Comics UK

I just thought I'd say how exceptional the Biffo strip jointly produced by Dudley Watkins and Bob McGrath was. It was a clever idea and worked out very effectively. What makes it work, in my opinion, is that the characters look exactly as they should, being drawn by their actual artists. It is a fan...

Thanks again Kashgar. It's odd why there's so few of him. I suppose, though, we've got four and a half decades from a character who was expected to last a year or so until possible storylines had been exhausted... Does anyone know (Kashgar's top 100 list may help here): The longest running strip NOT...

I don't think the Beano characters would lend themselves to claymation or, correctly, stop motion animation. Anyone who knows anything about the making of Wallace and Gromit knows how long it takes them to make the films - 2 or 3 seconds of useful film in a day! Also, there are a lot of special effe...

I would definitely count myself as a Vic Neill fan. We don't know an awful lot about him (same could be said of a number of British artists), so it would be good to find out. He had a nice, appealing art work style which I liked. Great to hear from his son, it's not every day you get something like ...

I think the Dandy needs to turn things around before it reaches the point of no return. However, it is positive that there's no reprint material, although one or two well chosen reprints are not a problem as long as they don't take over the comic. That proved to be the beginning of the end for so ma...

In the earliest strips Plug was a bit less ugly - however by the time of Steve's example from 1961, he had become the recognisable goon with the mirror-breaking face. I once heard Plug described as having 'a face only a mother could love, and only then in a darkened room with shades on !

This harks back to something mentioned in the thread 'I'm bidding farewell to the Dandy', with the idea of an animated Billy Whizz. I suggested that the stories ought to be based on the comic strips, but was informed that the stories in the weekly comic were far too short (true) and that he didn't a...

I have a whole classics type book - Dennis and Gnasher 'Cartoon Capers', which has reprinted strips from Beano, Dandy, Beezer, Topper, Sparky, Nutty, Buzz and Cracker. The Numskulls don't appear in it unfortunately, which is odd in a 382 page book (yes I counted the pages). But then again, Roger the...

If I'm correct the Beano birds appeared in the Beano book from 1994. I'm pretty sure it was, though the annual didn't have the cover on it.

I was a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine as a child (I spent many hours watching videos of the early series), and interestingly enough I bumped into the same site. The original poem (not sure if this is quite right, word for word) that the Rev. Awdry wrote in the story 'The Sad Story of Henry' was:...

Erm, as a non reader, all of them! (only joking) Beryl the Peril was never meant to be a direct female counterpart to Dennis the Menace and nor was Minnie the Minx. Indeed part of the whole point of Minnie was that she has the strength and spirit of an Amazonian warrior, and is tougher than most boy...

Boy, that was quick! I think that Christmas Carole had a lovely artwork style, but the pencils would have become a problem, and who'd want to read a strip about Christmas in July? The department stores start Christmas early enough already :lol: . I thought Big Brad Wolf was a good strip. It will hav...

Technically, Joe King wasn't a strip. This was a degree of controversy when Kashgar ran the Beano top 100 (a thread you might want to read if you have a lot of time on your hands! :) ) series last summer - he ranked 63rd in the list of all time appearances, but was never in a comic strip of his own....

I agree with you about Vic Neill. I like his Billy Whizz strips as well. In fact, most of your favourites match mine. I've liked most of the recent additions to the comic (Johnny Bean and Super School, plus Fred's Bed which was originally reprint). Vic Neill was never properly replaced in the Beano ...

Oops :oops: . I made a bit of a blunder about Wayne - I hadn't noticed his name! My favourite HBG character has to be No Effort Kid, followed by Fred the Tramp. It's a fascinating place really - in a couple of years we've met many more distinct characters than several long running strips have featur...