Over the years, certain sports received considerably more
attention in British comics than others. I am referring to football (of course!), cricket, motor sports, boxing and tennis. In addition to being
“traditional” popular British sports that were very much part of the daily
lives of many kids, they had strong comedy potential that could be exploited
in comics.
Cricket and motor sports are not part of the Olympic Games, so I will leave them out. Football has already been covered extensively last month but I found one or two interesting examples and will probably include them in later posts. Tennis can also wait a bit. Today’s post is all about BOXING, and there is certainly no shortage of strips with the boxing theme.
Cricket and motor sports are not part of the Olympic Games, so I will leave them out. Football has already been covered extensively last month but I found one or two interesting examples and will probably include them in later posts. Tennis can also wait a bit. Today’s post is all about BOXING, and there is certainly no shortage of strips with the boxing theme.
Here are some from BEEZER by Leo Baxendale:
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| From BEEZER No. 24 dated June 30th, 1956 |
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| From BEEZER No. 324 dated March 31st, 1962 |
Leo Baxendale is said to have signed all of his work for WHAM! so
it is safe to assume that any unsigned instalments were by other artists:
And here are some examples by Ken Reid from two different periods of his career:
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| From THE BEANO No. 754 dated December 29th, 1956 |
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| From THE BEANO No. 778 dated June 15th, 1957 |
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| From POW! No. 33 dated September 2nd, 1967 |
Astonishing to see Marvel's Nick Fury turning up in that last strip. However I can't quite make up my mind if that's 100% Ken or whether somebody else pitched in to provide a suitably 'heroic' likeness (as occasionally happened with Leo Baxendale's strips).
ReplyDelete- Phil Rushton
It’s hard to tell, but since Ken spent four years at Salford Art School in Manchester and received formal art education, he could have easily drawn Nick Fury in that strip himself.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, Leo Baxendale was entirely a self-taught artist specialised in his own distinctive style and therefore had to use the assistance of his colleagues with some of his ‘Wham!’ strips (several panels of ‘Danny Dare’ strip and the gorgeous secret agent Kinky Boots from ‘Eagle-Eye Junior Spy’ come to mind. Were there more?)
I loved the Wham! pages! I'd really like to get some of the early issues, but I just can't find any for a decent price!
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying the posts! Keep 'em coming!