Cyril Price

[philcom55]

The 'lemon lolly' story appeared in Wham! no.49. Here's the first page:



As Lew says I was primarily thinking of his observation that Leo's pages for Wham! and Smash! were almost invariably accompanied by a signature - though it's also noticeable that Georgie himself looks very different in this episode compared to the early Baxendale sets. Here's the way he was drawn in Wham! no.5 for example:



- Phil Rushton

[Lew Stringer]

As Lew says I was primarily thinking of his observation that Leo's pages for Wham! and Smash! were almost invariably accompanied by a signature - though it's also noticeable that Georgie himself looks very different in this episode compared to the early Baxendale sets. Here's the way he was drawn in Wham! no.5 for example:

- Phil Rushton

Yeah, those two pages are definitely by Leo. Regarding Georgie's appearance, it sometimes takes a while to feel comfortable drawing a character so the design can shift a bit from week to week to start with. Odhams never seemed too strict about things like that. For example, Graham Allen originally drew Fatty in The Nervs as an adult, before he became a schoolboy a few issues later. (And I don't think it bothered us as readers one bit. I remember thinking "He looks a bit different this week" and thought no more about it.)

[philcom55]

Any input from yourself and Nigel is really appreciated Lew: as working cartoonists yourselves you always bring a valuable perspective to this material. It could just be my imagination, however, but I can't help thinking that that unsigned 'lemon lolly' set has quite an experimental feel to it that goes beyond the normal process of an artist becoming comfortable with his characters - not only when compared to Leo's earlier strips in Wham! but even alongside the same issue's signed Eagle-Eye episode (though that does include a wonderfully off-the-wall creature known simply as the Mouth!). Quite apart from the marginal sequences it seems to me that the central characters are beginning to show signs of a Bob Godfrey-style plasticity that was to become much more pronounced in later Baxendale series like the Badtime Bedtime books and Willie the Kid. In particular I love those guerning mouths that appear to take on a life of their own, like pale, quivering, boneless bloodsuckers! Previously that sort of slithering amorphousness had mostly been reserved for octopuses mutated by atomic treacle (and Plug!).

In some ways I think it's this constantly-evolving aspect of Leo's art that makes it so difficult for non-experts like myself to distinguish his work from all the other 'Leo-likes' that were around during the same period. What's more, the fact that Odhams allowed their top artists free rein to experiment in this way makes me wonder if the transition to IPC's more restrictive editorial policies (rather than age or illness) could account for the 'very slight' diminution in quality that Lew detected in Cyril Price's final strips?

- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

Which brings me back to the star of this particular thread!

I'm not sure what Cyril did during the first half of the 1960s, but during the 1950s he drew a great deal for TV Comic - under no less than three pseudonyms! Here are some examples of the work for which he used his pen-name 'Spike', beginning with a curiously hollow-eyed 'everykid' called TV Tim (presumably to justify his appearance in a comic that was nominally based on television shows) and his faithful spaniel 'Cathode'.





...Followed by some of his marvellous cartoon animal illustrations - a field in which (imho) he was second only to the great Roy Wilson:











(Is it my imagination or did TV Tim and Georgie both have the same mum? )

- Phil Rushton

[Lew Stringer]

. What's more, the fact that Odhams allowed their top artists free rein to experiment in this way makes me wonder if the transition to IPC's more restrictive editorial policies (rather than age or illness) could account for the 'very slight' diminution in quality that Lew detected in Cyril Price's final strips?

- Phil Rushton

I think so. Ken Reid's work also looked more and more restrained under IPC. Remember this is the company that sent an internal memo to editors forbidding them to ever reprint Ken's Nervs strips because they found them too vulgar. The same company that dropped Mike Higgs' The Cloak because it didn't fit in with the style they wanted, despite it being incredibly popular with readers!

Even as a kid I felt the sudden shift in tone as soon as IPC took over. Sure, Leo Baxendale stood out when he took over the Swots and Blots in Smash, and those strips are brilliant, as are Ken Reid's pages for Scorcher, (so perhaps the adventure dept gave them more leeway than the humour depth would) but Whizzer and Chips, Cor, Whoopee, etc were very tame compared to the antics we'd seen in the Odhams comics.

I'm glad that IPC allowed us to be experimental and cheekier in Oink! Comic though, but that was hampered by Smiths moving it away from the children's comics because they thought it was unsuitable!

[philcom55]

Not to be confused with Kim Casali, the New Zealand-born creator of the world-famous 'Love is...' cartoons which began appearing in the Daily Sketch in 1970, the name 'Kim' had previously been used by Cyril Price who drew a strip called 'Harry' for the same newspaper during the 1950s. Here's an example from Denis Gifford's 'History of the British Comic Strip':



Though his 'Kim' byline might initially have been intended to distinguish the more sophisticated humour of this strip from the work he drew for children it did subsequently appear on a series of illustrations called 'I.T.Antics' (presumably inspired by the newly-formed Independent Television Authority) which he created for TV Comic in 1956.



Then in 1959 'Kim' appeared again in the pages of AP's Playhour for which Cyril briefly drew a character called 'Baby Brother' (though he might just as well have been TV Tim's younger sibling!).



...Yet arguably, for all the success he enjoyed as 'Spike' and 'Kim', it was under a third byline - this one formed by adding two letters to his own middle name - that Cyril was to achieve his most lasting fame...!

- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

During the first half of the twentieth century it became de rigueur for most major British newspapers to feature their own cartoon animal strips, many of which became immensely popular and generated best-selling children's annuals every Christmas. Among the most notable were Teddy Tail in The Daily Mail, Rupert Bear in The Daily Express and Pip, Squeak & Wilfred in The Daily Mirror. By contrast the Daily Graphic was a relatively late convert when it commissioned Cyril Price to create 'The Whiskers' in 1948 but, even though this charming tale of woodland folk is barely remembered today (as is the periodical in which it appeared!) it did succeed in attracting a devoted group of readers who enthusiastically followed the adventures of Whisk the Squirrel and his friends, both in the pages of the newspaper itself and in a series of Whiskers Annuals that appeared from 1948 until 1952.

As revealed on this introductory page from the final Annual (which also shows the artist himself surrounded by some of his creations) Price simply added two letters to his middle name Gwyn to transform himself into 'Gwynne' - supposedly 'the foremost animal artist for children in this country'!





For anybody who wants to see more of Whisk and his pals (not to mention Nibby the Baby Reindeer) you can find a complete story on this site:

http://frequential.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... -1951.html

Unfortunately the Whiskers were unceremoniously evicted from their home in 1952 when The Daily Graphic was bought by a new owner who promptly retitled it as The Daily Sketch. This wasn't quite the end of the line for the Whiskers, however, as in 1956 they made a brief return in the pages of TV Comic - suitably adapted to that title's TV agenda as 'The Whiskers in Teleland' (so much for 'no modern element intruding'!).





- Nor was this the end for 'Gwynne' himself, who went on to draw a number of high-profile 1950s characters such as Coco the Clown (again for TV Comic) and Mr. Pastry (who actually starred in his very own annual in 1958).















- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

Before venturing back to the beginnings of Cyril Price's career in the 1930s, a brief return to 1970 with yet another of his creations from the last year of his life that I've just stumbled across in an issue of IPC's innovative girls' comic Sally (at least I'm pretty sure it's his style...unless anyone else knows different! ). Along with a belated episode of 'Percy's Pets' in the 1971 Smash Fun Book 'Winnie's Wacky Zoo' gave him one last chance to show off his skill at drawing comic animals - a field in which imho he became absolutely unequalled after the death of Roy Wilson.



As with Jet and Cor!, it seems to me that the comic in which this new strip appeared anticipated many of the changes that were sweeping across British comics at the beginning of the new decade. Thus, although Sally itself enjoyed a relatively short run bedeviled by printing strikes and breaks in publication, it prepared the ground for a brand new type of British girls' comic with the launch of the hugely successful Tammy in 1971.

- Phil Rushton

[gimmick]

Hi,

Cyril Gwyn Price was my grandfather, my mother and I lived with my grand-parents from 1961.
I used to watch him work in the front room of the house in Orpington.

I have recently been clearing the house and have found a lot of his original work.

"Harry" proofs and the series " Biddy and Butch " or " Butch and Biddy " along with various sketches and correspondence.

Dave Morgan

[colcool007]

That is brilliant to hear Dave. Is there any chance of some pictures to see the originals?

[stevezodiac]

I have a lot of Wally Robertson original art and his address written on the back is also Orpington. I wonder if they knew each other?

[gimmick]

Wally and my grandfather were close friends and kindred spirits.