Ken Reid's Robot Smith (?)

[philcom55]

To be honest I've never been very interested in any characters from IPC's Jackpot other than 'The Terror Toys' and the utterly bonkers UK superhero team 'The Amazing three'. However, having just unearthed a copy of the first issue while doing some spring cleaning, I was surprised to find this strip which seems to be a little-known creation of the inimitable Ken Reid (unless, of course, it's the work of an extremely good imitator!).



I wonder if any of Ken's many fans can confirm that Robot Smith was indeed one of his - and if so, how many episodes did he draw? (For what it's worth he'd clearly moved on by no.23 which is the only other issue I have to hand.)

- Phil Rushton

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

To my eye this looks 100 per cent Ken Reid in his late 70s - early 80s style. My notes say Ken Reid drew Robot Smith in Jackpot issues 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14. I will be able to check my collection tomorrow to confirm.

[philcom55]

Thanks K-P - I knew I could rely on you!

I may be wrong but that distinctive "Erk!" makes me think he wrote the script as well.

- Phil Rushton

[stevezodiac]

Shame about the rubbish lettering. Hand lettering is always better than that mechanical stuff.

[AndyB]

100% Ken. Jackpot was marked out by using the old letraset-style (and for all I know, actual letraset) lettering.

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

Phil, I looked through early issues of Jackpot to check if any Robot Smith episodes were signed by Ken, but none of them were. It was not uncommon for Ken to sign his IPC art from the late 70s onwards - many of his Faceache pages in Buster from the same period bear his signature (and in my opinion Ken’s Faceache art from that particular year is way superior to Robot Smith pages that look more like Ken's work towards the end of his career in the 80s to me). Anyway, I have no doubts that those early Robot Smith sets were indeed by Ken Reid. Here is another example from Jackpot No 7.



For comparison, below is an example of Faceache in Buster and Monster Fun from the same week (16th June, 1979) and another random episode from 1979 (24th February, 1979). Quite a difference, isn’t it?

[philcom55]

Fascinating comparison K-P! You're right of course - the basic style is clearly the same in both examples, yet Ken seems to have lavished far more effort on the Faceache page (which is probably why he signed that but didn't bother with Robot Smith). It certainly wasn't unusual for Fleetway/IPC to launch a strip with one of their star artists only to replace him with a less seasoned hand after a few episodes; I'd guess that Ken agreed to introduce Robot Smith as a favour to the editor, knowing from the start that he'd only be doing a few episodes.

Still, even if it was one of his lesser efforts, it's nice to be able to add another character to Ken's select list of comic strips!

- Phil Rushton

[jakob1978]

Fascinating comparison K-P! You're right of course - the basic style is clearly the same in both examples, yet Ken seems to have lavished far more effort on the Faceache page (which is probably why he signed that but didn't bother with Robot Smith). It certainly wasn't unusual for Fleetway/IPC to launch a strip with one of their star artists only to replace him with a less seasoned hand after a few episodes; I'd guess that Ken agreed to introduce Robot Smith as a favour to the editor, knowing from the start that he'd only be doing a few episodes.

Still, even if it was one of his lesser efforts, it's nice to be able to add another character to Ken's select list of comic strips!

- Phil Rushton

here is the Robot Smith strip from Issue 19, and although i'm rubbish at Identifying artists, it does look like a different artist to me.

[Raven]

here is the Robot Smith strip from Issue 19, and although i'm rubbish at Identifying artists, it does look like a different artist to me.

John "Puss 'n' Boots" Geering?

[Digifiend]

Yeah, I recognised that right away, looks like Geering's style to me as well.