SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 9)

I will close this three-part mini series about sporty Frankie Stein with another WHAM! episode by Ken Reid in which the ‘friendly monster’ turns into a runner. I happen to be the proud owner of the original artwork for this episode, so below are several blown-up scans of individual panels for your enjoyment  :) 

From WHAM! No 59 dated 31st July, 1965

 

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 8)

In this episode from 1980 Frankie Stein Holiday Special officials from the British Selection Board invite Frankie to train for the Olympics. Illustrator is probably John Geering.

If there are any Ken Reid fans reading this blog, be sure to come back tomorrow for the final part of this three-part mini-series about Frankie Stein the athlete because I have a special treat lined up :)

 

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 7)

Frankie Stein tried his hand at different sports. Here are his attempts at boxing and football during the early years in WHAM! when the strip was illustrated by Ken Reid:

From WHAM! No. 33, 30th January, 1965

From WHAM! No. 60, 7th August, 1965

Now let’s see what happened when Frankie Stein tried playing tennis. The episode is from WHAM! during the period when Ken Reid was ill or otherwise unable to work and another artist took over. It's a great pity that the 20-week period of Mr. Reid’s absence coincided with Frankie’s stay in the weird wilds of Scotland at Madam McAbre’s Academy for Frustrated Freaks (or Monster Manor) that was full of fiendish characters. One can only imagine how brilliant the episodes would have been, had they been illustrated by Frankie Stein’s original artist… 

From WHAM! No. 101, 21st May, 1966

Robert Nixon’s version of Frankie Stein was different but also nice in its own way, particularly in Shiver and Shake and the early issues of the combined WHOOPEE! and SHIVER AND SHAKE. In this “Big News Issue” of Shiver and Shake Frankie takes part in an International Athletics Meeting…

From SHIVER AND SHAKE dated 5th October, 1974 (No. 79, last issue)

 

Come back tomorrow to see what happened when Frankie Stein was officially invited to join Team GB for 1980 Olympics…

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 6)

The Moonsters in Sparky took their sports very seriously. They are a great help in my search for examples of different Olympic sports to show on KAZOOP!! I don’t think it would be easy to find fencing, water polo or judo elsewhere… 

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 5)

Rick and Charlie Wild were super-athletes and the strongest boys in the World. Their adventures (illustrated by Mike Western and written by Tom Tully) appeared in Valiant weeklies for more than 10 years starting from 1964. I like this story from VALIANT Space Special 1968 because of the atmosphere and energy of a major sports competition that it carries.

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 4)

Let’s take a quick look at tennis today. As I mentioned it in my previous post, tennis was one of the privileged sports in British comics. Many popular characters tried a hand at the sport once in a while so it probably won’t be the last time that we see it in this series of Olympic posts…

This lively set appeared in 1977 SHIVER AND SHAKE Holiday Special and was a reprint of the Lion Lot from LION by Leo Baxendale

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 3)

Over the years, certain sports received considerably more attention in British comics than others. I am referring to football (of course!), cricket, motor sports, boxing and tennis. In addition to being “traditional” popular British sports that were very much part of the daily lives of many kids, they had strong comedy potential that could be exploited in comics. 

Cricket and motor sports are not part of the Olympic Games, so I will leave them out. Football has already been covered extensively last month but I found one or two interesting examples and will probably include them in later posts. Tennis can also wait a bit. Today’s post is all about BOXING, and there is certainly no shortage of strips with the boxing theme.

Here are some from BEEZER by Leo Baxendale:

From BEEZER No. 24 dated June 30th, 1956

From BEEZER No. 324 dated March 31st, 1962

Leo Baxendale is said to have signed all of his work for WHAM! so it is safe to assume that any unsigned instalments were by other artists:

And here are some examples by Ken Reid from two different periods of his career: 

From THE BEANO No. 754 dated December 29th, 1956

From THE BEANO No. 778 dated June 15th, 1957

From POW! No. 33 dated September 2nd, 1967

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 2)

In the 70s VALIANT had nice Mike Western covers some of which featured outstanding Olympic athletes from different countries. You could actually learn things by reading comics then...

My intention is to focus on humour comics and I’ll start with this nice crowded Pirates’ Olympic set by Leo Baxendale from BUSTER dated November 25th, 1968: