Oh No! Unpublished Fleetway comic

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Found this on one of Peter Gray's old Geocite pages:



Has anyone got any information about it? It looks like it would've been a lot of fun!

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Nothing at all? Looks like a Steve Bell cover, and from where I found the image it seems there's a Tom Paterson thing in there too...

[AndyB]

I think it's an Ellery King cover (hint: signature), but I know nothing beyond Peter mentioning it!

[Peter Gray]

http://www.oocities.org/pjgtompatterson/

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Signature, silly me!

Cheers for the Paterson page, Peter (three P's!), that's the place where I happened across the scans in the first place. Just wondering where you found them?

[Peter Gray]

someone sent me the scan...such a long time ago now...But thanks to that person that did..
Paul Mc Scotty helped a lot in those days with scans..

[philcom55]

Surely 'Ellery King' is just a 'nom de brush' based on the mystery writer Ellery Queen?

- Phil R.

[Mr McScotty]

A bit late replying on this (not been logged on Comics UK for nearly a year) but this was a mock up comic that seems to have been tried out in the Glasgow area in the early 90's (as I found it in the "Barra's" in Glasgow for 50p about 6/7 years ago ) Lew Stringer was involved in this comic (he had a secret agent I page strip on the back page) Lew remembers this and think he confirmed this at the time - it was a one - off and was more akin to "Oink" than "Buster" (though not as good) a lot of Ellery King, and Tom Paterson in it. Sadly I think I gave this comic away not long after I sent Peter the scans but if I find it I will get back with more info if required.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Interesting, thought it looked a bit Oink-ish. Hopefully there's more information on the way.

[Lew Stringer]

Only just noticed this.

Oh No!! was the brainchild of cartoonists Dave King and Ian Ellery (hence the alias 'Ellery King') who had met with Fleetway to discuss packaging a new humour comic for them. Fleetway okayed the idea and Dave and Ian put together a 32 page dummy issue with contributions from many other creators including myself.

Fleetway printed a very small run of the comic (perhaps about 200, I forget) and did some market research at schools. The reactions were very positive indeed. Oh No!! was totally different to any children's comic of the time. It had no house style, no adherence to formula, and was closer in style to Oink! but without the rude bits or pig theme. The fact that it did have its own identity is one thing that the kids liked. (For example, when asked to put the comic on top of other comics they thought were similar, the kids created a new space for it.)

Everything was looking good. Dave and Ian even booked a hotel for us to have a pre-launch get together with all the other creators. Fleetway were keen to do this new comic. The mood at the pre-launch was very optimistic.

And then things went pear-shaped. A change of management (I think this is when Egmont took over, - not 100% sure) suddenly put the project on hold. And it never happened. Not attributing any blame. It just wasn't the sort of comic the new owners wanted to do. They wanted licensed properties, not creator-owned new characters.

It came so close though...

If copies are in circulation they must be the ones given to the school for market research or contributor's copies. It was never distributed to shops or to anyone outside of Fleetway & the research team.

I've mislaid my copy somewhere but I'll have another look when I have time.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Interesting yet tragic stuff there, Lew - I'd love to find one of those 200 copies, from the cover it looks fantastic!

[AlfieLarge]

Hi Everyone,
I took part in one of the focus groups for Oh No!! (1990, I think). I still have my copy. I would be happy to scan the comic in it's entirety if anyone would like to have a look?

Alfie

[starscape]

What do we think everyone? Any interest? No? Might as well, I suppose.

(Seriously, I think almost everyone would be desperate to see it)

[Lew Stringer]

Hi Everyone,
I took part in one of the focus groups for Oh No!! (1990, I think). I still have my copy. I would be happy to scan the comic in it's entirety if anyone would like to have a look?

Alfie

I can't speak for the other artists/writers but I'm happy for you to post up my page (I did the back page strip, Lance Boyle) as I can't find my copy and would like to post that strip on my blog.

[Peter Gray]

It would be great to see hte comic that nearly was...

1991 one of the saddest day in the history of comics...loads of comic artists lost work...