Monster Mash!

One of the enjoyable things about working for Oink! comic back in the 1980s was the opportunity to do numerous one-off or short run strips as well as regular characters. Monster Mash appeared in Oink! No.13, the Halloween issue for 1986, and was a collaboration between editor Mark Rogers and myself.

Mark had originally sent me an idea for a story called The School Dinner Monster and asked if I had any ideas to add to it. I added a few bits and bobs to the plot and dialogue, and thought the title Monster Mash was catchier. I gave the name 'Pigzilla' to the giant robot pig, although Mark changed that to the much more inspired Pigswilla.

As Oink! was printed on quality paper (as opposed to the newsprint of its companion comics Buster, Whizzer & Chips etc) I knew we could be a bit more adventurous with the rendering of the artwork so I thought a grey wash would give it more depth. I was really pleased with how the strip turned out and it remains one of my favourite pieces 25 years later. The artwork is a bit rough in places but I'm still happy with it.

I felt that with Monster Mash and some of the other material that myself and other contributors did for Oink! that we were stepping outside the usual conventions of British humour comics and moving away from the standard schoolkid-with-gimmick that had dominated IPC's comics since 1969. And we were all having great fun doing it. This comedy-adventure, comic horror stuff was what comics should have been doing more of in my opinion.

As it turned out, it seemed most readers still preferred the more traditional schoolkid strips, and Oink! folded after just two and a half years. Then again, Whizzer & Chips folded a few years later, and that was the most traditional "safe" comic in IPC's stable. Perhaps it was just a sign that readers were being distracted by video games.

Pigswilla returned for two or three more complete stories during the run of Oink! and I'll show them here at some point in the future.

Terry Willers 1935 - 2011

Sad news of another passing in the world of comics and cartoons, cartoonist Terry Willers died on November 9th, aged 76.

Although born in the UK, Terry lived and worked in Ireland for over 40 years. He began his drawing career aged just 15, working for a Disney studio in London. He went on to draw newspaper strips for various European newspapers including strips from the Dutch Toonder studios in the 1960s. It was also during the Sixties that Terry became an artist on Odhams' Wham! weekly as one of the people brought in to "ghost" the look of Leo Baxendale's work. Willers' own style was still evident in those pages though and he was allowed to sign his work. He also worked on strips for other comics, such as The Dandy and The Beano.

In Ireland Terry drew cartoons for The Sunday Independent, The Farmers Journal, The Evening Herald and The Wicklow People. He also worked in television, producing cartoons for Hall's Pictorial Weekly (for which he won an award) and The Mike Murphy Show. He was also a founder and chairman of the International Cartoon Festival in Rathdrum during 1992 - 94. (The 1992 event attracted over 30,000 people!)

Here are a couple of the strips he drew for Wham! General Nitt and his Barmy Army appeared in issue 86 (5th Feb. 1966) and Georgie's Germs appeared in issue 88 (19th Feb. 1966):





For more information on Terry Willers and a better sampling of his work visit these sites:

http://www.wicklownews.net/Post/2011/11/498/rathdrum-saddened-at-death-of-cartoonist

http://www.ecc-cartoonbooksclub.blogspot.com/2011/11/terry-willers-passed-away-1935-2011.html#!/2011/11/terry-willers-passed-away-1935-2011.html

http://lambiek.net/artists/w/willers_terry.htm

Mick Anglo 1916 - 2011

Mick Anglo, creator of Marvelman, passed away on October 31st at the age of 95.

Although Marvelman was easily the character he was most associated with, Mick Anglo's career in publishing saw him enjoy a variety of accomplishments. He freelanced in commercial art when he left school, drew cartoons for overseas army newspapers during the war, and then became an author of western, romance and crime novels under the name Johnny Dekker as well as continuing to draw for various publishers.


Between 1950 to 1952 Anglo produced various comic strips for the Arnold Book Company (run by Arnold Miller) and for Arnold's father's company L.Miller & Son. In 1954 Anglo opened his own company, Gower Studios, to package comics for various publishers (ie: produce full comics to the specifications of a publisher, ready for printing). Mick Anglo's staff included Ron Embleton, Bob Monkhouse, and Denis Gifford. He also gave Don Lawrence his first break, years before Lawrence would go on to produce the stunning Trigan Empire series.


When legal problems between Fawcett Publications and National Comics (now DC Comics) forced Fawcett's Captain Marvel comics to close, Mick Anglo created Marvelman to fill the gap for the Captain Marvel UK reprints, with Anglo and his studio producing brand new stories. The similarities between Captain Marvel and Marvelman were plain to see, but readers eagerly took to the character (and its spin-offs Marvelman Family and Young Marvelman) and the comics continued into the early 1960s. Bearing in mind those comics were weekly, Anglo's output was considerable. Even today, Marvelman remains the most successful British superhero in terms of how many issues were produced (346 issues, plus the same number of Young Marvelman comics, and 30 issues of Marvelman Family).


Mick Anglo continued to produce more comics in the 1960s, including, amongst other things, becoming editor of City Magazines' TV Tornado in 1967, and Super DC for Top Sellers in 1970. He retired in the 1980s.


In 1982 Dez Skinn revived Marvelman (with Alan Moore as writer and Garry Leach as artist) for the new monthly anthology comic Warrior. Here things became darker, not only in the tone of story but also in reality, with Marvel Comics threatening legal action over the name of the character, with Marvelman becoming Miracleman for the American editions published by Eclipse Comics. The story of further developments is a saga in itself, but in 2009 Mick Anglo sold the rights of Marvelman to Marvel Comics. Since then, Marvel have produced a mini-series of reprints (Marvelman Family's Finest) and a few hardback reprints. No new Marvelman series has yet been announced.


For a feature on Super DC see here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2007/03/super-dc.html

John Ryan Exhibition

I've just been contacted by Isabel Ryan, the younger daughter of Captain Pugwash creator John Ryan, and she tells me there's a retrospective exhibition of her late father's artwork opening on November 19th at the Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex.

Isabel says she enjoyed selecting the work for the show and that the exhibition will feature "book illustrations, strip cartoons, and TV animations (over 50 works)".

The poster above gives the details and you can find out more at http://www.ryeartgallery.co.uk

(As many of you will already know, before the TV series made the character famous Captain Pugwash made his debut as a comic strip in Eagle back in 1950. For a previous blog entry about John Ryan see here.)

The Dandy gets BIGGER

A few weeks ago The Beano added 4 extra pages and now it's the time of The Dandy to increase its page count to 36 pages every week. The price remains the same, at just £1.50 an issue, but the paper stock changes to a thinner, glossy format, similar to that used by American comics. Reproduction of the artwork is perfect, and I'm sure everyone will be pleased with that, although I do miss the sturdy paper stock that was used over the past 12 months.

As you can see from Nigel Parkinson's great cover, Bruce Forsyth is back in his own comic strip inside (well, for one week only). It's just like the days of Film Fun when Brucie was the cover star back in 1962! Artwork below by Roy Wilson.