It cannot be left at 35!

Call it an emergency posting, or call it "doing a 2014 round-up like everyone else" - I just couldn't end the year with having thirty-five posts. It's my least-favourite number you see, so here you go...

Okay, bit of a mixed bag, this whole 2014 thing. Started out in the worst way possible, with the death of a friend only a couple of years older than me. Following that was a reduction in my working hours (and obviously, a reduction in the amount of money I get), a slight mental breakdown on what should have been a fun night out, my first ever panic attack (leaving work in an ambulance, something surely everyone does at least once in their lifetime), a bit of confidence-shattering from a certain quarter, and of course, the deaths of four of the most influential famous people that I've known of - a quadruple devastation of Harold Ramis, Rik Mayall, Sue Townsend and Jim Petrie. What a bugger.

Somewhere in the middle of the "good/bad" spectrum, I developed a love/knack for ten-pin bowling. Went plenty of times this year, and thought it'd be my "thing", but then all the enthusiasm for it was completely shattered by the rude staff at the local Megabowl, one day in October. Never mind.

On the other hand, as in, the "good" end of it all, there's been plenty. Two great weekends working for Replay Events, proper "family unit" stuff there. I'd drop anything and everything to work with them full time, but there we go. Had a fun week in that London as well, went to a wedding, saw a few bands (Space for the third time, the Australian Pink Floyd Show, Republica and Half Man Half Biscuit for the first time - all better than anything), had the strange realisation that some people actually like me, and made a good handful of new friends, whilst also keeping up with slightly older friends, using the power of the Internet. It's a small island, maybe we'll all get to meet up someday in 2015? That'd be fun. Not all at once, obviously, I'm aware that some of you don't exactly get along, but it could still be fun.

Erm, quick round-up of cultural artefacts enjoyed this year? The only albums I heard were by those bands I went to see, so we'll give "Album Of The Year" to Half Man Half Biscuit's Urge For Offal, with the runner-up prize going to Space for Attack of the Mutant 50 Ft Kebab. Three films were seen this year, and only one of them I'd happily watch again, so we'll give the prize to Guardians of the Galaxy. The prizes for "Best Book That You Can Buy In Waterstone's Or Similar" go to Where's Dennis? by Wilbur Dawbarn, and Comics Unmasked by Paul Gravett and John Harris Dunning, and the award for "Best Book That You Have To Order Specially From The Internet" goes to TATP: Talk About The Passion by Ben Baker et al. Mostly for the chapters on Viz and Earl Brutus. I enjoy comics too much to pick a favourite, and this year saw (possibly) the most "new" purchases on my behalf since... 2006? Favourites include Up Yours! by Lee Turnock, this year's output by Eyeball Comix, States of Mind by Nigel Maughan et al, and the endlessly interesting stuff put out by The Comix Company. All of this and more will be "looked at" properly in 2015, if all goes to plan.

At the end of it all, I'm still in more or less the same position as I was in at the start of it all, only I now share my flat with an overweight cat called Gus, so there's an improvement at least. Oh, and there's only a couple of hours left of this year - I'm staying in on my own for the tenth year running, it's more enjoyable this way, definitely. Still didn't get time to find an appropriate "thing to enjoy" to go with this post, so instead you can have the "new year themed" comic that was posted here at the START of the year. Again.

It's Zig & Zag's Zogmany Special, from 1995. Written and drawn (mostly) by Kev Sutherland (who's acquaintance was also made this year!):

(More by clicking and so on)

Squeezing another one out

There's always time! Going to go ahead and end the year (in "blog" terms anyway) on a thematic level. As in, something to do with comics. A Christmassy comic, like what Lew Stringer's been doing. Have some highlights from 1992's Acne Christmas Bumper Special:

Clichéd Cynicism

December's suddenly disappeared, whoops. Usually by now I've watched all the films (or as much as I can), gone through my first litre of eggnog and listened to Phil Spector's festive offerings at least a dozen times. Not sure what's happened this year though, bit of a bugger really. I LIKE this time of year, or I at least TRY to, but it seems to be getting more difficult each time.

Ah well. I made a tentative start yesterday by listening to Barenaked for the Holidays, went out for a festive get-together of sorts, and this evening I've watched the 1987 Spitting Image Christmas special and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. It's a bit late to start any sort of seasonal marathon here (in the spirit of this one or this one), but there has to be an effort, at least.

How about some "highlights" from the Christmas 1987 Hamleys magazine?

Carry on, if you want, to revel in the true meaning of Christmas (as in, toys)...

I stayed exactly where I was and suffered endless Feltz

Brief tangent/explanation... I mentioned that "something happened" - that "something" ALMOST killed this blog, I'll have you know! Try and make this as easy to follow as possible, it might take a few goes, but it's worth a try.

Okay, back when I first started "covering" these adult comics, in the early part of 2013 (my but hasn't that gone quick), I wasn't expecting many people to be interested. The fact was, there was next to nothing about these titles on the Internet already, and all of the comics-history books I'd read up to that point had dismissed the whole scene in a paragraph or less. Fairly tragic, and I'm not claiming any heroics here, but I felt that SOMEONE ought to do it. Dozens and dozens of diverse titles, heaps of talented artists and writers and hundreds of original characters. Well, time went on, and slowly, slowly, the folk who made these comics in the first place started to pop up in the comments sections, and shared all sorts of interesting "behind-the-scenes" background information. What began as my gut reactions and personal opinions on these comics slowly started becoming more of an "informative" process, and so, whilst initially I'd choose aspects of each comic that I liked and didn't like, looking at each in turn, as time went on I began going more for just the good stuff - I really wanted to show the wider world just how good these unfairly marginalized comics could be. Well, maybe not the wider world - more like the 150-250 people who visit this blog each day - but it's a start. And I was really enjoying it too.

And then, a few days ago, "the past" caught up with me. I'm only human, there's lots of things I like and lots of things I don't like. One of the things I don't like is a comic that a lot of people had told me they'd really enjoyed back in the day - a comic called Spit!

Masterminded by Graham Hey, Spit! was one of the more successful adult comics. Being a plucky 29-year-old, I wasn't around to enjoy it properly "at the time" - but I've still read a big pile of them. Looking back at the review I did, it DOES seem like I highlighted more of the stuff I disliked than stuff I liked, but there's still a fair few good bits in there - the entirety of Nigel Maughan's output, Barney's Rubble by Chris Whitehead, Whitley Baywatch by Lew Stringer, Jimmy Bowen by Paul Palmer, Big Fat Lass by Michael Hingley, Pete's Pranks by Anthony Smith, Sefton Ward: Paranormal Detective by "Gash" - yet mostly, and honestly, the vast majority of Spit! just doesn't amuse me. And a few days ago, Mr. Hey found this out, and spoke his mind.

Before we go any further, I am NOT trying to paint Mr. Hey as a villain - he voiced himself in a friendly and professional manner, and didn't call me a twat once despite the terrible vitriol I'd expressed at his work. Rather, he gave a detailed, behind-the-scenes account of what was going on at the time - most of which was news to me. Over to Graham, now:

Even though you seem to slag off virtually everything, it shows that you did know the market at the time. We were friends with Viz, yes, we were selling off the back of it, but the artwork (obviously not mine!) was excellent and fitted in with the idea that "anyone could get stuff published" which was part of the appeal. At Spit! we paid decent rates, usually on time, and treated everybody nicely. In fact, I can tell you that I am still friends with pretty much everyone who worked for us - yes, surprise surprise, I am a decent guy. Loads of comics failed to pay their contributors (I was not paid by Top Banana and about fifteen other adult comics). Spit! had a good reputation despite the fact you don't like it. It used to sell about 50,000 copies, so was one of the best selling adult comics. When Zit took us to court, to effectively put us out of business, we won, they went into liquidation and set up the next day. We were awarded full costs of 70K, but as they liquidated (again) we had to pay the costs ourselves - yet we still paid our staff - and some of them relied heavily on our payments. Top marks to people like Lew Stringer, Paul Palmer, Chris Whitehead, Paul Kelly, Nigel Maughan, all put a big effort in, and we had a loyal readership. I tried to stick by the guys who helped us out by saying stuff like "Pay me a few weeks late if that helps you..." I won't forget those guys.

Of my shite, Teenage Mum went on to be a daily cartoon strip in the Daily Star, and Chris Whitehead and Paul Kelly also helped to write a weekly comedy section in the newspaper which ran for several years. If you want to slag off comics - why not slag off the frauds, liars, cheats and all those who ripped good guys off - who were just trying to make a living of sorts. We were all young lads trying to get on the cartoon ladder (OK, maybe not Lew, as he was already successful) but Paul Palmer - top geezer, worked in the NHS, so did Whitehead, Nigel in the Police force. We all just tried to do something. Zit also failed to pay me over 10K for freelance work - which is why I set up Spit!, cos I was sick of fraudsters. Most of the other cartoonists were not paid by them either. On Spit! I remember paying some fees out of my own pocket in order to keep it going when the court case was going on. I left after about 15 issues or so as Express Newspapers asked me to write a comedy section for them. Paul Kelly took over as Editor. It was fun to work on, although drove me mad at times 'cos of people like Zit.

I have to say, I didn't feel too good after this. Say things about people, and obviously it'll catch up with you in the end, but certain parts of it gave me a queasy feeling - "Even though you slag off virtually everything"; "Surprise surprise, I am a nice guy" - I may have said things about the artwork/writing, but NOTHING about the actual people. What grounds would I have for that? And does it really read like I hate EVERYTHING? I explained to Graham that no, I don't hate everything about these comics... Let's hear from him again:

I’m glad you are covering the area of adult comics, but it just appears you are slagging them all off, when "for their time" several of them were very successful – including Spit! The Viz crew loved Spit!, as did many, many readers. We were not some corporate company looking to make fast money - we were a few young lads doing something we enjoyed, and knocking it together in the kitchen. You have to bear in mind that after three issues, Spit! was already 100K in debt 'cos of two legal cases that we WON. The Zit one was for "passing off" the NAME – which they said was too similar to theirs! The judge threw it out as a fraudulent prosecution. Their name was even more similar to Viz! Anyway, 'cos of all the debt, I had to write most of the scripts to save money, as I didn’t want to rip off cartoonists. Most of them were great, as they knew that myself and Spit! was a very honest comic - unlike many. We helped out several cartoonists, giving them legal advice when they were trying to get money from Zit. Top marks to Nigel, Paul Palmer etc – genuine guys with a love for comics. I made some great friends through Spit! I think it’s easy to knock comics without knowing the background. I would have loved to get several other cartoonists in, but we just couldn’t afford them, and I wasn’t going to exploit them! So that shaped Spit! 

Anyhow, time to go now. I hope you have a great Xmas. And for your new year’s resolution, try and say something nice about Spit! Go on, you’ll feel much better for it!

Isn't that nice? I know it can't've been nice to have put so much into a comic, then a couple of decades later some anonymous prick rips it apart on the Internet - but I really do have a genuine love for all of these comics. I wouldn't have spent so much time researching them, so much money buying them (must have over 300 of the things by now, not including Viz, although I haven't counted), so much physical effort in scanning and cropping them, so much time putting the articles together, and of course, so much time reading every page of every one of them. And yet, it appears I'm "slagging them all off". And for the last few days, I was really thinking about that - all along, has the perception been that I've been running this blog purely as a way of showing how shit that anything attempting to be Viz can be? Does my language really suggest that I detest every last one of these titles? Of course not - I even dropped the Viz-a-Like moniker, for fear of what it might be insinuating - just a cheap rip-off of Viz. To me, at least, these comics represent so much more than that. The "spirit" of underground cartoons, but sold on the shelves of WH Smith's and in corner shops and newsagents up and down the country. The kind of sales and widespread exposure the likes of Nasty Tales, Streetcomix and Pete Loveday's Big Bang Comics could only DREAM of. Thirty years ago, this kind of stuff would be the reserve of speciality shops, but ten years later, you could walk into the newsagents at the end of the road and have a choice of DOZENS of rude, crude, clever, silly, satirical, surreal, outrageous, and above all, different comics. The underground, overground, so to speak. I LOVE these comics, is what I'm saying. Even Winebibber and Jockstrap, about which I'll admit I had nothing positive to say, I can appreciate for just how different they are to nearly everything else.

And yet, when I found out that my blog's had the appearance of something that's mocking these comics, it got me questioning everything. Should I go back and re-write every single one of them? Should I delete the whole thing and pretend it never happened? Am I creating a false impression? Am I deluding MYSELF?

It took a couple of days thinking, some sleepless nights, and re-reading all of the comments on the various articles to come to a conclusion. I am not going to stop, I am going to finish what I started, I am going to carry on enjoying these comics exactly how I always have. I'm not going to pretend to like things (because there's such a thing as "journalistic integrity"), but at the same time, I'll be holding back on the bile for the bits that I don't like. A lesson has been learned here, put shortly. If I've upset any of the people behind these comics, I apologise - it's all down to opinion in the end, and YOU'RE the ones who made a living out of these. I'm just reading them all again, twenty years later, and trying to show as many people as possible what they've missed out on.

As I said earlier, I appreciate that Mr. Hey may have been upset about what I said about Spit! I stand by my opinion of it as one of my least favourites, but can also appreciate how well its staff were treated, and how it wasn't just a cynical cash-in on Viz's enormous popularity - indeed, a lot of my older friends have told me that Spit! was their favourite of all the various titles available at the time. I've spoken to many of the artists involved in these comics, even have some of them as "virtual" friends now (we're talking in the Facebook sense here), and not a single one of them has come across as a bad person. The upsetting thing is, it seems that perhaps I have been a steaming pile of shit all along. Funny old world, eh?

Cover Gallery! The last bit of Brain Damage, it's okay

SIX posts just on one title? It was hard to pick and choose with Brain Damage, it really was. And this final part of it (which marks the end of the FIRST part of the extended "look" at Galaxy Publications, remember) was a bit longer arriving, due to something happening... More on that another day. For now, here's all of the Brain Damage covers, mostly done by Russ Tudor, occasionally "also with" Bill Greenhead (aka. StiK) and the mysterious "Lucian".  

After the jump, obviously...

Brain Damage, Part 5 - Who is Lucian?

And now, the second-to-last part of the first part of the eight-part "series" about Galaxy Publications... Keeping up? This one's all about someone called Lucian. No idea on the "true" identity, or if anything else exists by him (her?). For Brain Damage though, Lucian did a LOT. Often with the equally enigmatic "Botsf'd", whoever THAT is. At the same time as being frustratingly unknown (to me anyway), Lucian's also bloody brilliant, the closest comparisons I can think of would be Gahan Wilson and Edika. I couldn't single out any particular contribution - so here's the whole lot of them, beginning with the Lucian-drawn cover for the seventh issue:

Loads more below...

Brain Damage, Part 4 - It may never happen

More from Brain Damage here, now - a round-up of Kevin Woodcock's numerous contributions over the issues. Kevin Woodcock as in the Leicester-based cartoonist, who did a ton of stuff for Private Eye, Punch, The Oldie, Knave, Fiesta and so on, right up until his death in 2007, at the age of 64. There's a lot of that sense of "not-quite-right" about his cartoons, certainly - disquieting surreality and all that. I'm trying to sound like an "art critic" here, and it's not working, but I like what I like and I like these a lot.

More below!

Tits and arses - Brain Damage Part 3

Yeah, this is working, right? Several smaller posts spread over a week while I'm getting a bigger one ready, saves all the delays and whatnot. This time, we're looking at a selection of Hunt Emerson's work for Brain Damage - specifically, the strange character of Arsover Tit, a two-headed rat-like creature that's naturally in two minds about every issue it's presented with.

We've already seen this one in the "main" Brain Damage piece, but here it is again, just so they're all in one handy place:

This isn't ALL of the adventures of Arsover Tit, just a few of my favourites. Partially because I don't have every issue of Brain Damage (YET), and also because... Well, wouldn't it be nice if they were all collected into a book, eventually? Mr. Emerson's recently had success with a Kickstarter-backed reprint of his Calculus Cat collection (get it if you haven't already, it's ridiculously brilliant), so, there's always a way, perhaps? Unless Arsover Tit is tied up with that American company that bought the rights to Brain Damage and then did nothing with it, that is.

But I blabber, here's the rest after the "jump" (this way):

Brain Damage, Part Two - A Bit of Borin

Here we go, the first of several "extra bits" for the big long bit about Brain Damage, this one focusing on several bits done by surrealist illustrator Borin Van Loon...

John was right! Brain Damage (part one, sort of)

This is the first of a seven-part (or eight or nine perhaps, maybe even ten) look at the various titles that Galaxy Publications put out between 1989 and 1992 (and several that spun-off from those titles). It's a bit of a complicated mess, and I'm not the tidiest of folk anyway, so expect things to get slightly jumbled here while I try and piece it all together... But it'll be worth it, really! Even the worst of Galaxy's output is about fifty times more entertaining than Smut ever was - and that's even with Galaxy being most well-known as the publishers of Fiesta. We're beginning, naturally, with the first of these in a chronological sense, and it's a good 'un. It's called Brain Damage.

This is a bit of a long one this (almost a hundred images, apologies to those with slower Internet facilities), so it'd be a good idea to put the kettle on before carrying on.

Bob and the girls

Sincere apologies to all who care - I've been working on an article, I really have, but it's taking FOREVER. Just so folk don't think this place has been abandoned, here's a bit of something that that nice Adam Smith has just shared with us. Taken from the end papers of the 1973 Judy annual, it's a silent masterpiece from Bob Dewar - this could be a classic children's book, instead it's tucked away in obscurity. It shouldn't be that way!

This remains the only reason I can find for investigating comics aimed at girls... Was Mr. Dewar hiding in the likes of Bunty and Misty as well? Who knows?

Flesh-Freezing Frolics

The next article/write-up sort of thing's taking a LOT longer to put together than I thought it would, so, before October disappears like so many Benjamin Bathursts, here's something "spooky". And sort of appropriate too, in that it's a horror comic from 1992, published by Kev Sutherland's UT Productions, the company that put out such comics as Ut, Kack and Gag (articles on which are definitely on the way!). It's got, possibly, the best title a horror comic has ever had:

See?

Experience terror the likes of which you've never imagined by carrying on with the reading...

Balls (ha ha etc)

Just a quick note/link thing here...

In seeking out and being equally entertained and depressed by all these not-quite-Viz comics, there's always going to be some that are inaccessible to my own self. Some, like Klam, because of their absurdly low print runs, and others - well, others because I just can't be bothered with them, because I know I won't enjoy them so hardly seem worth the effort. The Winebibber was partially an exception to this, because it was so odd that it'd be a shame not to make others suffer through it, and others...

Yeah, football ones. Three such "big ones" exist, namely The Onion Bag, Sweet FA and C'mon Ref. In the comments section of the Spit! write-up, Rob Filth and Lew Stringer spoke of their experiences working on C'mon Ref which put me off the idea of seeking out issues even MORE than the fact that my interest in football is residual at best. But still, curiosity and all that...

No need now anyway, wait long enough and the Internet's bound to throw up something. Ben Baker has recently done an article about all three of these pitiful-sounding rags, saving me some money and satiating my curiosity at the same time. Go and read it by clicking on the big red words: HERE

New scary comic thing

Just a short "plug"/review thing here - there's a new comic out! It's aimed at the shorter, less aged members of society, BUT, it's a one-man job done by Joe Matthews - whose work has previously appeared in Gas, Elephant Parts, Brain Damage, Ut, Sweet FA and Pulp - so that means it has relevance and is interesting. And it's always nice to see a new comic that isn't based on a TV series or toy, so here it is - it's called Funny Monsters:

All highly appropriate stuff - it's out at the start of October, which is the "spooky" month according to the shops, and it's got loads of the slimy, gooey stuff that kiddies always love - chiefly from "main character" Zackster - Kid Zombie:

If I was two decades younger and all that, I'd be all over this - look at one of the most popular toylines around at the moment, the Trash Pack. A big load of slime and eyeballs will always get the youngsters excited. "Good luck" is what I'm saying here.

There's other things in there too - Werewolf Growl (who's a werewolf character), a group of bed bugs with varying personality traits - my favourite of which is the paranoid Colin:

Several puzzles and colouring pages and the like, and even a text story, starring likeable heroine Milly Monster Hunter - here's Milly appearing in a Spot-The-Difference setup:

Neil Gaiman's Coraline is who she reminds me of, mostly.

For me personally, the highlight is the back cover, the Scary Spooky Selfie - a modern take on Basil Wolverton's fearsome fizogs or Ken Reid's back covers for the likes of Shiver & Shake and Whoopee!:

There's even some "free gifts" with it that AREN'T throwaway bits of plastic - instead, it's stickers and Top Trumps-ish cards:

Funny Monsters is available from an armful of newsagents throughout the North West (of England), priced £2 - OR, in an easier way, directly from the Facebook page. Still priced £2, including postage but lacking the packet of sweets that newsagent buyers get with it (click here for it). Joe will also be appearing at the following places, sketching and selling his wares:

Saturday 11th October - The Living Deadcon, Liverpool

Saturday 25th October - Preston Comic Con

Sunday 26th October - Wheatsheaf Comic Con, Rochdale 

Monday 27/28th - Millgate Shopping Centre, Bury

Wednesday 29th October - Bay View Shopping Centre, Colwyn Bay

Thursday 20th October - St Johns Shopping Centre, Leeds

Friday 31st October - Kelsalls Bookshop, Littleborough

Friday 31st Oct - Evening at the Baum for Rochdale Ghost Walks

Sunday 16th November - Bolton Comic Con

One last note - Funny Monsters is printed on a weird kind of paper that smells strangely familiar and isn't liked much by my scanner, hence the strange washed-out look of the images above. They don't REALLY look like that, I can assure you!

The next issue will be a festive one, so that's something else to look forward to.

Christenings/Weddings/Funerals/Jumble Sales

Three or four weeks ago, I got a book - Roger Sabin's Adult Comics - An Introduction (ridiculously expensive on Amazon so I won't bother providing a link). In the customary three paragraphs he took to dismiss the various Viz clones, there was something I'd never heard of:

"Winebibber was another anomaly, and was published by a fundamentalist group within the Church of England. It included strips like the dismal 'Barry Belf - He Evangelises Himself'."

I mentioned it in conversation with Adam Smith, who promptly found a compilation/"Best Of" kind of thing on Amazon. For two pounds, why not? Now that it's here, I'm sort of wishing I didn't bother...

Read on, read on, for the worst thing to happen to comics since Jockstrap.

Bob's Beano

Seeing as how Bob Dewar's so fantastic and everything, here's some more of his stuff - all of this is from the 1993 Beano book (as in, from 1992). Possibly my favourite Beano book ever, along with the 1990 and 1992 ones... It's like Sophie's Choice, really!

He has a LOT of pages in this book:

For those not "in the know", scanning annuals is HARD.

And here's Bob Dewar's first ever interview from earlier this year, thanks to Adam Smith for the link:

Bob Dewar on Life as a Cartoonist and Illustrator

The Castle of King Splud

Just so there's not a massive amount of time with nothing happening while I'm preparing the next article, and in a massively desperate attempt at "topical relevance", here's a feature-length adventure from my favourite Scottish cartoonist (or maybe favourite cartoonist all round), Mr. Bob Dewar. Taken from the 1990 Beezer book (meaning it was published in 1989).

It was only after scanning these pages that I noticed my scanner appears to have hairs on it, hence, we have hairy pictures there. Sorry about that - one of the few disadvantages of living with a cat.

Problems for youngsters

It's 1991, and these adverts are appearing in various magazines across the land...

Be prepared, it's a big fat thing about Acne, as in, Viz for kids, sort of. That's how it was marketed anyway, much in the same way that Oink! was perceived. Only this one has more swearing in it - here's your first issue's cover:

Look, it's Bart Simpson getting smacked in the face. Acne is about as "Nineties" as it gets:

See? Carry on reading, this is going to be a long one...

More Petrie Classics!

Didn't have time to scan this lot this morning, what with having a job and so on, but they're here now - some more favourites from the pen of the dearly departed Jim Petrie... Beginning with an episode of the Sparky People, from the 1980 (or 1979, that's how annuals work) Sparky book:

A Minnie classic now, from the 1990 Beano book (the first Beano annual I ever got) - this one even got animated for the Beano Video back in 1993 (which I assumed would be on YouTube in full, but isn't, shockingly enough).

And lastly, a couple of oddities from the 1993 Topper annual - the early 1990s (and especially the later part of that decade) were VERY interesting with regards to the Beezer and the Topper - in that the artists were free to do pretty much whatever they wanted, which is how we ended up with Jim giving us this colourful character:

And this absurdity of nature - must've read this one over a hundred times when I was a youngster:

So once more, here's a toast of sorts to someone who's utterly irreplaceable in the comics world.