David Sutherland

[philcom55]

...And while I'm at it here's Dave's first-ever Beano page from March 10th 1962, with an amazingly effective approximation of Paddy Brennan's inking style.



- Phil R.

[Digifiend]

You mean 1960, not 1962. Also, "deciding to hand Leo his notice"? I thought Leo quit, to join Odhams.

[philcom55]

Oops - you're right Digi! That page is actually taken from the beginning of Danny's second series in 1962, by which time he'd spent over a year drawing 'The Great Flood of London' as well as 'The Cannonball Crackshots'. As for Leo's departure from Beano, however, this happened quite some time before he left DCT altogether. He carried on working for Beezer right up until June 1964.

- Phil Rushton

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

An astonishingly prolific body of work from Mr Sutherland, especially considering the ultra-high-quality output of the 60s period especially----------I am thoroughly enjoying this thread.

[philcom55]

Mentioning the 'Great Flood' reminds me that this thread really wouldn't be complete without an episode from that masterful epic:



- I love those individual themed headers that D C Thomson's adventure strips tended to open with in those days - especially when one thinks how much easier it would have been to just slot in a standard photostat every week!

...And if that wasn't enough work for a relatively new artist to cope with, the very next week saw the amazing Mr Sutherland taking on an extra two pages with the first instalment of 'The Cannonball Crackshots"!



One can't help but think that if the Beano hadn't suddenly found itself in need of a replacement for Leo Baxendale in 1962 Dave could've easily gone on to specialize in realistic strips for the rest of his career.

- Phil Rushton

[Digifiend]

He'd still have had to switch to humour sooner or later, considering that they dropped all adventure stories in the 1970s, and they did also need to replace Dudley Watkins and David Law when they died. Anyway, they always knew David could do humour, he'd been drawing Disney posters before he joined the Beano.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I reckon that Dave's tenure on Bash Street after succeeding Mr Baxendale was the smoothest transisition between two comics artists [in the funnies field] regarding top-quality output.


The only comparable work of this quality that approaches this was Ken Harrisons' masterful work on Desperate Dan and The Broons/Oor Wullie: but even here, it was quite easy to spot the diffeences between Dudley Watkins and Ken's styles of drawing-----the Baxendale /Sutherland blurring of 1962 is difficult to differentiate, even for seasoned comics buffs.

[Peter Gray]

I also love the title panels being different each week..very creative..also the Beezer adventure strips had great different title panels on there adventure strips..on my blog I'm always going on about how great these title panels alone are the tops!!

I always think Frank McDiarmid was also good at this with Ken reid on Big head and Thick head to me very difficult to tell apart.. I agree Leo and David's work in the early 60's look very similar..though I'm sure there are people on here who can instantly tell..
Another is Tom Paterson doing Leo Baxendale style that could be tricky to tell the difference as well..like a strip like Sweeny Toddler..


we got to see the great flood of London in Classics from the comics because of my request....

[philcom55]

Did Classics reprint the entire run of 'The Great Flood'?

To my mind Leo's Bash Street tended to be rather more manic and over-the-top than David's version, which in turn had it's own brand of comic inventiveness. Here's another early example of the latter which seems to anticipate the Bash Street Pups by several years.



In some ways Leo suffered from having developed an instantly-appealing style that was relatively easy to imitate. Thus, when he suddenly disappeared from the pages of the Beano in August 1962 hardly anybody noticed as Dave Sutherland, Ron Spencer, Jim Petrie and Bob McGrath managed to continue the Bash Street Kids, Little Plum, Minnie the Minx and the Three Bears (more than a quarter of the entire comic!) as if nothing had happened!

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

you are of course right...Leo created the lunacy and style..

My favourite comic artist ever is Leo Baxendale
with Tom Paterson after...its not David Sutherland..But I also do love David's Bash street as well of course..and many ..many other comic artists..
But Leo to me is the best..

[philcom55]

To my mind Leo specialized in grand set-pieces and tableaux whereas Dave was more of a natural storyteller. I don't think the latter ever crammed quite as much insane detail into a single panel as Leo managed to include in this late Bash Street page from 1962, shortly before the changeover.



Of course, one important thing to remember about Leo's style is the way in which it evolved constantly throughout his career - something that his more slavish imitators (amongst whom, to be fair, I don't count Dave!) never managed.

- Phil Rushton

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

It's beautiful, beautiful stuff.

[Digifiend]

Did Classics reprint the entire run of 'The Great Flood'?

They skipped a few episodes, but did complete it.

[philcom55]

Thanks Digi.

By contrast with the Baxendale page above here's another early Sutherland story (it is his thread after all!) from 1962 which, in my opinion, highlights the difference between their two approaches.



Whereas Leo would almost certainly have gone to town with certain scenes - the Kids' confrontation with the army for instance - it's noticeable that Dave opts for an even progression of images in which the story flows naturally from panel to panel. In a way Leo treats his strip as a succession of separate events which centre on one or more visual punchlines, while Dave looks upon each double-page set as a unified whole in which no single image is allowed to stand out from all the others.

That's my take on it anyway!

- Phil Rushton

[paw broon]

I can't thank you all enough for this excellent topic and for the accompanying illos.
As a Bash St fan, I've learned a lot and didn't realise there was the change from Baxendale to Sutherland, although I do remember that there seemed to be a change from that crazy, everybody in sort of mayhem to a slightly less frantic, more detailed story. Wonderful stuff.