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OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 02 May 2016, 09:37
by Lew Stringer
It's 30 years since the brilliant Oink! comic was launched out of its sty so I've written a blog post about it:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/ ... years.html

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 02 May 2016, 10:20
by ISPYSHHHGUY
wow, 30 years.......I remember this comic well, it was extremely contemporary-looking with hyper-modern graphics. I liked a story about Biker Pigs [?] by JT Hogg [?] that had untypically detailed technique---more typical input was Blurg the Alien and there was material by satirical artist Banx.

Apparantly the science-fiction writer Charlie Brooker ['Black Mirror', a sort of live-action, extended Future Shocks' for TV] had material published in early Oink---dunno if he drew it or 'just' wrote it though......I liked the later, very savage pastiches on the Janet and John styled books, a sort of Ripping Yarns for comicdom.


Uncle Pigg and Mary Lighthouse also stick in the memory banks.

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 02 May 2016, 10:37
by Lew Stringer
ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:wow, 30 years.......I remember this comic well, it was extremely contemporary-looking with hyper-modern graphics. I liked a story about Biker Pigs [?] by JT Hogg [?] that had untypically detailed technique---more typical input was Blurg the Alien and there was material by satirical artist Banx.

Apparantly the science-fiction writer Charlie Brooker ['Black Mirror', a sort of live-action, extended Future Shocks' for TV] had material published in early Oink---dunno if he drew it or 'just' wrote it though......I liked the later, very savage pastiches on the Janet and John styled books, a sort of Ripping Yarns for comicdom.


Uncle Pigg and Mary Lighthouse also stick in the memory banks.
Click on the link I gave, Rab. There's a page shown there of the strip you're wondering about. The strip was Street Hogs, drawn by JT Dogg (the late Malcolm Douglas).

Yes, Charlie Brooker wrote and drew lots of strips for Oink when he was just 15 or 16. Funny stuff too.

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 02 May 2016, 10:46
by ISPYSHHHGUY
OK Lew, I will do--rest assured, I do look at your work on your blog a fair bit.

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 02 May 2016, 23:46
by big bad bri
30 bloody years i feel old now :(

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 05 May 2016, 04:10
by suebutcher
Oink was an eye-opener for me at a time when I'd given up on British comics. I thought it was appealingly odd and attractively disgusting, and it stood out from the competition the way the early Wham and Smash did.

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 26 May 2016, 08:49
by koollectablz
I did read oink, but I dunno, it always felt too 'forced' to me. It came very much on the coat tails of Viz albeit for a younger audience.

Like it was always telling me how funny it was without just being 'funny'. The actual title was wrong too, the whole pig thing left me a bit cold.

Whilst it did have some great individual features it's parts never added up to something more, that'll I'd want to fork out my pocket money for. Unlike 2000ad or Buster etc.

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 26 May 2016, 09:03
by philcom55
In retrospect it had so much going for it, yet at the time I agree that the whole 'pig' theme seemed strangely off-putting - like a running gag that gets old much too quickly!

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 26 May 2016, 09:20
by koollectablz
philcom55 wrote:In retrospect it had so much going for it, yet at the time I agree that the whole 'pig' theme seemed strangely off-putting - like a running gag that gets old much too quickly!
Yea that's exactly it.

Like there's a Dr Who fanzine that was published recently called 'Fanwnak' - the actual 'zine was very well put together, good writing with interesting features, but the name is so offputting that it totally devalues the time and effort put into it. Like the editor thinks its incredibly funny and witty and refuses to listen to someone else saying "hmmmmmm you really wanna call it that?".

Like French Connection using FCUK for years... It's slightly amusing for about 30 secs then its just an albatross around the neck.

Older heads should have prevailed in the conception phase and a better more generic title chosen and the whole pig theme left as an internal strip, also the references to Mary Whitehouse thinking its disgusting - far too easy a target and actually totally irrelevant to the kids buying it.

Sounds like I hated it - I didn't, I just wanted it to be as funny and subversive as it continuously told us it was on the cover.

Re: OINK! 30th anniversary

Posted: 26 May 2016, 12:35
by starscape
i bought it at the time but was never really sure if I was buying a children's comic or a subversive mag pretending to be a children's comic.

I'm not even sure Oink! knew the answer.