Happy Birthday Leo Baxendale..

From Beezer book first one...
Look at the great different perspective Leo has done for this busy page..also not too over crowded But you're always seeing new things each time..
I so want a book collected together of the Banana Bunch poster pages! :)

Thank you Leo for some great comic work to enjoy over and over again...
Cheers to you Sir!!! :)

My favourite comic artist of all time has to be Leo Baxendale
with Tom Paterson following straight after..

See Lew's blog as well..

Blimey! Its another blog about comics!: Leo Baxendale 81 today: Today is the 81st birthday of the great Leo Baxendale, the original artist and creator of The Bash Street Kids , Little Plum , and Minnie the minx...

The Best British Comic Convention ever...the first trip I'd like to do in my time machine if I had one!!

Years ago one of the greatest joys of attending a comics convention was the official programme for which many artists would donate a page of artwork. 'Comics 101', held in March 1976, was one of the earliest such events and though I wasn't able to attend in person I did manage to acquire the booklet produced for it. To be honest I'd forgotten all about it but having just accidentally stumbled across it again I thought it'd be interesting to post some of the contributions here - especially as a worrying number of the artists represented are no longer with us.

Thanks to Phil Rushton for the pictures and info on this amazing event..

What is so great about these pictures is some of these artists were in there 80's and things like Casey's Court and Laurel and Hardy seems like such a long time ago..But here they are alive and well in 1976. Its fun seeing the same style they would use for that era..
If anyone actually went to the event it would be fun to hear more...please email me and I'll do a blog post on your experience..I may look green when you tell me;)


More p[ictures and info at the link...comicsuk forum..
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=3233

Beano annual fun title panels..

Today's Beano annuals don't use fancy title panels that much..

The best time for this was the 70's Beano annuals..


I love them...very creative..fun..bold striking design and sometimes surreal..

Andy Hunt's Allo Allo from Fast Forward

Another David Croft classic comedy brought to life as a comicstrip..

The artwork might not be quite up to the standards of Ford and Titcombe but to my mind the script has a surprisingly authentic ring!

- Phil Rushton

Thanks Phil for the image

'Allo Allo' in Fast Forward was drawn by Andy Hunt. The first ones were written by Kern Roderick-Jones but later ones by Andy Hunt. David Croft supervised the writing and drawing by OKing it. Nigel P

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=4516&start=15

Jim Petrie's the first official Minnie the minx he did for The Beano

The Beano 3rd June 1961
Here is the first one. I'm sure Jim had ghosted a few Minnies before But this is when it became weekly in The Beano..which amazingly Jim drew for 2000 issues!! up to 2001! What a brilliant artist....see a reprint of 1966 Minnie in todays Beano and just be in awe...also Jim is coming out of retirement one more time(hopefully more;) ) to draw a Fatty Fudge page which is of course a character from Minnie.

Lets have a closer look at this in more detail..
Jim is obviously a good letterer as he does many variations on the titles through the years..
I love the figure work throughout he knows how to put the body in different angles. The pose of Minnie in the head dress a real 3D postion..very solid looking..strong.
In the totem pole there looks like Wilfred!
Its fun seeing how times have changed e.g the light bulb being used for the shaver socket!!
Again the Dad in the chair is shown in two panels in different ways..nothing is flat!
Love the gag of the bird using pan pipes!!:)
Another note is that Minnie isn't in every panel and somtimes hidden a bit with just a face or hat showing..lots of variations...
As noted before every expression is different in each panel..
A good use of the rake in the last panel to break up the foreground and background..

What a beginning!!

UPDATE Bill Ritchie lending a hand to draw Korky with James Crighton

found this advert in The Beano of this issue..


A nice cat like Korky by James the last panel...But the top three is by Bill...maybe the original plan was the cover to just be Korky filling the whole page?!

Looks like Bill Ritchie to me, Peter: very unusual!

I can't remember any other instance of Bill 'ghosting' although he's not really hiding his style [on frame 3 especially].
The main picture with the 'whizz-bang' or whatever looks like Crichton job, though.......
Nice find! Spy

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4533

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korky_the_Cat
Reading the wiki it shows when Charles Griggs starts in
Charles Grigg from issues 1052 to 2116 (January 20, 1962 to June 12, 1982.)
But has I've proved on the last post Charles was drawing the odd Korky before that date!

Image taken from comic vine...reloaded up on here
http://www.comicvine.com/the-dandy/49-26867/?page=15

Charles Griggs The Dandy's Korky the cat comic covers..and the first Charles drew of Korky

Very early Charles Korky..


A nice perspective picture..


What a striking page layout!


This is a Classic Korky..what glee he has with that fish!


What an amazing octopus!! A bit like the annual one we saw in the last post..Charles sure draws them strange looking..

As you can see Korky could do some great eye catching covers..

Charles Grigg's Korky the cat Dandy Annual covers and title pages

1961 one of the first by Charles Griggs

I love the cover with the sweets..;))


Charles did some great title pages as well..

Heres an unusual cover which carrys on in the inside covers and back to the conclusion at the back cover...with Korky attacked by a dog..

Korky works well as he is very cat like...very memorable face..the blacks really show up well on a cover like Biffo the bear was for The Beano..

Biffo and Korky were Disneyesque in looks and intention; classically-depicted characters destined to run for decades.

Their 'inherent blandness' [to some] nevertheless gave reassurance to generations of readers.

There was no real personality in there, [well, maybe a wee bit with Korky, who could be mischevious on occassion] but it didn't matter; they were instantly-recognizable and iconic.

Mickey Mouse has no real personality either, but he's the most famous cartoon character on the planet, and has been for decades Spy

I like this quote from Spy a lot...he is right they are very Disney in there look and appeal..quote from link..
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4411&start=15

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4436