Bill Ritchie- Clumsy Claude

Hi, Peter,
I am glad you liked the scans of the 1960 Xmas issue of the New Hotspur that I posted on the comicsuk website yesterday; you can certainly use them on your blog, I have no problem with that. I attach better quality scans because those on the website aren't very good - the website would only allow files up to 400 kb. The covers have a lot of scribbling on them, which is certainly a shame.

I hope you will like it; keep up the good work with your blog!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!
Regards
CK Thanks CK

I learnt from Classics from the comics that Bill's first Beano work was Clumsy Claude...I don't have his comic work..But here is the annual story version. If anyone has a Clumsy Claude comic page they can email me...that would be great!!

Nigel Parkinson drawing in Whizzer and Chips!!

Heres the cover thanks to Nigel P!! It was a comic not a mag/comic. Must try and get one sometime.

Scouse Mouse was a monthly comic, 100 per cent comic, no features, not a magazine. It was an early mostly full-colour comic,drawn by just three of us and written by those three with a fourth. thanks Nigel for the info

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2408






The 'Fido Fax' story featured a dog that seemed very average, when he could suddenly turn into an ultra-sophisticated intelligent hound.
Thanks Muffy for the above scans..

Recently I bought lots of Whizzer and Chips from 1989..Cosmic Cafe by Frank is great fun and love Trevor Metcalfes The Ossies a story that continues everyweek which is a great idea like a soap...and look what I've discovered Nigel's work!!



Nigel Parkinsons Scouse mouse comic work which also carried on in Whizzer and chips when it mergered.

Leo Baxendale- Banana Bunch from Beezer

thanks to Phil-comics for the image Beezer comic Xmas 1957. Shame its not in colour!!! See what I mean when you see the rest of this post..



I got the new Beano and Dandy collectors club by Phil-comics...joined recently..recieved issue 7 today..

http://www.phil-comics.com/collectors_club.html

Was over the moon to see an early Banana Bunch on the back page of The Beezer..
I'm always looking for early Beezers But they are very expensive and often lose on ebay..so thanks Phil for showing an early one...hope DC Thomson will show these in some kind of published way..I liked seeing the early 60's one in Best of Beezer,,,

Hi Peter, Those Banana Bunch 'colour plates' only appeared on the rear cover of the Beezer for the first 13 issues and were all completed before the first issue went on sale (the comic being produced on a schedule three months ahead of it's distribution). According to Leo's ' A Very Funny Business' it was juvenile paper supremo R D Low himself who ordered the strips removal from it's full colour, rear cover spot to a red/black, (nothing in the Beezer was published in black and white) inner page citing the strip's 'rawness' as a reason why it wasn't suitable for a cover spot, a comment with which Leo seemed to have few qualms. In truth I imagine once the Beezer went on sale and the stockpile began to be distributed Leo would have found drawing these intricate colour plates laboriously time consuming and was therefore reasonably happy to continue drawing the Banana Bunch as a more traditional, multi-panelled, strip.
BTW, from issue No 14, the rear cover spot was taken over by the adventure strip 'The Kings of Castaway Island' drawn by Peem Walker which stayed there, for over two years, till No 120.
from Kashgar thanks again!!

Next wish list is I want to see the first one with the zoo talked about in the club sheet..
Quote from comicsuk forum

Well here it is...:)

I remember reading one of your posts on comicsuk where you said you liked Banana Bunch from the early Beezers; it is Christmas time, so I will send you one more message with a scan of Banana Bunch page in Beezer issue No. 1 (Jan 21, 1956) as a small Xmas gift. I hope you will like it; keep up the good work with your blog!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!
Regards
CK
Thanks CK so much!!!!!!

How colour can make it look 100x better...these two firework ones prove my point!!!





Its a shame that a lot of these poster Banana Bunch pages were in black and white with red.......in colour they have so much power. He was the original Wheres Wally (US ..Waldo)!!

These poster pages should be collected together.coloured up nicely and put into a book..or even made into jigsaws..etc..

The Banana Bunch are often over looked by comic fans....The Beano characters he did and the Bash Street kids gets all the glory...well its time to look again...

the banana bunch are up there with the bash street kids in my opinion!!

Whizzer and chips with Scouse mouse!!!!

Whizzer and chips was quietly joined by one last comic after Whoopee..Krazy..Knockout had done before...this was Scouse Mouse!!

Scouse Mouse was a comic/mag in the 80's. Sadly I can't find any covers of this comic to show here unless anyone can help!!

This title only seems to have appeared once..the following week it was called Whizzer and chips again. Only one character joined..Scouse Mouse see below.
The cover is drawn by Jim Hanson who includes in the cover the characters Scouse mouse plus the parrot.




Anyone any idea who drew this?

Happy Christmas readers!!!

A Original drawing by David Parkin. Thanks to Trevor Metcalfe for the scan.

http://uk.geocities.com/pjgtrevormetcalfe/






Happy/Merry Christmas from me!!

Russell Brooke and more Michael (T) Green

From Whizzer and chips annuals..this one 1989.


Wow! 19th March 1983 number 42...signed in bottom corner MTG which got cut off on my scanner..doh!! It shows how hard it is to see the difference between Russell and Michael.
See below..



the next two from Russell Brooke...


From Christmas...Wow! early 80's.


Heres the one drawn by Mike Lacey!

A few comments to help clear up the artist details on Penny Dreadful from Wow.
Penny Dreadful appeared in all 56 editions of Wow 5/6/82-25/6/83 and Mike Green did indeed draw the strip and signed them with his monogram MTG but this was only in 22 of the 56 issues, including the last 19.
In fact Denis Gifford, in his Encyclopaedia of Comic Characters, lists Mike Green as the artist and uses one of his illustrations, complete with signature, as proof and maybe it is this piece of 'proof', which is true only as far as it goes, that has helped to cause the confusion here as the art example of Penny Dreadful under examination here is not one of those drawn by Mike Green.
This artist drew all but one of the other 34 Penny Dreadful strips that appeared in Wow ( Mike Lacey drew the strip in issue No 1) and while I can see why both Bob Dewar and Dave Mostyn ( who did actually draw KBR - Kids Band Radio for Wow strangely enough) have been mentioned I myself think the artist may be Russell Brooke, who dabbled with comic strip work in the early 1980's before he turned to animation full-time.

Thanks Kashgar for the info!!

Cliff Brown a Puzzle King!

Whizzer and Chips annuals had loads of great puzzles by Cliff. He used a nice thick pen line contrasting with a thin line.






Whizzer and chips 1988.













Normally at the end of Timothy Tester his father would chase him with a belt to whack him!!...the comedy of it was his trousers were falling down as he removes it..
even as a kid I didn't find that very funny:(

Of course the other puzzle king has to be Jack Edward Oliver.

Reg Parlett is great at drawing hands...

I am no Parlett expert (though would happily become one!) so take this with a pinch of salt, but as soon as I saw that horse I was shocked. RP's work stands out because he NEVER (to my limited knowledge) drew a character that looked wooden, or looked the same in two frames running. That is what mere mortal artists have to do, not our Reg. tolworthy

This advice from comicsuk forum I've found invaluable.
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=2094&start=15

mind you horses are hard to draw...:)


Now here is Reg's work in the same comic Shiver and Shake 1973.
Reg is amazing!!!
The piano is shown from every different angle...even the back view!!!
The spooky hand is also different each time.love the way it runs along on its fingers..

The difference between the two...
Reg's work is soo 3D!!
Wonderful variety.
Try and put it into your own comic page drawing.

Some more Michael (T) Green comic work..and one of my new cartoons

Sparky annual 1975.




Oink comic mid 80's. This character also joined Buster later for awhile.





Sparky early 70's..was reprinted in The Dandy as the red hot chillie peppers dogs..


More about Michael here at comicsuk forum.......

Mike Green also drew Weedy Willy for Oink! We collaborated on a strip for that comic once. Must dig it out one day. We exchanged letters a few times in the 1980s when we worked on Oink. IIRC comics were not his full time job. He produced ceramics as well I think, and ran a shop selling them in Cornwall or somewhere.

Lew Stringer

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2380

MTG Whizzer and chips artist-The Drips and The Gnomes

You can really feel the dampness...nice spotty shading...also lots of fun details..

Whizzer and chips 1983-84.

What did M.T.G stand for? What was his name?

Thanks to Bristle
it stands for Michael (T) Green.

Mitch is in War Cry!!

I liked Mitch's comic work as a kid.....simple they maybe..But very appealing..
This is from Whizzer and chips 1983. Loved this strip!!



Both Whoopee!! early 80's.



When I went to Woking and gave some money.. I was given the Salvation Army newspaper The War Cry established 1879!!and on the back page is a comic strip by Mitch. Its nice to know he is still drawing today.



Simple styles inspire children to give cartooning a go themselves...