The Power Pack of Ken Reid, - ready for your support!

As reported a few weeks ago, Irmantas Povilaika has secured the license to publish two hefty volumes of Ken Reid strips, reprinting all of the material that Ken produced for Odhams in the 1960s. Yes, that's Frankie Stein, Jasper the Grasper, Queen of the Seas, Dare-A-Day Davy and The Nervs! This news has been warmly welcomed by the many fans of Ken's work as most of the material has never been reprinted and back issues of the comics are becoming increasingly expensive and hard to find. 

You can now back the project on Indiegogo at:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-power-pack-of-ken-reid-books#/

I caught up with Irmantas to ask him a few questions about this exciting venture and he's also supplied me with a few exclusive shots of some of the spreads...


Hi Irmantas. When did you discover the work of Ken Reid? Were his strips published in Lithuania or have you always had an interest in British comics?


Hi, Lew. My first encounter with British comics in general, and Ken’s work in particular, was when I was 10 or so and a pen-pal from Britain sent me an early issue of Whoopee! comic which had one of those splendid World-Wide Weirdies by Ken Reid. I vividly recall it was The Whacky Hand. Us kids didn’t have comics in Lithuania back in the day – it was part of the Soviet Union then, and the authorities probably thought it wise to protect their very young against Western influences, or whatever… Anyhow, the comic made a huge impression on me, I read and re-read that issue (the only one that I had) countless times until it fell apart. I eventually became a freelance cartoonist and drew comics for the country’s humour magazine for a few years in my twenties. Looking at my drawings now, I can clearly see influences of Robert Nixon, Terry Bave, Mike Lacey and Ken Reid – it’s amazing how much inspiration I drew from that single issue of Whoopee! Then other things came up and I abandoned the hobby. I picked it up again in 2007, but not as an artist – I started collecting British comics, and I blame that particular issue of Whoopee! for that. It didn’t take me long to re-discover Ken Reid, and I started reading about him online. I have to say that it was on your blog that I first found out about his Odhams strips, and was fascinated by them – the combination of quality artwork and the untamed sense of humour was explosive! It took me a few years to collect the complete sets of the Power comics titles and thus acquire the full runs of all of those brilliant strips that Ken drew for Wham!, Smash! and Pow! – all of them now to be presented in The Power Pack of Ken Reid that I am doing.

For many of us who grew up with these strips, the Odhams era represented Ken Reid at his most creative. Manic, funny, over-the-top humour that has never been equalled in British comics. There have been attempts to get this material reprinted before, but there were obstacles. How difficult did you find it to gain the license from Time Inc. (UK)?

To me the biggest obstacle was finding out who the rights belonged to and whom I should contact about the license, but when I did, things developed rather quickly and I wouldn’t say it was particularly difficult to arrange the permission. The people in charge at Time Inc. (UK) Ltd were 100 per cent professional and efficient, and paperwork didn’t take very long.


Did Ken's pages present any challenges for remastering? I'm thinking in particular of the colour Queen of the Seas pages which suffered from muddy printing on a few issues back in 1966.

Poor paper quality alongside with the quality of print of the comics did present certain challenges. The thin paper of the early issues of Wham! produced a see-though effect on quite a few of the pages, and it had to be handled carefully to try and preserve the gray shading of Ken’s art. The coloured pages of Queenie and Dare-A-Day Davy were also an issue but I think it was addressed in the best possible way. The remastered images that will go into the book are crisp, clean and look very nice, but don’t expect all of them to be flawless – they were scanned from original paper comics, and this is what buyers of the book should bear in mind.

I understand you're in touch with Ken's son? Can you tell us more about that? Has he been able to provide information and items for the books?

Antony was very helpful indeed. He wrote funny intros for both volumes and even drew an illustration for one! Most importantly, he allowed me to use his dad’s archive material when I was researching and writing Ken’s detailed biography for his Odhams years (1964-69) that will go into the two volumes of The Power Pack. In fact, Antony is actively involved in a separate project that we are doing together with another fan in the UK, and it’s the full and complete biography of Ken Reid, covering his WHOLE life and work! The piece that will be presented in The Power Pack of Ken Reid is just a ‘taste’ of what fans will find in the Complete Biography when it eventually comes out – Ken’s legacy (both published and unpublished material) is huge and diverse, and it will all be covered in detail, with unseen illustrations, etc. I really look forward to the completion of the Biography project and am very excited about it.

I gather that there are other extras too?

Comic archivist Steve Holland has provided the introduction for Volume One (Frankie Stein + Jasper the Grasper) and artist Nigel Parkinson the introduction for Volume Two (Queen of the Seas + Dare-A-Day Davy + The Nervs). My contribution is the detailed biography of the artist on the period – The Odhams Years of Ken Reid. It will be illustrated with some sketches and drawings. You will even find some scripts of Frankie Stein, hand-written by Ken! Last but not least, supporters of the crowdfunding campaign will receive free prints of original artwork. Oh, and there will be some bright colour pages in Volume One because all four of Ken’s Frankie Stein episodes in Wham! Annuals will be reprinted in full colour!


Can you tell us about the Crowdfunding campaign to back the book?

The crowdfunding campaign is now live and open to all on IndieGoGo platform. The books can be pre-ordered either individually or as a beautiful boxed set edition, with free prints of original artwork, as mentioned before. They will go into print immediately after the campaign ends and will be shipped two or three weeks later, when I receive them from the printing house. The slipcase edition will take a bit longer because the slipcases will be manufactured only after the books have been printed.  I plan to post regular progress updates on IndieGoGo, my blog and ComicsUK Forum to keep people up to speed. Folks may be wondering what happens if the campaign doesn’t reach its target. I can assure you that the books will be printed anyway, and that’s due to the considerable investment already made (license fees, the services of the various people involved in the project, etc.). The platform only allowed me to use US dollar as my main currency, but I hope this won’t be an inconvenience to fans in the UK or discourage them from supporting the campaign.

Finally, I'm sure I speak for readers of this blog in thanking you, Irmantas, for getting this excellent work back into print. Do you have any plans to publish other strips from that era by other creators? 

Thanks Lew, I have strong faith in the project and sincerely hope that people will find it interesting enough to support the campaign. There are quite a few other strips by other creators that I believe deserve to be celebrated in a similar way, and I would certainly be looking into this, provided my first publishing project attracts enough attention. Thanks for talking to me and helping me spread the word. I would like to encourage your readers to share this on social media, etc. and join me in my effort to make this project a success. I am happy to answer any questions, so feel free to contact me via my blog kazoop.blogspot.co.uk or IndieGoGo platform! Cheers!

There's another interview with Irmantas here, on the Down the Tubes blog:
https://downthetubes.net/?p=45821

Ken Reid's Christmas Crackers

You've seen some of these pages before on this blog over the years but others will be new to you. I thought I'd collate some of the Christmas strips that Ken Reid did over a ten year period from 1964 to 1973. Some of the funniest pages in British comics. Click on the pages to see them full size.

...starting off with Frankie Stein's first Christmas from Wham! in 1964...

Frankie again, from Wham! in 1965. (Thanks to Phil for the scan of this one.)

The seasonal strip from the 1966 Christmas issue of Wham! 

Dare-A-Day-Davy's one and only Christmas strip from the back page of Pow! in 1967...

The Nervs from the festive issue of Smash! in 1968...

Football Forum from Scorcher, Christmas 1970...

Hugh Fowler from the Christmas issue of Scorcher in 1971...

Harry Hammertoe, The Soccer Spook, from Scorcher, 23rd December 1972. (A strip Ken took over from Reg Parlett, hence Reg's artwork in the title box)...

...and finally, Jimmy Jinks, from the 1973 Christmas issue of Scorcher...

In my next festive post, we plunge back even further in time for something a bit different! Find out where we land tomorrow!

Graham Allen's 'The Nervs' (SMASH!, 1966)

Most fans of British comics rate Ken Reid's stint on The Nervs in Smash! as some of his best work, and deservedly so. However, Ken didn't take over the strip until late 1968, towards the end of its run. The majority of Nervs strips were drawn by Graham Allen, whose style may not have had the detail and surges of manic hilarity that Ken's had, but was still brilliant and funny in its own right.

A lot of people confuse Graham Allen's style with that of Leo Baxendale, and I must confess I used to be guilty of that too. Allen was no doubt encouraged to imitate Baxendale's style, as were several other cartoonists, due to Odhams' attempt to give some of their humour strips a kind of house style. However there are distinct differences, and as soon as one picks up on Allen's distinct inking style and, for example, his tendency to give a lot of his characters tiny feet, it becomes more obvious. (Plus the fact that Leo Baxendale was allowed to sign the pages he drew for Odhams, so a lack of his signature is also a good indication he didn't draw it.)

Here are a few examples of Graham Allen's excellent run on The Nervs from selected issues of Smash! from 1966, starting with the story from issue 1, when 'Fatty' was depicted as an adult...

From Smash! No.3 onwards, it seems there had been an editorial decision to make Fatty a schoolboy without any explanation, which he remained for the rest of the series...

There's a few occasions where Fatty is seen to take tablets. There's no way a children's comic would depict that today. Smash! and its companion comics Wham! and Pow! could often be a bit reckless, but they treated their readers with having enough intelligence not to imitate what they saw in comics.

I've always enjoyed the work of Graham Allen, and he was one of my favourite cartoonists in those Odhams comics. I hope this short tribute to his often overlooked work on The Nervs helps others appreciate what a great cartoonist he was, and indeed still is. I understand he still contributes to the Daily Express and has illustrated children's books. You can find out more about him here:

http://ukcomics.wikia.com/wiki/Graham_Allen

New Year SMASH! (1969)

Here's the cover to the New Year edition of Smash! dated 4th January 1969, so it'd go on sale on the 28th December 1968. The popular Swots and the Blots were the regular cover strip by this time, drawn by Mike Lacey. The strip continued over the page...

Not many of the strips were actually celebrating New Year. Some of the humour strips just seemed be be using the cold weather as a plot. However, Bad Penny combined references to the New Year as well as a plot involving snow. "Jumping jellybabies! It's 1969!" Artwork by the ever-brilliant Leo Baxendale...

The Cloak began a new adventure that week. No Hogmanay reference as such, but it did feature a Scottish villain, - The Phantom Piper! It also contained the return of the stunning Lady Shady who became a regular member of The Cloak's team. Creator Mike Higgs also introduced The Cloakster in this episode, giving us males an excuse that we were only buying it for the car articles and not to gawp at Lady Shady's cleavage. 

Smash! had a good mixture of content in those days. Sadly it was the last man standing as regards the five 'Power Comics' and the recent merger with Fantastic had brought in reprints of Marvel's Thor by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby...

...along with reprints of Lee and Kirby's The Fantastic Four, which had arrived via a merger with Pow! As you can see, the panels had been rearranged and edited from the original American format to fit approximately two US pages onto one of Smash's large pages.

With this being Smash! it also featured Batman of course, reprinting the American newspaper strips of the time.

A few home-grown adventure strips were also in the comic, including Brian's Brain, drawn by Barrie Mitchell...

Ken Reid was getting into the swing of his run on The Nervs with this excellent two pager. For me, these strips represent Ken at his greatest.

On the back page, Sammy Shrink in a post-Christmas story about a late present. Nice clear storytelling by Terry Bave, who would soon become very prolific when IPC launched their own humour comics.

As you may have noticed from the indicia on page 2, IPC Magazines were now in charge of Smash! instead of Odhams. Sadly, a few weeks later, they'd make their presence felt and they'd transform the comic into an unrecognisable form as a traditional boy's adventure weekly. As readers at the time we didn't know that of course, enjoying The Cloak, The Nervs, Batman, and the Marvel reprints, unaware that they'd soon be gone from the comic forever. The sixties were definitely ending. 

...but 2015 is about to begin! My thanks to you all for following this blog over the past 12 months and may I wish you a Happy New Year and hope that you continue to read (and comment) for as long as it lasts. We can never predict what a new year will bring us but we can only hope for happiness, good health, and prosperity. Here's all the best for 2015!      

Ken Reid, Genius

  
I'm sure that most people reading this blog will regard Ken Reid as one of the greatest comic artists that ever lived. In fact I can't imagine anyone not respecting his talents. To me, he was the best humour artist this country ever produced, and is ever likely to produce. Some people may say that today's comics aren't a patch on his work but neither was most of the material in yesterday's comics. Ken Reid was always head and shoulders above the crowd.

Although his work on Fudge, Jonah, and Faceache is rightly respected for the comic masterpieces they are I think his best strips were for Odhams in the 1960s. That's when he really let loose with his ability for comic horror. Here's just a handful of his many pages produced for the company. This is the stuff many of us grew up on, and as you can see we were really spoiled. British comic humour at its best. In a better Britain there would be volumes of Ken Reid Archives to buy. Sadly, there is nothing.

SMASH! No.36  8th October 1966

WHAM! No.122  15th October 1966

POW! No.10  25th March 1967

SMASH! No.156  25th January 1969

  

One of Ken's funniest episodes of The Nervs.

You can see some of Ken Reid's earlier work on a thread currently running on the Comics UK forum.