Does anyone recognize these strips? (Big Comic Fortnightly)

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 09 Dec 2007, 22:32

"The Hornet" sent me these scans of old strips rebranded as Badtime Bedtime Stories, in Big Comic Fortnightly:

Issue 49 (dated 14-27 April 1990) had a story based on the goose that laid the golden egg. [img

1482]http://www.enterthestory.com/images/bad ... den_01.jpg[/img]

Issue 51(dated 12-25 May 1990) had a story about a witch who awoke from centuries of sleep to discover the modern world. [img:637:763]http://www.enterthestory.com/images/bad ... 1990_1.jpg[/img]

Issue 52 (dated 26 May - 8 June 1990) had a story about an escaped snake. [img

1539]http://www.enterthestory.com/images/bad ... 1990_1.jpg[/img]

They're two page stories, and hopefully the second page of each can be seen by changing the end of the URL from "1" to "2." Any ideas where they might have come from?[/img]

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 09 Dec 2007, 23:32

I don't know which issues they originated from but the last two look like the work of Tom Williams. (Definitely not Baxendale or Paterson obviously.)

Lew

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 10 Dec 2007, 09:05

Thanks. With three of them I wondered if they were part of a series, or if someone found them at random? It seems very unusual for any series to have new characters each week. It's a pure kind of story telling, so different from the brand-name driven fiction everywhere else. I don't know enough about comics to say for sure, but I wonder if this kind of thing is almost unique? I mean, to have a series where everything (characters, genre, the lot) is different every week. Maybe it was common years ago?

Steve Bright · Post by **Steve Bright** » 10 Dec 2007, 09:28

Lew Stringer wrote:I don't know which issues they originated from but the last two look like the work of Tom Williams. (Definitely not Baxendale or Paterson obviously.)

Lew

A chance to disagree with Lew doesn't come along very often, so you have to grab it when it does. Do you mean the same Tom Williams that worked extensively for Nutty, Lew? Because if so, I don't see it. On the other hand, the lady on the right of the penultimate frame in the third one simply screams Keith Reynolds at me.

As ever, I add the caveat, I'm no expert.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 10 Dec 2007, 10:43

Steve Bright wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:I don't know which issues they originated from but the last two look like the work of Tom Williams. (Definitely not Baxendale or Paterson obviously.)

Lew
A chance to disagree with Lew doesn't come along very often, so you have to grab it when it does. Do you mean the same Tom Williams that worked extensively for Nutty, Lew? Because if so, I don't see it. On the other hand, the lady on the right of the penultimate frame in the third one simply screams Keith Reynolds at me.

As ever, I add the caveat, I'm no expert.

You're right Steve, sorry. I was thinking of Keith Reynolds. (The way he draws his characters bent arms gave it away.) For some reason I always think his name is Tom Williams! I know there is an artist called Tom Williams so what does his style look like?

I bet I won't mix 'em up again after this.

Lew

Toonpooch · Post by **Toonpooch** » 10 Dec 2007, 11:20

Lew, are you thinking of Thomas Williams? - He brought us the joys of Tiny Tycoon, The Ghost Town, Money Talks, Kids Court and - my fave - Creature Teacher in Monster Fun...

http://www.toonhound.com/creature.htm

- Frazer

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 10 Dec 2007, 12:29

Toonpooch wrote:Lew, are you thinking of Thomas Williams? - He brought us the joys of Tiny Tycoon, The Ghost Town, Money Talks, Kids Court and - my fave - Creature Teacher in Monster Fun...

http://www.toonhound.com/creature.htm

- Frazer

That's him. Thanks. Dunno why I always mix him up with Keith Reynolds. There's a very slight similarity at the root of their work but the styles are completely different!

Thanks again.

Lew

Steve Bright · Post by **Steve Bright** » 10 Dec 2007, 12:38

That's the same Tom Williams, Frazer - thanks for posting that. He had a wonderfully unique style, and always gave more than he was asked. He also drew Peter Pest for Nutty, and I had a lot of self-indulgent fun scripting Steevie Starr for him, where the eponymous hero was set in a different movie/tv show parody each week. I've had a tidy-up recently and as a result I haven't a clue where I've put the few remaining copies I have of the first three Nutty comics, but when I stumble across them, I'll scan some more of his work to show here.

Sadly, Tom died not long ago, and I exchanged a couple of emails with his daughter not long after, exchanging memories of her father (initiated through this site, if my memory serves me well). I never actually met him face to face, but we'd exchange notes on the scripts passed between us, and spoke occasionally on the phone. Lovely chap, and a superb cartoonist.

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 10 Dec 2007, 12:38

Toonpooch wrote:Lew, are you thinking of Thomas Williams? - He brought us the joys of Tiny Tycoon, The Ghost Town, Money Talks, Kids Court and - my fave - Creature Teacher in Monster Fun...
http://www.toonhound.com/creature.htm
- Frazer

Ah, happy memories! A top class artist indeed. And I agree, Creature Teacher was the best. Although I'm a big fan of Monster Fun (the first comic I ever bought, and home to the Badtime Bedtime Books) I'm the first to admit that some of its other content was pretty ordinary. but Creature teacher IMO was the best of its regular strips. Inspired madness with the "anything can happen" feel, and genuinely evil kids. Beautiful stuff.

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 11 Dec 2007, 12:25

Sad to hear that Tom Williams passed away. Both he and Keith Reynolds had quite a considerable input in the early issues of Thomsons comic library series in the early 1980's as I recall. I seem to remember that Tom was given the job of doing the artwork for most of the Winker Watson strips that featured in the Dandy Comic Library amongst other things.
Re these Badtime Bedtime stories. I'll stick my neck out and say that they weren't repackaged but were reprinted in Big Comic exactly as they had originally appeared. Where they originally appeared is however a bit problemmatic? Not in the weekly Monster Fun nor in the weekly Buster with which it was amalgamated, so annuals and summer/holiday specials of same, and of which there were many, come to mind. If I get the time I'll have a flick through a few examples from the late 1970's and early 1980's to see if serendipity can provide us with the answer.

Muffy · Post by **Muffy** » 11 Dec 2007, 16:31

I wonder if they come from selected reprint pages of the badtime bedtime books, with only 7 or 8 frames per 'story' they might be 1 page out of the 8 that were in Monster Fun's pull outs

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 11 Dec 2007, 17:51

Muffy wrote:I wonder if they come from selected reprint pages of the badtime bedtime books, with only 7 or 8 frames per 'story' they might be 1 page out of the 8 that were in Monster Fun's pull outs

If so then they must be from the seven stories that I still don't have on the site. Notice how I sneakily mentioned that my badtime bedtime site only needs another seven scans?

BTW, am I the only one who reads "Keith Reynolds" as "Keith Richards"?

Post by **AndyB** » 12 Dec 2007, 18:47

The first one might be Mike Brown? Others are 100% Keith.

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