Riddle-me Ray was a
super riddler who claimed he could solve any riddle in the World! The problems that he occupied himself with were often rather strange
and he solved them in his own unique
ways, usually involving word-play.
Riddle-me
Ray was another feature where readers could win cash prizes, this
time by supplying a riddle to beat Riddle-me-Ray. It’s difficult to tell for
sure, but it looks like the response to the challenge wasn’t overwhelming
because the first time that the contributor was credited was in the 14th
episode (in issue No. 70 cover-dated August 3rd, 1974). During the first weeks
the writer came up with some clever riddles and solutions, such as When is a department store like a boat?
- When
it has sales, or What month of
the year does a soldier hate the most? - A long march, or my
favourite one - How can a hunter in the
woods find his lost hound? - By putting an ear to the tree and listening
to the bark. The majority of the ideas sent by readers were admittedly
rather weak, such as What has a tongue
but can’t talk? - A
shoe, or What language does nobody
understand? - Baby language, although I
did like this one:
The feature
was launched in issue 57 (April 6th, 1974) and ran until the last issue (No. 79
dated October 5th, 1974), missing one week in the process (there was no Riddle-me
Ray in Shiver and Shake No.
75). The strip didn’t make it to the combined WHOOPEE AND SHIVER AND SHAKE. The
first episode was one and a half pages long and all the subsequent ones were
one-pagers. The illustrator was Mike Lacey who was substituted by someone else
on two occasions in issues 73 and 75. Mike Lacey drew his self-portrait in the
episode that appeared in issue 63 (May 18th, 1974):
Great seeing the artist in the story...
ReplyDeleteFound out just yesterday in the British Library that Ray originated in S&S; clearly remember seeing the first four strips in the 1980 Jackpot Annual, observing they’d come from elsewhere, but not knowing where. The clouds of ignorance are now parted!
ReplyDelete