Comics UK

some observations..

it was interesting to see the excerpt from Leo Baxendale's Badtime Bedtime stories in Comics Brittania last night.. Leo Baxendale's style by the 70s seemed resemble EXACTLY Tom Paterson's early style: just look at the way the Mum is drawn.. identical to Sweeny Toddler's Mum!
Didn't Leo also have a brother in comics with a very similiar drawing style? Martin?
i must admit that, looking at tthat stuff, the style of Leo's later 70s comics doesn't compare to his 50s/60s style.. his technique seems to have degenerated quite a lot by that point.. anyone agree?

ajsmith wrote:some observations..

it was interesting to see the excerpt from Leo Baxendale's Badtime Bedtime stories in Comics Brittania last night.. Leo Baxendale's style by the 70s seemed resemble EXACTLY Tom Paterson's early style: just look at the way the Mum is drawn.. identical to Sweeny Toddler's Mum!
Didn't Leo also have a brother in comics with a very similiar drawing style? Martin?
i must admit that, looking at tthat stuff, the style of Leo's later 70s comics doesn't compare to his 50s/60s style.. his technique seems to have degenerated quite a lot by that point.. anyone agree?

Tom Paterson came along after Leo Baxendale. He took over Sweeny Toddler and others so therefore "ghosted" Leo's style, hence the similarity. Not to slight Tom of course; he went on to develop his own style even more and still produces wonderful work to this day.

Martin Baxendale is Leo's son.

Most artists' styles change as they get older. Look at Kevin O"Neill's work for example, or Jack Kirby's, or Mick McMahon's. I'm not sure "degenerated" is the right term to describe Baxendale's evolution. His seventies Swots and Blots strips for Smash! were as lively and manic as his earlier work, - albeit in a different style.

Lew

Yes, Baxendale's style kept changing and developing and his 70s style - adopted by Tom Paterson - is just different; it's rather more radical, freaky and loony. It's hugely distinctive and individual, and probably my favourite period of his work. His Clever Dick in Buster was especially good, the Badtime Bedtime Books seemed wonderfully demented at the time, and the slightly earlier Swots and the Blots sets were amazing and really stood out.

As a boy, when I got hold of his autobiography I was very surprised to see how relatively conventional-looking his classic Beano work had been because I knew him from his loony cartoony waaaay out there 70s style.

From that book he describes how he was working unhurriedly, at a natural pace, on his 70s strips, Clever Dick, Sweeney Toddler and Snooper and thinks his work was getting better and better.

thanks for that.. the ghosting explanation explains why the styles are so close.
I'm sure I've jinxed any goodwill I'd ever have received from Leo Baxendale by describing his later work as having "degenerated".. perhaps too strong a word, but his later stuff does seem a lot looser and sparser than his earlier work, and I felt it lost something.

The freaky thing about Clever Dick was you could never be quite sure whether it was Leo or Martin drawing it - Martin very much took after his dad in style.

Leo adopted the more short hand style due to pain in his hand, his early work was more detailed , still for me Willy the kid book ( his short hand style at the top of his game for me)was quiet as lovely as any early work.

you should read A VERY FUNNY BUSINESS its his book he wrote on working in comics, its a must read for any bax fan. has all the eraly years at dct through to working at fleetway and there are some really great stories and its very well written, a most enjoyable read. Its out of print but they come up on ebay quite a bit.

steve h

SH wrote:you should read A VERY FUNNY BUSINESS its his book he wrote on working in comics, its a must read for any bax fan.

And I would say, a must read for anyone who enjoys British comics. (Or gardening, strangely - he often has asides about what he's growing...) It's one of my all-time favourite books. very easy to read, informative, with no dull parts, and of course lots of great art.

Tom Paterson's artwork also shows a slight Ken Reid influence, when Tom is using his other style. (The one he currently uses to do Minnie the Minx, and which he used to use when he was drawing Buster.) Although from his influences Tom has definitely developed his own art style that can be easily distinguished.

My first IPC job was ghosting Tom on a Scooper strip for a Jackpot Annual. Ghosting someone else's style is a good way to start out as by studying that you learn the basics of cartooning. Then over time you adopt various mannerisms etc into your own style hopefully.

The mannerisms that Victorian artist Tom Browne brought to comics can still be seen today in the work of Ken Harrison for example, via Roy Wilson, Dudley Watkins and others. (Ken has his own style, and is a superb draughtsman in his own right of course. He's one of the best artists in the business in my opinion.) We all soak up various influences, whether by choice or editorial direction.

Lew

Tom Paterson alos had another style: that he used for the Buster strip Lucy Lastic: more exagerrated meatier and heavily shaded than his usual style: in fact it's very reminiscent of Robert Crumb's late 60s style.

I've noticed the Ken Reid influence, particularly in the faces of certain characters he draws. Tom Paterson comics vary so much I think he just likes experimenting with different styles... either that or there are 2 or 3 people drawing under the alias "Tom Paterson"

(for the record, I know that last comment isn't true)

I've always thought Martin Baxendale's work was very different to his father's. Martin seems to like using thicker lines, & I've never seen Leo Baxendale sign any of his comic work. I'm pretty sure in all the work I've seen of Martin, he has his autograph scribbled on the page somewhere.

Obviously never seen a copy of WHAM, then.[/quote]

Sorry, I meant to say:

Dizrythmia wrote: I've never seen Leo Baxendale sign any of his comic work.

Obviously never seen a copy of WHAM then.

Let's hope THAT makes more sense.

I give up

NP wrote:I give up

I get what you mean & no I haven't.

Dizrythmia wrote:

NP wrote:I give up

I get what you mean & no I haven't.

Leo Baxendale signed most (if not all) of his pages for Wham! and Smash!. (And yet pages by Graham Allen, Mike Brown, Mike Lacey etc still get confused with Leo's Odhams work.)

Lew