OINK! 30 piggin' years!

I've been so busy recently I'd forgotten it was the 30th anniversary of Oink! comic last Tuesday! I'm still busy, so I'm afraid this tribute will be brief but I felt I had to celebrate it somehow as not only is Oink! fondly remembered by so many readers but it was such an important comic for my comics career. 

Oink! arrived in newsagents on Saturday 26th April 1986 in the form of a full size 32 page preview issue bagged with that week's issues of Whizzer and Chips, Buster, and Eagle and Tiger. The comic had been in the planning stages for two years and most of the content of the preview issue was from the dummy issue. 

Whizzer and Chips cover by Tom Paterson.

Here's a few pages from the Oink! Preview Issue. I haven't time to scan them so I've just taken photos for now. I'll replace them with scans at a later date. Click on images to see them at full size.

Page 2 by Ian Jackson.

Cowpat County by Davy Francis.

BURP! by Banx.

Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins by Tony Husband.

The Revenge Squad by Tom Paterson.

Street Hogs by Malcolm Douglas.

Back page of the OINK! preview issue, by Tony Husband.

Oink! was unique. A wilder comic by mostly new creators that broke away from the rigid formula of other IPC titles. The contents were never set in stone; although it retained a few regular characters it also featured loads of one-off strips and short run strips. The remit was to keep it fresh, and most importantly, funny! Readers who were kids back then have confirmed that it certainly succeeded on that score. (There's even an Oink! Blog dedicated to the comic. An essential read for every pig-pal: http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.co.uk/)

Oink! ran for 68 issues over two and a half years before merging into Buster. Maybe it would have lasted longer if WH Smith hadn't meddled by shifting it away from other comics because they felt it was unsuitable for children. (Bear in mind this was before there was an older-readers comics section in Smiths, so Oink! was shoved into different places every week, beside magazines devoted to nursing, caravans, or whatever.) 

Oink! was a joy to work for. We had so much freedom on the comic (within reason of course) and for those of us who were relatively new to the industry then it gave us the opportunity to develop and experiment. A couple of years ago, on my other blog, I explained my involvement with the comic so I'm cutting and pasting that here....

One day in 1984, while visiting Bob Paynter, the Group Editor of the IPC humour comics, up at Kings Reach Tower on London's South Bank, he told me of a new comic that was in development. This was to be something different, more anarchic and unpredictable than Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee, and the rest. It was the brainchild of cartoonists and writers based in Manchester and although they'd already presented Bob with a rough dummy issue, Bob wanted to bring in more artists for variety. 

The comic was then called Rrassp! as I recall, although it would soon evolve into Oink! as the project got under way. Bob Paynter told me he saw the venture as an ideal opportunity for people who were either stylistically different to IPC's usual look, or were keen to become comic artists and not yet ready for the company's other publications. IPC were going to invest in a dummy issue of the new comic, and would be putting a lot of money into a launch if it went ahead. Therefore Bob didn't want any time wasters, and was only inviting people who were genuinely interested in drawing for them. I was already producing cartoons for Marvel UK and had 'ghosted' a lot of children's books for Mike Higgs, so this was a great opportunity to do something for IPC, who were the main British comics publisher at the time.

Bob asked me if I had any ideas that might be suitable. I mentioned a "dim skinhead bully character" I'd been developing, which he seemed to like. (Bullies are always useful in slapstick strips.) "Perhaps his dad could be pushing him to be a bully to follow the family tradition, to inherit his boots" suggested Bob. I liked that twist to it, and, filled with enthusiasm, went home to develop it further.

The name 'Tom Thug - What a Mug' came to my mind because I knew IPC liked puns on existing concepts and it sounded a bit like Tom Thumb. Here's my initial rough sketches of the character from 30 years ago that no one has seen before. Brand new characters often take a while to get right and Tom looked more like Frankenstein's monster in this concept than a school bully!

Anyway, after a few more sketches, I eventually gave Tom a rounder look and something I felt comfortable submitting. The routine was that Bob only wanted to see the strip in a pencil stage at this point, and if it was good enough he'd ask for it to be completed. Here's the actual artwork I sent him... 

Bob liked the idea but sent me a rewritten script for a new version. Initially I was a little disappointed that some of the energy seemed to have been taken out of it, but in retrospect Bob's rewrite was a much tighter script and was a better build-up to the punchline. Here's the new version, scanned from my original art...

That's the version which appeared in the 'dummy' issue and was printed in the Oink! Preview issue that was bagged with several IPC titles. Yes, it took about 18 months or more for IPC to do their market research, tweak the comic, and finally give it the green light!

Tom Thug became one of Oink's regulars from the outset, with me on scripts and art every issue (with some rewritten by the editor, the late Mark Rogers). When Oink! merged into Buster in late 1988, Tom Thug had proved popular enough to transfer over, and then became one of Buster's most popular strips.

I will always remember Oink! with fondness, not only for the opportunities it gave me, but because it was such a great comic! I used to look forward to seeing what everyone else had done that week and we were all having such a good time on it. The editors Tony Husband, Patrick Gallagher, and the late Mark Rodgers were great to work for and creative people in their own right. Happy 30th anniversary Oink! You were piggin' brilliant!

OINK! No.1, published May 3rd 1986.

FRANKENTHING: A new Banx creation!

Many of you will be familiar with the work of Jeremy Banx, inventive creator of excellent strips such as Burp, Mr. Bignose, and Hector Vector and his Talking T-Shirt for Oink!, co-creator of The Driver for the original Toxic, and cartoonist for the Financial Times amongst other publications. Now he's unleashed another creation upon the world in the form of Frankenthing.

Frankenthing is a new comedy horror e-book written by Banx, profusely illustrated with his expert penmanship. It's available for the Kindle for just £1.99. (And there's a Kindle app for the iPad so you can read it on that instead if you wish.)

Here's the description of the book:

Dr Frankenstein tries to make a friend for his Monster. But it’s not so easy. The locals have locked up their cemeteries, they’re patrolling the streets and even the village butcher won’t serve him anymore.
So he makes one from something the castle cat (called Igor, of course) dragged in from the garden. Even though he hasn’t a clue what the something is.
Thus Frankenthing is born.
Frankenthing and the Monster become great friends. They play and laugh and dance. But Igor is lurking. He enjoyed killing Frankenthing so much the first time; he can’t wait to get his teeth and claws stuck in again.
Written and illustrated by award-winning cartoonist Jeremy Banx, FRANKENTHING is a humorous horror story filled with jokes, quirky characters and bizarre plot twists. For children and adults of all ages. 

It's a great read and Banx's artistic skills are better than ever. A must for fans of his work and for anyone interested in a good fun story with an edge to the humour. To go to the Amazon page to buy it click here. 

Christmas Comics: OINK! (1986)

On sale 25 years ago, the first Christmas issue of Oink! unusually featured a photo cover spoofing the design of the TV Times as it was then.

A few issues earlier, the comic had received a boost with the addition of new characters. Therefore this issue featured the final section of a three-part free gift in the form of a giant poster calendar illustrated by Ian Jackson.


Ian Jackson was always very prolific in Oink! and I'd consider him their main artist. He designed Uncle Pigg and Mary Lighthouse and also contributed numerous other strips such as Hadrian Vile. Underneath this example is Weedy Willy, drawn by Mike Green. Both strips were written by one of Oink's editors, Mark Rogers, who sadly passed away years ago. A fine bloke and a great loss to comics.


I contributed a fair bit to the run of Oink! myself, appearing in every issue, both as a writer and artist. One of my most enjoyable tasks was creating the Dan Dare parody Ham Dare, Pig of the Future, illustrated by the late Malcolm Douglas. Here's episode three (read across the spread, not one page at a time). I'd considered that this chapter would appear at Christmas so although it wasn't set around that season I managed to write a frozen Swinefleet HQ building in the opening shot...


The same issue also featured the third episode of my Pete and his Pimple strip. I enjoyed using a grey wash on this strip as it gave a mono page more depth. Incidentally, a mistake in the production department deleted the dialogue in the penultimate panel, but all you're missing are a few "Aarghs" and "Yuks"...


Davy Francis lent his distinctive and always funny style to the complete story Blue Xmas written by Mark Rogers.


On page 27, the hilariously inventive Hector Vector and his Talking T-Shirt by Banx.


Finally from this selection box, the very first Christmas with Tom Thug. As with Pete and his Pimple I always provided both script and artwork. In my original script I'd had Santa blasted out of the sky for real, but Mark Rogers suggested, quite rightly, that it might be too traumatic for the younger readers so it all turns out to be a... well, see for yourself...


At the foot of the Tom Thug strip you'll notice a spin-off strip starring Tom's cat Satan. When Tom Thug moved to Buster in 1989 I thought Satan wouldn't be an appropriate name to use (as Buster was a far less edgier comic) so he appeared anonymously a few times in the background then I phased him out of the strip. Don't worry though readers, Satan is still out there somewhere (the cat that is).

Another snow-topped festive comic soon!