Review: FACEACHE, THE FIRST HUNDRED SCRUNGES

What better book to preview/review on Halloween than Rebellion's latest offering that will be out at the end of next month? Faceache: The First 100 Scrunges brings us a fine collection of the first couple of years of Ken Reid's marvellous Faceache strip. We get the complete run from Jet plus the early Buster and Jet appearances, taking us from 1971 to 1973.

I think it's important to point out that Faceache did have a few fill-ins during this period, and they're included too. A total of 17 pages are clearly not by Ken Reid, but by Barrie Appleby (uncredited). I'm not sure why Rebellion felt it necessary to include the ghosted strips as they're not part of any continuity, and they feel a bit out of place in a book sub-titled The Ken Reid Years. 

Barrie Appleby's Faceache.

Still, focusing on the positives, we have lots of glorious Ken Reid pages reproduced very sharply and cleanly, with Ricky Rubberneck (Faceache's real name) gurning into increasingly bizarre contortions throughout a succession of brilliant slapstick situations. Personally, I think Ken's work was at its peak during the 1960s when he was freelancing for Odhams, but Faceache is amongst his best work for IPC and it's great to see it collected at last.

The book has two introductions; one by Alan Moore, which is guaranteed to bring the book to the attention of people who might otherwise ignore it, so that's good, and one by Ken's son, who reveals some behind-the-scenes anecdotes that are a touching and worthy addition to the book.

The book ends with a nice reveal of another Ken Reid book coming soon, which will be wonderful to see. I'll say no more. I hope there'll be another Faceache collection too, as the character, and Ken Reid's work, deserves a place on every comic fan's bookshelf. In British comics, producing humour strips sometimes feels like working in a ghetto within a ghetto, and so much material has been ignored or overlooked by fans and pros alike, so it's admirable that Rebellion are acknowledging one of the finest and funniest humour artists the UK has ever produced. Treat yourselves for Christmas to this marvellous first volume and let's hope there'll be many more!

Here's the PR material with more info...

• CREATIVE TEAM: Ken Reid
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 30th November 2017
• PAPERBACK, 118 pages
• PRICE: £14.99 (UK) $22.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781086018
• DIAMOND: OCT171757

Hilarious face-changing adventures by one of the greats of British comics! Ken Reid is consistently name-checked by the greats of comics - from Alan Moore to Kevin O'Neill, John Wagner to Pat Mills - for his unique art that is matched only by his enduring sense of humor. In a hardcover edition befitting his status as one of the all-too-forgotten greats of British comics, we present his timeless Faceache - the humorous adventures of Ricky Rubberneck, the boy with a "bendable bonce" whose skin stretches like rubber. At will, he could scrunge his face into anything, whether it's mimicking others or turning into grotesque creatures, but always coming a cropper! This is the first collection of this long lost classic from the hugely popular and long-running Buster comic.

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

Fleetway's finest gain Thrill-Power!

If you picked up the 2000AD issue for Free Comic Book Day last Saturday you'd have seen the surprise last page that re-introduced classic IPC/Fleetway characters into the 21st Century. As you know, last year, Rebellion (publishers of 2000AD) gained the rights to the IPC comics from 1970 onwards. They'll soon be reprinting selected classic strips in their Treasury of British Comics series of books, so this new strip by 'K33F' and Henry Flint is a nice fun taster, and shows the characters being integrated into the Rebellion universe.
See how many you can recognise!

Cover by Mike Perkins.

If you missed the 2000AD Free Comic Book Day issue, here's the cover to look out for. Unlike the weekly, it's in the U.S. comic book format. Your local comic shop may still have copies, or if not, you may find copies on eBay at a reasonable price. 

More about Marney the Fox...

The news that was announced the other day (see here) that Rebellion are to publish one book every month reprinting classic comic strips has been warmly welcomed by UK comic fans. However, although everyone is eager to see it, Marney the Fox appears to be the one that's an unknown strip to some. 

Just to cover the basics; Marney the Fox appeared in Buster weekly from the issue dated 22nd June 1974 to 11th September 1976. This fictional story of a wandering fox cub was written by Scott Goodall and illustrated by John Stokes. The artwork was absolutely superb and many consider it to be amongst Stokes' best work. (The artist himself regards it as some of his best too.) 

One thing that made Marney the Fox exceptional is that, unlike most other Buster adventure strips, it played up the emotional content. In that respect it was written more like a story for the girls' comics, as opposed to something like Von Hoffman's Invasion (also in Buster) that was very action orientated. It's an interesting technique to build up the emotional aspects because it enables the reader to sympathise with the character and become more involved in the story. With the technique Goodall used, the readers were privy to Marney's inner thoughts, again a style much used in girls' comics. 

Marney the Fox must have achieved a good response from Buster's readers for it to run for two years. I'm very pleased that it's being collected in book form at last. 

Looking through the issue of Buster and Cor!! that I scanned these pages from got me wondering what other strips might be suitable for reprinting. We already know that Ken Reid's Faceache is coming in December of course, but what for further in the future? (By the way, the Faceache in this particular issue wasn't by Ken Reid but was written by Dez Skinn and drawn by Keith Robson.)

Leo Baxendale's Snooper was a funny strip, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough to carry a book on its own. It'd be good to see it as part of an anthology though...

Clever Dick, also by Baxendale originally, might work as a stand alone book I think. It had a long run (1970 to 1982) so a selection of the best strips would be good.

I quite like Sammy Brewster's Secret Ski-Board Squad, mainly for the artwork by Joe Colquhoun. This ran for three years (1973 to 76) so there's more than enough to fill a book. Kids on motorised skateboards might appeal to today's readers perhaps? I dunno. Objectively, I think there are a lot more strips that are likely to be reprinted before this one, but Joe Colquhoun's art is always worth revisiting. 

That's just speculation of course. Focusing back on this year, we have plenty to look forward to from the first launches in Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line. One-Eyed Jack! The Leopard of Lime Street! The Dracula Files! Marney the Fox! Misty Book 2! Faceache! All well worth supporting!

Faceache, Marney, Leopardboy, One-Eyed Jack... coming back!

Marney the Fox © Rebellion A/S. Art by John Stokes.

I've known about this for a while but was sworn to secrecy, but now the news is out there. Rebellion have announced which classic Fleetway strips they're bringing back to print this year, and they're all glorious. The collective name for the books is The Treasury of British Comics...

You already knew about One-Eyed Jack by John Wagner and John Cooper, but today Rebellion have announced that other books will include:

Misty Book 2: The Sentinels and End of the Line. 

The Leopard from Lime Street drawn by Mike Western and Eric Bradbury.

Marney the Fox: the wonderful adventure strip from Buster by Scott Goodall and John Stokes. 

...and... just drink in this great news...

Faceache by Ken Reid, from Jet and Buster. 

Are you excited yet? For more info, check out this link:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/2000-ad-revive-childrens-comics-70s-and-80s-496121


UPDATE 28/2/17: Comics journalist Heidi MacDonald now has expanded details of the books, and more artwork, on her excellent blog The Beat:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2000ad-launches-the-treasury-of-british-comics-line-with-classic-brit-comics/