Eric Roberts- Winker Watson, Dirty Dick, Podge,

[Kashgar]

Just for completeness sake Peter I forgot to mention that in the late 1940's (1948-1949) Eric did a series of one-off strips for a series of one-off and short run titles published by Philmar publications.

[Peter Gray]

I've added the extra bit to the blog...thanks again
One more post on Eric to go showing off his 2 page poster work...

[dandy mad]

Theres some nice eric roberts original artwork in the new history of the beano the story so far mainly his early stuff such as good king coke,rip van wink ect all very nice indeed

[Peter Gray]

Its taken awhile to arrange But I'm meeting Erica Roberts the daughter of Eric..
I'll be taking examples of Erics work to show her and she has written some info for me to use for a blog post..seeing her hopefully Friday..so a nice post for the blog.

[Peter Gray]

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... erica.html

Heres the blog post...it was nice meeting Erica and her Husband.

[Lew Stringer]

Fascinating stuff Peter. Well done on interviewing Erica.

It's a tragedy that so many artists of Eric's generation worked uncredited at the time, and that they never met with other freelancers. It's something we tend to forget today, with so many conventions and the internet making it easy to meet and socialize with fellow cartoonists.

[stevezodiac]

Nice to learn about one of my favourite artists, I remember a shop scene (a bit like arkwright's) which i think was in Smiler in Knockout where Eric had drawn every item in the shop. Eric never short changed on his artwork.

We are all wondering who the tv collector was, the two I am thinking of are both deceased but shame on whomever for his behaviour.

[Kashgar]

Well done Peter. Fascinating stuff. Appropriate that we should learn more about such a fine comic artist in the year of the centenary of his birth too.
The info which I had on Eric was gleaned from the memories of staff on the Dandy and, as such, was a little awry in places so it is nice to see his daughter Erica putting the record straight.

[Peter Gray]

Hi Kashgar thanks for your comments at the blog..

I'll forward any info you give on Eric's work to her by email..would be great to see all the different comic pages he did in his long career that you said would put up here...

You've listed quite a bit already on these posts..

Hi Peter, As promised a quick resume of Eric Roberts' comic strip work.

First known work Podge in the Dandy in 1937, followed in 1938 by three strips in the Beano Helpful Henry, Good King Coke and Rip Van Wink.
By 1942 he seems to have dropped out working for comics, probably due to some type of war work. He next surfaces in AP's Knockout in 1945 with the strip Mike which would run until 1957 (becoming Mike and Dimps in 1954). His other original work for the AP being Biily Bunter (1958-1959) and Sinbad Simms (1957-1958) both also Knockout and Niblo Nibbs (1960) in Film Fun. Mike would then be reprinted in Big One and then Buster (1964-1972) under the title Smiler and then latterly Smiler and Dimps while Sinbad Simms would follow the same reprint route Big One / Buster (1964-1965).
Niblo Nibbs would resurface in Giggle (1967) and in Cor (1971) with his Cor appearances coming under the slightly altered title Nippy Nibbs. More anon.


Eric Robert's first work for Thomson's after the war was Smudge in the Dandy (1947-1949) (reprinted as Hy Jinks (1955-1957)).The Dandy being the comic for which he would draw all his subsequent Thomson work. This was followed by the first of his many strips for the paper in the comic adventure strip format Willie the Wicked (1953) then came The Wee Black Scallywag (1954), Willie's Whizzer Broom (1956) Rip Snorter (1956-1957) and Ginger's Super Jeep (1958-1959).
When the Dandy expanded its page count in 1960 Eric Roberts was given the comic strip Dirty Dick (1960-1967) to draw and from that point on he never worked for any other company, not least because the strip to which he devoted more of his career to than any other, Winker Watson, was just about to go into regular production. Between 1961 and 1979 Eric Roberts providing 775 episodes of the Winker Watson saga spread over twelve series with his only other comic adventure strip work in that time being Moe, Joe and Daddy-O (1965).

[Peter Gray]

Erica is hoping DC Thomson can send some good quality scans of example of Eric's work to make up for being cheated out of them in the past.here is what Erica emailled..

Dear Peter

It is brilliant to see your blog has received some comments, I was especially interested to see that perhaps my mother was defrauded by a person known to behave like that.

I was also interested in Ray Moore's comments and if you think his offer of a stripography (not sure what that is) is worth taking up please contact him if you wish. Where would the work be posted on the comics UK site?

I have written to DC Thomson, as you suggested, but have not received a reply yet, early days.


Thanks again
Best wishes to you and Carol
Erica

[ramonschenk]

Just for completeness sake Peter I forgot to mention that in the late 1940's (1948-1949) Eric did a series of one-off strips for a series of one-off and short run titles published by Philmar publications.

I've been trying to find out more about Philmar and the related company names (Amex, Bairns, PM, P.M.). Would you happen to know more about them?

[dandy mad]

An early ish old king coke strip from the 1942 Beano book don't think this will ever be reprinted somehow....