Comics UK

BBC Magazines have just launched Robin Hood Adventures for the children's market. Review of No.1 here:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2007/10 ... nches.html

I will do my broken record routine and bemoan the lack of comic content once more.

Just saw the Ad in Dr Who Adventures.

I will go and buy it tomorrow, see what it's like. Although I don't need to as I just read Lews blog. But as it's No1 I will.

That sounds, frankly, pathetic

Even when i was 6 i didnt draw the speech bubble tails going right to character's mouths. Though i did have the tails normally crossing over one or even two other tails, and often going "through" scenery as i hadn't left enough room for them XD

felneymike wrote:That sounds, frankly, pathetic

Even when i was 6 i didnt draw the speech bubble tails going right to character's mouths.

It's very irritating to see. One of the Buster letterers used to do that on my Tom Thug strips. He was so determined to have the tip of the tail just touching the mouth he sometimes had the rest of the tail obscuring the character's face! Equally annoying, the tip of the tail sometimes just touched the outline of the character's heads.

I think some letterers think "speech balloon" IS a balloon and has to be attached to something. Doh!

As you may know, cartoons of centuries ago used to have the tail end protruding from the speaker's mouths, but I thought we'd moved on from that. Apparently not.

Lew

PS: Rant over. See you folks at the comics show this weekend!

For much of the nineteenth century most speech balloon tails were exactly that, just snake-like lines leading from the mouth of the speaker to the balloon indicating what he was actually meant to be saying so their intrusion on the artwork was minimal. Not that this practice eneded with the 19th century as, in fact, one of the best letterers to work for DC Thomson with the likes of Dudley Watkins in the early years often used the same technique.

Since there is a new Robin Hood publication on the market herewith are a few highlights in the career of the Sherwoods favourite son.
For the first thirty years of the 20th century the published Aldines produced a magazine titled 'The Robin Hood Library' and as a story paper character he would turn up in papers published by both the AP and DCT for many years, his last outing in this regard being the semi-mystical 'The Seeing-Eye of Sherwood' in the Rover in the 1960's.
His first appearance as a picture strip character as far as I'm aware was in the pages of DC Thomson's Magic in 1940 with art supplied by Peem Walker.
He then appeared a number of times in AP's Knockout from 1947-1950 with artwork provided by Michael Hubbard, Lunt Roberts and Pat Nicolle and then in the same publishers Sun in 1952-1954 with artwork again provided by Pat Nicolle and R C W Heade.
The appearance of the 1950's TV series starring Richard Greene also saw the AP publish four editions of the Robin Hood Annual 1957-1960 as well as seeing the character feature in a number of editions of the Thriller Comics Library with the artists involved including Reg Bunn, Fred Holmes, Derek Eyles and John Millar Watt. At the same time Odhams got in on the act with a beautiful Robin Hood strip drawn by Frank Bellamy in their comic title Swift in 1956 and DC Thomson chipped in again with a Robin Hood strip in the Dandy in 1958 drawn by Paddy Brennan.
In 1961 the New Hotspur contained a strip titled 'The Green Archers' drawn by Steve Chapman featuring Robin and his crew and I'm pretty sure that Look-In contained a picture strip featuring Robin on the back of ITV's Sherwood set series of the 1980's.
Last, but not least, when it came to playing the story for laughs we can include the Beezer's 'Merrie Hood and his Robbin Men' drawn by George Martin in 1959 and the Dandy's 'Robin Hood's Schooldays' drawn by Ron Spencer in 1973.
There are no doubt plenty more examples that others can come up with.

Just bought the said comic it's errmm not that good, lots of nice pics, and quizzes, and even a cartoon strip.

Kashgar wrote:His first appearance as a picture strip character as far as I'm aware was in the pages of DC Thomson's Magic in 1940 with art supplied by Peem Walker.

The rather wonderful Robin Hood website "Bold Outlaw" isn't too strong on comics, but does identify a Canadian newspaper strip by Ted McCall and Charles Snelgrove which started in 1935. There's an example here.

My comments on the new Robin Hood Adventures are here and here.

I once played pool with Robin Hood.

Mind you, back then he was known as Jason Connery and he hadn't yet donned the Lincoln green. He was learning the ropes at my local rep in Perth, and he occasionally popped into my local pub on his night's off.

When I heard he'd got the lead part in Robin Of Sherwood, I recall thinking, "I hope he's better with a longbow than he is with a pool cue, or the poor Poor are stuffed!"

Steve Flanagan wrote:

Kashgar wrote:His first appearance as a picture strip character as far as I'm aware was in the pages of DC Thomson's Magic in 1940 with art supplied by Peem Walker.

The rather wonderful Robin Hood website "Bold Outlaw" isn't too strong on comics, but does identify a Canadian newspaper strip by Ted McCall and Charles Snelgrove which started in 1935. There's an example here.

My comments on the new Robin Hood Adventures are here and here.

Never heard of this Canadian strip but then I'm not that up on newspaper strips from across the pond. As far as I'm aware though the Magic strip was the first time that Robin had a strip in a British comic devoted entirely to him. BTW Robin Hood was the most featured 'guest star' in the Jimmy and his Magic Patch strip in the Beano, clocking up eight seperate appearances across the years.

Steve Bright wrote:I once played pool with Robin Hood.

For a second there Steve I thought you were describing some sort of Derek Ancora moment from Most Haunted! Mind you Little John with all that quarter-staff practice would have probably been a more testing opponent.

Ah, pub games aren't what they were, Ray.

Kashgar wrote:There are no doubt plenty more examples that others can come up with.

An interesting variation - Valiant ran a Robin Hood-linked strip in 1974/75 - The Lincoln Green Mob, about a bunch of kids living in a village near Nottingham - Robby Hood, Bill Scarlet, Fatty Tuck, and Johnny Little - who find an ancient hunting horn which freezes any living thing (except themselves) when blown: PAAAAAAARP!, for five minutes. "Because of this, they believed themselves the descendants of Robin Hood and his Merry Men." Interesting logic there. I don't recall Mr. Hood having such a device.

A nice, old-fashioned kind of strip with quite appealing art. And some quite good cussing: "grotty old coot!" "Stone the gazooking crows!"

'The Lincoln Green Mob' drawn by Felix Carrion if I recall, an artist whose style never really appealed to me much. I wouldn't go as far to say that he actually spolied certain strips that I would have otherwise enjoyed but at times he came close. I remember being really disappointed when I saw the he was drawing, although I didn't know his name then, 'The Terrible Trail to Tolmec' in Thunder.
Ah I feel the idea for another discussion topic coming on. 'Did an artist ever spoil a strip you would otherwise have enjoyed had someone else drawn it?'