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 11, 2013

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…

Monday, December 9, 2013

ARTIST SELF-POTRAITS (Part 10)



Next up are two strips with self-portraits of Sid Burgon – one from WHIZZER AND CHIPS cover-dated 24th October, 1981, and one from THE DANDY No. 2550 cover-dated 6th October, 1990. The first example is very unusual for UK children’s humour comics because it credits the artist and the writer, American-style.


This set of Double Trouble from BUSTER dated 3rd November, 1990 includes a self-portrait of the most effective family duo in British comics – Terry and Sheila Bave:



As a matter of fact, this episode of Double Trouble is the first in a long sequence that lasted until approximately the middle of 1991 in which Terry Bave discretely included his self-portraits, sometimes together with his wife Sheila. Thanks to George Shiers for the tip! Here are some examples:



P.S. Here is a more recent image of the Baves. It is from Winker Watson strip in The Dandy of 2001. Thanks, THB, for the tip and the link!