GERMAN CHEWING GUM WRAPPER INSERTS

Regular readers may know I had limited exposure to comics where I lived when I was a kid. Chewing gum wrapper inserts were among the very few sources (provided we managed to get hold of some chewing gum – it was scarce here then…). 

The other day I was looking through my old stuff and found a small collection that I put together back in the day. There are quite a few that came with Donald Duck chewing gum but I remember that my favourite ones were those offered by some German brands. One was Fix und Foxi Bubble Gum with Fix und Foxi inserts; Big Babaloo, with Otto und Alwin was the other one.

I did a quick online search and it turns out Fix und Foxi, created and illustrated by Rolf Kauka, used to be really big in West Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Otto und Alwin by Jürgen Günther were a different story. In fact, I was quite surprised to find out that Big Babaloo was made in West Germany because Otto and Alwin (the characters featured on the inserts) were from FRÖSI – children's magazine published in the communist East Germany. Check out some examples of both strips below. I remember trying to copy the drawings and found Otto und Alwin to be way more difficult than Fix und Foxi.

 

Driven by nostalgia, I recently bought some FRÖSI’s and will probably do a post about them here sometime soon. 

I was also impressed to learn that an enthusiast of East German comics published several collections of strips from FRÖSI, and I bought those of Otto und Alwin that I could get hold of – the print runs of 300 copies sold really quickly. I have a soft spot for reprint collections and will probably show the German books here at some point in the future.

I am curious if comic strips inserts were offered by chewing gum manufacturers in the UK?

WHO DREW THESE?

This time I would like to ask for some assistance of those of my readers who have a sharp eye for recognising artists’ styles. Any suggestions as to who may have drawn the 6 pages shown below? Thanks!

ORIGINAL ARTWORK BY PHILIP MENDOZA

Browsing eBay, I came across those two nice pieces of original artwork by one of my favourite British comics artists Philip Mendoza. I believe the drawings appeared in Once Upon a Time children’s magazine. I don’t plan to buy them but they are really beautiful so I though I might show the images here for my readers to enjoy.

WHO WAS BILL SWALLOW?

In my previous post I asked if my learned readers might have any ideas as to the identity of the Odhams employee by the name of ‘SWALLOW’ who wrote the letter to Ken Reid that I showed.  

As it happens, I had an answer all along... I was checking my notes for something else the other day and found out that Ken had identified Bill Swallow as Editor of POW! in his diary.

I am aware that Alf and Bart were the official “spokespersons” for the Power Comics in the letters section and signed their replies to readers' questions. I also know that the Power Pack Index by Steve Holland says that the editor of the paper was Albert Cosser.

Ken’s notes, however, clearly suggest that POW! editor was Bill Swallow, and mention at least one phone call from the man with instructions regarding Dare-A-Day Davy strip.

I ran a search for the name in the context of Odhams comics but Google returned no relevant hits. I also checked the Dictionary of British Comics Artists, Writers and Editors by Alan Clark, and there’s no mention of Bill Swallow there either. Was he perhaps a sub-editor in charge of POW! humour strips? Or maybe he was in fact the editor who chose (or was instructed) to remain anonymous because differently from the letters section, News from the Floor of 64 (the editorial column) went unsigned (I did check my copies of POW!).

LETTER BY ODHAMS EMPLOYEE TO KEN REID

Ken Reid must have enjoyed himself when he worked for Odhams drawing Frankie Stein, Dare-A-Day Davy, Queen of the Seas, etc. because it looks like at least some of the staff were just as potty as he was and shared his sense of humour. This is demonstrated by the letter below that Ken received from someone at 69 Long Acre, London in the late 60s. 

I am not sure who the author was because I’ve only seen the first page, unsigned. Any ideas as to who may have written it? It says “My name is Swallow, not Splutt”… at the bottom of the page, and it appears that the person was then in charge of POW! comic.