I'd imagine something similar applied to Bertie Brown. One can't help feeling that Cordwell must've been gutted to miss out on the chance to feature Charlie Chaplin in Film Fun!Kashgar wrote:the reason that Roy Wilson never drew for Cordwell, setting aside the stylistic restraints it would have put on Wilson's style at the time was that Wilson came from the other AP comics' stable, that of Stan Gooch (1893-1958). Gooch, who was a much more inventive editor, in my mind, than Cordwell, had basically discovered Wilson when he had been Don Newhouse's assistant in the 1920's and he jealously guarded his discovery in later years. All of Gooch's comic titles Larks, Joker, Funny Wonder, Tip-Top, Jingles, Radio Fun and evntually TV Fun making liberal use of Wilson's talent.
I think his discomfort is particularly apparent in the Abbott & Costello page shown above (assuming it is by Wilson), though I do feel that his later work on Terry-Thomas and Harry Secombe displayed a growing confidence with such personality strips that made their sudden cancellation in February 1961 a real shock. He had, after all, been drawing characters like Tommy Handley for Radio Fun ever since the early 1940s. Nevertheless I do agree that the pages he subsequently produced for 'Film Fun Quips' contained some of the most gloriously happy artwork of his later career....(Wilson) never enjoyed drawing for Film Fun though, except for the jokes page Film Fun Quips which he felt still allowed him some artistic freedom.
For anybody who hasn't seen them here are the farewell appearances of Terry-Thomas and Harry Secombe (both by Wilson) followed by the conclusion of James Malcolm's rather angular Ken Dodd series from the same issue.
...And here is a typical example of 'Film Fun Quips', which remained as Wilson's sole toehold on the pages of Film Fun until his triumphant return to the cover with Bruce Forsyth. Never before or since have readers' jokes been realized with such a brilliant display of comic inventiveness!
- Phil R.