COLONEL Blink

[Tin Can Tommy]

Colonel Blink from The Beezer is referred to as a colonel in the strips title. The fact that he is a colonel (or was one) never seems to be at all mentioned in the strips. I have seen it mentioned once in one panel in The Beezer Book 1991 but apart from that the title makes no sense. Maybe it's something from his earlier adventures which i have not read. Or is it just an meaningless title for the strip and is there cos Mr Blink doesnt sound as good as Colonel Blink.

[Raven]

The title is a pun on Colonel Blimp, a character by cartoonist David Low from the Evening Standard, which started in the 1930s; there was also a 1943 film: 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.'

[Tin Can Tommy]

The title is a pun on Colonel Blimp, a character by cartoonist David Low from the Evening Standard, which started in the 1930s; there was also a 1943 film: 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.'

it would seem the title stopped working as a pun, but the character was so popular they daren't change the strip title.

[Raven]

I certainly didn't get the joke when I started reading his adventures as a boy. Indeed, when I was very tiny, I called him 'Colin Blink'!

[Tin Can Tommy]

My first experience with the character was in Classics from the Comics i read when i was eight (I cant remember what i thought of the strip back then). I never really thought about the title until today after reading the Beezer Book 1991 and seeing Colonel Blink being referred to by everyone as Blinky and it made me think isnt he meant to be a colonel and this is mentioned in the same annual which really got me thinking and laughing (but inside my head). But there is alot of weird unexplained stuff in that strip not only colonel Blink being a colonel, but whats up with him living with his younger looking auntie is she his carer or something. To be honest the auntie thing is in alot of comic strips The Numskulls and Desperate Dan spring to mind. Adult men living with their aunts isnt something i really get, maybe they dont want the characters to be married and or live with their mothers but they need a woman around the house and the next obvious choice is an aunt.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I do have one 60s Beezer book where Blinky is seen in younger flashback, in full colonel Military uniform, causing mayhem on the war-zone, against his own side, due to his acute short-sightedness.

It seems to have been a one-off, though......

[philcom55]

I always wondered how Corporal Clott ever managed to get promoted - surely the Army couldn't have been that desperate!!

- Phil R.

[AndyB]

One Dandy Comic Library retconned Blinky's history, telling the story of how he was continually got rid of onto a new CO by promotion. As with Clott, he was promoted well above his first level of incompetence.

I remember a late issue of Classics had him visiting a former colleague and by then senior officer with the usual mayhem.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I saw the original artwork at DCT's for that one, Andy: if it's the one I'm thinking of, there's a close-up of Blinky on the colour cover looking at the reader through binoculars.

That one was drawn by original I SPY artist Les Barton, and included much shellfire!


Tincan: I always assumed that Blinky was a retired old colonel, who served in WW2, hence his impeccable dress sense and neatness.

[AndyB]

Yes, that's correct. I wouldn't have sworn it was that cover, although I thought it might be - Blinky had a few, but that was certainly the best. If Tom Bannister hadn't retired by then...

[Digifiend]

Tincan: I always assumed that Blinky was a retired old colonel, who served in WW2, hence his impeccable dress sense and neatness.

I think one of the annuals published after the comic's demise confirmed this. There's a story where a group of Beezer characters end up time travelling - and Blinky being a war veteran gets mentioned.

[Niblet]

Of course in the early stories the full title of the strip was Colonel Blink, the Short-Sighted Gink. I think gink was a word made up by DCT as they couldn't think of an existing derogatory term that would rhyme with Blink. It's lucky his name wasn't Colonel Blunt.

[Raven]

Of course in the early stories the full title of the strip was Colonel Blink, the Short-Sighted Gink. I think gink was a word made up by DCT as they couldn't think of an existing derogatory term that would rhyme with Blink.

It is actually a proper word!

From the O.E.D.:

noun
"informal, chiefly North American

a foolish or contemptible person:

what is this gink doing?

Origin: early 20th century (originally US)

[philcom55]

When I started secondary school in the mid 1960s we actually had a teacher called Colonel Smith - and he was just like Blink, being hopelessly vague and inclined to nod off in the middle of lessons. Apparently he'd served with great distinction in both World Wars, but with the casual cruelty of children we just saw a silly old buffoon and laughed at him behind his back.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a minor classic, by the way, and well worth seeking out for anyone who's at all interested in the history of British Cinema. It succeeds admirably in demonstrating that even someone who seems at first sight to be a silly old duffer like Colonel Blink might actually turn out to have hidden depths and be deserving of our admiration rather than our scorn.

- Phil Rushton

[Niblet]

It is actually a proper word!

From the O.E.D.:

noun
"informal, chiefly North American

a foolish or contemptible person:

what is this gink doing?

Origin: early 20th century (originally US)

Thanks, Raven - I'm very surprised by that.