Weirdest-Ever Comic Strips!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I also remember seeing the '89 Compendium featuring the sinister children/Return of the Claw story, Steelclaw....this large, telephone-directory sized book also had the CLOAK by Mike Higgs, another strip I was happy to see again.....sadly, the standard of reproduction of the strips were awful, so I passed on this item.


Great nightmarish image with the horse, Phil! I reckon comics can compete with any medium regarding the ability to startle and disturb people!

Peter: this thread is not really your scene, man, but at one time, this sort of thing was fairly common in comics! [there were a lot of imported US horror tales as well in the 60s/70s]. Lurid, but delightfully chilling, in some cases.

[Kashgar]

Sorry about that Peter!

'The Girl in the Mask' was drawn by Claude Berridge who was responsible for most of the Mandy cover art.

I was wondering about that - thanks Kashgar! Incidentally, am I right in thinking that the long-time cover artist for Bunty was James 'Peem' Walker?

- Phil Rushton

No Phil. The Bunty cover artist from 1958 to 1985 was actually a woman, Doris Kinnear (nee Brine). She should also be familiar to regular readers of 'The Sunday Post' as she did a lot of spot art for the paper for many years on things like 'The Docs Page' etc. By all accounts she was a rather tall, imposing woman with a very loud voice on the rare occasions she visited the Thomsons offices after she began to work from home (she had been a Thomson employee since the 1930's when she used to work in the section of the art dept specifically put aside for the fairer sex in those days). Her husband Doug Kinnear, who was also a Thomson employee, would bring her work into the Meadowside building for her.

[philcom55]

Thanks for setting the record straight on that Kashgar! I thought Paul Gravett sounded a bit unsure of himself when he said the cover for August 2nd 1958 was 'reportedly' drawn by Peem Walker in his Great British Comics. It's nice to know that not all the girls' comics were drawn by blokes, and I must say that Doris's female characters always tended to be particularly believable in the same way that Purita Campos' are.

- Phil Rushton

[Captain Storm]

Return Of The Claw looks like the work of Casanovas...?

The Cap.

[Lew Stringer]

Return Of The Claw looks like the work of Casanovas...?

The Cap.

It's by Jesus Blasco.

[Tammyfan]

We did something like this on another thread, Girls strips are much weirder then boys strips unless you know better.
These were from Mandy 1983 for those who haven't seen them.
The weirder the strip the more I like them.
The poor girl in the Mask strip just kills me.





The Thread
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtop ... ilit=bunty

The Girl in the Mask strip was reprinted in M&J as "The Mask".

[Phoenix]

steelclaw wrote:
We did something like this on another thread, Girls strips are much weirder then boys strips unless you know better.
These were from Mandy 1983 for those who haven't seen them.
The weirder the strip the more I like them.
The poor girl in the Mask strip just kills me.

Well this steelclaw thread has been dredged up from the dim and distant past. Is any member still in touch with him? Paul hasn't posted since March 2014. We did meet once in 2010 by arrangement, and spent an enjoyable day rooting through antique shops and the odd secondhand bookshop in Notting Hill, and then finishing the day off with a convivial pint or two. He did say then that he wouldn't be posting on this forum for some time as he was busy cataloguing his vinyl collection prior to uploading the lot to some website or other. It must have been some collection if he is still doing it. Of course I admit that it is possible that he is still reading our posts without signing in.

[paw broon]

What a great thread and one I hadn't stumbled upon previously. I have the Steel Claw story, and a digital version of the French reprint, (actually, it was the French comic where I first read the story) and that is a disturbing idea with the children who could be versions of those in Children of the Damned. My lack of knowledge of girls' comics worries me and never having seen either the girl in the mask or Balloon Girl is really annoying, as they look like rather good ideas.
I suppose that's where comicsuk and those excellent posts in the girls' comics section are so worthwhile. There is always more to be learned.

[Phoenix]

My lack of knowledge of girls' comics worries me and never having seen either the girl in the mask or Balloon Girl is really annoying, as they look like rather good ideas. I suppose that's where comicsuk and those excellent posts in the girls' comics section are so worthwhile. There is always more to be learned.

If you have any specific queries in mind, Paw, I'm sure that Lorraine, Briony, Helen or I could have a stab at answering them. In the meantime you could familiarise yourself thoroughly with the various topic areas on the girlscomicsofyesterday site. There are plenty of them, enough to keep you busy for a good while.

[comixminx]

What a great thread and one I hadn't stumbled upon previously. I have the Steel Claw story, and a digital version of the French reprint, (actually, it was the French comic where I first read the story) and that is a disturbing idea with the children who could be versions of those in Children of the Damned. My lack of knowledge of girls' comics worries me and never having seen either the girl in the mask or Balloon Girl is really annoying, as they look like rather good ideas.
I suppose that's where comicsuk and those excellent posts in the girls' comics section are so worthwhile. There is always more to be learned.

Those Children of the Damned type pictures in the Steel Claw are indeed excellent! Very creepy.

Another good thing about reading 'across the divide' of boys comics / girls comics is that there are great artists who stuck to one or the other type of comic - in the Balloon girl story for instance that was Robert MacGillivray, great artist.