I just heard the sad news that Eric Sykes has died. I'm not sure if many of our younger members will even remember him but, in his day, he was a giant amongst a generation that produced more than its fair share of British comic talent.
The odd thing is that, in spite of all his contemporaries who starred in their own series in papers like Film Fun, Radio Fun, TV Comic, etc., I can't for the life of me remember ever seeing an Eric Sykes comic strip. Can anyone else think of one? Surely there must have been something...!
Aww, that's sad news.. He was indeed a British comedy legend, and actor as well.
Bear Alley has reference to an Eric Sykes comic strip from TV Express or Comic. But that was just a strip about his life and not an actual series.
You would have thought he would have been approached for a series along the lines of Sykes. Although, if there was once the possibility of a strip I'd expect he'd have loved to have scripted it himself to maintain control but maybe couldn't find the time with all the TV work. Just a thought.
Could certainly imagine a Sykes comic strip working well.
Having only ever seen Sykes the comedian, I remember being utterly blown away by his wonderfully creepy performance as a ghost in 'The Others' a few years ago. A very versatile actor.
Stingray wrote:Bear Alley has reference to an Eric Sykes comic strip from TV Express or Comic. But that was just a strip about his life and not an actual series.
Gosh! - I'd forgotten all about that. Here's a detail from the issue dated May 20th 1961 (art by Bill Mainwaring):
(Believe it or not there really were jobs like that back in the 1960s!)
For anyone unfamiliar with Eric's oeuvre I'd advise them to try and see his classic short film 'The Plank' when it inevitably gets screened as a tribute to him sometime in the next few days! (Either that or look it up on YouTube...)
Fans of the great Eric Sykes, who was sadly taken from us earlier this year, might be interested to know that his classic film 'The Plank' is due to be screened on Channel Five at 11.10pm tonight. (Annoyingly I'm working and will have to miss it! )
Here's a nice strip about his career that appeared in a 1973 issue of Hornet (though I wouldn't be surprised if it originally appeared elsewhere).
The floating head image does look like a more up to date likeness pasted on. Am i right in saying he made The Plank twice - once in black and white and later in colour?
Speaking of Hattie Jacques, his partner, I was interested to read she did a quiry action-adventure series called "Miss Adventure", where she played Stacy, who inherits half a run-down private investigation agency, but keeps getting into international espionage cases.
Ran for only one series, but would've made a good long-running picture strip.
Or perhaps inspired a girls' comic strip with a big schoolgirl getting into similar detective scrapes & capers.
(I think Bessie Bunter was about the only big girl playing lead; and I never found these strips funny).
I scribbled one or two ideas for a modern TV version of this series.
