Football Forum was a replacement for Sub and ran in Scorcher from issues dated 15th August 1970 to 16th January 1971. The concept of a forum-based strip wasn't new to comics but Ken Reid turned what might have been a pedestrian strip into a delight of manic consequences. Here are a few examples scanned from the comics. Click to see them larger.
Here's a cross-reference of all the other series that Ken Reid did for Scorcher. Have fun!
SUB (1970:
FOOTBALL FORUM (1970/71):
MANAGER MATT (1971):
HUGH FOWLER (1971/72):
THE SOCCERNAUTS (1972):
HARRY HAMMERTOE THE SOCCER SPOOK (1972/73):
JIMMY JINX (1973/74):
TRIPTOE TRIERS (1974):
Ha ha Lew . I've always loved Ken Reid's manic style of cartooning.of course my all time favourite was his Jonah strip at the back of the Beano over fifty years ago.That , to me was his best ever. That said, he could even make a football strip interesting .Football was never one of my great loves and I was long past these kind of comics when he was doing this strip, so unfortunately i missed a lot of his later work. It's great that you are letting us all have another look.Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't a fan of football either, although I was trying to be back in 1970 due to peer pressure. I still never got hooked though, but I did buy Scorcher for the first few months. Recently I bought the full run. I have to say Ken Reid's pages were the best thing in it. (Some of the scripting of the adventure strips was very inconsistent and weak.)
ReplyDeleteThe arrangement with IPC was that they were to supply Ken with scripts - and they did, but less than two months into the run Ken became dissatisfied with the quality of the material that they sent him so he took the trouble of re-scripting the stories without asking for more money.
ReplyDeleteI was (and am) I big football fan (if supporting Hamilton Academical counts as football) and I loved " Scorcher" it was a great comic but I agree with you Lew some of the sports adventure strips were not great (some were of course especially "Billy’s Boot" and " Bobby of the Blues”) but the main reason I also bought Scorcher was almost entirely down to Ken Reids manic work. His work always seemed on the edge to me (and even now looking back its so fresh and different) I did really like "Football Forum" and thought it had great art in it but my favourite of his football strips were (of course) “Sub” and the “Soccernauts” (Manager Matt was fun as well). Great stuff Lew I really enjoyed reading these (some for the first time).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, Irmantas. That certainly explains why the strips became more like Ken's older stuff.
ReplyDeletePaul, I agree that Billy's Boots was probably the best adventure strip in Scorcher. It had a nice quality to it that kids could empathise with. That said, Billy was nothing but a cheat really wasn't he? The magic boots gave him an unfair advantage over kids who had natural skills. Not that it occurred to me at the time I must admit. :)
Thanks for sharing all these strips, Lew and look forward to the follow-up!
ReplyDeleteManager Matt coming up next, John. Then Hugh Fowler, which I think is even better than the previous strips.
ReplyDelete