Peter Woolcock's Jack and Jill's Freddie the frog

28th Jan 1961 Jack and Jill




cover art by Hugh McNeill

Nursery titles like HHOP, Playhour, Jack & Jill, Bimbo, Once Upon a Time, etc. had some fantastic free gifts and were amongst the most successful comics ever published; what's more I suspect they would have been the first type of comic most of us read (or at least owned) - in spite of which they are very rarely collected today. The trouble is that adults only tend to retain a handful of impressionistic memories from infancy. To my mind this is a great shame as these titles didn't only contain work by artists such as Bill Ritchie, Hugh McNeill, Ron Embleton and Don Lawrence, whose work is well-known from publications aimed at older readers, but also some equally remarkable art by people who are now all-but forgotten because they specialized in the nursery market throughout their career. One example of the latter group is the amazing Peter Woolcock whom I'd rate alongside Carl Barks and Reg Parlett as a true master of the humorous comic strip - yet wonderful pieces of his original artwork from the 1950s and 1960s can be acquired for next to nothing today!

Here, for instance, are a couple of panels I picked up from the Birmingham International Comics Convention on Saturday for just £1 each:
...To see how phenomenally good he was one only has to look at the skill with which he added the incidental background characters in these enlarged details from the above scenes:

A brilliant artist - one of the very best in fact. IMHO It would be criminally unjust to ignore him just because he only drew for the very young!

- Phil Rushton

Thanks phil for bringing it to our attention..Peter
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4428&start=30

http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/acatalog/Peter_Woolcock_Art.html

http://www.lookandlearn.com/characters/index.php?c=freddiefrog

Solano Lopez's Buster's The Wizard of Football

Buster 26th June 1971




Buster 17th July 1971

This is a another quirky strip...I like how he builds up the team confidence to win...

Solano Lopez's Buster and Jet's the first Pete's Pocket Army

Not my favourite of Lopez though fun..a good idea the tiny punch in his fist..
This strip maybe a light adventure though it does have dark moments like when Pete is possessed by a mask!!


http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/pocket.html

Pete's Pocket Army
Launched: 28th April 1973
Ended: 18th February 1978
Script - Tom Tully

Solano Lopez's Buster and Jet's The World-Wide Wheelers

Buster and Jet 3rd June 1972



The last one 14th October 1972

What a great quirky strip..I love it..

This is in tribute to the artist Solano Lopez who died at 83..

I'll be also putting up another time more of his amazing work soon..

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=4401

http://www.dandare.info/artists/lopez.htm


http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/world.html

World-wide Weirdies Whoopee! 1974 where it all began..

1)12th October 1974

www.toonhound.com
first one...thanks to Frazer from Toonhound.


2) 19th October 1974 thanks to John for the scan.



3) 26th October 1974



4) 2nd Novemeber 1974



5 Thanks to Mike Foxx for sprucing it up..
5) 9th Novemeber 1974



7) 23rd Novemeber 1974



8) 30th Novemeber 1974 Thanks Frazer.



9) 7th December 1974 Thanks Frazer.



10) 14th December 1974 Thanks Frazer.




11) 21st December 1974


28th December 1974 no Whoopee!! due to industrial action

Hi, continuing the subject of my today’s reply to the post about no Buster due to industrial action, I have now checked my WHOOPEE collection for 1978 and can confirm that the comic was not published for three weeks in the end of the year on 9th, 16th and 23rd December 1978. The clue is the uninterrupted storyline of the Wonder Car adventure strip in Whoopee issues dated 2nd December and 30th December 1978 hinting that there were no issues in between.

Other IPC titles also appear to have been affected in that period in 1978: Cheeky Weekly took a three-week break on Dec. 16th, 23rd and 30th, whereas Buster was 4 pages thinner than usual on 9th, 16th and 23rd December (or maybe the copies that I own don’t have middle pages; could someone please count pages in their copies and let me know?).

So far I have identified the following dates when there was no Whoopee:
28th Dec 1974
4th Jan 1975
11th Jan 1975
9th, 16th and 23rd December, 1978
17th, 24th, 31st May, 7th June, 1980
Plus one combined issue dated June 21/28, 1980

Could someone please check if there were any interruptions in 1979. Also, was Whoopee published on February 7, 1981?
klakadak-ploobadoof

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2557&p=19901&hilit=whoopee#p19901

please email me the World-Wide Weirdies to my email..lets complete this together here...
thejeep2000@yahoo.co.uk


Rafiq Raja said...
Peter, What did the Whoopee magazine contained other than the World Wide Weirdies.... would love to see any sample cartoons featured in the inner pages....

ÇómícólógÝ

11 April 2009 00:11
Peter Gray said...
I've put up a whole Whoopee!! number 1 comic up already on the blog..see the blog tabs on the left..

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.com/search/label/Whoopee.%20number.%201.

The Bumpkin Billionaires by Mike Lacey is my favourite..a real Whoopee!! classic..

11 April 2009 01:23
Rafiq Raja said...
Ooh la... I didn't even notice that you already posted the complet whopee no.1 issue already. Love them all.... can imagine what fantasy this title would have received when it was published first.

All are pretty new for me... Don't remember any of them featuring in India before. But the artwork and humor is all related to the other Valiant, or IPC titles famous in this part of the world.

Thanks to John for these 1974 World-wide Weidies///I like the crazy cactus!!

Ken Reid's World Wide Weirdies 1975 Now Complete

Thanks to Mike Foxx for sprucing it up..compare it below..


4th January 1975
11th January 1975 No Whoopee!! due to industrial action


13) 25th January 1975



14) 1st February 1975


NEW 15th Feb 1975 Thanks to Bruce



17) 22nd February 1975


19) 8th March 1975




20) 15th March 1975




21) 22nd March 1975






37) 12th July 1975
The eyes are staring out of this one...due to the fact they are centered in the pupils.


42) 16th August 1975
Thanks for the scan Bruce..


43) 23rd August 1975




45) 6th September 1975
A very creepy windmill...Ken is great at drawing horrible menacing teeth!!



46) 13th September 1975




47) 20th September 1975


23) 5th April 1975



24) 12th April 1975
Thanks Bruce for the scan..




25) 19th April 1975 thanks to John.



29) 17th May 1975
Thanks to John for the scan..


31) 31st May 1975




34) 21st June 1975




35) 28th June 1975



NEW 19th July 1975 thanks to Bruce



48) 27th September 1975
The Isle of Wight this is based on.


49) 4th October 1975


50) 11th October 1975






51) 18th October 1975
Wookey hole caves...


52) 25th October 1975
A clever pun on a place name!!


53) 1st November 1975
This is really creepy...insects crawling around always get to me...shudder!!


54) 8th November 1975




55) 15th November 1975




56) 22nd November 1975




57) 29th November 1975




58) 6th December 1975
This is a very alive building..


59) 13th December 1975
Ken is super at drawing creepy spooky old trees...faces work well on them.


60) 20th December 1975


61) 27th December 1975

Thanks to mike Foxx for sprucing it up..



Anonymous said...
very unusual stuff, PETER; even by KEN'S ghoulish standards! I've already collected every single one of these onto disc....the 'pencil' one is the most untypical-ever REID entry in this field, I reckon.......he is still one of the all-time UK greats, however off-putting some of these images are.

SPY.

16 April 2009 18:12

Steven Henderson said...
These are great Peter cheers for highlighting them!

27 April 2009 10:45


King Viswa said...
Wow,

Liked the 1st One which is a Spook of Our Own Taj Majal.

The others are Equally interesting too.

Never ever heard about this Magazine, Until i Came across your Post.

King Viswa.
தமிழ் காமிக்ஸ் உலகம்

9 April 2009 14:50
Peter Gray said...
Welcome to the weird world of Ken Reid...he was in another world..very strange stuff..

you made me smile about talking about India..its amazing to be able to talk to you from such a far away country...glad the British humour can travel..

Hi Peter, 
I've always enjoyed your blog, so I'm glad I can contribute in a small way. 
Aside from the Weirdies, there's a couple of other surprises you may appreciate. 

Here's a few Weirdies for you now though. 

From the January 18th through to February 8th 1974 issues, Whoopee come out in the smaller size with the better quality paper, hence the colours are much brighter. 

Some of your 1975 dates appear to be mixed up too.
19th April was the Gruesome Gondola, whilst 19 May was The Sahara Dessert. 

There was no Weirdies in the Whoopee issue dated 29th March 1975

Also, the "Scary Skyscraper" Weirdie you have on your 1974 page isn't from 1974 although I couldn't tell you the correct date.   

cheers, 
John

Brian Walker did a poster in place of World-wide Weirdies this week..

Robert Nixon shows he is also great at comic horror!!

Ken is great at this...loads of gruesome faces!!!

Thanks John...oh well the pictures are the main thing rather than dates...I've put yours up in the correct year...
Sorry the order isn't correct...