Old Freddy wrote:The current ball boy reprints are ok, because they've recoloured them. Like I said on other threads unrecoloured ones look automatically dated. Often they're rescanned and therefore look blurry, especially on the glossy paper that the Beano uses now.
I think they had no choice but to recolour, as they may well have been black and white originally - BB is one of the strips which only became colour in 1993, and the strips being used could be from as early as 1990. They need to stop using the Dave Eastbury title panel though, as BB looks different in the reprints to how he looked in the new stories, as Dave redesigned him.
I wonder if the Bash Street kids will become reprints when Dave sitherland retires? I hope they don't, because there's far too many reprints these days (There should be 2 per comic at the most). However, if they become reprints barely anyone would notice, because it's been the same artist for best part of 47 years, and it's hard to think that that artist is a ghost artist!!! That must be the longest running strip drawn by a ghost artist! (Then again, since he's been adding his signature since 1999, peraps it's safe to say he may not be a ghost artist anymore). I think the only difference would be that his style has been noticably scratchier and more like Davy Law in recent years, rather than a simplified version of baxendale's style like how it was in the 60's, 70's and 80's.
Small gripe, it's Sutherland, not Sitherland. Spellcheck before you click Submit, OK? He started in 1962, so it is indeed 47 years, although other artists have drawn the strip at times, including Nigel Parkinson. The reason DS only started signing his work late on is because back in the 60s, he wasn't allowed. He only signed his work once the majority of the comic carried signatures. I think only Barrie Appleby and Jimmy Hansen don't sign now, and of course reprints often aren't signed. Bash Street won't become reprint because they're already being reprinted in the annual. There isn't enough material for the 2009 version to become the standard format. I suspect Tom Paterson, who already draws Singled Out, will take over when DS either retires or dies.
) and the strips were excellent.
