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.
I'd really like to see the rest of that letter, Irmy. (I'm sure you would too.) In answer to your query, Alf Wallace oversaw all the Power Comics, but Bob Bartholomew was the day-to-day editor of Pow! Pow merged with Smash! in 1968, so the letter is obviously from before that occurred.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am familiar with the two names and their positions at Odhams Press but I am curious who may have identified himself as Swallow in this letter?
DeleteWhat I would really like to see is Ken’s original note which the person responds to. I have a copy of a hilarious letter (3 pages long) that Ken sent to Odhams after the publisher folded. I will show it on this blog one day for the tiny crowd of Kazoop!! readers to enjoy :)
I'd imagine that 'Swallow' is just an 'assumed name of the moment' for the purpose of a joke, Irmy, in response to one that Ken had made. Therefore, chances are that it was probably Bob Bartholomew who wrote the letter, being editor and the man Ken would deal with.
DeleteAs it happens, I had an answer to my question 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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 indicate that POW! editor was Bill Swallow, and mention at least one phone call from the man with instructions regarding Dare-A-Day Davy.
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 perhaps he was in fact the editor who chose (or was instructed) to remained 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!)
I should probably publish this as a new blog entry, so that more people would see it and maybe come up with some new info...
Oops, missed this reply, Irmy, only just noticed it. Could Bill Swallow simply have been a sort of general 'dogsbody' (the 'office boy' in effect) who handled the mail and sent out the scripts to the artists, etc? Or simply an assistant editor who was never referred to by name because Alf, Bart and Cos were the main men? One day, I'll go through all the Floor of 64 pages and see if there's a mention of him.
DeleteHe wasn’t an office boy because in his letter Bill Swallow mentions a roll from Ken Reid delivered by Tom, the office boy. He also had a Drivel Swivel Circulating Seat behind his POW! desk, which sounds rather posh and important, and he had his morning coffee served to him by Marie (probably a secretary). If you decide to go through the editorial columns, I think the search should be limited to POW! comics. I will see if I can find the time to go though all my copies.
DeleteI think the Floor of 64 pages were the same in all the Power Comics anyway, Irmy, they weren't different in each title. I wonder if he was an art editor of some kind then? Verily, some day the truth shall be known.
DeleteAre you saying that they printed the same editorials in all the Power Comics published in the same week?
Delete