Norman Mansbridge revelation

[stevezodiac]

My only knowledge of Norman Mansbridge up until last Saturday was his work on Fuss Pott and Wear em out Wilf, but i didn't care for his art one bit - too weedy. Anyway I was in the local flea market on Saturday (just prior to my weekly dose of Pie, Mash and Liquor - Sloo!) when i came across three copies of Punch magazine from 1961. (one pound the lot). In each copy there was a full page cartoon by Norman himself. I still don't like his comic strip style but i now have a bit more respect for him upon seeing this more creditable work by him. Wonder what other comic artists had previous histories.

[Kashgar]

And Norman was drawing stuff at least a decade prior to that. I'm pretty sure he illustrated a Billy Bunter story in Odhams' 'Wonder Book of Comics' in 1951.

[HighAndMighty]

I've got an inkling that he may have started out in the late 30s / early 40s... he was quite distinguished as a Punch cartoonist - I can recall a series of full page colour cartoons in a single issue at my dentist's and he's up for sale at the punch shop:
http://www.punchcartoons.com/index.php? ... ers_id=111

....just found some more info from the University of Kent
http://opal.kent.ac.uk/cartoonx-cgi/artist.py?id=116

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I , too, was never really a fan of NORMAN MANSBRIDGE'S comics work........I don't especially think he was a bad artist, but there always seemed to be off-putting elements inherent in his central characters; ------I found his 'FUSS POT', 'SOFTY CENTRE' etc slightly repulsive and repellent, though ironically NORMAN'S supporting characters were usually rendered in a more appealling mode, so perhaps it was an unfortunate choice of unlovable characters he was saddled with.

-----he also contributed another IPC character [about a grossly overgrown 'baby' still being pushed around in a pram] that I personally found irritating and unfunny.

On the 'plus' side, NORM'S compositions and layouts were always clean and easy to 'read', [his material often seemed to me to be more suited to the U.S. 'Sunday Funnies' market]----and his command of inking technique [as illustrated in the above cartoon] was certainly impressive and more than capable, even when 'blown up'.

[Kashgar]

From memory, I think that overgrown baby strip was called 'Mummy's Boy'. I can't remember offhand which title it appeared in (Buster perhaps) but I'm sure someone will beat me to the punch and be able to tell us before I go to check it out.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

yes, I'm quite sure that 'MUMMY'S BOY' was the name of the offending strip in question, kashgar......RON SPENCER proved conclusively that you can produce a strip about a repulsive, 'overgrown baby' i.e. 'BABY -FACE FINLAYSON' and still make it appealling, without alienating readers.

[HighAndMighty]

I think Mummy's Boy was originally a Monster Fun title.

Maybe the whole thing about unlikeable characters stems from his work as a political cartoonist- what could be less likeable than the top politicians of the day. Maybe it was all just a well-thought out parody of society today, mollycoddling children and allowing them to behave in an unsociable manner. Then again, maybe not.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

A well-considered assessment, H&M.......I'm not trying to knock NORMAN here...his strips had a reasonably long run [or at least seemed to!]....so SOME folks must have enjoyed his stuff.......

[Kashgar]

H&M is quite right Mummy's Boy did begin in Monster Fun before transferring to Buster when the titles amalgamated. Personally I never liked those pointy noses Norman Mansbridge seemed to give most of his characters.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

YES...'FUSS POT' in particular just gives me the creeps, even thinking about her now!------MAYBE it was overall the design of NORMAN'S characters that some readers found unsympathetic...I repeat, he wasn't a bad artist by any means in other respects.

FUNNY, the 'pointy -nose' technique was also adopted by ERIC ROBERTS, in 'WINKER WATSON'. This featured an-angular-nosed character called BOODLE who was also off-putting. [the other characters, even including 'CREEPY' were quite acceptable].There must be some psychological reason in why comics artists are best avoiding angular noses!

IF the [fairly] recent 'DESPERATE DAN' character redesign had given him an L-shaped nose instead of a ROUND one, I fear the 'DANDY' may have closed down for good by now!

[Lew Stringer]

YES...'FUSS POT' in particular just gives me the creeps, even thinking about her now!------MAYBE it was overall the design of NORMAN'S characters that some readers found unsympathetic...I repeat, he wasn't a bad artist by any means in other respects.

FUNNY, the 'pointy -nose' technique was also adopted by ERIC ROBERTS, in 'WINKER WATSON'. This featured an-angular-nosed character called BOODLE who was also off-putting. [the other characters, even including 'CREEPY' were quite acceptable].There must be some psychological reason in why comics artists are best avoiding angular noses!

You're quite right that a sharper nose is psychologically intended to indicate a less likable character in comics. However, surely the point (pardon the pun) is that the reader wasn't supposed to like Fuss Pot or Boodle, but to laugh at them?

That said, I was never a big fan of Norman's style either, as a child. Something cold about it, but I still enjoyed the stories. However, now I can appreciate his pen technique more. A lot of cartoonists of his generation seemed to have that "scratchier" linework. I think the problem is that Norman was required to adapt to the traditional IPC house style to work in comics and it didn't quite suit his technique as easily as, say, Mike Lacey or Terry Bave. Despite that his strips did seem to be very popular though.

Lew

[stevezodiac]

He sort of reminds me of a British Don Heck, during the 60s I never liked Don's work as it just didn't compare with Kirby, Ditko, Kane, Adams etc. But as I got older I realised he was a dependable artist who never missed deadlines and was a good storyteller, now I quite enjoy his work. Same with Nicholas/Alascia in Charlton comics. I saw one panel of theirs that really struck me as being really well done and looked at them in a different light forever afterwards. But Frank Robbins? Arrgh!

[Raven]

I used to like Norman's style and pages and recall his strips tending to be long runners. I'd often find some of the characters quite sympathetic in their obsessive desperation. And he drew such mumsy looking mums!

Teacher's Pet in Cor!! was a fun and lively one of his, often full of manic energy. His Wear 'Em Out Wilf from Whizzer and Chips was a good strip, too.

And I remember liking Mummy's Boy through its long run. Like an extreme version of the Ronnie Corbett sitcom Sorry, that one.

The boy wasn't an overgrown baby as such, but a boy practically in his teens whose mum was refusing to let him grow up, to the extent of keeping him in bonnet and pram, etc. I thought Mansbridge made the fretful - and obviously loopy - mother quite sympathetic, so it always seemed quite nice when she'd win at the end, proving that the world *was* too dangerous for her lad to grow up.

Bonnet-wearing character-wise, though, was Mummy's Boy as freaky as Jelly Baby in Cor!!? I think not!

[Lew Stringer]

He sort of reminds me of a British Don Heck, during the 60s I never liked Don's work as it just didn't compare with Kirby, Ditko, Kane, Adams etc. But as I got older I realised he was a dependable artist who never missed deadlines and was a good storyteller, now I quite enjoy his work. Same with Nicholas/Alascia in Charlton comics. I saw one panel of theirs that really struck me as being really well done and looked at them in a different light forever afterwards. But Frank Robbins? Arrgh!

Regarding Don Heck, check out some of his Fifties horror work and early Sixties SF work if you can. He excelled at drawing those five page strips for Tales of Suspense etc, and of course was the main artist on Iron Man for that comic during the strips formative years. (His and Gene Colan's versions of Iron Man remain my favourites to this day.)

http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/marvel ... 008_20.jpg

Lew

[stevezodiac]

Sadly, unlike the EC comics, the Atlas horror stories are not reprinted anywhere. Maybe Marvel could give us an Essentials collection of them. I have a dozen or so original Atlas comics so am aware of Heck's horror stuff. They rarely signed their artwork then so its good to have one of those Overstreet US price guides that gives a lot of the art credits.