Bob McGrath

[Peter Gray]

I've just done a blog post on Bob's three bears the last one he did..looking at his work again I like it a lot more..so much detail and every panel different..a 3D quality..
I'm trying to find other strips he did for a blog post..so far.found some in Nutty.Kid Kats Pig Tales.Samuel Creep.Ginger in Beezer..Nobby in buzz..Molly..

what else did Bob draw...he sure had long runs with Molly and the three bears..

[Digifiend]

Bob stopped drawing Ginger in The Beezer in the 80's..so he must have retired...

If that's the case, he can't be Molly's artist, as that was in the Dandy in the 90s, not the 80s.

[AndyB]

Correct - Molly was by David Mostyn.

[Peter Gray]

i meant Little Mo

[Jonny Whizz]

Bob also drew Roger the Dodger in the early 1960s, before Ken Reid's second spell as artist. I think the first Roger strip after he returned to the comic in 1961 was drawn by Bob (the strip features in The History of the Beano).

[stevezodiac]

Must have retired.

Whistles.

Millwall are losing so feel free to mock.

[philcom55]

One of Bob's earliest series was Beezer's Miguel the Matador who first appeared in 1959. Weirdly, this DC Thomson strip was subsequently published by IPC as well - the only time I'm aware of that happening with a character who wasn't licensed from a third party!

- Phil Rushton

[Digifiend]

Hmm, I just Googled this Miguel the Matador and all the results are for something else entirely. Which IPC comic was it in? Could it simply be public domain?

[philcom55]

As far as I'm aware Miguel was (and still is) a wholly-owned Thomson property - just like Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan.

Here's Bob McGrath's Miguel the Matador as he appears in the 1965 Beezer Book:



...And here he is in IPC's 1979 Valiant Annual:



Very strange indeed! (though it does show what a difference good lettering can make to a strip)

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Thanks phil for the upload i'll use that for the blog post i'm doing on Bob..
as you say strange the character was in both companies!! very strange..

[AndyB]

When you say the character was in both companies, was it the same strip, or was it like Dinah Mite - two different characters?

[philcom55]

According to Kashgar's 'Book of Beezer' the very same Miguel strip that appeared in the 1967 Beezer Book was later reprinted in the 1978 Valiant Annual!

- Phil R.

[swirlythingy]

Those scans above both look like exactly the same character to me. You couldn't confuse DCT's Dinah Mite and what later became IPC's Belle Tent.

[Digifiend]

I'd accuse IPC of plagiarism, but the fact Valiant used a reprint of a Beezer strip means that they must have actually had the rights. Could Miguel be creator owned?

[AndyB]

Apologies, I missed the note that the second was from a Valiant annual. It's possible that Miguel is creator owned, but I'd guess IPC probably paid for the rights.