Tuesday 22 January 2013

Plugging for George

Back in November, I told him over at Wacky Comics that I'd put some more stuff from Plug up here. Naturally, I forgot all about it until yesterday, so here we go. What's three months between folk?


To start with, we'll have some more from the Bandshees, courtesy of Dave Gudgeon:



Also from Mr. Gudgeon, we have the continuing, catastrophic adventures of Gnoo Faces:


And the bizarre Invasion of the Plug Bugs (love this one!):


Tony Jackpot by John Dallas is next, aptly demonstrating one of the most off-putting things about reading Plug - the terrible, terrible lettering. All italics with sharp-edged bubbles, it's less like the characters are speaking, more like they're being labelled:


This is exemplified even further with the otherwise-fine Hugh's Zoo, by Gordon Bell:


Anyone see the Osmonds reference in that strip? Well here's another one - that's two within one issue!


Not sure who did that one, but it looks slightly European - possibly an imported strip? [Nope, it's Chas Sinclair - cheers, Andy!]

Bill Ritchie's Supporting Life (starring Elvis, Plug's little brother) is here, profiling a different team each week:


A bit more from Albert Holroyd's Eebagoom now:


Digby the Human Mole is a favourite of mine within Plug's pages. Various sources say it's Gordon Bell's, but I'm not entirely convinced:


[And my scepticism was justified - it's by Graham Allen! Good old Andy]


Gah! One of those "To be continued" things! They don't pop up often in humour comics, which is frustrating with comics as scarce as Plug. Ah well.

Luncheon Vulture's a bit of an odd one, but it's worth seeing just for the Fanny Haddock character:


[More information from Andy - this one's by Les Barton]

Another member of Plug's extended family, Uncle Ebeneezer, stars here with his Nutcase Bookcase (POSSIBLY by Vic Neill):


Apologies for this next one - it's truly terrible and nowhere NEAR the standard you'd expect from DC Thomson (at least in the 1970s). It's not as bad as the previously featured Ava Banana, but it's still not good enough to wipe your nose with - this is Eddie Daring:


To make up for it, here's the complete opposite - another hilarious instalment of Lumpy Gibbon by Bob Dewar:


And if THAT's not your "thing", here's two strange adventures with John Geering's Antchester United (if you don't like sentient windmills, look away now):



And finally, here's Plug himself in a bit of crossover-based-fun with Antchester United (this time certainly by Vic Neill):


I'll always be curious why Plug (and also Hoot) seem to've been written out of DC Thomson's history books. None of these characters ever made it into Classics From The Comics, and to my knowledge only Eebagoom ever made it into any of the annual reprint books.

This must be amended, if only for Dave Gudgeon's stuff alone!


Plug - it's good, and worth looking for.

10 comments:

  1. Those two episodes of Digby are drawn by Graham Allen, I do believe! Luncheon Vulture appears to be by Les Barton.

    Crazy Horse is by the same artist as Some Mummies do 'ave 'em, who was Chas Sinclair according to Comics UK :)

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    1. Thanks a lot, Andy!

      You helped a lot with the first Plug-based post as well, so double points there :)

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  2. I remember buying Plug when it first came out, but for the life of me, I can't remember if I've still got any or not. I don't think I was terribly impressed with it, to be honest.

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    1. It is a weird one, yeah - and there was a gap of about three years between me getting my first Plug and then actively searching for it. Seems they used a weaker printer on these as well, it's a very strange comic.

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  3. Plug looks like something from the other world!! I wonder why he got lots of comic's and none of the other Bash Street Kids did; thought the kid with the skull and crossbones jumper was supposed to be the main character... Then again if I can't remember his name but can remember 'plug's' prehaps he was more popular..

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    1. Danny is who you're thinking of - in another world, EVERY Bash Street Kid would certainly have got their own comic. "Spotty" and "Fatty" would make great names for comics. And "Toots".

      Not so sure about "Wilfred" or "Danny" though.

      When Plug finished and the characters were moved into the Beezer, Plug even got his own strip in that one as well.

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  4. 'Eebagoom' is a "reference" (that's putting it politely) to the Goodies episode 'Kung Fu Kapers', in which Bill becomes an exponent of the deadly Lancastrian martial art of 'Ecky Thump' under the tutelage of the grand master ("And 'e were grand!") Eebagoom. As for Lumpy Gibbon, well... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaFqNSLu6U4
    Ava Banana and Eddie Daring are so poor they wouldn't have looked out of place in early Viz! (Check out The Big Hard One and you'll see what I mean!)

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    1. The Big Hard One's hilarious for many reasons, both good and bad!

      I knew about the Lumpy/Funky Gibbon (referred to in the first Plug-based post here), but the Eebagoom origin's news to me, so cheers for that.

      It's odd/frustrating how there's such a scarcity of Goodies on DVD, hence me being stuck with the same three episodes over and over on VHS.

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    2. There are four double disc sets available from Network.
      The Goodies At Last
      The Goodies At Last A Second Helping
      The Goodies the Complete LWT Series
      The Goodies At Last Back For More Again
      http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/0-/Search.html?searchstring=%22the+goodies%22&searchsource=0&searchtype=r2alldvd

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