Revisiting San Serriffe

The most excellent Strange Maps blog has just published an article about The Guardian’s fondly remembered 1977 April Fool supplement on the island of San Serriffe.

(Well, I say fondly remembered, though I do not personally remember the, fondly or otherwise, seeing as I was only rising one at the time. Over the years I became aware of it, though, by way of the 1999 reboot of the spoof, and also in much the same osmotic way as I know about the Tomorrow’s World piece on spaghetti trees.)

Talking of fake-stories-as-Grauniad-news, I am reminded of the (and correct me if I am wrong) 1976 piece the paper published in which a reporter related the story of his chance encounter with a member of the SAS on a train.

The journalist – a sceptic of the British military strategy in Northern Ireland – had recently been writing about the deployment of SAS troops to the province, and in none too complimentary terms. IIRC he suggested they were swaggering cowboys who offered little to the peaceful resolution of the Troubles.

And lo, by complete serendipity he happened to meet one such soldier (in civvies) on an InterCity, who, during the course of a spontaneously-struck up conversation, turned out to be articulate, erudite, and anything but macho. His opinions on British policy in Ulster shifted slightly, and he wrote up the story for the paper.

Then many years later it transpired that the whole ‘chance encounter’ had been a psyops fabrication; the journalist had been picked out as a possible target and a well-briefed and affable serviceman been placed on a train he was known to be travelling on in order to casually strike up a conversation with a view to modifying his opinions.

I’ve no idea whether that is a true story, as I can’t remember where I read it. Perhaps I imagined it? But it sounds like it might be a Colin Wallace one. I know the original story exists, as I read it in one of those Guardian Yearbook thingummies which they used to publish.

Can anyone fill in the details? The source of this tale swimming round my rapidly-shrinking brain? The journalist it seems to be about? The year, even?

Line of paint

For once, browsing the Guardian website pays off – check out this video of Salvador Dali on What’s My Line?…

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Back to Baxendale

The opening programme of the BBC4 ‘Comics Britannia’ season – which focused on the DC Thompson humour titles – boasted a whole lot of inky fingered comic genius Leo Baxendale, creator of the Bash Street Kids, Minnie The Minx, Little Plum, Willy The Kid, Sweeny Toddler and many other classic strips.

The programme was better than I feared it would be, but alas fell short of what it could have been, especially in the way the final twenty minutes dashed through the late sixties onwards, giving only cursory mention to major players and omitting dozens of significant comics. But I’m sure we expected this.

Nevertheless, we did have Leo fucking Baxendale! Leo Fucking Baxendale!!! And doesn’t he speak so wonderfully? Is not his head screwed on properly? I’m sure this comes as no surprise to anyone who has had the immense pleasure of reading his autobiography, A Very Funny Business – in which his righteous anger, his creative passions, his humanity, are all projected across a history which most of us know only from one side, that of the reader – but sadly this book is not well known.

The documentary also featured Kevin O’Neill, who also gave a good, conscious account of himself. I’m not sure the likes of Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Park or Michael Rosen really added anything to the programme; I would have preferred to hear more from O’Neill and Baxendale. Such is life, though.

Anyway, I’m drifting… The programme spurred me on to dig out an old issue of The Big Issue South West (from July 1999!), which contains an interview with Leo Baxendale, who lives (or lived) in Gloucestershire.

I remember my friend Tony, who was the designer at TBISW back then, and a big fan of Leo’s work, getting very excited at the time, and tagging along with the photographer to Chez Baxendale, just to meet him and ask him some questions of his own. He was chuffed to bits, and said that Leo was a lovely chap, and told him some great stories (including about his hard fought for settlement with the Dundonian overseers ).

I suspect Tony may have threatened to break the editor’s legs or some such (as was his wont, Tony being Tony, and this particular editor being the sort of person who would tend to drive you to wanting to break legs) in order to get the Leo interview bumped up to cover story instead of Tracey bloody Emin, because, well, the Leo interview was duly given the front page. I think you’ll agree, Tony did a great job with the ersatz Beano-style masthead.

In the end Tony was wholly vindicated for his leg-breaking threats, because that issue was for a long time – a very long time – the top selling edition of TBISW. It may well still hold the record, 8 years on, I don’t honestly know. But people responded to that cover, and to the Baxendale feature.

So, as a special treat for you, dear reader, I have uploaded a 4 page PDF of the interview and magazine cover for you to read at your leisure. I’ll also leave it in my Box (which is accessible from the sidebar on the right, near the bottom), too.

===

Other Comics Britannia related posts:

• Alan Moore knows the score (7th September)
• Comics Britannia season on BBC4! (6th September)

Sneezy, Farty & Follow Throughy

LOLz!

Spotted on cartoonist Jamie Smart’s blog i can see your monkey.

Check out Jamie’s magnificent Bear books (see links on right hand column) for top toonage

Holy office stationery, Batman!

The Doctor Who-obsessed Doppelganger, one of my favourite Bristol bloggers, has been busy doodling Batmen for Post-It art challenge…

(There’s coloured-in versions later on.)

Wally Wood’s 22 Panels That Always Work!!

Rejigged from the (original pasteboard/photostat) version as shown on Joel Johnson’s fascinating blog about the 22 panels:

I’d seen “Wally Wood’s 22 Panels That Always Work” around the net here and there for several years, always as a low-resolution scan of a copy that was clearly the product of dozens of generations of photocopies. As a comics fan and occasional artist who absorbed what little drawing skill I have by copying and tracing comics when I was a teenager, I found the juxtaposition in Wood’s piece telling. Here was a working artist distilling his craft into 22 panels that could be used to teleport across the occasional creative wasteland, yet each example was dashed off with effortless skill. I live by very few maxims, but there’s at least one I’ve found useful: Fake it ’til you make it. In Wood’s piece I could see an artist who had clearly made it but hadn’t forgotten the practicality of the occasional shortcut.

Comics Britannia season on BBC4!

Lumpy let me know that this was coming – it’s a short strand of programmes on BBC4 about the British comics tradition, featuring interviews with sterling creators such as Leo Baxendale and Alan Moore.

The season features a three part documentary, plus celebrity fanboy Jonathon Ross (in the late 80s and early 90s, no graphic novel was released without a JR endorsement pasted across the cover – in those days he was to comics what his brother came to be to film) on the trail of Steve Ditko, episodes of Batman and a film about Tintin. All in all, a slightly cobbled together line-up by the sounds of things, but hopefully the main event will be worth it:

Narrated by Armando Iannucci, it features interviews with the creators of iconic characters from The Beano, Bunty, Commando, Viz, Eagle, 2000AD and more. Here on the BBC Four website, watch out for extra footage of comic giants Leo Baxendale and Alan Moore, as well as more in-depth articles from expert aficionado Paul Gravett.

It starts next Monday, so don’t forget!

I suspect that the popularity of recent reprint editions of Commando picture library, the Aurum Press books and the V For Vendetta film have all helped create the climate which makes this series possible – perhaps it might help chivvy Egmont into releasing more material from the archives…

Oh, and check out this clip of Alan Moore being interviewed by Gaz Top on Get Fresh!

Linkies:

• Panel Borders – Alex Fitch (from intelligent film programme I’m Ready For My Close Up) and Duncan Nott’s excellent Resonance FM podcast about comics
• Comics UK – Lovably loud site devoted to all British comics, ever! Home to the very useful British comics family tree
• Fleetway Street – Top little site focusing on IPC’s humour titles
• Back From The Depths – Wonderful fansite for mid-80s horror comic Scream!, with a top forum
• MistyComic.co.uk – Devoted to the supernatural girls’ comic Misty
• Captain Marbles’ Battle Fansite – Enthusiastic fansite for the IPC home of ‘Charley’s War’, Johnny Red’ and many other war-themed strips
• Charley’s War – Neil Emery’s exemplary fansite devoted to the WW1 strip, featuring rare interview material with the late (and much missed) artist Joe Colquhoun

===

Other Comics Britannia related posts:

• Back To Baxendale (15th September)
• Alan Moore knows the score (7th September)

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The Di$neyland Memorial Orgy

While reading up on Wally Wood and his involvement in the Warren Publishing comic lines (Creepy, Eerie etc) – via Russ Jones’s very interesting memoir of it – I came across a poster he did for Paul Krassner’s magazine The Realist, entitled ‘The Disneyland Memorial Orgy‘.

Originally a black and white panorama, it was commissioned by Krassner shortly after Walt Disney’s death in the winter of 1967:

This was a few years after Time’s famous “God Is Dead” cover, and it occurred to me that Disney was indeed God to Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy — the whole crowd — he had been their creator and had repressed their baser instincts, but now they could shed all their inhibitions and participate in a magnificent mass binge.

Notes Wikipedia:

Only about a third of the 64 Disney characters depicted are actively involved in sexual intercourse or are on the point of undertaking it. Most are just observing the others. A few of the characters are occupied with other activities. A dazed Mickey Mouse, to the left in the bottom area, is plunging a syringe in his arm, while the paraphernalia of drug addicts lies at his feet. Next to him, an evil looking and grinning Pluto is urinating on a large painting of the eager face of Mickey. One of the small rabbits from Bambi is probably engaged in the sin of gluttony, featured licking an ice cream cone. In the upper left, Dumbo the flying elephant has just defecated on Donald Duck while in flight.

The wide activity of the scene and the panoramic view resembles the satires of William Hogarth or medieval depictions from such masters such as Hieronymus Bosch. The upper left portion is decorated with a few allusions to the lucrative nature of Walt Disney enterprises.

Lynx o’ the day

• Carson Von Osten – Comic Strip Artist’s Kit

  A rather nice Scribd page featuring a comic book tutorial by Walt Disney artist Carson von Osten

  (tags: disney cartoonist comic carson-von-osten tutorial scribd how-to artist blogged)

Zenith Phase 3 scorecard!

One for teh fanboys & grrrls…

2000A.D.’s Zenith series was split into 4 main segments, Phase One through Four. During the epic third Phase, Zenith and his cast joined an array of other heroes from across the multiverse in a fight against the deadly Lliogor, who were terrorising some of the alternate Earths in the multiverse in host bodies stolen from other superheroes. Zenith Phase Three is a delight for fans of British superheroes, as there are dozens of them dotted around throughout the story, both as themselves (when copyright problems didn’t get in the way) and under pseudonyms (when they did). Some of these characters are readily identifiable, but other are not. What we need is a scorecard!

International Hero’s Zenith scorecard page