Bloopers

[Lew Stringer]

The Cuddles title header looks like it was drawn by somebody else, but the story itself does look like Barrie's version of the character.

No it's definitely a fill-in by Steve Bright.

Lew

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

'SPOTTED DICK' was a bit of a mystery; it seemed designed and sometime drawn by BARRIE APPLEBY: but the bulk of the later strips were likely done by someone else doing a very accurate representation of BA'S style......but not quite!

Perhaps Barrie done the pencils only, which would explain why his style bled through so prominently, even if some other artist's inking style seemed to be evident.....I know that Barrie adopted this US-style tradition of different penciler/inker during the '80s......very rare indeed in UK 'funnies'.

[Jonny Whizz]

Yeah, it's rare for that to happen over here, the only other example I can think of in UK comics is Laura Howell inking in Hunt Emerson's pencils on Ratz in the Beano in 2006-2007.

[Lew Stringer]

Artists working to the American penciler / inker technique is standard practice in the UK Panini comics, and the Marvel UK titles before that. (And in the non-profit making indie comics, if we can include those.) Those comics tend to use more pages per episode so it makes sense to share the art duties to meet a deadline.

I'm sure some artists of the past used assistants for inking too. (I seem to recall hearing that Solano Lopez ran a studio, with assistants ghosting his style to help him out. Jesus Blasco may have done the same. Is that correct?)

You're right that the practice was unusual in most UK comics though.

Lew

[AndyB]

It's a Steve Bright Cuddles for sure. I identified it a mile off.

[Classic Comics]

I don't have a copy of Classics From The Comics to hand (despite my handle I don't work on Classics) so I won't comment on the individual Spotted Dick story in question but since I wrote most of the Spotted Dicks (one of my very first jobs) I can background it a bit. Spotted Dick was mostly drawn by John Aldrich (Sid, it was your spelling that was wonky) but a number of other artists also did pages. Barrie Appleby did some of the early ones and filled in a few times, and I'm sure that on a few occasions, John inked from Barrie's pencils in order to speed things up. Barrie and John have very similar styles, so it worked very well for them and for us. Jerry Swaffield, Steve Bright, Gordon Bell and Tom Paterson also drew the Spotty lad over the years.

[Kashgar]

From memory I seem to recall that, for a time at least, Barrie Appleby was one third a studio sharing triumvirate that went under the name of BJP Productions or something of the sort with the other two artists in question being John Aldrich and Peter Davidson. That being the case it is quite possible that some strips were completed by more than one artist.
Re Solano Lopez and Jesus Blasco they both did have studios of artists working to their style but I think it was of a more cottage industry, homespun affair in Blasco's case as I think all of his assistants consisted of his less talented brothers.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Thanks for tidying that up guys: it reinforces my 'educated guess'.

And me with only an Art O-LEVEL!

[AndyB]

For the benefit of the slow (ie me), can I assume that if artwork looks like it might be Barrie Appleby, but not quite, it may be John Aldrich but I should ask in here first?