Comics UK

I am currently trying to get a full run of Hoot.
I thought it would be interesting to write about my progress here.

Issues I currently have:
4-11,16,17,42-53 plus the first 4 Dandy and Hoot comics.

Why a full run of Hoot?
It was the last of DC Thomsons' humour anthology comics which wasnt a spinoff (so that rules out the BeanoMAX) or full reprint (rules out Classics from the Comics). It is also comparatively recent so goes for cheaper on ebay and has a lower number of issues (53) then all other of DC Thomsons humour comics.

Help identifying artists:
The following is a list of the main strips in the comic and who I think their artists are corrections and fill in missing artists would be quite helpful.
Cuddles - Barrie Appleby
The Hoot Squad - Ken Harrison
Wanta job Bob - Steve Bright
Polar Blair - Robert Nixon
Sam's secret diary - Jerry Swaffield
L Plated Ella - Robert Nixon
Dogsbody - John Geering
Piggles - Barrie Appleby
Snackula - David Mostyn
Charli - Jim Petrie
SuperFran - Steve Bright
Spotted Dick - Barrie Appleby

What I like about Hoot:
My favourite strip so far in Hoot is easily The Hoot Squad. Not only is Ken Harrison a brilliant artist but I love these busy scenes which the Hoot Squad consists of entirely.
Other interesting strips include L Plated Ella mainly because of it's odd format with an L shaped comic strip with a large cartoon in the remaining space.
Piggles with it's simply odd setting it's set in WW2, with fighter pilots, numerous silly german stereotypes, and the main character is a useless pilot who also happens to be a pig. It reminds me of Baron Von Reichs Pudding in Sparky but with a pig and the main character being British rather than German.
Sam's secret Diary is a nice twist to the naughty child getting told off by his parent's format with the child taking the role of parent and the parents taking the role of the naughty children.
Spotted Dick is also a favourite of mine mainly for the odd diagnoses labelled on the beds in the hospital. The strip is about a very spotty boy and his adventures in hospital his battles with a nurse seems to be the main thing going on this strip.
Snackula is another nice strip mainly for it's David Mostyn artwork. The strip is basically a creepy twist on the Dandy's (and Sparky's and Topper's) Hungry Horace.
Also issue 11 (the pantomime issue after the christmas special) is currently a favourite issue of mine this issue features just one long story seemingly by a variety of artists. It's nice to see all the characters from the main strips (except Charli for some unknown reason) interacting without losing any of their character.

What I don't like about Hoot:
The short mini-strips which feature classic characters from other DC Thomson comics. Most of these aren't very funny and the characters often look odd in this strip. An example of their unfunnyness is one Dennis the Menace strip which ended with the punchline when have you ever heard of a menace wearing up and down stripes this unsurprisingly accompanies a picture of Dennis wearing his classic Jersey with Vertical stripes instead of Horizontal ones. Also does anyone know what comic Tarzan Strips or Jay R were from or were they made up for this section. Another odd thing in these strips is the writers can't decide where Desperate Dan lives whether he lives in Hootville (the comic's setting and supposedly the home of The Three Bears as well) or Cactusville. The best thing about these mini-strips was how they featured in the pantomime issue with a whole large picture of classic DC Thomson characters in planes alongside piggles charging at a witch (L Plated Ella) but then disappointingly they are made to disappear by Ella/Witch as soon as they appear.
Another thing which I think I don't like is in the Dogsbody strip (it's about a boy who sometimes turns into a dog) the way Dogsbody's dad treats Dogsbody (the kid is called Sid Kettle but I like to refer to him with the strip's name) it's blatent child abuse its not even slippering like in older Beano strips but kicking him, forcing him to change into a dog and frequent verbal abuse. This sort of cartoon violence works in a cat vs dog (puss n boots) kind of way but if the cat and dog are replaced with a boy and his dad it becomes a bit dodgy.

After googling Polar Blair it seems that Robert Nixon was the artist (according to Peter Gray's excellent Blog) this is interesting because he also drew Kid Kong for Monster Fun and Polar Blair and Kid Kong are two strips with a very similiar premise.

Spotted Dick is another one by Barrie Appleby I believe, and it survived the Dandy merger.

Thankyou Digifiend I will update my list, I thought it might be by Barrie Appleby but I didnt want to write it down as I find it hard to tell between the artwork of Barrie Appleby and Steve Bright.

I also think Piggles and Sam's Secret Diary is probably by one of those two.

EDIT: I think i can now spot the difference between the two Barrie Appleby uses more background gags whilst Steve Brights style is more similar to John Geerings.

I think I might have a complete set of Hoot. I know I bought several copies of issue 1 and maybe a couple each of issues 2 and 3. I'll look for them tomorrow.

Tin Can Tommy wrote:does anyone know what comic Tarzan Strips or Jay R were from or were they made up for this section.

Jay R. (Hood) originally appeared in Nutty.

his strip's byline in his masthead read: "Jay R. Hood, He's anything but Good"

I bought the very first copy of HOOT! I seem to remember the very first issue had a cool BMX-styled bike on offer as a prize for a lucky reader-------Cuddles himself was seen cycling the prize attraction, possibly on page one------but maybe it was on an inside page.


I personally felt short-changed by HOOT!----it never had many pages, I remember, and for the first and last time this felt like less-than-good-value from the previously reliable Thomson publishing empire.

blaing wrote:

Tin Can Tommy wrote:does anyone know what comic Tarzan Strips or Jay R were from or were they made up for this section.

Jay R. (Hood) originally appeared in Nutty.

his strip's byline in his masthead read: "Jay R. Hood, He's anything but Good"

Not 100% sure but the artist could be George Martin.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I bought the very first copy of HOOT! I seem to remember the very first issue had a cool BMX-styled bike on offer as a prize for a lucky reader-------Cuddles himself was seen cycling the prize attraction, possibly on page one------but maybe it was on an inside page.


I personally felt short-changed by HOOT!----it never had many pages, I remember, and for the first and last time this felt like less-than-good-value from the previously reliable Thomson publishing empire.

Front cover #1 from the Comics UK gallery.

After reading the comic's final twelve issues last night, I have some more musings on Hoot.

Somewhere between issue 17 and 42 (the big gap of issues I dont have) (Edit:It's actually issue 34) a cat is introduced to the Dogsbody strip. This really improved Dogsbody somewhat and in strips involving the cat the strip becomes very similiar to Puss n Boots. But with one little twist that the cat seems to always violently force Dogsbody to change into a dog first. Puss n Boots is one of my favourite comic strips. Well when Dogsbody goes down the Puss n Boots direction in my view it becomes one of the Better strips in Hoot.

Something which I found particularly anachronistic in Hoot is some of the jokes in the mini strips especially in Tarzan Stripes. The jokes I am referring to involve cannibals, which could work in some occassions, who are depicted as caricatured black africans. This is something which I thought had died in the 1940s. But racist caricatures in 1986! It seems all these mini strips are drawn by the same artist anyone know who this artist was? I really dont recognise the style.

Here's an example of these mini strips (I have the comic this is from but these images are from http://britishcomicsblog.blogspot.com/2 ... -eggo.html)


My third and final musing. Hoot's character roster is pretty stagnant with the same strips appear (from the issues i have) to remain near constant throughout the comic's run (except for the min-strips but they are the comic's low point but at least the character's used change pretty much every issue). The same characters feature pretty much throughout every issue until finally there is a new strip in issue 50 (too late I must say the comic ended a few weeks after this) with Harry and William. After this introduction three other new strips are introduced but all only last for one issue except one Winston (a surprisingly progressive strip about a black amateur footballer, even though you never see him play, compared to the racist caricatures prevalent in Tarzan Stripes) which appears twice.

EDIT: Anyone know what comics Flip n Flop, King Gussie or Julius Cheeser were from?

King Gussie and Julius Cheeser were half page strips in the Topper usually on the same page.

After reading the first four issues of Dandy and Hoot. It seems the mini strips reappear in that comic as well seemingly by the same artist but now the mini strips are mainly of dandy characters and some Topper ones as well with no mini strips based on Beano strips at all.

Also there was an advert in the final issues of hoot for something called Super Mags. From the advert it seems there were three different super mags they are Super Mags comic, Super Mags for boys and Super Mags for girls. Google gives me nothing except a fileshare of the same Super Mags comic featured in the advert and an ebay sale of the same Super Mags for boys which is advertised. This makes me think they didnt last very long possibly only had one issue.
So anyone know anything about Super Mags?

Tin Can Tommy wrote: It seems all these mini strips are drawn by the same artist anyone know who this artist was? I really dont recognise the style.

They're by George Martin who did Send for Kelly in The Topper, Greedy Pigg in The Dandy and many other strips.

Looking thru the George Martin strips so kindly furnished by Tommo above, it is apparant that the strips and artwork put forth looks more cramped and crushed as compared to his previous work-----am I right in saying that the more scaled-down [apparant A3 size for a complete standard comic page] arrived with NUTTY from early 1980 onwards?

I first noticed the corner-cutting methods within UK comics upon inspection of NUTTY around 1981----maybe it was a way to cut corners in comics production---maybe I'm wrong on this.

However, George Martin's artwork may look a bit cramped in the above examples in comparison to his finest stuff, but he done an absolute sterling job in adapting to the restrictive practises of this 'new breed'.

Super mags were glossy A4 comics with full colour throughout - I had the first issues of each title but sold them on ebay last year.

Snackula ironically was by the Snack-man Whoopee artist Nick Baker.also drew Strange Hill school in The Dandy etc..

Steve Bright drew the whole of Hoot for the pantomine issue even Hoot Squad...which show how brilliant steve is at ghosting But still his own work at the same time...

Harry and William is by George martin as well