drawing to Whoopee in the hope it would become a World Wide Weirdie. My drawing was of a mushroom that had fangs dripping with blood and scary eyes and I called my creation 'The Murdering Mushroom'. Obviously this was a bit too horrific for Ken Reid to draw so the title changed and Ken Reid added arms and legs to the mushroom. My original drawing didn't have arms or legs but Ken Reid kept the fangs and even added more scary teeth.

I had mixed reactions when I saw my creation in print. On one hand I was over the moon with it but on the other I was disappointed that the title had changed and that it only looked a little bit like my original drawing. At the time lots of copies of this Whoopee comic were bought to give to relatives etc. Over the years my copies disappeared but I managed to get hold of a copy a few years ago over the internet. Someone at Toonhound pointed me in the right direction. I thought I'd never see it again and the excitement I had as a kid came back to me when it came in the post and I saw it for the first time in over 30 years.

I hope you found that interesting
Yours
Jon Sampson
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Hi Jon

Very nice to hear the other side of the story..I'd think other people would like to read this as well.I'll add it as a blog post...
thanks for emailling..
Was funny how you did an even worse drawing than Ken Reid's one..

Thanks again

Peter