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.



Wednesday, December 4, 2013

ARTIST SELF-PORTRAITS (Part 8)



Next up is the self-portrait of Mike Brown that can be found in Frankie Stein Holiday Special 1977 in the one-off tale entitled The Curse of Dr. Jackal:


Mike Brown was one of the most convincing imitators of Leo Baxendale’s style and his work is often indistinguishable from Leo’s. His career in UK comics started in the mid-60s and (supposedly) reached the pinnacle a decade later when he illustrated a number of Badtime Bedtime Books in MONSTER FUN COMIC. The latest work I’ve seen by him was in the first year of Nutty (1980 – 1981) where he drew Dick Turban, Desert Highwayman.

I find it a bit strange that Mr. Brown included his self-portrait alongside with Frankie Stein – a character he’d never had anything to do with until then. Maybe he liked the friendly monster a lot… Anyway, here is the 4-page story in full:


5 comments:

  1. He was a fantastic artist and this is a fantasic example of his work. It's a shame he isn't more well-known.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Always nice to see artists "putting themselves into" their work - and this is, somehow, the first time I've ever seen a Badtime Bedtime Book, so it's a double bonus!

    During the 1980s and 1990s, Brian Walker was putting himself into his Smasher strips VERY occassionally. Something to keep an eye out for, I've collected at least three examples of it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, Brian Walker often included himself in SMASHER and I have quite a few examples lined up for one of the future posts in this series :)

      The Curse of Dr. Jackal looks a lot like a Badtime Bedtime Book but a classic BBB should be 8 pages long. You can view a complete example in my post about 1983 Shiver and Shake Annual, or if you have a copy of 1982 Shiver and Shake annual, it includes a reprint of a BBB from Monster Fun Comic (William the Conq).

      Delete
  3. A great series of posts!
    Love Mike Brown's jumper there.
    Obviously a proud member of The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain back in 77 :)
    http://www.thecartoonistsclub.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was wondering about that jumper...
      Stay tuned for more, I have 3 or 4 more like this lined up!

      Delete