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| The first Sweeny Toddler strip from SHIVER and SHAKE No.1, 1973. |
Sweeny began as a strip in Shiver and Shake No.1 in 1973 and proved to be a hit with readers, moving over to Whoopee! when the two comics merged and later becoming its cover star.
Initially drawn by Leo Baxendale, the strip was later taken over by Tom Paterson doing a remarkable imitation of Leo's style that was on a par with Baxendale's in its humour and creativity.
Personally I'm looking forward to this as Sweeny debuted at a time when I was "growing out" of humour comics and missed a lot of them. (I came to my senses again in 1981 and started buying them with a fresh perspective of looking at them from a professional viewpoint.)
Leo Baxendale's Sweeny Toddler can be pre-ordered from Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leo-Baxendales-Sweeney-Toddler-Baxendale/dp/1781087261/
No doubt Rebellion will provide previews and more info in due course.
Very good news!!! Exciting times...and broke times ;)
ReplyDeleteHa, yes, these monthly books are costing a bit to keep up with! Hard to resist, though.
ReplyDeleteAn obvious choice. Even those who despise humour comics regard Baxendale as an artistic genius, and Sweeny is arguably his most iconic IPC creation.
ReplyDeleteGoing by the page count, I'd guess this will encompass Baxendale's entire run on the strip (March '73 - June '75).
Hopefully, it'll lead to further volumes with Paterson's run. Probably heresy, but I much prefer his even more manic version of the little git.
Thanks for the info, Kal. I didn't know how long Leo's run lasted. Yes, sounds like it might just about cover it. I presume there may have been fill-ins by other artists along the way before he left? Rebellion will probably include those too, as they have with their Ken Reid books. (Completists tend to prefer that.)
ReplyDeleteOh this is brilliant news Lew. You really have to give Rebellion credit for the great stuff they are publishing maybe a "Swots and the Blots" selection wont be too far away.
ReplyDeleteI hope so, Paul. A Swots and Blots book reprinting Leo Baxendale's version from March 1969 onwards would be grand.
ReplyDeleteListening to "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra from the 1960s and 70s, they ran several sketches about a gang of babies behaving badly, but I don't claim that their original idea got pinched. Another predecessor was "Baby Buggy Bunny", a Bugs Bunny episode, but it's not actually a baby that time but a delinquent dwarf undercover. But somehow the indefatigable infant infamy of Sweeney Toddler reminds me strongly of the "I'm Sorry" mob.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the name came first by chance (being a play on Sweeny Todd) and the concept just followed naturally. Although there's a possibility I suppose that Sweeny Toddler was inspired by The Beano's 'Baby Face Finlayson' who appeared a year earlier.
ReplyDeleteI am from Greece and Sweeney was published in a greek comic book called "Vavoura" in the 80s. Looking forward to buy this hardback...
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Thanks Constantine.
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