Piggin' History!

Many of us who started our comics career in the 1980s were spoilt in a way because we had the ultra-brilliant Oink! to work on. Oink! was a humour comic like no other. It's often unfairly and inaccurately described as a "junior Viz", and publishers IPC may have initially wanted something like that, but Oink! was unique and had its own style (or 'sly-le' as they might have put it). Some of us were quite raw in our abilities when we started but Oink! gave us chance to develop and experiment.

Unlike other humour comics of the time, Oink! had no formula, no house style. The art styles were varied, the content was ever-shifting, the attitude was more irreverent, the humour was cheekier. So different it unsettled the establishment, and WH Smith moved it away from the children's comics section in a bizarre attempt to prevent its intended audience from seeing it! That undoubtedly cost the comic a lot of potential sales, but many of its loyal readers stuck with it, as evidenced by the anecdotes and recollections on the Oink! Facebook group. 

One of those loyal readers, Phil Boyce, even set up an Oink! Blog, and now he intends to publish a book telling the story of the much-missed comic. Here's what he had to say:

"It's Oink!'s 30th anniversary in two years and I'm officially announcing a brand new book to mark the occasion.  It's planned to tell the whole story, from initial conception right through to the Round the Bend TV series and then on to the modern day.  The story of the comic was already a fascinating one, but there's much more to tell believe me!  Alongside this the book will contain a good, hefty amount of the very best in strips and features from the comic and what is surely the greatest team ever put together for one - as the front page of The Oink! Book 1988 stated, they were "Britain's Best!".

While this blog is very much my own personal journey through Oink! from the perspective of a fan, the book is going to be the creators' tale - their take on our very favourite comic."

This is very exciting news indeed for ex-contributors to the comic and for its fans. For more information, read the rest of Phil's post on The Oink! Blog here:

http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/working-on-title.html

Phil has only just announced his plans so there's a long way to go yet but keep checking his blog for developments. I'll also post more news here of course, as the book comes together. 

Fun Section facsimile

The 100th anniversary edition of The Sunday Post which I blogged about yesterday is even more attractive to comic collectors than anticipated. The free 96 page souvenir magazine includes 20 pages of full Broons and Oor Wullie reprints from over the years plus a two page article on the life of the strips original artist, the late Dudley Watkins.

Even more enticing for comic fans though, is that the 8 centre pages are a complete reprint of the very first Sunday Post Fun Section from March 8th 1936. Not only does this feature the very first Oor Wullie and The Broons strips, it also includes long-forgotten DC Thomson strips such as Silas Snatcher the Truant Catcher, Wishbone Wuzzy, Peter Pumpkin the Country Bumpkin and Natty Ned. Most, if not all, of these strips seem to be the work of Allan Morely. 

Hurry to your newsagent now to buy a copy of this very collectible edition. The Sunday Post - £1.50. 

The 96 page free magazine inside the paper.

Charley's War republished in huge omnibus edition

Next to Frank Bellamy's Thunderbirds strips, Charley's War must rank up there as one of the most often reprinted British comics strips. Deservedly so, for not only is the saga one of the most superbly written and illustrated stories to have appeared in UK comics it also carries important messages about war that resonate to this day.

Now, Titan Books have packaged together the early years of the strip in a huge 320 page softback entitled Charley's War: A Boy Soldier in The Great War. Many of the pages have even been sourced from the original artwork, and the reproduction is excellent, on good quality paper, making this an essential collection.

Charley's War began in the pages of weekly war comic Battle-Action back in 1979. Written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Joe Colquhoun it tackled the drama of trench warfare in World War One. A series set in the trenches was not an easy subject to turn into a gripping war story for boys, but the creators produced the most remarkable strip of its time. Thanks to Pat Mills' diligent research and Joe Colquhoun's gritty, detailed artwork Charley's War looked authentic and engrossing, but the most important aspect was that this was an anti-war strip, published by the same company that had churned out ridiculous gung-ho stuff such as Captain Hurricane. Quite a coup for the creators. 

Naturally, as Charley's War was appearing in a comic for young boys the extent of the horrors of trench warfare couldn't be fully shown, but even with such restraint, the strip contained tough stuff and pushed the boundaries further than any British war comic had before. Actually, saying the strip was aimed at boys does it a disservice. The level of the writing and artwork is high and allows Charley's War to be enjoyed by readers of any age or either gender. 

To show the tragedy and futility of the war, the strip didn't shirk on its body count, with some supporting characters suddenly meeting untimely ends. The villains of the story ranged from a particular nasty German sniper to the loathsomely sadistic British officer Lieutenant Snell. Charley is the likable everyman of the strip who suffers countless hardship. In this regard the story is written very much like a strip in a girls comic or even a Dickensian novel, playing on the emotions rather than the simplistic cliffhangers of other UK boys serials of the day such as The Steel Claw or Adam Eterno. This element made Charley a more sympathetic and rounded character which undoubtedly added to the popularity of the strip. The scope broadened even more when the story began to show the home life of Charley's family as well, including his spirited younger brother Wilf and his shifty cousin Olly. 

If the classic strips themselves were not incentive enough to buy this mighty tome (and they certainly are) the book has a few extras too. Up front, there's Neil Emery's ten page chronology of the series, which is superbly informative but is perhaps best read after the strips as it's full of spoilers. (It also covers the stories that go beyond this volume, so if you haven't already read the whole series, be aware that this reveals everything.) There's a four page article by Steve White on the evolution of the tank, and extracts from an interview that Stephen Oldman did with Joe Colquhoun back in the early 1980s for my fanzine Fantasy Express. (A note says that I granted permission for it to be used in the book but as I've always maintained, the copyright of the interview rests with Stephen Oldman. I merely published it.) 

In the back of the book, Pat Mills has written an eight page commentary on the stories. This gives a great insight into the creation of the strip and shows Pat's huge respect for the incredible drawing skills of the late Joe Colquhoun. 

Big as this omnibus is, it only covers less than half of the full Charley's War saga. Titan have previously published the entire series in 10 hardback books, and this collects the first four volumes. Personally I prefer this format to the hardbacks and their easily damaged dust-jackets, and I hope the whole series is collected in more giant softbacks such as this. 

Charley's War: A Boy Soldier in The Great War is a bargain at £19.99 for 320 pages. It's stitched, not glued, which is a bonus as the pages can be opened wide with no fear of splitting the spine. If you've never read the strip before, this is definitely the book to get. And if you have read it before, this chunky, durable book is a great accessible format to read and read again. 

ISBN: 9781781169148

The Sunday Post celebrates its Centenary

Scotland's much loved national newspaper The Sunday Post celebrates 100 years of publication tomorrow (October 5th). The special issue will include a free 96 page magazine which features strips from the Post's long running characters Oor Wullie and The Broons joining in with the celebrations.

You can read more about it at The Sunday Post website here.  

A recent BBC Scotland documentary covered the history of The Post and you can see it in full on You Tube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gQbI_InNhw

DC Thomson revive old titles

Just time for a quick news item. Thanks to members on Comics UK for spotting this. Comic titles we thought we'd never see again have been revived by DC Thomson in the form of four hardback annuals. The Best of The Hotspur, The Best of Bunty, The Best of The Topper and The Best of The Beezer are now available (in 'limited copies') from the DC Thomson shop:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/annuals-calendars/annuals.html?p=1

'Best of' no doubt means they'll be all-reprint, (even the covers are from old annuals) but this is still exciting news for collectors of British comics. Let's hope they sell well so more may follow next year!