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.



Thursday, October 31, 2019

KEN REID REPRINT BOOKS YEAR-END / XMAS PROMOTION!



This year marks Ken’s 100th birthday on December 18th. 

To celebrate this special occasion, I am launching another year-end / Christmas promotion. Buyers of THE POWER PACK OF KEN REID! books will receive free A4 prints of Ken’s original artwork!

Vol. 1 (Frankie Stein + Jasper the Grasper) comes with a complete episode of Frankie Stein, cut in two halves:


Vol. 2 (Queen of the Seas + Dare-A Day Davy + The Nervs) comes with a complete episode of Dare-A-Day Davy, also cut in two halves. And that’s not just your regular episode, but the one with Ken’s self-portrait and his portrait of Walter Thorburn, the scriptwriter!



Those who order both books, will not only receive the four prints, but also TWO BONUS A4 prints of blown-up Dare-A-Day Davy panels with the portraits of the diabolical duo – Ken Reid and Walter Thorburn. That's a total of six free A4 prints!


You can order your copies from eBay or from my online shop here: https://www.kazoop-comics-shop.com/
 
The number of the prints is limited, so the offer stands until I run out of them. Be sure to get your orders in early to avoid delays in the postal Christmas rush!

Friday, October 25, 2019

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART THIRTEEN: HUMAN SEA SLUG



The next Faceache story arc enters the territory of longer stories. ‘Human Sea Slug’ was 4 weeks long. It appeared in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN cover-dated 25 August, 1, 8 and 15 September 1979, and went like this:

Faceache asks Mr. Snipe for a day out at Shrimpton-at-Sea. Mr. Snipe approves, as long as Faceache promises not to scare holiday-makers. Faceache takes a bus and Mr. Snipe follows him in the school banger to make sure he doesn’t scrunge: 


...Faceache spots the spy and scrunges into an ordinary bloke to get off the coach unrecognised:


Later on the sea front Faceache sees an angler who is trying to cheat a kid out of his pocket money… 


Mr. Snipe turns up looking for Faceache and asks the angler to let him try his hand at fishing. Mr. Snipe is about to demonstrate real fishing, as Faceache prepares himself to play his trick on the angler… 


The lad leaps out of the sea. Mr. Snipe recognises Faceache’s striped T-shirt instantly: 


…Faceache unscrunges and Mr. Snipe plunges into a seaweed-infested oil slick in the sea. The terrified angler flees in panic, screaming about a ‘thingie’ that has risen from the deep... 

Prof. Krabb, who runs an exhibition of aquatic oddities, immediately sees an opportunity and decides he could do with the monster in his sideshow. Prof. Krabb and his assistant rush to the beach. Upon seeing Mr. Snipe emerge from the sea covered with seaweed and dirt...


... they net him right away, and bonk him with a mallet.


Prof. Krabb puts Mr. Snipe on display as a Human Sea Slug:


Faceache telephones Mr. Thrashbottom urging him to come to Shrimpton-on-Sea. Concerned about school’s reputation, the Headmaster arrives at the exhibition of aquatic oddities to collect Mr. Snipe. Back at school, he orders Mr. Snipe to stay in his room and write out 1,000 times “I must learn not to dress up as a human sea slug and lower the dignity of the teaching position”. 

Realising he is now free to scrunge without being spied on, Faceache catches up on his hobby:


Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.


Wednesday, October 23, 2019

GIGGLE – ONE DOWN, THREE MORE TO GO



I rarely visit eBay these days anymore because my collection of UK comics is as complete as I will ever want it to be, but I am still after a few elusive issues of BUSTER, GIGGLE and SPARKY.

A few days ago I crossed one more issue of GIGGLE off my wants list, and although it is not special in any way, I thought I might show its cover and a few inside pages here.

The comic offered a combination of humour and adventure, and had a large share of reprints of strips by UK and European artists, but I believe the pages below were all new (Helpful Hettie was later reprinted in COR!!, but I am unsure if this particular episode was).

At this point I only need GIGGLE issues cover-dated 2 Sept., 11 Nov. and 25 Nov., 1967. I would also buy the issue of 1 July, 1967 because my copy is missing its centre pages.

My wants list of BUSTER consists of the issues cover-dated 31 Dec., 1960, 4 Feb., 1961 and 4 July, 1964.

I am also after SPARKY issue No. 620 (4 Dec., 1976), and would buy a complete copy of No. 110 (25 Feb., 1967).

Please, let me know if you have copies of the above and wish to sell :)





  
Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.