DAFT MARINERS OF CANALS AND THE HIGH SEAS

Nautical antics was one of Ken Reid’s favourite themes. The Queen of the Seas in SMASH! comic is a classic example considered by many to be his best work.

Interestingly, my mate and UK comics collector and researcher extraordinaire Peter Hansen has discovered that Ken’s inspiration for the pompous skipper Enoch Drip and his one-man-crew Bertram Bloop came from the 1964 British comedy film The Bargee by Duncan Wood.

The film is about two boatmen operating a commercial canal-boat. The main character is Hemel Pike (played by Harry H. Corbett) who is quite a bit of a lothario with girlfriends all across the canal network. As such, Hemel wasn’t suitable for a children’s paper, but his cousin Ronnie (played by Ronnie Barker) became the prototype for Ken’s Bertram Bloop:

.. while the character of the inept mariner (played by Eric Sykes) was the inspiration behind Queenie’s skipper:

Ken actually owned a boat and had quite a few comical adventures when sailing the canals. If you take a close look, Enoch Drip often looks like Ken’s self-portrait.

SIZE MATTERS?

During the long history of British comics the weekly magazines came in a variety of sizes but to the best of my knowledge THE BIG ONE gets the prize for being the biggest of them all at 37 x 55 cms, or 14.57 x 21.64 in, while Nipper, with its early issues measuring just 15 x 21 cms, or 5.9 x 8,27 in, is on the opposite side of the size-scale. 

Both experiments only managed short runs, which proves that size matters only as long as it is not one extreme or the other.

Below is a picture of the two oddities together to illustrate the contrast, followed by one where the pair is shown together with a copy of the familiar old newsprint Beano, to put the sizes into context.

 

MORE OF HORROR COMEDY FROM DCT COMICS!

Not only were DC Thomson never big on comedy horror, they also rarely offered cut-outs or pull outs. However, two consecutive issues in 1976 (Nos. 1802 and 1803) did have cut outs, and not just some ordinary cut outs but monster-themed ones!

The 4-weeks’ competition began in issue 1800 dated 22nd May, 1976. At first the challenge was to dress up Korky but then they changed the theme for some reason and offered readers a possibility to assemble some funny monsters.

All Images 2015 © DC Thomson, Ltd.  All rights reserved.

HORROR COMEDY IN DCT COMICS

Differently from IPC, DC Thomson were never big on the horror comedy genre in their comics but the first “new look” issue of Topper in 1980 came with a 4-page all-horror THE EERIE EXTRA middle section. I don’t know how long it continued because it is just one of the very few issues of the comic that I have.

Note this is a landmark issue of Topper – the first one in A4 size. 

All Images 2015 © DC Thomson, Ltd.  All rights reserved.