{"id":16751,"date":"2017-04-28T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T07:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=16751"},"modified":"2017-04-28T08:25:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T08:25:32","slug":"thrrp-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2017\/04\/28\/thrrp-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THRRP!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Leo Baxendale <\/strong>(Knockabout Comics)
\nISBN: 978-0-86166-051-3<\/p>\n

Whilst tapping away at my keyboard, I’ve just heard on the radio (I’m real old school, me) that the irrepressible, irreplaceable Leo Baxendale passed away earlier this week. Thus, I’m postponing today’s posting to re-run this old saw. The book is still readily available and if you haven’t seen it you bloody well should.<\/p>\n

Leo Baxendale was educated at Preston Catholic College, served in the RAF and was born on 27th<\/sup> October 1930, in Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire – but not in that order. His first paid artistic efforts were drawing ads and cartoons for The Lancashire Evening Post<\/strong> but his life and the entire British comics scene changed in 1952 when he began freelancing for DC Thomson’s star weekly The Beano<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Leo took over moribund Lord Snooty and his Pals<\/em> and created anarchically surreal strips Little Plum<\/em>, Minnie the Minx<\/em>, The Three Bears<\/em> and When the Bell Rings<\/em> – which metamorphosed into the legendary, lurgie-packed Bash Street Kids<\/strong> thereby altering the realities of millions of readers.<\/p>\n

Baxendale also contributed heavily to the creation of The Beezer<\/strong> in 1956, after editorial and financial disputes, moved to the London-based Harmsworth conglomerate Odhams\/Fleetway\/IPC in 1962.<\/p>\n

South of the border his humorous creations included Grimly Feendish<\/em>, Sweeny Toddler<\/em>, General Nitt and his Barmy Army<\/em>, Bad Penny<\/em> and a whole host of other sparkling oiks, yobs and weirdoes who made the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Power Comics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d era such a joy to behold.<\/p>\n

During the 1970s and 80s he foisted Willy the Kid<\/strong> on the world and created his own publishing imprint – Reaper Books. He also sued DCT for rights to his innovative inky inventions: a seven-year struggle that was eventually settled out of court.<\/p>\n

Other notable graphic landmarks include his biography A Very Funny Business: 40 Years of Comics <\/strong>and I Love You, Baby Basil<\/em> in The Guardian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Leo was a one-of-a-kind, hugely influential and much-imitated master of pictorial comedy and noxious gross-out escapades whose work deeply affected (some would say warped) generations of British and Commonwealth kids. We’ll not see his like again.<\/p>\n

I’ll return to him with a more considered appreciation later in the year, but for now why don’t you think about picking up THRRP!<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Released in 1987 this oversized (292 x 206 mm) softcover monochrome tome is something of a lost classic: a gloriously grotesque, pantomimic splurt-fest of broken winds, oozy organs, drippy bits and broad, basic belly-laughs which depends less on narrative convention than on warped-yet-timeless juvenile invention and forward progression to revel in the most lunatic slapstick ever to grace the music-hall or comic page.<\/p>\n

Whilst not as groundbreaking as Plum<\/em>, Minnie<\/em>, or The Bash Street Kids<\/em> nor as subversive as Wham<\/strong>, Smash<\/strong> and Pow <\/strong>creations such as Eagle Eye<\/em>, Junior Spy<\/em>, The Swots and the Blots<\/em> or The Tiddlers<\/em>, or indeed, as outlandish as George’s Germs <\/em>or Sam’s Spook<\/em>, nevertheless our premiering pulsating protagonist Spotty Dick<\/em> and the stomach-churning, utterly repulsive inhabitants of Planet Urf<\/em> unforgettably cavort through a cartoon-mire of silent adventures – like mimes made of mucus – in a manner no snotty, grotty school-kid of any age could resist.<\/p>\n

An absolute treat from the absolute master of British tomfoolery. Let’s get this back in print now.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1987 Leo Baxendale. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Leo Baxendale (Knockabout Comics) ISBN: 978-0-86166-051-3 Whilst tapping away at my keyboard, I’ve just heard on the radio (I’m real old school, me) that the irrepressible, irreplaceable Leo Baxendale passed away earlier this week. Thus, I’m postponing today’s posting to re-run this old saw. The book is still readily available and if you haven’t … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “THRRP!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,113,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-british","category-comedy","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4mb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}