Anyone who's taken their enjoyment of comics beyond the "casual" level is surely aware of Leo Baxendale's Willy the Kid books, right? Mr. Baxendale , creator of the Bash Street Kids, Grimly Feendish, Minnie the Minx, Little Plum, Sweeny Toddler and so on, working only for himself, free of any editorial restrictions - the first book's an absolute masterpiece, and the second one's not too shoddy either.
But how about... the THIRD Willy?
Cover image taken from Kid Robson's blog, for reasons soon to be made clear.
Well, landfills aside, I can count myself along with the 9,999 others who've had a chance to read this one. It's definitely the third best Willy book, and I feel like I'm showing off a bit here, but you know - public interest and all that. Oh, and I'm guessing I managed to get a copy of it so cheaply because it's missing its dust jacket, so instead of looking like the above image, my one looks like this:
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How exciting!
It's not as long as the first two books, being just 48 pages (including the front and back cover). There's more text stories than the others as well, and there's not as much detail in the drawings. A lot of it's presented in a landscape format as well, meaning the book has to be turned around a lot. All these negatives can be discounted though, because it's still a riot on the inside. I'm just going to be showing the book's first story here - mostly because I don't want to wreck it too much through scanner radiation, and also because there's still probably a few more copies of this knocking about out there. Go and seek one of them out! This is the sort of thing you could be enjoying!
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Oh, there's a Spotty Dick story in there too, which is ALMOST as funny as his zoo-based adventure in the first book. Just to whet the appetites of folk even more.
Only took me well over 30 years to track down a copy, but I got one in the end two or three years back. Leo has produced a 'Best of Willy the Kid' book under his own imprint - 'Reaper Books', but I wish he'd publish an Omnibus volume featuring all three books - and in full-colour too. Now wouldn't that be something?
ReplyDeleteI think that Best of Willy The Kid book is about £100, right? Five times the price I paid for this one, anyway.
DeleteThe Omnibus edition'd be great, but I'm not sure about the full-colour part - just look at that Loch Mess story from the first book, the lining's amazing!
I remember being a bit disappointed by the third Willy book, largely for the reasons you've mentioned. Still, "NICKERS!"
ReplyDeleteThat kid's hilarious - especially the Donald Duck comparision, and his mum at the end.
DeleteThe 'I am daft' notice pinned to Dumbo's back makes me giggle.
DeleteI've got this book and didn't realise it was so rare, I wish I'd picked up two of them at the time now so I could flog one of them on ebay for £100
ReplyDeleteI got a copy of the first one from a school jumble sale. Cue several house moves, stupid toy-disposing mother (who must be responsible, between them, for throwing billions of pounds worth of rare toys in the bin) (although I suppose that's why they're rare) (I don't want them rare, I want to have them!). I paid probably 20p or something, now it's worth around a hundred quid, and have I buttons still got it. Arse. I suppose it teaches me to be more Zen, so there's an upside.
ReplyDeleteOoh, talking of Zen, "Bless This House" The Movie is on! Go go sexy seventies sexists!
I've got all three of them now... And found the first two again a couple of years ago, for £1 each! There's something to sit on for a while at least.
DeleteParents all seem to have a weird "throw-everything-away" instinct about them. I had the Thundercats base, Castle Grayskull, the Ghostbusters firehouse, an AT-ST walker, the Millenium Falcon, even the Other World castle... All secretly removed!
The fact that they all came from car boot sales (besides the firehouse) shows that it wasn't just my parents who were insane, at least.