Time for Part
Three of Frankie Stein’s Christmases that covers the period from the late 70s
till the middle 80s.
When interviewed
by Alan Clark for GOLDEN FUN No. 12, Mr. Nixon remembered how he really used to put a
lot of work into his early sets and enjoyed it. The interview took place in the
early 80s and he admitted he didn’t go into that kind of trouble anymore. “Quite
honestly, it doesn’t pay” – said Mr. Nixon. He went on to say that the he would
work on an early page for twice as long as a ‘normal’ page and therefore did
half the amount of work and halved his income – which he just couldn’t afford
to do with a family to support. Fair enough.
As I said in the previous post, this is my least favourite period
of the strip but I have no doubt that many people for whom those years were “their time”
of reading the comic would argue it was the best version of Frankie ever…
1978:
1979:
1980:
Bob Nixon must
have been very busy in the early 80s because he had no time to draw new Christmas sets of Frankie
Stein. The episodes included in the Christmas
editions of Whoopee! in 1981 and
1982 were reprints of the original sets printed in 1975 and 1976 (you can
view them in the previous post HERE).
However, here’s the cover of 1981 edition of Monster Fun Comic Annual with Frankie and Santa, so it qualifies to be included in this series. I don’t know who drew it:
The cover of GOLDEN FUN Winter 1981 Grand Christmas Number (No. 12) also falls into the category of Frankie Stein's Christmases:
Normal service resumed in 1983 but the episode was just one page long:
1984 X-mas
edition of Whoopee! was the last
festive number because by the Holiday Season of 1985 the paper was no more. Bob
Nixon contributed the cover and a new episode of Frankie Stein:
Brian
Walker occasionally stepped in for Bob Nixon as illustrator of Frankie
Stein in WHOOPEE! He didn’t draw any Christmas episodes in the weeklies but here’s
a nice example from SHIVER & SHAKE Annual 1986:
Even Robert Nixon's simpler style was more effective than a lot of artists' attempts at more detailed work 'though, don't you think? (On their own strips, I mean.) The only characters who RT's style didn't seem to suit was Oor Wullie and The Broons in The Sunday Post. (Ken Harrison's the only artist to do justice to them since Dudley Dexter Watkins passed away, in my opinion.)
ReplyDeleteI like Bob Nixon's early version of Frankie but I think Frank McDiarmid would have done an even better job, had he been commissioned as the main artist. His few sets in Shiver and Shake weeklies were brilliant and close to Ken Reid's version, IMHO.
DeleteI am not familiar with Nixon's work in The Sunday Post...
DeleteI can see what you're saying...But they are still good...I love the way in the later period how he played around with panels..the early 80's..
ReplyDeleteOf course it is striking the differences...reading in the 80's I didn't know any better..
-Brian Walker sure did a good job and in the mid 80's..
ReplyDeleteI can see what you mean...
Hope Santa was good to you, Irmantas, Merry Christmas.
ReplyDelete(There's an example of Bob Nixon's Sunday Post work on my blog somewhere. If you type in 'Calling Chris B...' in the Blogger search box in the top left-hand corner of the page, it should hopefully take you right to it.)