welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Showing posts with label Ken Reid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ken Reid. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART TEN: POLTERGEIST



The next serialised Faceache story by Ken Reid appeared in two consecutive issues of BUSTER cover-dated May 19th and 26th, 1979, and it went like this:


Mr. Snipe is terrified of the Belmonte Beastie, the famous invisible spook, which haunts the school’s stock room, and Faceache volunteers to get rid of it. 


The spook is impressed with Faceache’s ability to scrunge. Flattered, Faceache nevertheless tells him to scat so that the lad can claim his month off homework. The ghost vanishes and Faceache reports to Mr. Snipe that the little horror has departed from the school forever. But somewhere in the limbo the Belmonte Beastie meets his fellow-spooks, and invites them back to Belmonte school to see a genius kid who could teach them all a few tricks…


The Belmonte Beastie returns to school with some of his pals: 


Thinking that it’s now safe, Mr. Snipe enters the stock room and is pelted by invisible ghosts. Upon hearing the racket, Faceache rushes to the stock room, thinking that the spook has returned and he’ll have to scrunge again to scare it off. Mr. Snipe takes the scrunged Faceache for the spook that has become visible, and assaults him with a stick, threatening exorcism:


Seeing what scrunging may lead to, the ghosts leave the school stock room for good, not wanting any part of it...


Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

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.

Monday, April 1, 2019

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART NINE: PHOTOGRAPHY


The next serialised Faceache story by Ken Reid appeared in two consecutive issues of BUSTER cover-dated 28 April and 5 May, 1979 and it went like this:

The Headmaster starts a Belmonte school young photographer’s club. For the first project he wants his students to go out on the moors and photograph some of the most unusual forms of bird life that abound there. Faceache comes up with an idea to scrunge into a Stripe-breasted Tail-less Gruk and snap himself with the camera on automatic ... 



...but forgets to remove his photographer’s club badge and Mr. Snipe quickly spots the trick. 


The teacher instructs Faceache to photograph a genuine woodland bird and sneaks after him to make sure the boy doesn’t scrunge.  Faceache discards his badge and is about to scrunge into another unusual creature when he runs into a real monster-bird…


As it turns out, it is only an actor in padded make-up engaged in the making of a film entitled “The Bird-Beast of Blackfell Moor”.


Faceache prepares to take his picture for the project but Mr. Snipe thinks he has caught Faceache in the act of scrunging and assaults the actor with his cane. Faceache tries to warn the teacher that he is thrashing a big musclebound actor with an uncontrollable temper but it’s already too late, and the actor never accepts an apology... 


Faceache photographs Mr. Snipe in full flight from the actor’s blow – an unusual bird indeed.



Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

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.

Thursday, March 7, 2019

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART EIGHT: EXPERIMENT



It has been a while since I last did a post about serialised FACEACHE stories by Ken Reid, so here’s my synopsis of the next one. It continued over three weeks and can be found in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN issues cover-dated March 17, 24 and 31, 1979. Be warned - there’s quite a lot of scrunging going on in this one! :)

Simpkins Minor is trying to create a new form of life by mixing substances in the school lab. He squirts Faceache with some of his chemicals and Faceache pretends he has started to mutate into a new form of life:


Simpkins runs away from the nauseating beast. At the same time, the experiment appears to have produced a result, and a weird creature begins to emerge from the glass beaker… 


Terrified, Faceache rushes to inform the Headmaster that Simpkins’ chemical mixture has turned into something diabolical. He forgets to unscrunge and the Headmaster bashes him unconscious...


The Headmaster suddenly has an idea that he’d become famous if he can prove to the scientific world that a monstrosity like that could be produced by chemical reaction. The Headmaster goes to the lab to make a note of the formula and is attacked by the real monster…


Faceache regains his consciousness and rushes to the lab where he sees Mr. Thrashbottom being slowly swallowed by the monster. 


Faceache volunteers to save the Headmaster but asks for his permission to scrunge. Panic-stricken, Mr. Thrashbottom grants Faceache carte blanche to scrunge all he wants for as long as he wants any time...


The monster evaporates at the sight of Faceache’s next awful scrunge:


Faceache proceeds to have fun doing wild scrunges, while Mr. Thrashbottom wishes he’d been swallowed instead of granting his permission.


One can’t help noticing that the story echoes with the brilliant two-pager of Faceache by Ken Reid in BUSTER BOOK 1976. Here’s a taste:



Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd


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.


Monday, February 18, 2019

WEEKLY OUTPUT – KEN REID



In the beginning of 1974 Ken Reid’s weekly output would have normally been 4 pages. However, there are only 2 pages in IPC comics cover-dated March 30th 1974 – a Wanted Poster in Whoopee! and a page of Jimmy Jinks in Scorcher.

Under normal circumstances, the other two regular pages would have been Faceache in Buster, but the paper missed that week due to industrial action, and a Creepy Creation in Shiver and Shake, but poor health and family problems prevented Ken from drawing it for the issue with that date. 

Anyway, enjoy the pages from Whoopee! and Scorcher below:



The next four posts will cover the work of IPC's heavy duty drawing machines of the time...

Images are © Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd

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.