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.



Tuesday, September 25, 2018

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART ONE: FACEACHE FINDS HIMSELF AT BELMONTE



Broadly speaking, the whole Faceache saga consisted of two long periods – the first 292 episodes showed Faceache in his home environment in and around the village of Puddleditch, with Faceache’s Dad (first seen in episode 13 (24 July 1971)) as the second main character. The second period (episodes 293 – 695) depicted Faceache’s antics at Belmonte School for Uncontrollable Young Whelps where the lad was looked after by Mr. Albert Thrashbottom (Headmaster) and Mr. Snipe (Teacher).

All serialised stories that are the topic of this series fall within the second period, and the first one tells readers about how and why Dad committed Faceache to the special education establishment. The two-part story can be found in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN dated 14 January 1978 and 21 January 1978.


Faceache has a diabolical dream about a headmaster welcoming him at his ghastly establishment. Next morning he’s woken up by Dad who has won £ 75,000 in the pools. 


At last they can go on that World cruise Dad has always dreamed about! Faceache is delighted because now they can live permanently in a posh hotel. Dad realises that because of Faceache’s scrunging hobby they’ll get kicked out of hotels all over the Globe, and announces that Faceache’s future home will be Belmonte... 


Faceache thinks it is the name of a posh hotel. In fact, it is Belmonte School for Uncontrollable Young Whelps. Dad is off, leaving Faceache in the iron hands of Mr. Albert Thrashbottom.


In the second part of this story Faceache scrunges into a Fangy-Faced Floogoe-Bug and tries to follow his Dad driving off in a taxi, but suffers an accident involving an airplane...


Mr. Snipe canes him for breaking the school motto – “Cleanliness and Truth”



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.

Friday, September 21, 2018

SERIALISED STORIES OF FACEACHE BY KEN REID




Faceache was Ken Reid’s longest running strip that began in the first issue of JET cover-dated 1 May 1971, and ended nearly 17 years later in BUSTER, cover-dated 14 March 1987. After Ken’s death the strip was continued by others, but I am talking about the run illustrated by the original artist only.

In the period between 1971 and 1987 Ken Reid drew as many as 695 pages of Faceache’s adventures in the weekly comics. The majority were self-contained stories, but some tales continued for two weeks or more, and I plan to start a long string of posts covering every single one of them, with synopsis of the plot, illustrated with a few panels from each. The stories were between 2 and as many as 6 weeks in length, and I have counted 34 of them, the first one starting in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN of 14 Jan., 1978, and the last one (34th) ending in BUSTER AND JACKPOT of 26 June 1982. Come back soon for the first one!

And while you are here, and provided you are a fan of Ken Reid, why not 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.

Monday, August 20, 2018

INDIEGOGO ORDERS FOR THE POWER PACK OF KEN REID FULFILLED ON SCHEDULE!



All orders for the POWER PACK have been shipped this morning, so if you supported my IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign and are in the UK or the EU, expect a courier calling at your door sometime in the end of this week or early next week. The last POWER PACKS going to the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada will be posted tomorrow, and the supporters in those countries will receive their copies in a couple of weeks from now (depending on how quick the post office is).

Individual books are now available on eBay and directly from my online KAZOOP COMICS SHOP

If you want the limited edition box set with free artwork prints, or individual books with the free prints, IndieGoGo is still the place to get them – I have updated the FEATURED PERK in the column on the right by indicating the number of slipcase copies still available. The offer will expire in the first days of September, or when the few remaining copies are sold – whichever happens first. CLICK HERE TO GO STRAIGHT TO THE CAMPAIGN PAGE!

I have lined up a series of Ken Reid posts to appear on this blog over the next few months, including one or two things that I wanted but wasn’t able to include in the biography part of the collection, and a long string of posts covering the serialized stories of Faceache in BUSTER (i.e. the stories that continued for two weeks or more)…

In the meantime, here’s an image of the pile of THE POWER PACKS before they were off to their new homes this morning:


Thursday, August 9, 2018

THE POWER PACK ORDERS ARE ABOUT TO SHIP!

The POWER PACK OF KEN REID slipcases have arrived ahead of time and I am starting to prepare the orders for shipping.

Here are a couple of images of what a 100 Power Packs looks like, followed by a video of me showing the box set and leafing through both books.

The IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign is still live HERE, so if you still haven't pre-ordered your copy of the limited edition box set, now is the time because they are selling fast :)




Wednesday, July 18, 2018

I HAVE THE BOOKS!


As was the plan, I picked up the books from the printing house this afternoon and am very satisfied with quality. The printers have now started manufacturing the slipcases which should be ready in 4 weeks' time at the latest.

I will see if I can make a quick video of the books in the next day or two to show here. In the meantime, check out some photos below.

My crowdfunding campaign is still live and will remain active until the time when I receive the slipcases and am ready to fulfill the orders. The IndieGoGo campaign is the only place where you can still pre-order your box set with free artwork prints, or individual books with free artwork prints. Here is the link: THE POWER PACK OF KEN REID