ARTIST SELF-POTRAITS (Part 10)

Next up are two strips with self-portraits of Sid Burgon – one from WHIZZER AND CHIPS cover-dated 24th October, 1981, and one from THE DANDY No. 2550 cover-dated 6th October, 1990. The first example is very unusual for UK children’s humour comics because it credits the artist and the writer, American-style.

This set of Double Trouble from BUSTER dated 3rd November, 1990 includes a self-portrait of the most effective family duo in British comics – Terry and Sheila Bave:

As a matter of fact, this episode of Double Trouble is the first in a long sequence that lasted until approximately the middle of 1991 in which Terry Bave discretely included his self-portraits, sometimes together with his wife Sheila. Thanks to George Shiers for the tip! Here are some examples:

P.S. Here is a more recent image of the Baves. It is from Winker Watson strip in The Dandy of 2001. Thanks, THB, for the tip and the link!

ARTIST SELF-PORTRAITS (Part 9)

In the few photos of David Sutherland that I managed to find on the web he looks like a lean clean-shaven bloke, unlike the Beano Artist in these episodes of The Bash Street Kids and Biffo the Bear that I believe came from his brush. Has Mr. Sutherland lost some weight since then, or were they his caricatures of a “generic” Beano artist rather than his self-portraits? Can anyone shed some light on this?

This one is from The Beano No. 1236 dated 26th March, 1966:

This Biffo the Bear strip comes from The Beano No. 1924 cover-dated 2nd June, 1979:

And this beautiful set appeared in the Beano No. 1991 dated 13th September, 1980. The Beano artist here looks a lot like the one from issue No. 1236 shown above (note the beret, slippers on bare feet, artist’s gown and facial hair). I have cropped the episode into sets of panels for your viewing convenience:

While I am on the subject of Dave Sutherland and The Bash Street Kids, the episode in THE BEANO issue No. 2155 cover-dated 5th November, 1983 in which the Bash Street Kids visit Beano offices, includes a portrait of Little Plum artist (Ron Spencer ?):

P.S. I’ve just found this Beano from the late 60s. Dave Sutherland replaced Dudley Watkins as the illustrator of Biffo the Bear after the old master passed away in 1969, so The beano Artist on this particular cover must be Mr. Sutherland. Here he looks different from the examples shown above:

ARTIST SELF-PORTRAITS (Part 8)

Next up is the self-portrait of Mike Brown that can be found in Frankie Stein Holiday Special 1977 in the one-off tale entitled The Curse of Dr. Jackal:

Mike Brown was one of the most convincing imitators of Leo Baxendale’s style and his work is often indistinguishable from Leo’s. His career in UK comics started in the mid-60s and (supposedly) reached the pinnacle a decade later when he illustrated a number of Badtime Bedtime Books in MONSTER FUN COMIC. The latest work I’ve seen by him was in the first year of Nutty (1980 – 1981) where he drew Dick Turban, Desert Highwayman.

I find it a bit strange that Mr. Brown included his self-portrait alongside with Frankie Stein – a character he’d never had anything to do with until then. Maybe he liked the friendly monster a lot… Anyway, here is the 4-page story in full: