Comics UK

Hey folks. Apart from "Gremlins" for Jackpot, what other work for UK kids' comics has Steve Bell done? I seem to recall he did strips for the likes of Whoopee and Cheeky too...but details are fuzzy.

Oh and if anyone has any scans of "Gremlins" (or anything else) that would be superb.

Ta.

Not that I've seen it.don't have any 1078 Whoopee's But he did a character who spoke upside down back to front...a very mixed up man..

love to see this if any can put a scan up..

No memory of that one, Peter. But sounds intriguing!

The time period we're talking about would, I think, be 1977-1979. Pretty short window. So maybe someone can turn something up. I'll be talking to him, on stage, on Saturday - so would LOVE to hit him with something obscure!

Peter Gray wrote:Not that I've seen it.don't have any 1078 Whoopee's But he did a character who spoke upside down back to front...a very mixed up man..

love to see this if any can put a scan up..

This was Dick Doobie.

Raven wrote:

Peter Gray wrote:Not that I've seen it.don't have any 1078 Whoopee's But he did a character who spoke upside down back to front...a very mixed up man..

love to see this if any can put a scan up..

This was Dick Doobie.

Dick Doobie? Surely not? But, yes. Apparently so. 26 Pigs has this:

"...The most unusual strip in Whoopee was Dick Doobie the upside down back to front man. To understand what Dick was saying you had to hold the comic upside down in front of a mirror".

No memory of that. But I sincerely wish I did. Plus, y'know, the rudest name in comics history!

3 pages by Steve appeared in Cheeky Weekly, all of which were mazes.

From issue dated 20 January 1979 (not sure if the depiction of Cheeky is by Steve, possibly that was pasted in);


From issue dated 27 January 1979


From issue dated 03 February 1979;

Fantastic. Thanks so much for posting those. The Cheeky images don't look very Bell-like at all, so I'd imagine you're right. They're additions from another source.

The tiny policemen in Maze 2 are pure Steve, however. Really weird seeing them in that kind of context.

Great stuff.

Peter Gray wrote:Not that I've seen it.don't have any 1078 Whoopee's

I didn't know Whoopee was around 932 years ago!

Peter Gray wrote: he did a character who spoke upside down back to front...a very mixed up man...

The name of the strip was Dick Doobie the Back to Front Man. It ran in Whoopee from 22nd April, 1978 till 9th September, 1978, a total of 20 appearances except in issue dated 8th July, 1978. Below are some scans, including that of the first episode. Am I imagining things, or is there really some resemblance to Robert Crumb's work?

I'll put up some scans of Gremlins later today.

klakadak-ploobadoof,

You are a legend! Bit of a labour intensive strip to create, and read, I would have thought. And the resemblances to Crumb are definitely there. Steve was a big Crumb fan, and Crumb's work (those bold and scratchy lines) was an early influence. Feels like the kind of story that would have found a natural home in something like Oink!

I'm off to get a mirror...

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... -back.html

Well you've really made my day..thank you both..

what great 3D mazes very difficult to draw!!
and writing the speech bubble for back to front man!



http://petergraysukcomicartists.blogspo ... 0Baxendale

Steve Bell's early IPC work looked very 'political' even then....I love the savagery of his stuff in the Guardian. Very near-the-knuckle, some of it, but all the better for it.

I have the book on his career, and he states his biggest influences were Robert Crumb and Leo Baxendale.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I love the savagery of his stuff in the Guardian. Very near-the-knuckle, some of it, but all the better for it.

Absolutely. It's the savagery and the grotesqueness that really mark him out from his contemporaries. I interviewed him recently (and briefly) for The Irish Times, if you fancy having a look.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wee ... 75750.html

Said savagery was discussed. And Steve was in flying and explosive form.

I have just read this article, fustar, and Steve is totally distrusting of politicians as he appears in his cartoons...he's no hypocrite.


I have this book which chronicles his career with many illustrative highlights [he was a secondary teacher of all things, before cartooning beckoned!] I like this book, though it is at least 5 years out of date now.




I just checked some of his more recent work on Google Images....his stuff is better than ever....possibly my favourite contemporary UK political cartoonist.

I thought the points about the craven sycophancy were quite damning. And he didn't spare his own paper either!