Unusual Ghostings

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Unusual Ghostings

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

Today I recieved through e-bay 28 issues of BEANO from 1971. They're not quite as intruiging as the 60s model------it's remarkable how a mere two artists can leave such a vaccum after they leave [Dudley Watkins and Davey Law, of course]. I was 9 when I bought these comics first time around, and I sorely yearned for the 'old days' of Watkins and Law.

This comic raised it's pagerate from 16 to 20 around March in this year: sadly I don't have the 'crossover' issues from 4d in older currency to the new improved '2p' price increase : I fancy seeking these babies out. I definitely prefer the 60s BEANO all the same, but these are well worth a gander for all that.


Some pretty good nostalgic stuff nonetheless: Admiral Jumbo dates from this period, with it's wildly futuristic remote-control soldier-robots [40 years on, and this is still the stuff of science-fiction.]There's also some pretty good Billy the Cat material, with much Batman-like leaping around the rooftops of Burnham. Dave Sutherland's much-appreciated talents on Biffo the Bear and Dennis the Menace mean that there is a slightly noticable lack of detail on the Bash Street Kids, something I noticed even as a 9-year-old.


Fantastic work from Robert Nixon inside, on Lord Snooty and Grandpa, his technique has totally blossomed by this stage, and is much more confident and assured than his somewhat uneasy 'semi-ghosting' on Roger around 1967. Newer strips include the Mc Tickles which debut from this period, and quite remarkably, the selfsame artist for that strip----Vic Neill-------also filled in on Biffo the Bear for one week only, the end result making for a very unusual Biffo page indeed:


Image



Not only that, but on the reverse side of the same issue, there's also a Dennis the Menace tale also nibbed by Neill:

Image




Perhaps Dave Sutherland was away on his holidays the week these were drawn........Vic Neill was chiefly known for Peter Piper in Sparky and also Mickey the Monkey in Topper after the loss of Dudley Watkins, of course.


Can anyone else add in some unusual ghost work of any well -established characters?

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Digifiend
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Digifiend »

Gordon Bell, the Pup Parade artist, did one Dennis and Gnasher strip the week between Law's last one and Sutherland's first. That one certainly looked different.

About the price, I don't think there are any dual-priced crossover issues. Looking at the cover scans on Comic Vine, issue 1492 is 2p, issue 1487 is 4d, so the change happened suddenly in that month (late Jan to early Feb 1971). Issue 1495 (13/3/1971, so you're correct about the timing) has the new masthead and advertises an extra 4 pages.

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swirlythingy
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by swirlythingy »

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:Can anyone else add in some unusual ghost work of any well -established characters?
In the Beano Summer Special No. 4 (circa 2003 - this being after they stopped dating them, but before they stopped producing them), a single-page Billy Whizz strip was ghosted by a very unlikely artist indeed... one Nick Brennan.

This was reprinted in the Beano Summer Annual 2011, by which time Brennan had been working on the strip for real for some time - making it look much more recently drawn than it actually was!
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Tin Can Tommy
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Tin Can Tommy »

swirlythingy wrote: In the Beano Summer Special No. 4 (circa 2003 - this being after they stopped dating them, but before they stopped producing them),
Am I correct in thinking that this is Beano special no.4 from the second series of Beano Specials.

From the modern Beano Laura Howell's Minnie the Minx ghosting is quite unusual and can be spotted straight away.

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Digifiend
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Digifiend »

That's right, the series that ended to make way for BeanoMAX.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by stevezodiac »

Issue 12 of the X-Men had layouts by Jack Kirby and art by Alex Toth which didn't work at all. I don't think Alex did any other superhero stuff after that. Of course my main memory of ghosting is when the Swots and the Blots weren't drawn by Leo. I think Ian Knox filled in a few times and tried to adopt the Baxendale style with loads of movement lines and dots. Also Dirty Dick was sometimes drawn by the Jocks and the Geordies artist (whose name I can never remember).

McSCOTTYS GHOST
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by McSCOTTYS GHOST »

I remember those awful Kirby/Toth collaborations although Toth did do a few Superheroes after that (The Fox, Batman , Superman and a few others but not many)

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philcom55
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by philcom55 »

Actually Toth only did one X-Men, along with another story in Rawhide Kid - though in both cases it was Vince Colletta's inking that was the real problem imho. In fact it's quite astonishing how many times Alex managed to start a series for somebody only to fall out with them after a few pages (and that includes his brief stint for Fleetway round about the same time!).

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Last edited by philcom55 on 05 Dec 2011, 01:43, edited 1 time in total.

McSCOTTYS GHOST
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by McSCOTTYS GHOST »

Do you know what work (comics) Toth worked for in Fleetway?/ I'm a big fan of his and wasn't aware of this -I only saw the Toth / Kirby etc X-Men strip in the UK Weekly "Super-Heroes" reprinted over a few issues - I was so unimpressed I have never picked up the original when Ive seen them.

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philcom55
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by philcom55 »

Toth drew the opening episodes of a WW2 strip for June & School Friend and a single issue of Schoolgirls' Picture Library.

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Niblet
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Niblet »

John Geering ghosting Mustapha Million http://cheekyweekly.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... on_28.html

Bruce recently posted an interesting example of Mike Lacey ghosting Scream Inn
http://toonworks.brucelaing.com/comicbl ... m-whoopee/

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Jonny Whizz »

I remember that Wayne Thompson drew Minnie the Minx in a couple of 2003 issues of the Beano. The style was recognisably his, but with touches of Tom Paterson, and included more detail than most of his work at the time. Even as a child I found those particular strips rather unusual.
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Peter Gray
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Peter Gray »

Hi Cheeky the link takes me to Scared Stiff-Sam..

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blaing
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by blaing »

Niblet, you weren't thinking of the two part strip where Bananaman tried to take over Desperate Dan's page?

Part 1 and Part Two which was drawn by John Geering instead of Dan's normal artist at the time, Ken Harrison.

Digifiend: I have a feeling that the first two issues of February 1971 might have had a dual pricing (in the Beano's case, that would have been 4d/2p) before the third issue of Feburary would only have the 2p price.

It seems that a number of Thomson's titles during that period (Topper, Sparky and so on) had the same dual pricing (Sparky issues 316 and 317 from that same period had a dual price of 6d/2½p)
Last edited by blaing on 06 Dec 2011, 00:19, edited 1 time in total.

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Niblet
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Re: Unusual Ghostings

Post by Niblet »

Peter and Bruce - the link I posted shows Mike Lacey ghosting Scream Inn - have another look at it :)

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