Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Roger by Reid

It's sometimes forgotten that the iconic Roger the Dodger was co-created by the great Ken Reid. He was the original artist on the strip when it debuted in The Beano in 1953 and drew it until issue 1152 in 1964, before moving on from freelancing for D.C. Thomson to work on Frankie Stein for Odhams' new Wham! comic. 

 I showed Ken's last work for Beano and Dandy here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ken-reids-final-pages-for-beano-and.html

 The page I'm showing today is a Roger the Dodger strip that appeared in The Beano No.1150, dated 1st August 1964, just two weeks before Ken's last Roger strip. There have been several great artists who have worked on the strip over the decades since Ken left, but I don't think anyone has quite captured that same sneaky, cheeky look in the same way that Ken did. After all, he designed the character and gave him that personality and "soul" so to speak. 

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2 comments:

  1. Peter GrayWednesday, 23 August 2017 at 18:35:00 BST

    Talking about this post on facebook..we all got different opinions..

    Ken reid and robert Nixon for me and frank second..its hard to choose...love to be able to read more 50's Beano's..

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  2. Lew StringerWednesday, 23 August 2017 at 20:39:00 BST

    It often depends on the first version you saw I think. I remember noticing something was different and unsettling in mid-1964, and that's when Robert Nixon took over the strip. Even at five years old I could see the change in style, even though I might not have properly realised it was a change of artist. I soon warmed to Bob Nixon's work of course, and enjoyed many of his strips, but the edge that Ken brought to all of his characters had gone.

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