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.



Saturday, May 4, 2013

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: DAMSEL IN DISTRESS


Turning the page, we enter the zone of a few not-so-interesting strips that occupied the remaining pages of SHAKE section in the first issue of the magazine, and Damsel in Distress is first in line. There is nothing really wrong with them, it’s just that they are a little bit too traditional for my taste :) 

As the title suggests, the feature exploited the theme of a Fair Maiden imprisoned in a high tower surrounded by a deep moat, and her wannabe rescuer noble Sir Knight whose rescuing schemes always failed and sent him ‘back to ye drawing board’. The Knight’s nagging steed was the third recurring character who didn’t think much of his master’s ‘stupid efforts’ to save ‘that wailing woman’. 


Damsel in Distress started in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 1 and continued until the first issue of 1974 (No. 44). The regular illustrator was Trevor Metcalfe who appears to have taken a few weeks’ break in the Autumn of 1973 when the strip was either not included at all or drawn by other artists who I think were Les Barton, Terry Bave and Robert Nixon. It is difficult to tell for sure because illustrations in the episodes are rather basic (mostly buildings, trees and a bloke in a coat of armour – nothing much to go by). The strip missed 7 weeks during its run and was not included in issues 21, 24, 29, 31, 33, 34 and 36. 


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: MATCH OF THE WEEK



Moving slowly but surely, I have now arrived at the middle pages of the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE and the centrespread was allocated to Match of the Week. Every week two very strange teams would meet on the pitch and wreak havoc on each other, breaking rules and using all sorts of tricks to subdue the opponents. More often than not the outcome was the abandoning of the game.

Mike Lacey was the artist who contributed the absolute majority of weekly sets. Other illustrators of Match of the Week were Leo Baxendale, Les Barton and two (rather amateur) artists whose names I don’t know. Tom Paterson (who apparently was just starting doing work for IPC in his early rough style that he used before he began imitating Leo Baxendale) did three sets in issues 10, 37 and 42. Check out one example in the list below.

In his book A VERY FUNNY BUSINESS Leo Baxedale recalls he drew two sets of Match of the Week – the very first one that he said he had done back in 1972, and then Ghosts vs Humans, before refusing “point blank” to draw any more. He did, however, continue writing scripts for other artists to draw but surrendered writer’s duties two and a half months later.

New teams came and went every week so obviously the strip had no regular and recurring characters, except maybe the referee. Below is the list of the fixtures illustrated by the odd complete episode. Names of the illustrators other than Mike Lacey are marked next to the relevant episodes.

Issue No. 1 March 10th, 1973 Cowboys versus Injuns. Contrary to what Mr. Baxendale says in his book, the first episode was actually drawn by Mike Lacey, and the set that Mr. Baxendale remembers drawing in 1972 must have been the one that appeared in the second issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE.
Issue No. 2 March 17th, 1973 Cops versus Robbers, Leo Baxendale:

 
Issue No. 3 March 24th, 1973 Teachers versus School kids
Issue No. 4 March 31st, 1973 Sheriff's XI versus Robin’s Team
Issue No. 5 April 7th, 1973 Ghosts versus Humans, Leo Baxendale:


Issue No. 6 April 14th, 1973 Shiver versus Shake, with the artist’s self-portrait
Issue No. 7 April 21st, 1973 Eggs versus Chicks
Issue No. 8 April 28th, 1973 Convicts versus Wardens
Issue No. 9 May 5th, 1973 Navy versus Pirates
Issue No. 10 May 12th, 1973 Cavemen versus Dinosaurs, Tom Paterson
Issue No. 11 May 19th, 1973 Snow White versus The Bad Witch, unknown artist
Issue No. 12 May 26th, 1973 Spies versus British Agents:


Issue No. 13 June 2nd, 1973 Foreign Legion versus Sheikh’s XI, unknown artist
Issue No. 14 June 9th, 1973 Britons vs Romans
Issue No. 15 June 16th, 1973 German Army vs Resistance
Issue No. 16 June 23rd, 1973 Twits vs Brainies
Issue No. 17 June 30th, 1973 Roundheads vs Cavaliers
Issue No. 18 July 7th, 1973 British Navy vs German U-Boats
Issue No. 19 July 14th, 1973 Aristocrats vs Peasants
Issue No. 20 July 21st, 1973 Shiver and Shake Land Yacht Race
Issue No. 21 July 28th, 1973 Clowns XI vs Circus
Issue No. 22 August 4th, 1973 Highlanders vs Red Coats
Issue No. 23 August 11st, 1973 Doctors vs Patients
Issue No. 24 August 18th, 1973 Moonmen vs Spacemen
Issue No. 25 August 25th, 1973 Wizards and Witches
Issue No. 26 September 1st, 1973 Sweepers vs Litter Louts
Issue No. 27 September 8th, 1973 Pop Stars vs Orchestra XI
Issue No. 28 September 15th, 1973 Inventors vs Mad Scientists, Frankie Stein and Prof. Cube make a guest appearance:


Issue No. 29 September 22nd, 1973 Mounties vs Trappers, Les Barton
Issue No. 30 September 29th, 1973 City Gents vs Labourers
Issue No. 31 October 6th, 1973 Mountaineers vs Yetis
Issue No. 32 October 13rd, 1973 Knights vs Dragons
Issue No. 33 October 20th, 1973 British vs Foreign Dancers
Issue No. 34 October 27th, 1973 Explorers vs Jungle Plants:


Issue No. 35 November 3rd, 1973 Motorists vs Pedestrians
Issue No. 36 November 10th, 1973 Artists vs Photographers
Issue No. 37 November 17th, 1973 Mothers vs Fathers, Tom Paterson
Issue No. 38 November 24th, 1973 Authors vs Artists
Issue No. 39 December 1st, 1973 Toddlers vs Old Folk
Issue No. 40 December 8th, 1973 Colditz Guards vs P.O.W.
Issue No. 41 December 15th, 1973 Zoo Keepers vs Zoo Animals
Issue No. 42 December 22nd, 1973 Fatties vs Thinnies, Tom Paterson:


Issue No. 43 December 29th, 1973 Carol Singers vs Party Goers
Issue No. 44 January 5th, 1974 Father Tyme vs New Year Babies
Issue No. 45 January 12th, 1974 Farmers vs Animals
Issue No. 46 January 19th, 1974 Shop Staff vs Customers
Issue No. 47 January 26th, 1974 Bus Drivers vs Conductors
Issue No. 48 February 2nd, 1974 Airmen vs Seamen
Issue No. 49 February 9th, 1974 Radio vs TV Team:


Issue No. 50 February 16th, 1974 Eskimos vs Arctic XI
Issue No. 51 February 23rd, 1974 Inventions and Creations (starring Creepy Creations characters)
Issue No. 52 March 2nd, 1974 Ref's vs Spectators


Match of the Week (Divers versus Deep Sea Creatures) appeared in the Star Guest feature in COR!! No. 181 (17th November, 1973). Illustrator unknown.

It was not all about football. In issues 15 to 20 the writer experimented with other sports such as high jump, tennis, cricket, water polo, polo and even land yacht racing but then reverted back to football. Here are some random non-football panels: 


Match of the Week started in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE. It lasted until issue 52 without missing a single week and was always on the centrespread. You can view a few more complete episodes by checking out three old posts in my Football series from last summer, the links are here, here and here.

I will finish with the last panel of the final episode. As it rightly says, the match between spectators and referees was probably the closest to a ‘normal’ game throughout the entire run of 52-weeks.