Comics UK

The theme so brilliantly exploited in The Rainbow Folk was replayed in TREASURE, where the couloured Rainbow Folk were replaced by little colour pixies and the Black and White Wizard - by the evil Wizard Weezle and his black magic that had a similar effect of taking colours out of everything. It was one of Treasure Tales of Princess Marigold entitled The Wizard’s Black Magic that started in 1964 sometime between issue 58 and 63 and continued until issue 71. The artwork is probably by Nadir Quinto. Here are some nice episodes:

I had forgotten that KP has already posted some examples from 1963, mentioning that Hutchings was the artist for 'Gulliver'.

These continued (as far as I can tell, with the spread of dates that I have) through 1964/65 until the last episode of 'Gulliver' on the 18/9/65 (scans below)

Phil, I think Ron Embleton only worked on 'Gulliver' annual art, as mentioned the majority of 'Gulliver' artwork is by Mendoza, Huthings and his brothers. 'Gulliver' may have made it into later issues of 'Playhour'? I hope this has been helpful?, And I stand to be corrected if need be on any info supplied here!

Not a bad run, except for a few weeks of not appearing, after seven years, 'Gulliver' finally makes it home!

At the end of the 'Gulliver' strip it mentions "Do not miss the exciting news on page five!" the scans below are that news.

'Mrs White's Toy-shop' replaced 'Gulliver' the following week, this ran (I think) until 'TV Toyland' joined 'Playhour' in early 67, when it was replaced with Num Num and his family.

matrix wrote: Phil, I think Ron Embleton only worked on 'Gulliver' annual art

Matrix, Ron Embelton drew at least two episodes in the weeklies towards the end of 1963. The examples below are from the issues dated 5th November and 30th November. My run ends with the last issue of 1963 so there may have been more later on.

Thanks KP corrected already! Lovely examples, the earliest I have in 1964 is the 18/1/64 and Hutchings is back on the case! Easy to get complacent with so many Hutchings examples!

I do not have the first combined issue of 'Playhour' and 'TV Toyland' but as I mentioned him I thought some may like a scan or two!

The scans below are a typical 'Num Num' spread from early 67, and the very first 'Num Num' appearence in 'TV Toyland' no1.

His family has grown after a few months! Not sure how long it ran for but was still there in 1970?

Hooray, it's Drag-a-Chair Kitten!

Some lovely strips being posted here.

Wizard Weezle, Princess Marigold and Prince Rupert were later in Playhour, weren't they? I wonder if those were reprints from Treasure.

It's amazing how many people seem to have fond memories of Drag-a-Chair Kitten!

That Princess Marigold sequence immediately occurred to me too when I saw Gulliver's encounter with the Rainbow Folk Irmantas. Gordon Hutchings also used a similar 'colour loss' effect for a Sooty story in the 1962 Playhour Annual (note the 'Roberts Proprietor' sign on the Inn!).



- Phil Rushton

Bringing Gulliver's story full circle it's interesting to note that, like Fliptail the Otter, his round-the-world adventures seem to have started in a tryout strip prepared for an annual, rather than in the weekly series that appeared in Playhour from May 1958 (though, as annuals are traditionally prepared many months ahead of publication, most readers wouldn't actually see this story until Christmas of that year). While it's unsigned the artwork is unmistakably by Phillip Mendoza.







- Phil Rushton

Was this in a Playhour annual?

Oddly enough it's in the 1959 Tiny Tots Annual!

- Phil R.

I can't compete with you guys when it comes to early runs of Playhour, but looking at one of the few copies I have from September 1961 I must admit to a certain amount of confusion. Here's the cover:



...Which seems to be classic Gordon Hutchings, painted in the same gorgeous style he used for most of his Gulliver and Gregory Grasshopper strips. Yet, according to Steve Holland's 'Bear Alley' blog, Hutchings is only supposed to have drawn Sooty covers from "January 1960 to January 1961"! Can anybody shed any light on this apparent contradiction?

By contrast, the Gulliver strip that appears on the centre pages of the same issue seems to be drawn in a very different style:





The odd thing is that, in spite of the obvious differences (whereby comparing the two sets is almost like comparing a 1940s Tom & Jerry cartoon with one from 1960s) they both seem to carry certain Hutchings hallmarks that make me wonder if Gordon was deliberately imitating contemporary advertising techniques for Gulliver's spell as an odd job man in the big city. Of course, an alternative explanation could be that the two strips were drawn by different Hutchings brothers. Does anyone know how long the 'Odd Job' interlude lasted for?

Either way, this startling comparison highlights an aspect of Hutchings artwork that is particularly noticeable throughout the 1960s: a willingness to experiment that can be seen all the way from his use of colour in 'The Rainbow Folk' to the increasing abstraction of strips like 'Pinkie Puff'. Given this continual development of his style it'd be fascinating to know what happened to him after the mid-1970s when he mysteriously seemed to drop out of comics altogether...!

- Phil Rushton

I love those fashion designs. Particularly the shopping one. Whose bright idea was it to remove all the pockets from women's clothing?

philcom55 wrote:
... Yet, according to Steve Holland's 'Bear Alley' blog, Hutchings is only supposed to have drawn Sooty covers from "January 1960 to January 1961"! Can anybody shed any light on this apparent contradiction?


The odd thing is that, in spite of the obvious differences (whereby comparing the two sets is almost like comparing a 1940s Tom & Jerry cartoon with one from 1960s) they both seem to carry certain Hutchings hallmarks that make me wonder if Gordon was deliberately imitating contemporary advertising techniques for Gulliver's spell as an odd job man in the big city. Of course, an alternative explanation could be that the two strips were drawn by different Hutchings brothers. Does anyone know how long the 'Odd Job' interlude lasted for?
- Phil Rushton

Phil, in respect to the covers, Hutchings was definately drawing 'Sooty' past January 1961. Looking at the samples I have I believe it was Hutchings drawing them right up until they changed to the larger Sooty example I posted a few pages back in 1965, and even then he may still have been involved?
In fairness to Steve I'm not sure how many covers he has seen past 61? There are a couple that could be by someone else?

The 'odd job' interlude lasted for eleven issues between 2/9/61-11/11/61, the one I posted earlier with 'Gulliver' on the train is the first one, I do not have the last one.

I must admit I had to look at the 1961 examples a few times myself, but decided even with my amatuer eye that they seem to be by Hutchings, and it does seem an experimental year like you said and also interestingly none are signed.

I'm sorry to bore everyone with another 'Gulliver'! The original artwork for the example below is for sale at the Illustration art gallery, credited to Hutchings, they even mention these may have been the artists in the office?

matrix wrote:I'm sorry to bore everyone with another 'Gulliver'! The original artwork for the example below is for sale at the Illustration art gallery, credited to Hutchings, they even mention these may have been the artists in the office?

As Samuel Johnson famously said, 'when a man is bored with Gulliver Guinea-Pig he is tired of life'! That's yet another wonderful and fascinating piece Matrix; it's a shame that the price tag makes my £29 expenditure seem like pocket money - I'd love to be able to frame that page and hang it on my wall. On top of everything else it's clear that Hutchings knew his art history.

As far as the people in the office go, I'm pretty sure that the owlish gentleman holding a copy of Playhour is meant to be a caricature of David Roberts himself. Here's a comparison with John Worsley's version of the Gulliver writer from when Wee Willie Winkie visited the Treasure offices:



- Phil Rushton