Mystery comic - anyone seen this before?

PaulTwist · Post by **PaulTwist** » 03 Sep 2007, 13:42

I'm fascinated by these "Comics that Never Were" and would love to learn more about them. It's great that those in the industry like Lew are willing to share this information.

I'm assuming that Oh No!!! was aimed at a slightly older audience than most of IPC's titles, a la Oink!? The style of the cover and Tom Paterson's character name "Little Zzod" certainly suggest so. I should imagine I would've bought that at the time! I probably would've been reading Spooky and Potty too.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 03 Sep 2007, 15:41

PaulTwist wrote:I'm fascinated by these "Comics that Never Were" and would love to learn more about them. It's great that those in the industry like Lew are willing to share this information.

I'm assuming that Oh No!!! was aimed at a slightly older audience than most of IPC's titles, a la Oink!? The style of the cover and Tom Paterson's character name "Little Zzod" certainly suggest so. I should imagine I would've bought that at the time! I probably would've been reading Spooky and Potty too.

It was aimed at children, but didn't talk down to them, and it didn't have the usual formula (gimmick kids, naughty kids, etc). It was in the vein of Oink! (but not rude) and Wham!, but had its own identity. Editors were Dave King and Ian Ellery. Bloody shame it never made it.

Lew

PaulTwist · Post by **PaulTwist** » 03 Sep 2007, 17:08

Lew Stringer wrote: It was aimed at children, but didn't talk down to them, and it didn't have the usual formula (gimmick kids, naughty kids, etc). It was in the vein of Oink! (but not rude) and Wham!, but had its own identity. Editors were Dave King and Ian Ellery. Bloody shame it never made it.

Lew

Interesting stuff, thanks for the recollections. Sounds like it would've been something quite different from the standard fare at the time. I should think the 12-year-old me would've lapped it up!

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 03 Sep 2007, 17:09

Lew it would be cool to see your work...character....idea...story..you did for Oh No!...put it on your blog when you've got time.....

Cap Haggis · Post by **Cap Haggis** » 03 Sep 2007, 21:43

I picked up a copy of the dummy "Oh NO" a couple of years ago in a Glasgow market (50p less than the cover price of 60p)- some nice stuff - Lews strip on the back page in colour was Lance Boyle, Secret Agent - (and "Dick Yampy" inside in black and white) - was a nice book with some well known UK artists in it - as Lew says had a bit of the WHAM influence to it.

Richard S. · Post by **Richard S.** » 19 Sep 2007, 18:23

...sold for ?302 (inc. 10% buyer's premium)

http://www.compalcomics.com/results/brit2007-09.html

the prices paid for items in such a sale always make for interesting reading (to me anyway!)

Richard S.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 20 Sep 2007, 00:46

Richard S. wrote:...sold for ?302 (inc. 10% buyer's premium)

http://www.compalcomics.com/results/brit2007-09.html

the prices paid for items in such a sale always make for interesting reading (to me anyway!)

Richard S.

Absolutely bizarre, - and we're still no wiser as to its origin! I wonder if the buyer thought he was buying an actual published comics cover?

Lew

Shiner · Post by **Shiner** » 21 Sep 2007, 10:26

I put my hand up. It was me. I couldn't resist it and it will make a very interesting addition to my collection. I've been collecting comics for 35 years and recently moved into original comic art. I instantly recognised it as an unpublished piece when the COMPAL catalogue arrived. As soon as it's delivered, I'll let you all know anything else about it that hasn't already been posted. Lew, you are very welcome to see it for yourself.

Chris

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 21 Sep 2007, 10:31

Shiner wrote:I put my hand up. It was me. I couldn't resist it and it will make a very interesting addition to my collection. I've been collecting comics for 35 years and recently moved into original comic art. I instantly recognised it as an unpublished piece when the COMPAL catalogue arrived. As soon as it's delivered, I'll let you all know anything else about it that hasn't already been posted. Lew, you are very welcome to see it for yourself.

Chris

Good to hear it's gone to a good home, and to someone who knew the score. I feared it might be bought by someone who thought Cracker actually existed as a published comic.

Lew

Shiner · Post by **Shiner** » 25 Oct 2007, 21:17

Shiner wrote:I put my hand up. It was me. I couldn't resist it and it will make a very interesting addition to my collection. I've been collecting comics for 35 years and recently moved into original comic art. I instantly recognised it as an unpublished piece when the COMPAL catalogue arrived. As soon as it's delivered, I'll let you all know anything else about it that hasn't already been posted. Lew, you are very welcome to see it for yourself.

Chris

Just to round off this topic on the 1969 unpublished Cracker comic, when the artwork arrived I asked COMPAL to check with the seller to see if they knew anything more about its origin. Sadly though the reply was that they knew no more than had already been said.

The art itself is drawn and coloured on thick card. What is not visible on the image that appeared in the catalogue is that the "No1" in the first part of the top text was originally pencilled directly onto the card as "First issue." Clearly this was amended as the top strap line is in two parts - the "No1" is drawn on paper and stuck on while "of a great paper for Boys and Girls" is typeset. Interestingly the price is hand drawn and inked directly on to the card. Unsurprisingly the logo is stuck on having been designed separately.

An interesting piece of short-lived (in fact, not really even that) comic history. Still not clear whether it was by IPC and pulled in favour of Whizzer and Chips.

One last thing, if you look closely, one of the boys playing at Z Cars looks like Dennis the Menace.

tonyodonnell · Post by **tonyodonnell** » 26 Oct 2007, 10:05

I was reading the postings on this topic and trying to remember the title of the 'dummy' comic I used to have...then colcool 007 reminded me .
It wasn't Thunder though, that was published, it featured British colour art and reprints of the American ' Thunder Agents' strips by Wally Wood.
I cant recall the title but I think the Comic colcool007 has was a proposed Eagle style comic from the early 1980's. The lead strip was about an Undersea Patrol Unit I think. David Lloyd put together a great Dummy comic in the 1980's with strips based on the themes of recent hit movies.
I think John Burns drew some pages. Graham Manley has drawn lots of experimental strips for DCT over the years and I imagine there have been many more by other artists. It is frustrating that 99% of those strips will most likely, never be published.

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 26 Oct 2007, 14:33

This may be no more than hearsay but I was once told by Bill Lofts that when Fleetway were preparing Whizzer & Chips they got so paranoid that some other publisher might steal their fantastic new idea that they went to quite elaborate lengths to hide the true nature of what they were about to publish and one of these was to leak details of a new 16pg threepenny title that they hoped might rival the Thomson mainstays Dandy and Beano. Bill also said that he'd heard that they'd even went to the bother of producing some sort of mock-up to further confuse the issue. If all this true then this Cracker page would seem to fit with these details.

tonyodonnell · Post by **tonyodonnell** » 26 Oct 2007, 15:13

It bugged me that I had forgotten the name of that Eagle style Comic I mentioned so I dug out my copy of Best of Eagle Flies Again 1, which I thought had mentioned it.
It was in fact called Terra-Nova, the undersea strip was Ocean Interpol.
The article was a tribute by John Ridgeway to the man behind the Comic, the late Derek Lord - a former Eagle Editor.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 28 Oct 2007, 18:13

tonyodonnell wrote:It bugged me that I had forgotten the name of that Eagle style Comic I mentioned so I dug out my copy of Best of Eagle Flies Again 1, which I thought had mentioned it.
It was in fact called Terra-Nova, the undersea strip was Ocean Interpol.
The article was a tribute by John Ridgeway to the man behind the Comic, the late Derek Lord - a former Eagle Editor.

Thank you Tony. I am currently at my son-in-laws and will try to find it, but 8 large boxes of comics and I'm not hopeful!

BH · Post by BH » 03 Nov 2007, 01:47

philcom55 wrote: Incidentally, does anyone know if Gordon Hogg or Alf Soporito (Saporito?) are still with us?

- Phil Rushton

Alf Saporito sadly passed away about a year or two ago. He was a top bloke and I was gutted when I found out.

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