Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Discuss or comment on anything relating to D.C.Thomson's second longest running comic. The home of Dennis the Menace. Has been running since 1938.

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comicsgalore
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Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by comicsgalore »

Fred was made irritating, the stories were boring and there was no wacky humour like when David Parkins drew it. Thank goodness the editor came to his senses and got David Sutherland to do it. It was much funnier from then on.

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

I don't really call any comics art 'rubbish', comicsgalore---even if I don't really like it. But if that's how you feel, you are entitled to your opinion. I haven't seen the strip you mention, but I think Hunt Emerson is a good cartoonist.

Maybe you thought he just wasn't quite suited to this particular strip?

I'm not too struck on a lot of modern comics artwork, but I try and find some merit in it----or I just keep quiet about it. There is one DCT strip I used to admire, but the artwork has become routine and predictable in my view......I won't mention what it is though, it's not my style.

comicsgalore
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by comicsgalore »

It's a strip in The Beano (previously beezer) about a boy who gets into trouble when his bed transports him to weird places. It started in 1989 and was drawn by David Parkins. Then in 2007 the beano started reprinting it. Two years later Hunt Emerson started drawing it, and then he left for a reason i do not know. It's drawn by David Sutherland now. His Ratz is much better, FB didnt work.

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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by RamblingSid »

It's probably just down to personal taste but I didn't like Hunt Emerson's take on Fred's Bed much either but I thought a lot of Tom Paterson's were disappointing as well. I like David Sutherland's version more than either.

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

I've seen the Dave Sutherland version, I thought it was OK.

comicsgalore
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by comicsgalore »

Hello, i'm from Edinburgh as well! I totally agree with you there.

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

I used to live in Edinburgh, up near the Meadows.

:offtopic2: :offtopic2: :offtopic2: :offtopic2: :offtopic2: :offtopic2:

comicsgalore
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by comicsgalore »

We go to the meadows a lot as well!

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

Beautiful in the summer!

comicsgalore
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by comicsgalore »

It's more like Winter at that time of year in scotland.

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by Jonny Whizz »

I did quite enjoy Hunt Emerson's version of Fred, but I have to say I don't think his style suited Fred particularly well - it's much better suited to Ratz or Little Plum in my view. David Sutherland's style suits it better, and Tom Paterson originated the style even though David Parkins drew most of the strips in the Beezer and Topper. I think the only reason Hunt stopped though was because he found drawing two Beano pages each week was too much on top of his other work, so he returned to Ratz before 2009 was out.

I felt the main problem with the Hunt Emerson Fred's Bed stories was the introduction of the alarm clock so that Fred had control over his destination. I think the fact that the place Fred went was random was part of the strip's identity, and the story in the 2011 annual shows how the strip had changed when Hunt was drawing it, as Fred simply uses his bed as a way of getting more cake instead of going somewhere. He was in danger of becoming a poor man's version of Tim Traveller with a less effective time-travelling device - Tim changing gears on his bike made sense, whereas having an alarm clock control Fred's destination never seemed quite right to me. Also, it removed part of the strip's humour by preventing Fred from ending up somewhere he didn't want to go. The issue was fixed when his bed's destination became random again.

Ken Harrison a great job of imitating the original style of the strip in the 2009 and 2010 Beano annuals. but he was already busy on Minnie at the time Fred came out of reprints, so that couldn't have happened.
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Digifiend
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by Digifiend »

comicsgalore wrote:It's a strip in The Beano (previously beezer) about a boy who gets into trouble when his bed transports him to weird places. It started in 1989 and was drawn by David Parkins. Then in 2007 the beano started reprinting it. Two years later Hunt Emerson started drawing it, and then he left for a reason i do not know. It's drawn by David Sutherland now. His Ratz is much better, FB didnt work.
It started in 1990, in the first merged Beezer and Topper.

Both Dave Sutherland and Tom Paterson have actually drawn Fred in two different styles. Tom of course was largely involved in designing the original Parkins version. Then later, he was forced to draw him in Hunt's design. Dave did the 70th birthday issue in the Parkins design, before taking over along with Tom using Hunt's design a year later.
Last edited by Digifiend on 09 Oct 2011, 20:33, edited 1 time in total.

comicsgalore
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by comicsgalore »

But then again i suppose they had to experiment (David Sutherland My Own Genie, anyone?), and they picked him. I also hated it when the boring Adrian the Barbarian came into the beano instead of Fred's Bed.

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Digifiend
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by Digifiend »

comicsgalore wrote:But then again i suppose they had to experiment (David Sutherland My Own Genie, anyone?), and they picked him. I also hated it when the boring Adrian the Barbarian came into the beano instead of Fred's Bed.
I didn't. I always liked him in the Beezer Book (hadn't read any of the weekly strips before the Beano used some of them). I think most people did agree with you however, since he hasn't returned. I didn't like his new name, Olaff the Madlander.

Sutherland My Own Genie? I thought Jamie Smart was the only artist ever to draw that, and that when he stopped drawing it, it simply stopped until the current run of reprints?

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Who think's Hunt Emerson's Fred's Bed was rubbish

Post by Jonny Whizz »

I second Digi's thoughts. I preferred Fred out of the two, but Adrian was a good character as well and Sid Burgon was a very good artist. I also agree that Olaff the Madlander wasn't a great name, and I'd have preferred it if the original title had been used.

In some ways Adrian would have perhaps been a better choice than Fred to reprint - more strips would have been available, as Fred only started in the merged Beezer and Topper, whereas Adrian had been in the Beezer before hand. Also, I can't think of any major characters similar to Adrian in the Beano's recent history, whereas the Beano already had Tim Traveller, who was in some respects similar to Fred. Again, there was arguably a case for resurrecting Tim instead of Fred, though I suspect Fred was picked due to Alan Digby being editor of the Beezer at one stage.
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