50 Year Flashback: MAN ON THE MOON!

Exactly half a century ago, on July 20th 1969, humans first set foot on the Moon. An incredible achievement recorded by the world's media. I remember it well. A perfect crescendo to a fantastic decade! 

Here's how the Daily Mirror reported it the next day. As this is a blog about British comics I thought you'd also like to see the comic strips and cartoons that issue contained. As you can seem there were a lot more than the Mirror carries these days! The Daily Mirror was a great paper in the 1960s, not just for its excellent news coverage but also for its numerous strips and cartoons. We'll never see such days again.

Andy Capp by Reg Smythe.

Useless Eustace by Jack Greenall.

Garth by John Allard. Larks by Jack Dunkley. Flutters by Ian Gammidge and Len Gamblin.

Perishers by Maurice Dodd and Dennis Collins.

Playboy! by David Rowe.

You'll notice that only one cartoon, the slot usually taken for topical/political cartoons, mentions the Moon mission. That one was probably drawn just before the deadline, as most political cartoons are. My guess is that others wanted to make sure everything went well first, as the mission could have so easily ended in disaster. Thankfully it didn't, and the historic achievement is one we can look back on with happy memories.

Note: I scanned these from a facsimile edition of the Daily Mirror. It seems there might have been some tinkering with the front cover as genuine editions are slightly different. 

Andy Capp is 60 today

The distinctively memorable 2nd book, 1959.

On this day in 1957, Andy Capp first appeared in the Northern edition of the Daily Mirror. Initially a gag cartoon before later becoming a strip, Andy was the creation of cartoonist Reg Smythe. 

The first Andy Capp cartoon, 5th August 1957.

Andy Capp struck a chord with its working class readers and became a national institution. My parents and my grandad read the strip, and it seemed like everyone knew who Andy Capp was. He was so popular, and so respected by the paper, that his strip even appeared on the cover of the Christmas edition in 1966. 

Young comics creators today yearn for comics to be accepted by the general public. It already happened decades ago! Once upon a time the public loved newspaper strips and characters such as Andy Capp became household names. The Andy Capp collections, published twice a year, were read by blokes in the pub and by dads on holiday. Other newspaper strip collections such as Bill Tidy's Fosdyke Saga were also popular with adults. Sadly, over the years, comics have fallen out of favour with young and old, and the UK industry, down but not out, is not what it once was. 

Perhaps this explains why today's Daily Mirror makes no mention of Andy Capp's 60th anniversary. Not even a jokey line in their celebrity birthday listings. In fairness, they could be waiting until 17th August, which a recent article claimed was the actual anniversary. (Presumably this was when it appeared in the London edition.) 

Reg Smythe passed away years ago but his strip is still going strong, seven days a week, ably produced by writers Lawrence Goldsmith and Sean Garnett and drawn by Roger Mahoney. As previously reported here, a new collection of their Andy Capp strips is to be published soon.

There's been some criticism this week that Andy Capp is too "politically correct" these days. Certainly his profile lost part of its distinctive look when the character lost his ever-present cigarette, but aspects such as beating up his wife Flo (or her reciprocating) stopped being funny a long time ago. Changes were necessary when the strip became syndicated around the world, but the essence and look of the character remains intact and the strip still raises a laugh. 

In these dark days of newspaper cutbacks, the fact that Andy Capp has been running consecutively for 60 years is something to celebrate. Cheers, Andy!

Today's Andy Capp strip.

******************

Here's an article I wrote for the strip's 50th anniversary ten years ago:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/andy-capp-is-fifty.html

Andy Capp returns to bookshops

Andy Capp, the Daily Mirror's popular cartoon strip created by Reg Smythe, first appeared in the paper 60 years ago on 5th August 1957. From 1958, softback book collections began to appear, at a rate of two a year for several years. The collections proved to be a success with young and old alike. (My grandad was reading them in his 70s.) 

As with most newspaper collections in the UK, the Andy Capp books have appeared less and less in recent times, even though the strip continues in the Daily Mirror 7 days a week. The last book was published in 2011 (by Titan) but this year will see it return with a collection of strips from the current team of Roger Mahoney, Lawrence Goldsmith, and Sean Garnett. 

I'll post more about it at a later date but, for now, here's the cover to whet your appetite. 

Here's an article I wrote about Andy when the character was 50:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/andy-capp-is-fifty.html

Garth in Sub Mission

Today's Daily Mirror begins reprinting the 1995 Garth story Sub Mission, written and drawn by Martin Asbury, with new colours by Martin Baines. 

The serial originally ran in the Mirror from 8th June to 16th August 1995. As the paper reprints two strips a day it means Sub Mission will only run for about a month before the next story starts. For reasons best known to the Daily Mirror, they're not reprinting each serial in sequence so it's anyone's guess which story will follow it. Not that it really matters of course as the serials are self-contained stories. 

I'd still like to see some Steve Dowling Garth strips reprinted, but the Mirror only focuses on Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury reprints. 

You can follow the Daily Mirror comic strips every day in the newspaper or online at the website:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/cartoons/

Garth: Scourge of God

Time was when the Daily Mirror had so many new strips they couldn't all fit onto one page, and that was back in the 1940s when the paper only had 8 pages a day. Comic strips were considered high priority then, to boost the spirits and provide escapism during World War 2. These days, the public (and publishers) have a lower opinion of comic strips, with them fighting for space on the Mirror's horoscope page and with six of the strips being reprint.

Garth has been a reprint for several years now, and this week the Daily Mirror began reprinting the Scourge of God serial from 1989. The script is by Jim Edgar, the art by Martin Asbury, with new colours by Martin Baines. 

I've compiled the story so far for you above from the Mirror dated 23rd to 26th January. (Click on it to see it full size.) After reading that you can check out the latest episodes in the Daily Mirror today and every day or online at their website...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/cartoons/garth/

A rarity; a Garth comic from 1946

"Comics aren't just for kids anymore" screamed headlines in the press back in the 1980s. Simple research shows that they never were exclusively for children of course, and that "adult" doesn't always mean profanity and sex. When British comics originated in Victorian times they were aimed at adults, and later in the 1950s comics like Top Spot, and digest-sized comics such as True Life Library were too. Then there's newspaper strips, which were often targeted towards older readers (or at least all-ages). 

Back in 1946, the Daily Mirror published the first Garth comic, collecting the character's first adventure from 1943. Garth - Man of Mystery, was in American comic book size, albeit horizontal, and featured 36 stapled pages including covers, for a shilling.  

Garth had been created by cartoonist Steve Dowling (who had also originated Ruggles for The Daily Mirror years earlier) and journalist Gordon Boshell. The strip is still in the paper today, although in reprints of later stories colorised for modern tastes.

Each strip carries an identification number and looking through the Garth comic I noticed that some had been skipped, so I think the story had probably been edited to fit the 36 page format. Also, if these episodes featured any female nudity (as the Garth strips often did) then it's been censored for the reprint. Here are the first three pages of the comic...

...and here's a later page, with Garth showing his tremendous strength...

Later on, the characters return to where Garth was found...

...and in the end, Garth flies off to his next adventure "to seek the land of his origin"...

I purchased this Garth - Man of Mystery comic only recently and it seems to be a mystery in itself. There's hardly any mention of it online, and most listings don't even acknowledge it. Quite a rarity, it seems! As far as I know, there were no more Garth comics published in this format, although there were a few well known Garth books years later of course, which most Garth fans own. 

The comic carried two adverts; one on its inside back page, one on the back, for razor blades and rings. Yep, the comic was definitely pitched at older readers...

A couple of years after this Garth comic, (in 1948 as far as I can ascertain), the Mirror also published another title in the horizontal comic format: Belinda and the Bomb Alley Boys, reprinting a Belinda adventure from the paper. (The character was also by Steve Dowling, and was basically Britain's version of Little Orphan Annie.) Mike Higgs kindly sent me a scan of the cover and an interior page...

The intriguing thing about comics history is that there's always something new to discover! Were there any more Mirror comics in this 36 page format? Let me know if you have any info.

GARTH returns in a new series

The famous Daily Mirror comic strip Garth is currently running as a reprint strip in the newspaper but a brand new series has just begun online. Following on from where the final Garth strip left off, creators Bill Storie and Ant Jones hope to publish one episode a week. Although classed as 'unofficial', the strip has the permission of Mirror Group Newspapers. You'll find it on the Facebook fan page for Garth at this link:
https://www.facebook.com/garthcomicstrip

It would be great if the new strip was appearing in the Daily Mirror but I don't think cheap newsprint would do justice to Ant Jones' artwork so digital is the best option at the moment. As you can see, the quality looks superb! 

50 Year Flashback: Daily Mirror strips October 13th 1965

Several years ago I bought a bunch of old newspapers from the first Birmingham Memorabilia Show, back before the show became dominated by more recent nostalgia items. Here are the strips and cartoons that appeared in the Daily Mirror exactly half a century ago today.

The Andy Capp strip that day (above) is of course typical of the character; boozy and in debt, but creator Reg Smythe always managed to make the gags feel fresh and, more importantly, funny. 

The main strip page, regularly shared with Live Letters, featured Garth by John Allard and Steve Dowling, The Larks by Jack Dunkley, and The Flutters by Len Gamblin. We had the Daily Mirror every day when I was a kid so I have a particular fondness for these strips. 

Like Andy Capp, The Perishers (by Maurice Dodd and Dennis Collins) was on a different page back then, and a larger size strip than the others.

As well as five daily strips, the Mirror had a good selection of cartoons 50 years ago too. The Laughter column always carried work by some of Britain's top gag cartoonists.

There were also two regular 'pocket' cartoons. Useless Eustace by Jack Greenall...

...and Playboy! by David Rowe...

Plus the political cartoon by Stanley Franklin...

Strips and cartoons were considered an important part of the paper back then, and served as light relief to the serious news of the day. Sadly, the news of 50 years ago was very grim indeed, with the cover story revealing the re-opening of the tragic case that would be referred to as the Moors Murders. At this point it seems the press had not been informed of the arrests a few days earlier of the vile serial child-killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.

To end this blog post on a lighter note, here are the TV listings for this day 50 years ago. Only three channels, but at least there was a repeat of Hancock's Half Hour to watch, and a new Dennis Potter play... 

I hope you'll find these pages of historical interest. Click images to see them much larger and more readable. As for the weather forecast on 13th October 1965: "Mainly dry with some sunshine after early fog". Pretty much like today then!

Buck Ryan returns, replaces Horace

This was a surprise. From today, the Daily Mirror is starting a series of reprint strips featuring their private eye character Buck Ryan. The strip originally ran in the paper from 1937 to 1962 and was a favourite of readers for years. (I remember my mum and dad talking about it.)

The reprints begin with the first episode of the serial Road Raiders from 1959. The artwork is by Jack Monk and was originally published in black and white but colour has now been added by Martin Baines and he's done a nice job of it. Click to see it larger: 

While it's great to see this classic character making a comeback it's a shame the reprint replaces Horace by Roger Kettle and Andrew Christine after a run of over 20 years. This now means that half of the Mirror's strip page is from the archives, with Garth and The Perishers also being reprint and only Andy Capp, Mandy, and Gag Vault being new. Over on the official Horace Facebook page, Roger Kettle made the following announcement:

End of an Era
Those of you who read the "Daily Mirror" or "Daily Record" may have noticed a Horace-sized gap in your paper today. Sadly, after 26 years, the strip has made its final appearance. Due to the financial situation at most newspapers today, severe cuts are being made and Horace is a victim of these circumstances.

Andrew and I would like to thank all those readers who have followed our daft little characters over the past quarter of a century---it really is appreciated. Who knows---maybe Horace, Mojo, Granny and the rest will pop up somewhere in the future. In the meantime, thanks again.
I'll leave you with a line from Granny to the outlaw, Jesse James...
"Son, you've got a big mouth and a girly name---neither of which will stop a knee to the groin."
Keep smiling.
Roger Kettle.

The last 'Horace' from Saturday's Daily Mirror, 1/8/2015

It's very sad that once again cutbacks have affected comic strips. During World War 2, when paper rationing reduced the Mirror to just 8 pages a day, it still devoted over one page to all new comic strips. Today, with the paper regularly carrying 64 pages or more, its one page of strips is half reprint. Whilst no one would expect it to devote an eighth of its content to comics now of course, it's disheartening to see how strips have become such low priority. How times change. Roger Kettle and Andrew Christine are two of the funniest strip creators in the world (been a fan since the first episode of Beau Peep in the Daily Star back in the 1980s) and I wish them both well for the future.

Today's extra Beano

Just a quick reminder that today's Daily Mirror contains a free 32 page Beano, and they certainly aren't shy of announcing that, as shown by the cover above. (A shame they chose to run with a header about perverts immediately beneath it though but you can't predict what'll hit the headlines on the day of a promotion.) 

The free comic contains all new material and is packed with strips by Nigel Parkinson, Laura Howell, and more. None of my strips are in there unfortunately but one of the numerous Joe King vignettes I supplied is used throughout the comic.

The comic also features a cut-out coupon to save readers £1 on the next issue (which goes on sale on Wednesday). 

Daily Mirror No.15,171. On sale now. 80p

Bonfire Beano, plus Daily Mirror freebies!

If you thought that the traditional 'fireworks issue' of children's comics was a thing of the past, check out the latest issue of The Beano. It features a fireworks-themed Minnie the Minx story drawn by Nigel Parkinson, and a great bonfire cover by him too. In the shops now!

More Beano news. If you hop over to the Daily Mirror website you can download a free digital Dennis the Menace comic worth £1.49 compatible with iOS or Android devices. The offer runs until Saturday November 13th. Full info here: 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/free-beano-digital-comic-download-4532214

Speaking of that paper, this coming Saturday (November 1st) the Daily Mirror will contain a free special promotional edition of The Beano containing many of the regular strips in new stories. Never Be Without A Beano!   

Daily Mirror strips of the 1960s

We had the Daily Mirror every day when I was growing up in the 1960s. My family must have been reading it since the 1930s as my mum told me that when she was a child she enjoyed the Pip, Squeak and Wilfrid comic strip. The Mirror was the paper of the working class, and it had a direct and intelligent writing style that cut to the chase for the man in the street. 

It also had some great comic strips. I showed a page from a wartime edition here the other day, but today I'm focusing on the strips I enjoyed as a child in the sixties. There was Andy Capp by Reg Smythe, and The Perishers by Maurice Dodd and Dennis Collins of course, and I'm showing a couple of those here, but the strips I enjoyed most were the three tiers that always appeared around page 20: Garth, The Larks, and The Flutters. 

18th September 1962

Perishers: 18th September 1962.

Frank Bellamy's dynamic take on Garth in the 1970s receives a lot of praise, and justifiably so, but it was the earlier strips by John Allard and Steve Dowling which captured my imagination as a kid. Their stories often had a creepy atmospheric quality about them, even tense and claustrophobic at times due to the hatching and cross-hatching of the inks, but that added to the likable strangeness of the strip. Garth was aimed at adults of course, and women our time-travelling hero encountered would sometimes be topless, so that, plus the dark mood of the strip made it seem very mature to my young eyes. 

28th June 1963.

The Larks by Jack Dunkley was a standard family sit-com, and it felt a bit too middle-class for the Mirror to me, perhaps better suited to the Daily Mail. Nevertheless, I often enjoyed the gags and I liked the artwork. The interesting thing about The Larks is that the characters aged with the strip, so as the years progressed the kids grew into teenagers, Sam (the father) gained a bit of grey in his hair, etc.

14th February 1964.

14th February 1964.

The Flutters was a strip I really liked. I'm sure that some of Ian Gammidge's scripts with all their sporting/gambling references went right over my head as a child, but I think it was the fact that it was a continuing humour strip that grabbed me. The artwork by the appropriately named Len Gamblin was the clincher though; busy but clear, and just right for the strip. I was disappointed when The Flutters was eventually replaced by Bill Tidy's Fosdyke Saga which I never really took to.

22nd April 1964.

Anyway, here are several examples of those strips, mostly from the mid-1960s. I hope you enjoy looking at them! All are scanned from old copies of the Daily Mirror I bought at a Memorabilia Show a few years ago. I've cleaned a couple up in Photoshop as necessary but I've left that authentic newspaper look to most of the scans. 

30th January 1965.

Perishers: 30th January 1965.

13th May 1965.

16th July 1965.

Andy Capp: 16th July 1965.

20th September 1966.

14th November 1966.

10th June 1968.

Also related:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-of-double-strips-in-daily-mirror.html