DoodleBug

Up next from the teetering pile of smutty comics is this one, called DoodleBug. The last ever issue of it, from 1989, as it happens. I've decided to "do" these things in a roughly chronological order, but that plan'll definitely fall to pieces straight away as I find newer/older comics as I go along. Won't really make any difference in the long term, so it's MORE likely I'll be alternating between "good/readable" comics and "absurdly horrible" comics.

DoodleBug, you'll be (possibly) glad to know, is of the former:

It looks cheap because it is cheap, for DoodleBug is a self-published, mostly one-man-job comic - that man being Royston Robertson (currently working for Private Eye, amongst other things). So, despite looking about 2% more professional than the first issue of Viz even though there's a ten-year gap between them, at least there's an excuse for it.

The jolly home-made "charm" carries on throughout, beginning with the introduction from Dickie Davies:

And carrying on with scrappy arrangements of varying quality:

The better parts of DoodleBug are the full-page strips, beginning with Jesus - "He's a messiah!", by Royston himself:

Also from Royston is Douglas Tooting Witherspoon (MP)...

And Benjamin the Bear:

A lot of the "characters" are aware of this being the last issue of DoodleBug - and Benjamin the Bear's ending there is somehow a lot more satisfying than the Dandy's final issue!

The non-Royston contributions are naturally of varying quality. At one end of the "scale" is the pun-filled Robo-Cod, presented sideways for some reason, by Dick Mastodon (at least that's what it looks like his signature says):

At the bottom end is Jim Greer - He's A Complete Scottish Bastard (He Also Drinks A Lot Of Beer), uncredited possibly out of shame:

And somewhere in the middle is this odd thing - Uncle Fred and his Garden Shed by "Rab" someone-or-other:

The back cover's a nice little mess of credits, strips and back-issue ordering - take note that Mrs. Marrott and her Extremely Vulgar Parrot appears here at roughly the same time as the Viz classic, Bertie Blunt - His Parrot's a Cunt.

So there we go, DoodleBug - definitely not the worst "alternative" comic out there, and definitely not the best either. The lesson here? There's a lot worse, and also a lot better, on the way!