Friday, June 03, 2016

Ken Reid's ALI HA-HA (1960)

Just time for a quick post today. Here are a few samples of a strip that Ken Reid drew for the back page of The Dandy back in 1960. Ali Ha-Ha and the 40 Thieves began with the one above in The Dandy No.986, dated October 15th 1960, the first issue billed as "The New BIG Dandy" when the comic increased its page count from 12 to 16 pages every week. That may seem miniscule by today's standards but not in post-war Britain when many comics only had 16 or 20 pages. 

 Here are the other two examples I have, scanned from my collection. The second episode from The Dandy No.987 (October 22nd 1960)...

...and the fifth episode from The Dandy No.990 (Nov.12th 1960). My apologies for the poor state of that bottom left hand corner, which was torn and repaired with magic tape...

Ali Ha-Ha and the 40 Thieves ran in The Dandy from No.968 (15th Oct.1960, as shown at the top of this post) until No.1117 (20th April 1963). It was then replaced by another series Ken drew; Big Head and Thick Head. There are already some examples of that on my blog but I'll show more in a future post.
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7 comments:

  1. John PittFriday 3 June 2016 at 23:45:00 BST

    You know, I had completely forgotten all about this strip, until now!
    I haven't seen any in over 55 years!
    :-)

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  2. Lew StringerSaturday 4 June 2016 at 08:38:00 BST

    A couple have been reprinted in those Dandy/Beano golden years books I think but it's not one that often gets mentioned when discussing Ken Reid strips despite it running for four years.

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  3. Manic ManSaturday 4 June 2016 at 18:06:00 BST

    not bad but not his best work. The last one you posted.. the last panel I don't understand well.. Bit of a weak ending there but can't fault the art and style of Ken Reid

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  4. paul McscottyMonday 6 June 2016 at 12:33:00 BST

    I had no recollection at all of this strip until I saw it reprinted a few years ago in the "Beano - Dandy" collections like everything Ken Reid drew it looked great - nice to see these strips though Lew, as I haven’t got a large collection of them.

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  5. journeyman5Tuesday 27 February 2018 at 14:39:00 GMT

    Still make me laugh after all these years.I can remember a Cops and Robbers game in one of the Dandy Annuals and I used to love playing it and try to avoid being spiflicated. Liked Ken's Jonah too.
    Thanks Lew.

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  6. Lew StringerTuesday 27 February 2018 at 15:47:00 GMT

    You can't beat Ken Reid's work of the 1950's and '60s. Glad you all appreciate me digging out these classics.

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  7. Old TonySunday 16 December 2018 at 08:16:00 GMT

    Saw a copy of The Dandy in a toy museum recently with the strip displayed, so I read it, and roared with laughter. I remembered it quite distinctly. Forget Political Correctness, this was never going to be a gesture towards greater cultural understanding! I love how the thieves all have the name Mustapha followed by some amusing verbal construction e.g. Phag, Negg. And how the thy are given "foreign" accents by substituting "ze" for "the" whereas Ali and his dad speak standard english. Typically the strip would feature a seasonal Xmas or Bonfire Night episode. Wonder how it went down in Baghdad?

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