Thursday, June 27, 2019

FIRST GULLIVER GUINEA-PIG STORY BY GORDON HUTCHINGS



It's been a while since I last showed something of Playhour’s Gulliver Guinea-Pig

I recently received an email from a reader who is the proud owner of the original artwork for the first Gulliver story by Gordon Hutchings after he took over from Philip Mendoza who was in charge of the strip since it began in May 1958. 

Hutching’s first story, called Gulliver Guinea-Pig and the Rainbow Folk, ran in the 4 consecutive issues of Playhour in January and February 1961, and was so nicely drawn that I decided to show it in full. Here are the first 4 pages, the rest will follow soon. Click to enlarge and enjoy!





Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.

4 comments:

  1. Really good stories and art...love that sunset and look forward to reading more...

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  2. Only just discovered your blog...I’m a huge Gulliver Guinea Pig fan and have been since the late fifties/early sixties when we first got Playhour... This ‘colour’ story was one of my absolute favourites... and I’m thrilled I now (only just last week) own some of the original Gordon Hutchings artwork from that story - so brilliant in conception and so incredibly fine in realisation (as well as a single larger gouache of Gulliver with a gypsy caravan by Philip Mendoza)...anyway I wanted to egg you on that you’re doing wonderful work in detailing more about Gulliver and his artists...I’d love to see and know more about the history, artists, working methods etc etc of the Gulliver stories... and to hear from fellow fans around the world (I’m in Australia)
    You’re doing a wonderful job - many of these stories and images I’ve carried through life... in an inspiring way - the storyline of Gulliver becoming successful in a series of jobs and circumstances where he triumphed over adversity through pluck and imagination (falling through the rotting floorboards of the failing farm to discover his fortune with the mushrooms growing there)(being a fashion designer and creating puff skirts so big you could serve tea on them)... etc etc
    Wonderful inspiration for all of us....

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    Replies
    1. Interested to know WHERE in Australia you live, Bill. I’m in Margate, Queensland.

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  3. Rainbow Folk ran in the 4 consecutive issues of Playhour in January and February 1961.

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