The Comic Creations of Cartoonist Ken Reid

[Dick Turpin]

I guess the golden age of British comics has to be the 1960s to 1970s, though my own childhood memories of such only stretch back as far as the early '70s, though earlier material was often reprinted, and a weekly comic, plus all those passed on from friends and relatives, became for many, an integral part of the childhood experience as much as cherished TV programs, the sweet shop, the local pop van and train spotting.

 

From all the comics I remember reading, it was the ones drawn by cartoonist Ken Reid that I remember best, particularly Faceache, the boy with 100 faces, from the Buster comic, who could 'scrunge' his molecules to form hideous and monstrous creations that made both my brother and I laugh out loud in a way that tamer strips from the more mainstream comics could never do.

 

Obviously I was never aware of which cartoonist drew which strips back then, but I have since been looking back at those times, and quickly discovered that most of my favourites were all creations of the great Ken Reid, who also penned 'Jasper the Grasper' and 'Frankie Stein', and it's amazing how once those memories begin to connect, how things soon stack up, and I was soon searching for anything published out there and discovered that quite bit has been quite recently, and which I have obtained and been avidly reading, discovering a world of comic genius from the 1960s I had previously been unaware of, such as 'Queen of the Seas', The Nervs' and 'Dare a day Davy', which were from the comics, Smash', 'Pow' and 'Wham'.

 

So, here we are. Do you remember these cartoon strips, the comics mentioned, or others that etched their way into your memory? Was it really a golden age, or just another part of nostalgia? Why were those comic strips actually funny (to me at least), when modern offerings (what few that are left) simply aren't. Finally, is the decline and fall of the comic due to steadily falling sales volumes, with titles merging with one another, and finally most going out of print, merely due of progress and changing times: just another piece of the past we have to leave behind as we embrace progress?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

The one comic strip that grabbed me when young was the brief appearance of 'The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire' in Ranger. Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence were the responsible parties. When Ranger disappeared it went to Look and Learn, an altogether less interesting rather more educationally focussed magazine, so I never found out how the story ended, and by that age was starting on hard SF by the likes of Dr Asimov anyway.

 

By weird coincidence, one of my Dutch cousins who made his career in publishing, was involved in roduction of a collected reprint of the entire series. Didn't know then or now if I wanted to see it, in case it took the shine off my happy memory of it. Not least because it was clearly drinking from the same classical Graeco-Roman history which forms the basis of Asimov's Foundation series, but  tending to be a bit wilder with the material and I am something of a sobersides if truth be told. (I pestered our town librarian at every opportunity to obtain all of Asimov's published work, as fast as I could find the titles.)

[Dick Turpin]

There is some information about Ken here:

 

https://comiccreatorsuk.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/spotlight-on-the-great-ken-reid-1919-1987/

 

 

 

I must admit that reliving this particular part of my childhood and reading these comic strips feels quite therapeutic in that it is helping keep me away from the internet (a bit).