THE CHRISTMASES OF FRANKIE STEIN - PART ONE

At about this time last year I did a series of Christmas episodes of Faceache – a strip by Ken Reid that started in JET and then enjoyed an impressively long run in the pages of BUSTER. You can revisit the whole series HERE.

This time I’ll do a similar X-mas themed retrospective of another long-running and brilliant strip that also happens to be one of my favourites in UK comics – Frankie Stein.

The character and the strip were created by Mr. Ken Reid and originated in WHAM! nearly half-a-century ago in 1964. I will kick-start this three-part series with all four festive episodes from the pages of WHAM! spanning the years 1964 – 1966 (there was no X-mas episode in 1967, and by the time the Christmas of 1968 arrived the paper had already folded). For me, British humour comics hardly ever got any better than this. Enjoy!

1964:

 1965:

Two-part story in 1966:

ARTIST SELF-PORTRAITS (Part 12)

I will wrap-up the Artist Self-Portraits series  (for now) with a selection of pages of The DANDY’s Smasher from the brush of the ever-excellent Brian Walker. I don’t know of any other UK comics artist who made so many appearances as an active character in his own strip. The first example that I spotted is in the Dandy No. 2370 cover-dated 25th April, 1987:

My collection of the Dandy has a large gap from the end of July 1988 till the first issue of 1990 but then continues without a break until the middle of 1994 (as a result of my effort to collect full sets two brilliant strips by Tom Paterson - The Laughing Planet and Hyde and Shriek). 

Brian Walker made one appearance in Smasher in 1990 (issue No. 2528), together with the Dandy Editor Morris Heggie :

… followed by as many as three in 1991 (issue Nos. 2577, 2602, 2607):

… followed by two in 1992 (issue Nos. 2628, 2642):

… and just one in 1993 (issue No. 2672):

Although I have very few issues of the Dandy from the later years and Brian Walker doesn’t appear in them, I believe he didn’t stop drawing himself in, as confirmed by this episode of Smasher from The Dandy Summer Special 1996: 

1996 DANDY SUMMER SPECIAL also sports this bright back cover with caricatures of the Dandy editor Morris Heggie. Not a self-portrait but still a nice piece to include in this series. I've got no idea who drew it though.

ARTIST SELF-PORTRAITS (Part 11)

Today I have an assorted gallery of self-portraits from the pages of both major UK comics publishers.

First up is Tony Goffe in this episode of Loser from Whizzer and Chips cover-dated 11th November, 1973. Please, excuse the shadow along the left margin of the page – my copy of the issue is part of a bound volume.

This episode of Riddle Me Ray with Mike Lacey’s self-portrait is from SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 63 (18th May, 1974):

Nick Baker drew himself in the episode of Smiler in Whoopee! cover-dated 5th March, 1977:

The episode of Billy Whizz from THE BEANO issue No. 1942 (8th October, 1979) has a self-portrait of Malcolm Judge:

This episode of Mitey Joe with a self-portrait of John Geering is from NUTTY No. 27 (16th August, 1980):

In the last instalment of Cartoon Spot that appeared in the final issue of HOOT (N0. 53 cover-dated 25th October, 1986) L Plated Ella came up with an idea to draw the artist for a change. This makes it a self-portrait of Mr. Robert Nixon:

When I started this series a year ago and showed a number of Meet the Artists… pages from BUSTER, I somehow missed the feature on Keith Reynolds from the issue cover-dated 22nd October, 1991:

Last but not least is the self-portrait of Mr. Leo Baxendale. He drew himself from the back in the second Willy the Kid book published in 1977 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd..

Come back soon to view a rich gallery of Brian Walker’s self-portraits from the Dandy of the late 80s and the early 90s…