Comics UK

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... y-and.html

Thanks to CK I've discovered Scruffy.drawn by Bob in the New Hotspur..
Also drew The Three Bears...The Wonder boy...had a look in my History of the Beano index..
Did he draw for the Dandy..? any other comics? Fleetway?
Any other info...

thanks

I love Wonder boy its a shame it didn't take off.....love the surreal quality to it..

'LITTLE MO' for 'BEEZER' , PETER, also 'GINGER' for the same comic, after DUDLEY......possibly 'MIGUEL the MATADOR' from early 60s 'BEEZER'............'BIG UGGY' for late 60s 'TOPPER'.........he done a couple of frankly bizarre strips in the early 80s, one involving a group of pigs: a unique artist of considerable skill, however.............

Bob did a bit of work for Nutty - the Pig Tales strips ISPY mentioned, and a strip whose name escapes me about a super-soft superhero.

He also drew Nobby for Buzz - younger blonde version of Ginger.

Thanks for those.I'll look for them and do another post on Bob..

I remember seeing in my collection the Pig one.also have the MATADOR one in my Beezer annual..

'PIG TALES': that was it, Andy: I think he also done a short-lived strip called SAMUEL PEEPS: one D C THOMSON artist informed me that BOB actually resembled a cameo character out of 'DESPERATE DAN', about a 50ish year-old guy who had absurdly protruding ear-'oles he could wiggle comically.......

Peter Gray wrote:http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... y-and.html

Thanks to CK I've discovered Scruffy.drawn by Bob in the New Hotspur..
Also drew The Three Bears...The Wonder boy...had a look in my History of the Beano index..
Did he draw for the Dandy..? any other comics? Fleetway?
Any other info...

thanks

I love Wonder boy its a shame it didn't take off.....love the surreal quality to it..

Bob wasn't the regular artist on Scruffy, George Drysdale deserves the credit for that. In fact I'm not too sure that this Xmas Hotspur back page isn't George Drysdale in any case.

If you look at the blog post and tell me if there are any drawn by Bob and I'll delete the others and add that the main artist was George.

thanks Kashgar..

Samuel Creeps it was. Found it on the Nutty Wiki page.

thanks Andy.....anyone remember the highly unusual McGRATH/WATKINS artwork collaboration from the BEANO 1969 annual, in which drawings from both artists appeared within the same frame? It was a story about BIFFO meeting his distant relatives, one at the ARCTIC......an extremely unique, one-off art endevour with the two seperate artists actually having their creations 'interact'.

ISPYSHHHGUY, I was reading that one fairly recently and have just had another look when I read your post. It hadn't occurred to me that there were two artists working on this piece until you mentioned it and I think the result looks great. Any idea why they decided to work that way rather than have one artist ghost the other throughout? Readers at the time wouldn't have been aware of the novelty of the collaboration as it's not signed.

Matt: I reckon that WATKINS drew this entire strip, and simply left blank spaces for BOB Mc GRATH to fill in his own unique bear characters later: the fact that you see these two seperate styled-characters actually sitting at the same table remains one of the most unique, original diversions in the history of comics----- in the UK 'funnies' field at least-------[through a fairly simple idea];: a full 40 years later.

WATKINS, for all his great talent, was never that great at doing BAXENDALE-styled characters [BOB'S '3 BEARS' was originated by LEO, obviously] so perhaps it was a concious decision that led to this 'happy accident'.

I bought the1969 annual at the time [I was very young then, of course!] and I noticed it was a collaboration, but that's probably because I spent so much time of my younthful years absorbing these childhood books.

I'm doing a post on this now..thanks spy...you are all making my blog very interesting to me..and others..
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... ether.html




also changed the Scruffy post......George gets a post now with Maxy's Taxi..
thanks Kashgar for the correction..

Thanks, ISPYSHHHGUY. Interesting. I should have said "the average reader wouldn't have known it was a collaboration". Eagle-eyed connoisseurs are another matter!

Glad you seem to like my observation, boys! Actually, I intended entering this subject as a theme on COMICS UK at some particular time, but now it's here, it's fine by me.

The previous annual, from 1968, featured a WATKINS-only drawn strip that included his versions of the 'BASH STREET KIDS' , the last full-page frame set in a ZOO environment [I have this annual also, and LEW scanned this same image into his blog a while back]; WATKIN'S work often looked gloriously eccentric, but in this case I thought the results looked downright odd, and perhaps the 'BEANO' editorial felt the same way....

Perhaps the following year, rather than offending their top artist, they suggested a one-off 'experiment' as a trial; this is all pure speculation on my part, of course, but it would explain the delightful results in this instance.

THE 'BEANO'S top 'ghoster' was of course DAVEY SUTHERLAND, who usually handled large scenes involving characters associated with seperate artists.

That was not the last time that the four bears would be in the one strip - some years later, Bob drew one where they swapped places for a holiday.