thanks for the above mini-cover scan, steelclaw....4 out of the first 10 covers represented here gives a good visual flavour of early issues. I always thought the titular star was an alien first time round, but no such excuses here, what with him posing with a spear and all.......
HOCKEY HANNAH looked like it may have been equally at home in the pages of JUDY or MANDY. That second-last frame looks a painful act, however! [from issue 2].
BOB WEBSTER:
[above: issue 2]. BOB WEBSTER must have contributed at least a half-dozen seperate strips to 'SPARKY' in the early years; he was a prolific D C THOMSON artist in this period, and I also remember a very strange 'MANDY' girl's strip from 1970 he penned: 'THINGUMMYJIG', about a strange female alien athlete.
above: grand spectacle crammed into then-standard sized comic frames show that BOB could turn his hand to a multitude of comic assignments. [issue 7].
above: [also issue 7]: BOB'S inking technique was always dripping with vitality and kinetic comic action. His work appeared within the comic regularly right up until around mid-1970, when he dropped out of the comics scene altogether......presumably this is when he retired after a long comics association with THOMSON.
alanultron5 wrote:Thanks for that correction Kashgar! Those quarter page strips did really look like re-prints though! Was the "Hairy Dan" strip which lasted to about issue 28 in the same vein?
Yes Hairy Dan was the same.
philcom55 wrote:
Kashgar wrote:The Young Castaways is indeed the work of Tony 'Invisible Dick' Speer.
...It's to be hoped that nickname didn't stick!
- Phil Rushton
There you go lowering the tone again Phil. I'm mortally offended that you've seen fit to offend my guruness in this way. We lofty mountain top dwellers deserve some respect from the riff-raff and the common herd surely.
Page 1
`Sparky` gets April fooled and ends up in jail.
Page 2
`Joe Bann and his Big Banjo`
Page 3
`Keyhole Kate`
Pages 4 & 5
`The Young Castaways`
Page 6
`Hockey Hannah`
Page 7
`Freddie the Fearless Fly`
Pages 8 & 9
`Wee Tusky`
Page 10
`Write To Sparky`
Page 11
`Cuckoo In the Clock`
Pages 12 & 13
`Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora` Dave and Dora are captured by the `Grabbies`. Strange Gnome-like creatures that live in the clouds and who `grab` children to use as galley slaves in their sky boats.
Page 14
Top Half is `Pansy Potter`. Bottom Half is `Nosey Parker`
Page 15
`Sparky’s Puzzles`
Pages 16 & 17
`The Kidnapped Kidds`
Pages 18, 19, and the top two thirds of page 20.
`The Palace of Secrets`. This will end on issue 14.
Page 20, bottom third.
`Hairy Dan` Yet another re-print! This one features `Hairy Dan` and his long white beard! How 1965 youngsters were expected to relate to this is beyond me! I never liked it.
Page 21
`Jeff Ye Jolly Jester`
Page 22
`Hungry Horace`
Page 23
`Minnie Ha-Ha, and `Running-Kick` her talking Raven.
Page 24
`The Moonsters`
Little change in Sparky No 11, except for `Hairy Dan`. Why the comic persisted with these old-reprints is a mystery that will probably be never solved!
more examples of early characters: [the first two examples are from 6 March issue]:
above: yet another re-vamped story to reappear within the pages of 'SPARKY'. With a slightly un-nerving baddie [perhaps it's those razor teeth!] and rendered in a style by ALBERT HOLROYD that always reminded me of the characters from MAX FLEISCHER 1941 animated feature 'HOPPITY goes to TOWN':
the next two examples hail from issue 15 [MAY 1, 1965]: PETER PIPER is still very recognizable in format, though the style of this effort is of course very different to the later definititive VIC NEILL version:
------and lastly for today, a real oddity: I sometimes found some of the imagery in 'SPARKY' to be alienating and dream-like, and WILL'S PAN-like appearance is a definate contender!:
Kashgar wrote:The Young Castaways is indeed the work of Tony 'Invisible Dick' Speer.
...It's to be hoped that nickname didn't stick!
There you go lowering the tone again Phil. I'm mortally offended that you've seen fit to offend my guruness in this way. We lofty mountain top dwellers deserve some respect from the riff-raff and the common herd surely.
I only meant it'd be a shame if this distinguished artist came to be permanently associated with such a trivial strip after a career in which he'd illustrated weighty literary classics like Tom Sawyer while working for prestigious publications such as Mickey Mouse Weekly!
...Er, what on earth did you think I meant oh great and gurusome one???
- Phil Rushton
"In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak, but for that route thou must have long legs." (Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spake Zarathustra )
One of the reasons I started this thread was to correct some of the `innacuracies` regarding the comic via Graham Kibble-White's book, in which he gets one heck of a lot wrong concerning the comic!
For some strange reason, Mr Kibble-White seems to equate `Barney Bulldog` with a `Gay` character from "Little Britain" What relevance has that?
I will post another early Sparky listing tomorrow!
alanultron5 wrote:One of the reasons I started this thread was to correct some of the `innacuracies` regarding the comic via Graham Kibble-White's book, in which he gets one heck of a lot wrong concerning the comic!
For some strange reason, Mr Kibble-White seems to equate `Barney Bulldog` with a `Gay` character from "Little Britain" What relevance has that?
I will post another early Sparky listing tomorrow!
Well...he is the only Bulldog in the village!
I started to say something sensible but my parents took over my brain!
ISN'T it simply because the 'gay villager' character of 'LITTLE BRITAIN' wore a BARNEY-like dog-collar? A pretty thin assumption to base any gay references upon old BARNEY.
all the next few scans are from issue 30 [AUG 14, 1965]: if you haven't being paying your BBC TV licence recently, I'm afraid you will only recieve balack-and-white screenings: [!}
in all honesty, much of the SPARKY cover stories were interchangeable with BIFFO or MICKEY the MONKEY.
NEXT, mystical medievel mirth, rendered in a DICKENSIAN style, from the height of the swinging sixties........
--------and next up we have thrilling sci-fi with a 60s-kitsch flavour [these stories certainly didn't muck about, with the invading craft visible in frame 3]:
Pages 4 & 5
`The Young Castaways`. This was the penultimate episode.
Page 6
`Hockey Hannah`
Page 7
`Freddy the Fearless Fly`. Features a `guest` appearance by Keyhole Kate.
Pages 8 & 9
`The Kidnapped Kidds`. Final episode. Gang leader Gus threatens to kill the children, but the police come to the rescue. Without a doubt, this was very much a `fish out of water` story in early Sparky. The comic never got as close to this type of realistic violence ever again.
Page 10
`Write to Sparky`
Page 11
`Cuckoo in the Clock`
Pages 12 & 13
`Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora` They find themselves in the city of “Say What You Mean†where any phrase or expression, no matter how innocent, turns into reality!
Page 14 Top half is `Pansy Potter`; bottom half is `Nosey Parker`
Page 15
`Sparky’s puzzles`
Pages 16 & 17
`Wee Tusky`
Pages 18 & 19, and the top two thirds of page 20.
New story `Will O` the Well` This was a new text story (with a few illustrations) replacing `Palace of Secrets`. It concerned a strange boy, Will, who lived at the bottom (under water) of a wishing well. He never got wet though!
Will seemed normal except for his `Spock-Like` pointed ears. He would grant wishes to whoever threw coins into his well.
Those who wished unselfishly, especially on behalf of someone else would enjoy a happy resolution. Those wishing for selfish reasons, got their wish-but in a way that taught them a lesson. Will spent all monies on Ice Lollipops that he purchased from a local Ice cream shop.
A very moralistic story; I loved it!
Page 20, bottom third.
`Three B/W panels adverts for next weeks stories. Left panel is `New story-“Watch†the adventures of a Newfoundland dog. Middle panel `The Young Castaway’s`. Right panel `The Moonsters`
Page 21
`Keyhole Kate`
Page 22
`Peter Piper`
Page 23
`Minnie Ha-Ha and `Running Kick` her pet talking Raven.
artwork: possibly by Pam Chapeau [at any rate, one of the most recognizable 'SPARKY' artist styles]......alongside the 'MOONSTERS' and 'SPARKY' himself, this, to me, was the most memorable story in the early-period 'SPARKY'.
----NEXT; the epitome of mid-60s childhood innocence:
next: more medievel musings from a tale dated 18 SEP of this year;
the MOONSTERS were always one of the absolute highlights of the comic's very early period: the post '69 stuff 'does it' for me, but later SPARKY lacked this excellent surrealist comedy:
Page 1
`Sparky` Has fun with a outboard motor from a boat.
Page 2
`New Story` `The Slowdown Express`. The comedy adventures of Driver Tom, and Porters, Dick (Slowdown Halt) and Cuthbert (Slapham Junction) on the line between said stations. The character of Cuthbert was eased out after a few months! The `Slowdown Express` was a steam train; obviously missed by Dr Beeching!
Page 3
`Peter Piper`
Pages 4 & 5
`New Story` `The Riddle of the Roughlands`. Dick and Cheery Granger are on holiday in a region called the `Roughlands`. They stumble across a mystery! (as you do!)
Page 6
`Hungry Horace`
Page 7
`New Story` `Winnie theWitch`. The comic adventures of a Novice Witch.
Pages 8 & 9
`Watch`
Page 10
`Write to Sparky`
Page 11
`Cuckoo in the Clock`
Pages 12 & 13
`Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora` The duo visit `Time Town` to see how time is made.
Page 14
`Keyhole Kate`
Pages 15 & 16
`McGinty the Goat`
Page 17
`Sparky’s Puzzles`
Pages 18 & 19
`Kipper Feet`. The light hearted adventures of a young walrus. This strip replaced `Wee Tusky` a couple of weeks back. Another animal based story.
Pages 20, 21 and top half of page 22.
`Will O` the Well`. The final tale from this delightfully inventive text based story. It was the final text story in the comic. Caption on bottom of story read “See below for news of new storyâ€
Page 22
Bottom half. Three panels which are ads for new story “Lonely Wood†(Left panel), “Keyhole Kate†(Middle) and “Kipper Feet†(Right panel)
Page 23
`Joe Bann and his Big Banjoâ€
Page 24
`The Moonsters`
I was sad to see it was the last ever `Will O` The Well` strip as I had enjoyed that very much. The strip did appear in the first two Sparky books, dated 1967 and 1968.
