Terry Bave alive and well

Issue 2 of Crikey! which was published last week featured an interview by Terry Hooper with Terry Bave, popular comic artist of many IPC humour strips such as Me and My Shadow, Sammy Shrink, Donovan's Dad and Ginger's Tum. Unfortunately the feature carried a footnote stating that Terry Bave had recently passed away, and this was also reported at the Comics UK forum, inspiring several messages of condolence and tributes.

However, it was soon discovered that the story was not true! Terry Bave has not died and at the age of 76 is alive and well. As fellow artist Steve Bright explained on the forum:

"I emailed the editor of Jester magazine (the in-house mag of the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain, of which Terry is a prominent member) this morning to inform him about the sad news broken on this thread, in order that an appropriate obituary could be put together before this month's deadline. The editor immediately called Terry's number, prepared to offer his condolences and garner some copy for the obit, and was no doubt more than a little taken aback to find himself speaking to the allegedly deceased. It sounds like Terry saw the funny side of it thankfully, but could we please double check all sources when we hear this kind of thing?"

Obviously the news that Terry is still with us was pleasing for all concerned. How this dreadful mistake occurred isn't certain. Apparently someone informed Crikey! editor Brian Clarke of the "news" as the issue was about to go to press, and Brian accepted it as fact, as most of us probably would have. After all, if someone tells you someone has died you tend to believe them. (How does one get a story like that wrong?) "Crikey!" indeed.

Below: One of Terry Bave's early strips, Sammy Shrink from Pow! and Wham! No.78, 13th July 1968.