Comics UK

Posted: **22 Dec 2007, 19:48**

thanks for the info on TOM BANNISTER, kashgar,------I wonder just how many of those brilliant 'BEEZER/TOPPER' artists from the 60s and even earlier are still with us?

THE classic 'SUNDAY POST' 'FUN SECTION' era for me was the 1960s [I can remember the 2 MORLEY strips every bit as clearly as I can WATKIN'S work]------the most memorable 'BROONS' logo ever was the one that spanned the plates getting passed through all the family from the sink to the cupboard----------the contemporary 'WULLIE' logo, with our hero as a fence- bill-poster, and SOAPY and BOB peeking out from behind the fence has also, ----unaccountably--------failed to reappear yet in over a decade of annual WATKINS' reprints.

Posted: **23 Dec 2007, 13:05**

Kashgar wrote:Nosey Parker didn't originate in the Sunday Post in the 1940's, he was a popular strip character in the boy's paper Rover years before that just as, similarly, Nero and Zero began life in the boys' paper Wizard.
In the pre war years when the Fun Section ran to 8 pgs as well as it's three new strip pages Oor Wullie, the Broons and Auchentogle it was also chock full of reprints of strips, by the likes of Allan Morley (notice he spelt his christian name with two l's), that had first appeared in Thomson's 'Big Five' boy's papers. It was only during the war when the Fun Section was reduced to its best remembered format of four pages that the strip content became, and would remain so for 35 years, Oor Wullie, the Broons, Nosey Parker and Nero and Zero and that Morley began drawing new versions of his creations specifically for the paper.
The Nosey Parker strips that appeared in Sparky were definiely new and drawn, if memory serves, by Fred Sturrock, one of Thomsons most prolific staff artists on their boy's papers but here, rather stepping outside his comfort zone.
Tom Bannister, who thankfully is still with us, was one of Thomsons most eye-catching artists in his prime. Some of his strips in the early issues of Beezer in particular, with his wonderful use of 'dropped horizon', are just fantastic.

Thanks for the info re Nosey Parker. Very interesting re his beginnings.

Posted: **24 Dec 2007, 13:02**

Nosey Parker first appeared in Rover No 172 in 1925 and ran in that paper until No 1162 in 1947. He was on the cover for most of the war years.
Nero and Zero first appeared in Wizard in No 413 in 1930
Oh and I forgot to mention that after Fred Sturrock started the Nosey strip in Sparky he was eventually supeceded by artist Bill Hill.

Posted: **24 Dec 2007, 18:39**

I started buying the Sunday Post in 1974 when Morley strips were still running and it was four (folded) pages. I seem to remember Desperate Dan reprints appearing for a while. I still have all my Fun Sections going back to 1974. There are certain artists who's work IS DC Thomson and one of them is Tom Bannister.

Posted: **26 Dec 2007, 16:49**

Here's a scan of a page of original Morley art which i copied from Vault Auctions earlier this year:

[IMG

762]http://i15.tinypic.com/6p98tx0.jpg[/img]

Posted: **26 Dec 2007, 17:18**

This is a Frank Dickens piece from an ad that appeared in Family Circle magazine late 60s. How seasonal can you get?:

[IMG

1600]http://i14.tinypic.com/6jo982b.jpg[/img]

Posted: **26 Dec 2007, 18:36**

Brilliant to see this stuff, STEVE.........I really must get my scanner up-and-running, also-------it sure adds interest to these pages.

Though I loved 'SPARKY' especially as a kid [I read some '69 issues on Christmas day]-----the original MORLEY version of 'KEYHOLE KATE' is my favourite....his stuff at first glance looks all similar, but, paradoxically, the closer you look ,it changes enough to always remain amusing.

I also loved the simplicity of FRANK DICKEN'S style..............technical perfection has it's place [BAXENDALE, KEN REID], but it's often nice to see a simple, spontaneous style of cartooning.

Posted: **26 Dec 2007, 20:46**

The Keyhole Kate piece gives a nice demonstration of how D C Thomson used to add colour tones in crayon directly onto the original art. Presumably the B&W linework had already been shot for reproduction before these were added?

- Phil R.

Posted: **27 Dec 2007, 11:49**

Re adding colour to the original bw artwork. Some years ago I was asked to catalogue several hundred examples of Allan Morley's artwork which mostly featured Keyhole Kate. The ultimate gem of the collection was the discovery that it included the very first Keyhole Kate strip from Dandy No 1 in Dec 1937. Now this strip was originally printed in bw but in the early 1950's when it was reprinted it had red pencil added to it and this extra colour had been added directly to the original artwork for publication at this later date.

Posted: **28 Dec 2007, 17:08**

I've a notion that the red pencil doesn't show up in reproduction, same as blue pencil. Could be very wrong.

Posted: **28 Dec 2007, 21:05**

I recently saw a very early example of ALLAN MORLEY'S comics work, and it reminded me of material as far back as the U.S. HEARST SUNDAYS strip: 'the YELLOW KID': quite possibly the first-ever 'proper 'funnies' sequence of events that we recognize as the comic-strip that BRITAIN also learned a few tricks from.......

----------some of MORLEY'S early work consisted of a large, 'busy' panel [unrecognizable from his later 'SUNDAY POST' work]-----very untypically of meself, I have done a quick check, and I single out: 'CASEY COURT' from 'CHIPS' circa 1925] in which he packed as much incidental and detailed work as did LEO BAXENDALE in his much-later 'BANANA BUNCH' expositions....again, this follows on from 'GILES'.

----------ALLAN MORLEY, to me mirrors much of his contemporary comic-strip artist, ---REG PARLETT, ----inasmuch as they both started off 'aping' then-contemporary comic-strip trends early on,---and both went on to evolve their own, unique, 'simple' [until YOU try it!]---styles.

Posted: **29 Dec 2007, 18:34**

Not quite related, but if anybody has that "historical headlines" box of reproduction Daily Mirror's (with cynical and insulting Time computer ads chucked in) the Queen's jubilee issue is fascinating reading... there's more comic strips in it than in some modern "comics". And they're all spread out around the paper, possibly a ploy to get kids who only read it for the comics to be forced to learn something about current affairs too

Posted: **29 Dec 2007, 18:54**

felneymike wrote:Not quite related, but if anybody has that "historical headlines" box of reproduction Daily Mirror's (with cynical and insulting Time computer ads chucked in) the Queen's jubilee issue is fascinating reading... there's more comic strips in it than in some modern "comics". And they're all spread out around the paper, possibly a ploy to get kids who only read it for the comics to be forced to learn something about current affairs too

Ah, the days when the Daily Mirror truly respected their strips. Not sure they expected kids to be drawn into the paper though. The strips and cartoons were mainly aimed at adults.

The war editions of the Mirror only had eight pages, - one of which was packed with comic strips (plus other strips on other pages). Such was the high regard the editors then had for their strips.

Lew

Posted: **29 Dec 2007, 21:02**

Lew Stringer wrote:The strips and cartoons were mainly aimed at adults.

Of course there was always the weekly Junior Mirror containing strips like 'Flash the Wonder Dog'.

- Phil R.

Posted: **01 Jan 2008, 15:12**

A couple of years back, the 'MIRROR' reproduced a 1945 V.E. DAY issue, which I kept [in retrospect, it must have been in 2005, the 50th anniversary]----and their comics pages back in this era were superior, also.

-----as far as I remember, WWII morale-booster 'JANE' by Norman Pett also appeared in the 'MIRROR'. They tried to flog this strip to US syndicate KING FEATURES, but they passed on it, due to the percieved risibility of the strip [occasional nudity, which typical soldiers surely would have loved]----------as far as I can gather, very little frames of an all-nude JANE appeared, but it appears the nude frames are reprinted so often, the impression is of a fairly raunchy panel set.

---WARNER BROS animation also did a series for US soldiers, 'SNAFU', which was also more 'adult' and went down well with it's target audience.....

-----I always felt it was ironic that JANE'S pet dog, FRITZI, was a very GERMAN daschund.........on the other hand, HITLER apparantly adopted a stray ENGLISH dog during the trench-warfare of WWI.

Comics UK

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

Re: mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

Re: mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

Re: mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....

mini-comic gems: early 70s newspaper strips.....