Category: Miscellaneous

By Ronald Searle (Pavilion Books)
ISBN: 0-85145-102-1

Britain has a fantastic history and tradition of excellence in the arts of graphic narrative and cartooning. Whether telling a complete story or simply making a point; some of the most innovative, inspirational and trenchantly acerbic drawing has come from British pens and British hearts.

Ronald Searle is one that very gifted few (I’d number Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale and Hunt Emerson among them) who can actually draw funny lines. No matter how little or how much they need to say, they can imbue the merest blot or scratch of ink with character, intent and wicked, wicked will.

This compilation of cartoons traces the rise of his star following his years in the army and as a Japanese POW at the infamous Changi Prison. The second St Trinian’s cartoon was drawn in that hell-hole in 1944 and it survived along with his incredible war sketches to see print at the end of World War II. Searle was a worker on the Siam-Burma Railroad (a story for another time and place) and risked his life daily both by making pictures and by keeping them.

This glorious book collects a huge number of his mordantly funny cartoons from a number of sources including Punch, Lilliput, Sunday Express, and previous collections of his work including Hurrah for St. Trinian’s!, The Female Approach, Back to the Slaughterhouse, The Terror of St. Trinian’s, Souls in Torment, Merry England, etc., The St. Trinian’s Story, Which Way Did He Go? and Pardong m’sieur.

Ronald Searle’s work has influenced an uncountable number of other cartoonists too. His unique visualisation and darkly comic satirical cynicism in the St. Trinian’s drawings, and the utterly captivating vision of boarding school life as embodied in the classically grotesque Nigel Molesworth (created with Geoffry Willans for Punch and released as Down With Skool!, How to be Topp!, Whizz For Atomms! and Back in the Jug Agane) influenced generations of children and adults and even played its part in shaping our post-war national character.

And his drawings are really, really funny. Try him and see for yourself…

© 1941-1985 Ronald Searle. All Rights Reserved.

By various (DC Thomson & Co., Ltd.)
ISBN: 0-85116-527-3

Here’s another wonderful compilation commemorating the truly unique DC Thomson comic experience, this time concentrating on their many action and adventure serials. The Dundee based company has long been a mainstay of British popular reading and the strong editorial stance has informed a huge number of household names over the decades.

The main tenet of the Thomson adventure philosophy is a traditional, humanistic sense of decency. Runner Alf Tupper – ‘The Tough of the Track’ – might be a poor, rough, working class lad, competing in a world of privileged “Toffee-Nosed Swells”, but he excels for the sheer joy of sportsmanship, not for gain or glory.

There are no anti-heroes in the Thomson heroic stable, almost in direct opposition to the iconic, anarchic, mischief-makers of their humour comics. British spy Bill Sampson may be the dreaded ‘Wolf of Kabul’ to the Afghan tribesmen he and assistant Chung (who will live forever as the wielder of the deadly “Clicky Ba” – that’s a cricket bat to you and me) encounter, but he’s still just an ordinary chap at heart, as are all the other characters spotlighted here. They’re just the sort of people ordinary kids should want to grow up into.

Heroes like Samson actually predate the company’s conversion of adventure fiction into comic strips – generally accepted as 1961, when the proliferation of TV sets among the perceived audience dictated the switch from words to pictures. For many years previously, what children bought were boys’ or girls’ “papers”, packed with prose stories and the odd illustration and features page. Thomson held these over in titles such as Adventure until the end of the 1950s, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable, converting their pulp-stars into pictorial idols. Wolf of Kabul for instance, began in 1922, but was easily and successfully translated into a comic strip in the 1960s.

In this compendium are both prose stories and strips featuring some of Britain’s best loved and longest running heroes subdivided into categories that mirror the average schoolboy’s interests. So thrill again, or catch the bug with such Schooldays sagas as The Red Circle School (1940s) and Kingsley Comp (1980s), the pporting triumphs of The Tough of the Track (1949-onwards), the mysterious Man in Black, Wilson (The Truth About Wilson 1943-onwards) or Gorgeous Gus (a millionaire – even before he became a footballer – who didn’t like to run but had an infallible shot) and Cast, Hook and Strike, the story of Joe Dodd, a exceptional Angler from the 1970s (yes – a fishing strip – don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it).

Or perhaps the War stories I Flew with Braddock, Code-name Warlord, and V for Vengeance, if not the outrageous heroics of Morgyn the Mighty (Strongest Man in Africa), The Laughing Pirate, The Hairy Sheriff (a cowboy Ape), or Wolf of Kabul will capture your fancy and fulfil that desire to sample simpler times.

These tales, taken from the classic publications Adventure, The Skipper, The Wizard and Rover, and latterly Hornet, Hotspur, Victor and Warlord, are supplemented by many glorious cover reproductions and feature pages, loaded with fun and shiny with nostalgia. I only wish I could name all the creators responsible, but Thomson’s long-standing policy of creative anonymity means I’d be guessing too many times. I can only hope that future collected celebrations will include some belated acknowledgement of all the talented individuals who between them shaped the popular consciousness of generations, and made childhoods joyful, wondrous and thrilling.

© 1991 DC Thomson & Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

By Reed Waller (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 1-56097-191-6

Although the paperback collections featuring the stories of Omaha the Cat-Dancer are currently available, this truly remarkable art-book featuring the beautiful, erotic, but never salacious, creative doodlings of adult cartooning pioneer Reed Waller has seemingly slipped out of print.

Although that isn’t uncommon for art books in general, I’ve been labouring under the apparent misapprehension that sex sells and so just assumed that thoughtful, dedicated and passionate work, drawn – and indeed painted – by someone of Waller’s undoubted ability and technical proficiency would be able to maintain some kind of presence on the bookshelves – even more so when so many people want to learn the secrets of drawing comics.

And it’s full of astonishingly well drawn naked folk (admittedly largely furry or feathered folk) “doing it”!

Seriously though, this volume shows Waller’s development as an artist, features his thoughts on the process of creating narrative art, and reproduces some extremely well drawn visuals that explain the necessities and attraction of anthropomorphic illustration. It is quite explicit though, so not for the young or unadventurous.

No cats, dogs or chickens were harmed, abused, distressed or disagreeably surprised in the making of this art book.

©1987-1996 Reed Waller & Fantagraphics Books. All Rights Reserved

Volume II of the collected Angry Youth Comix

 

By Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-867-1

Graphic narrative and cartooning, despite our sometimes protestations of comprising a comparatively small pond, cover a vast range of genres, formats, disciplines and tastes. From Tintin or Raymond Brigg’s Snowman through the various escapist mainstreams to the edgy, unpredictable and even the downright shocking.

Johnny Ryan is a comedian who uses comics as his medium of expression. Whether in his own ‘Angry Youth Comix’, or the many commissions for such varied clients as Nickelodeon, Hustler, Vice, Arthur, National Geographic Kids and elsewhere, his job and mission is to make laughter. Depending on your point of view he is either a filth-obsessed pervert smut-monger or a social iconoclast using the same tactics as Lenny Bruce or Bill Hicks to assault the worst aspects of our society.

His wild, loose cartoon drawing style is deceptively engrossing, and his seeming pictorial Tourette’s Syndrome of strips and gags involving such grotesque signature characters as Boobs Pooter (world’s most disgusting stand-up comedian), Blecky Yuckerella, Loady McGee and Sinus O’Gynus will, frankly, appal many readers, but as with most questions of censorship in a Free Society, they are completely at liberty neither to buy nor read the stuff.

Gross, vulgar, shocking strips and panel gags about sex, defecation, farting, bodily functions, feminine hygiene, and even the ultimate modern taboos of religion, politics, race and child-abuse are the sole content of this volume collecting Angry Youth #6-10, plus material from Hotwire Comix & Capers Vol.1 and VICE Magazine. If you’re prudish, sensitive or concerned about moral standards – don’t buy and don’t read it.

If you aren’t any of those things and could stand a good, hearty laugh that might also make you think, then this is the dirty cartoon joke-book for you.

© 2007 Johnny Ryan. All Rights Reserved.

By Berkeley Breathed (Little, Brown & Co.)
ISBN: 0-316-10758-1

For most of the 1980s and early 1990s Berké Breathed dominated the American newspaper comic strip scene with his astoundingly funny surreal political fantasy strip Bloom County and latterly Outland (mercifully still available – so don’t wait for my reviews, just order them now!). At the top of his game he retired from strip cartooning and began to create a series of lavish children’s picture books that rank among the best America has ever produced.

A Wish for Wings That Work is a Christmas parable featuring Breathed’s signature character, and his most charmingly human. Opus is a talking penguin, educated but emotionally vulnerable, insecure yet unfalteringly optimistic. His most fervent dream is that one day he might fly like a “real” bird.

As Christmas approaches his desperation and desolation grow, but he remains dolorously earthbound. But then on Christmas Eve Santa Claus has an accident…

Breathed’s first children’s book is still in many ways his most poignant and joyous. It’s an old fashioned Christmas miracle tale, beautifully painted, stuffed with wit and belly-laughs that will melt the hardest heart and it belongs on the bookshelf of every parent. When the family have almost ruined the holiday, this is what you want to restore your spirits. Kids might like it too…

© 1991 Berkeley Breathed. All Rights Reserved.

Wondering, WHAT SHALL I GET HIM FOR CHRISTMAS?

By Steve Marchant (Collins & Brown)
ISBN10: 1-84340-146-0 ISBN13: 978-1-84340-146-9

There’s a huge proportion of the comic buying audience that nurtures the dream of working in the field, either for pay in the majors or for their own satisfaction. There are also a vast number of publications offering varying degrees of tips, hints, advice and training. The Comics Creators Guild itself publishes a number of such, and I sincerely wish we published this book too.

Author Marchant, as well as being the very talented cartoonist responsible for the criminally infrequent Stupidface comics and stories, has been teaching students of all ages the fundamentals of strip production since the late 1980s, and brings all that knowledge to the readers here in a logical, simple progression that acts as the perfect foundation course into the various necessary skills and techniques.

From the first chapter on Tools, Equipment, Basic Techniques and even Computers, through Face & Figure, Places & Objects, Composition & Storytelling, to Presentation & Publication, the facts and necessities are laid out in a manner that creates anticipation rather than trepidation and are entertainingly illustrated. Each section includes a series of projects for the student to complete. Also included is a gallery from a number of professionals to illustrate certain points and styles.

This is probably the best book on the subject since Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art and won the CCG Award for “Best Comic Related Product”. If your kids want to get into comics or you harbour the desire yourself, this is where to start from.

© Collins & Brown Limited 2004.
Winner: CCG BEST COMIC RELATED PRODUCT 2004

A Denis Gifford Collection (H.C. Blossom)
ISBN: 1-872532-57-8

In a country so rich with children’s literature, and so blessed with sentimental old creators and publishers, the various holidays of the year have always been excellently commemorated in our comic publications. Britain also had a huge advantage over its transatlantic cousins in that our industry was for most of that history operated on a weekly schedule.

That might seem an odd distinction to make, but the power of topicality added huge excitement and effect to “Bumper Christmas Editions” which were always on sale mere days before the Big Event, rather than as much as three weeks either side, as in US monthly or even bi-monthly titles.

This collection of cover images, culled from the prodigious personal collection of cartoonist and comics historian Denis Gifford, reprints 45 unbelievably evocative and nostalgic pictorial classics from the X-Mas Numbers of such comics as Funny Folks, Sparkler, Tiny Tots, Puck, Knockout, Beano, Dandy, Tiny Tim’s Weekly, Comic Cuts and many other hallowed British icons, all published between 1897 and 1941.

The text is limited to the barest historical paragraphs here as the whole point is to rejoice if not wallow in the feelings the creators worked so diligently to instil. So why not marvel at the artistic genius of such luminaries as Percy Cocking, Jack Greenall, Hugh McNeill, James Crichton, Reg Carter, Roy Wilson, Freddie Crompton, John Jukes, Wilfred Haughton, Ray Bailey, Herbert Foxwell, Walter Bell, William Wakefield, George Jones, Authur White, Tom Wilkinson, WF Thomas, George Davey, H. O’Niell, Ralph Hodgson, Will Spurrier, Frank Holland, John Phillips Stafford and all those other talented artists whose names are lost to us now.

If you want a good old fashioned Yuletide, this is what needs to go on your list. And remember, shop early to avoid disappointment.

Text and compilation © 1991 Denis Gifford.

By Ty Templeton, John Delaney and Ron Boyd (Walter Foster Publishing)
ISBN 978-1-5601-0327-1

Although the 1990s Superman cartoon show never got the airplay it deserved in Britain, it remains a highpoint in the character’s long, long animation history, second only to the astounding and groundbreaking seventeen shorts produced by the Max Fleischer Studio in the 1940s. These modern visualisations became the norm, extending to both the Justice League and Legion of Super Heroes animation series that followed.

The broad stylisation also worked in two dimensions in the spin-off comic-book produced by DC (itself a series well worthy of and long overdue for trade paperback release), so this lovely slim “How To” book from Ty Templeton, John Delaney and Ron Boyd is doubly a package to pore through and learn from.

Brilliant colour and clear concise instructions, covering the undeniable basics that every artist of any age will need to master, such as perspective and basic anatomy, plus a detailed step-by-step breakdown and model sheet for every major character and villain make this an indispensable aid and a fun read for the aspiring Artist of Tomorrow.

™ & © 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Chuck Jones (Crown Publishers Inc.)
ISBN: 0-517-56063-1

There have been a few modern geniuses who wield a pencil and paintbrush. We tend not to notice them in the world of comics, which I suppose would explain why so many of our contemporary artists work in animation these days. I don’t know if Charles Martin Jones ever worked in comics – or even if he ever wanted to – but as ‘Chuck’ he produced some of the greatest and funniest animated cartoons the world has ever seen.

During WWII he worked with Theodore Geisel – who left cartooning for a career in kid’s books and found fame as Dr. Seuss – on a series of educational cartoons for the US Army featuring ‘Private Snafu’. That relationship would eventually lead to the animated TV classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

And in 1986 Chuck Jones produced this picture-book for the very young. William is a skunk with a little problem. The Usual Skunk not only has that potent chemical weapon we all know and dread, but they also have a beautiful bold stripe on their backs so as to give any big animal sneaking up on them a fair chance to change their minds. Sadly, William’s stripe is on his front, which causes problems for every animal in the forest.

This charming little fable about cooperation is a sweet delight and the art is utterly joyous. This is a man who knows “Cute” and how to milk it, and more importantly, when to lampoon it. His critters positively drip with Attitude, and any child’s delight could only be marred if the adult reading this aloud is unable to stifle their own knowing chortles.

Jones’ work informed generations of kids and creators in comics as well as cartoons. His legacy can be found in titles as varied as Dell’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to the current Kids WB comic-books including the current incarnation of Looney Tunes.

Get this book and you could be carrying on that tradition to the next generation.

© 1986 Chuck Jones Enterprises. All rights reserved.

By Hank Harrison (Stabur Press)
ISBN 13: 978-0-94161-301-9

Jack Davis is probably one of the few artists better known outside the world of comics than within it. His paintings, magazine covers, advertising work and sports cartoons have reached more people than his years of comedy cartooning for such magazines as Mad, Panic, Cracked, Trump, Sick, Help!, Humbug, Playboy, etc., and very few modern comic collectors seem aware of his horror and war masterpieces for EC, his westerns for Marvel comics or his pivotal if seminal time at Jim Warren’s Eerie and Creepy magazines.

So this laudatory art-book is something of a Curate’s egg. His mainstream followers will hate the poor paper quality and the fact that all the reproductions – and there are many – are in back and white, but those few comic fans can luxuriate in a lot of rare strips and early work – even pieces from his time in the Navy contributing cartoons to military papers.

Let’s hope someone can update, expand and re-release this book celebrating the wonderful work of a true comic art original – and perhaps add some colour sections so everybody can be happy.

© 1986 Jack Davis.