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.

WEEKLY OUTPUT – GRAHAM ALLEN

A look at IPC comics cover-dated March 30th 1974 tells us Graham Allen was also quite busy at the time. His output that week amounted to 4 pages – 2 of Fiends and Neighbours in COR!!, plus 2 of Spy School in Whoopee!

The next post will cover Ken Reid's work in the comics cover-dated March 30th 1974, before we move on to the heavyweights...

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.

WEEKLY OUTPUT – BRIAN WALKER

In this second part of the series covering the weekly output of humour comics artists as reflected in the various IPC comics cover-dated 30 March, 1974, let’s take a look at the pages by the excellent and inimitable Brian Walker. He drew a total of five pages – three can be found in Whoopee! (The Ghost Train) and two in Shiver and Shake (Scream Inn). 

Graham Allen is next in line!

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.

WEEKLY OUTPUT – FRANK MCDIARMID

After my previous post about the weekly output of Leo Baxendale I thought it would be fun to check how many pages other humour comics artists were producing in the space of one week. I picked a random week of 1974 (March 30th) and pulled all IPC comics with that date – COR!!, Whoopee!, Whizzer and Chips, Shiver & Shake and Valiant. I was disappointed to discover that Buster didn’t come out that week, probably because of a strike. I looked for pages by Mike Lacey, Brian Walker, Frank McDiarmid, Terry Bave, Robert Nixon, Graham Allen and Reg Parlett. It turns out all were at least as productive as Leo Baxendale, while some of them proved to be real drawing machines and surpassed Leo quite considerably!

I will share my findings in the next few blogposts. I’ll start with Frank McDiarmid. He only managed 3 pages that week – a page of Lunchin’ Vulture in Whoopee! and two beautiful pages of The Gasworks Gang in COR!! I am sure he became a lot more productive later on when IPC put him in charge of Cheeky Weekly, but this series is a snapshot of the state of affairs in March 1974. Come back soon to see Brian Walker’s weekly output!

 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.

LEO BAXENDALE'S WEEKLY OUTPUT IN 1956

In the process of posting images of landmark episodes of When the Bell Rings and The Bash Street Kids by Leo Baxendale elsewhere on the web recently, and leafing thought the respective issues of DC Thomson’s comics in my collection, I realized how extraordinarily productive the young Leo was in the mid-50s. At that that point his weekly output amounted to a full page of When The Bell Rings, a half-page of Minnie the Minx, a half-page of Little Plum for THE BEANO, and one full page of The Banana Bunch for THE BEEZER on top of that!

Here are images of all the strips by Leo Baxendale from The Beano and The Beezer, both cover cover-dated February 11th 1956. Assuming that he drew all the pages in just one week, the man is unbeatable!