KIDS FROM STALAG 41

[Cap Haggis]

I note that you are showing pages from the Jet comic strip "The Kids from Stalag 41" - good to see a humour strip again - But I wasn't aware that this was by Leo Baxendale did he actually write and draw this (or just write it) It looks to me a bit like the artwork of another artists (not that I am an expert just a big fan) - can anyone clarify?

[Lew Stringer]

It looks to me a bit like the artwork of another artists (not that I am an expert just a big fan) - can anyone clarify?

You're correct. It's definitely not by Leo Baxendale. The early ones are drawn by either Jimmy Hansen or Mike Lacey (not sure which as Mike and Jimmy's styles were very similar back then) and the later ones by someone else entirely.

Editors encouraged many artists to draw in Leo's popular style; Dave Sutherland, Ron Spence, Mike Brown, Mike Lacey.... the list goes on. All became good comic artists in their own right, but people have often confused their styles with the great Bax.

Lew

[Cap Haggis]

Cheers Lew - I didn't think it looked like Leo Baxendales work but wasn't 100%

[AndyB]

It's Mike, I believe!

[Lew Stringer]

It's Mike, I believe!

Looks like Mike Lacey work on the first episode. Rest of the strips are by Tony Goffe.

Lew

[Tammyfan]

Here are some scans from Schoolditz (School Fun), which ran 1983-1984. How do you think it compares with The Kids of Stalag 41?

[Tammyfan]

I have just come into Buster annual 1980, which reprints the first Stalag 41 to appear in Buster (the week Jet joined). Stalag 41 kicked off in Buster with this six-pager. Schtinky thinks he's really got the boys who give him a terrible time right where he wants them this time. But he makes one mistake that he quite fails to rectify, despite it making itself so obvious....








PS: Did you spot the goof on the last page, panel 5?

[wilsia]

Both "Stalag" and "Schoolditz" were excellent. I preferred the fat bungling Nazis in "stalag" which really made the strip funny just to look at but Frank McDiarmid did a wonderful job on "schoolditz" and if anything it was more detailed (no surprise there as Frank never skimped on the panels).

A while back I was speaking to Frank about the demise of comics in the 80s and he recalled that Schoolditz was one of the latter strips drawn for IPC and he has fond memories of drawing it.

[Tammyfan]

Both "Stalag" and "Schoolditz" were excellent. I preferred the fat bungling Nazis in "stalag" which really made the strip funny just to look at but Frank McDiarmid did a wonderful job on "schoolditz" and if anything it was more detailed (no surprise there as Frank never skimped on the panels).

A while back I was speaking to Frank about the demise of comics in the 80s and he recalled that Schoolditz was one of the latter strips drawn for IPC and he has fond memories of drawing it.

The blurb for Stalag 41 was that the kids give their commandant Schtink a terrible time.
So each episode would have to show them
winning in the end, though of course they never escaped permanently (until maybe their last episode in Buster?) which is what they were always trying to do in Schoolditz. Schoolditz had a more Gilligan Island theme, where escape plans got unstuck until the final episode, usually because the headmaster goofed up. So the commandant, Gunther (Goony) won a lot more than Schtink. Goony also seemed to be portrayed as a tad more clever and nasty than Schtinky. Although still funny and talked in a stereotyped German accent, he was not a fat buffoon like Schtinky.

[dishes]

I enjoyed "Schoolditz" as a kid (slightly before my time, but I read it in reprint or in old annuals or both) but in retrospect I find this sort of thing (anything with comedy nazis involved) skates dangerously close to poor taste.... am I oversensitive?

[Phoenix]

I enjoyed "Schoolditz" as a kid (slightly before my time, but I read it in reprint or in old annuals or both) but in retrospect I find this sort of thing (anything with comedy nazis involved) skates dangerously close to poor taste.... am I oversensitive?

I think so. The strip is continuing the all foreigners are funny and stupid tradition that started well before the war it features, which of course was anything but funny. The comic strips during the war that portrayed Hitler and his cronies as bumbling idiots offered a coping strategy, a kind of morale booster. Their young readers were hardly likely to be fooled about the actual situation when they were constantly hearing the air raid sirens, and at best being taken from their beds in dressing gowns to their nearest air raid shelter, at worst suffering the loss of family, friends, pets and even their home from the constant bombing, but they could be made to feel that we were getting on top of things, that it was just a short-term inconvenience, just a matter of time before we removed these stupid foreigners from our skies. For younger members who have no experience of the comics of the period I can heartily recommend The Beano and The Dandy - The Comics That Won The War!, the recent volume produced by D. C. Thomsons to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D Day in 1944 and V E Day in 1945, where they will be able to read many full and double-page examples of the contribution to the war effort by Korky, Big Eggo, Lord Snooty, Desperate Dan, Our Gang, and the text heroes in The Rover and The Hotspur etcetera.

[Tammyfan]

I enjoyed "Schoolditz" as a kid (slightly before my time, but I read it in reprint or in old annuals or both) but in retrospect I find this sort of thing (anything with comedy nazis involved) skates dangerously close to poor taste.... am I oversensitive?

I think so. The strip is continuing the all foreigners are funny and stupid tradition that started well before the war it features, which of course was anything but funny. The comic strips during the war that portrayed Hitler and his cronies as bumbling idiots offered a coping strategy, a kind of morale booster. Their young readers were hardly likely to be fooled about the actual situation when they were constantly hearing the air raid sirens, and at best being taken from their beds in dressing gowns to their nearest air raid shelter, at worst suffering the loss of family, friends, pets and even their home from the constant bombing, but they could be made to feel that we were getting on top of things, that it was just a short-term inconvenience, just a matter of time before we removed these stupid foreigners from our skies. For younger members who have no experience of the comics of the period I can heartily recommend The Beano and The Dandy - The Comics That Won The War!, the recent volume produced by D. C. Thomsons to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D Day in 1944 and V E Day in 1945, where they will be able to read many full and double-page examples of the contribution to the war effort by Korky, Big Eggo, Lord Snooty, Desperate Dan, Our Gang, and the text heroes in The Rover and The Hotspur etcetera.

I have been pondering about the stereotypes too and wonder if Stalag 41 would be up for reprint. These days it may not be so PC because of the stereotypes. That is probably the case with some of the older strips in the funnies. Though I haven't had much chance to view funnies from the sixties and early seventies, I suspect there would be other stereotypes in them that could be questionable today.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

we often saw cannibals in these strips [complete with cooking pot and shaking salt-and-pepper] wielding spears at the white characters, and to be honest, nobody at the time batted an eyelid.

Looking at this today it can be quite alarming, though.

[Lew Stringer]

I have been pondering about the stereotypes too and wonder if Stalag 41 would be up for reprint. These days it may not be so PC because of the stereotypes. That is probably the case with some of the older strips in the funnies. Though I haven't had much chance to view funnies from the sixties and early seventies, I suspect there would be other stereotypes in them that could be questionable today.

I don't think we're ever likely to see a collection of those strips in book shops as there simply wouldn't be the demand for it. I suppose it's possible an indie company may gain permission from Egmont to do a small print run but how many people would buy it (apart from than those of us here) to justify the time and expense of producing a book? It wouldn't be my first choice I must admit, but then I've never liked war strips (apart from Charley's War). As for the dialogue, poking fun at foreign accents always seemed a lazy way to get laughs.

[Tammyfan]

I have been pondering about the stereotypes too and wonder if Stalag 41 would be up for reprint. These days it may not be so PC because of the stereotypes. That is probably the case with some of the older strips in the funnies. Though I haven't had much chance to view funnies from the sixties and early seventies, I suspect there would be other stereotypes in them that could be questionable today.

I don't think we're ever likely to see a collection of those strips in book shops as there simply wouldn't be the demand for it. I suppose it's possible an indie company may gain permission from Egmont to do a small print run but how many people would buy it (apart from than those of us here) to justify the time and expense of producing a book? It wouldn't be my first choice I must admit, but then I've never liked war strips (apart from Charley's War). As for the dialogue, poking fun at foreign accents always seemed a lazy way to get laughs.

But you wouldn't expect foreigners to speak perfect English in the funnies.