Bunty's humour pages..

[Peter Gray]

Bunty's humour pages..

I've seen Toots by Bill..what were the other ones..

also what other humour pages were there and by what artist..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunty

would be great to see an example if possibe..thanks..

Mighty Mo- A comic strip about a Desperate Dan-esque girl who is always trying to be feminine.

Bella the Bookworm- A comic strip about a girl who loves books.

[Phoenix]

Bunty's humour pages..
I've seen Toots by Bill..what were the other ones..
also what other humour pages were there and by what artist..
would be great to see an example if possible..thanks.

I'm not sure that you are aware, Peter, of the magnitude of this request of yours. You must surely realise that it would take somebody many months to respond fully to it, given that Bunty ran for 2249 issues during her forty-three year life. Perhaps you could settle for Bill Ritchie's work to start with, and then take it slowly from there.

[Peter Gray]

Only the ones that are worth mentioning..and seeing..what was the best..

I know Bill did some other characters in Bunty so would be interested to see..

[philcom55]

Here's one of Bill's rather more obscure Bunty characters from 1959:



- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Thanks Phil..that is great.like the Indian bringing his bed of nails and she carrying all the luggage up the stairs..

What year was that one?

I know Bill drew Little Lulu.the image got lost on my blog post and on this forum when Geocities closed down..

Looks like I need to buy a Bunty comic...sometime myself..from the early 60's..

[Digifiend]

What year was that one? It's mentioned in his post!

Here's one of Bill's rather more obscure Bunty characters from 1959:

[Shaqui]

Was The Four Marys really drawn by Barrie Mitchell? Perhaps I'm getting confused with another strip (my sister got 'Bunty' and 'Mandy' when we were young, and I read those too) but if it's the one I think then surely it wasn't his regular style?

When I interviewed Barrie about his 'Look-in' work a while back I did ask about other strips he had done, and mentioned stuff for 'Diana' in the 1960s.

Anyone got a scan from The Four Marys?



*edit* I found this page only which has three different 'Four Marys' images, neither of which I believe is Barrie Mitchell. Pretty sure the middle one is Selby Donnison:

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupi ... ics80.html

But this image is the artist I usually associate with the strip:

[philcom55]

Barrie Mitchell definitely drew the later Four Marys strips, while the original artist was Bill Holroyd. I must admit that the other style you mention has always reminded me of Selby Donnison as well, though I've never been able to decide whether it really was him. I wonder if Kashgar can clear this up?

- Phil Rushton

[Kashgar]

After Bill Holroyd, who drew the first 16 episodes the major artist on 'The Four Marys' became Peem Walker who drew the strip for the next twenty years. The middle example is Selby Donnison and the artist who drew most of the Four Marys' strips in the Bunty's last decade was Jim Eldridge.

[philcom55]

Amazing! I've seen Barrie Mitchell positively linked with the later Four Marys strips in at least a dozen different places, but since Jim Eldridge was another Roy of the Rovers artist who had a very similar style I'm now beginning to wonder if Mitchell ever worked on the series at all: I really should know better than to believe what I read on Wikipedia! Thanks as ever for your invaluable help Kashgar.

- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

Anyone got a scan from The Four Marys?

Here's the a page from one of the last weekly issues of Bunty dated February 3rd 2001. The style is superficially like Mitchell's but in the light of Kashgar's comments I'm inclined to think it's not him after all.



Oddly enough this page from 1989 looks rather closer to Mitchell's usual work - but even here I suspect that Jim Eldridge is going to be the true artist:



- Phil Rushton

[Digifiend]

Shaqui, I'm not sure why you bumped this up to mention the Four Marys, as that's not a humour strip and is therefore off topic - you should've started a new thread.

About that 2001 strip which ends with Cotty saying she has to leave, I suppose the girls preventing that from happening was it's final story arc before Bunty closed?

[Shaqui]

Shaqui, I'm not sure why you bumped this up to mention the Four Marys, as that's not a humour strip and is therefore off topic - you should've started a new thread.

The initial post linked to the Wikipedia page about Bunty, and the Four Marys was top of that page. The Barrie Mitchell thing caught my eye immediately so I came back to question it. So there!

But if a moderator wants to split the thread please do...

Incidentally, pretty sure the examples given above are Jim Eldridge and not Barrie Mitchell. Eldridge, incidentally, is also still around but attempts to contact him have met with no replies...

[Phoenix]

Just a small contribution to the Four Marys artists debate. Obviously I am accepting Kashgar's assertions as facts. The first scan is from issue 10 (Mar. 22 1958) [Bill Holroyd], the second is the second page of the episode in issue 18 (May 17 1958) [James 'Peem' Walker], and the third is the final page of the saga from issue 2249 (Feb. 17 2001), the last ever issue of Bunty, [Jim Eldridge?]. Digi is quite correct in his surmise about the theme of the final story, not perhaps too surprising since Phil's scan was from 2247 (Feb. 3 2001).

[philcom55]

The amazing thing about that last issue of Bunty is it's the only comic I know of that didn't end its run with "Great News Inside Pals!" on the cover - mainly because there weren't any other titles left to combine with!

...Of course, the 4Ms did get to extend their record-breaking stay at St. Elmo's for a few more years via Annuals, Specials and the short-lived Monthly.

- Phil Rushton