Very funny details fill David Sutherland's early Bash Street kids pages

The Bash Street kids annual 1984.
As a good guess this was from the 1970's Beano


Love the amount of stuff Teacher needs for a potted plant!!


This is the gag that made me laugh out loud! Love the shoe boxes and the helpful horse upside down!


Also love the tadpole in the vinegar.

Other details there is a Roman guard looking out of the Bash Castle window..
Also like the speech balloon coming out of the hole in the handle of the pot..
love Fatty's eyes going up and down after being hit out of the pot..
The swimming sharks in the moat..
The fried egg painting..one looks real
The strange rubbish in the kitchen
The Plugish gargoyles

Leo Baxendale isn't the only artist to add lots of fun details..

Malcolm Judge is great at so many different ways of drawing speed...

Also the lettering whizz are done in unique ways.love the zoooom! overlapping..



I also love the multiple Billy's in one panel..

No other Billy Whizz artist has topped the variety..its just brilliant..

Smudge does have a Dad!!

The Beano 21st August 1982..

Smudge's Dad is a frogman on the oil rig so that is where he is..
Also love the details John Geering adds to his drawings like the flower very put out by Smudge using its flowerpot...also the ducks in the rain..and the mouse..

John does a great effect in the first panel showing heavy rain the house in the background is suggested in diagonal rain strokes..also great expressive faces..

looking forward to the 1980's era featured in The Beano and Dandy Heroes book 2011 coming in late August..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Beano-Dandy-Heroes-Annual/dp/1845354133/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277145842&sr=8-11

Reg Parlett is great at drawing hands...

I am no Parlett expert (though would happily become one!) so take this with a pinch of salt, but as soon as I saw that horse I was shocked. RP's work stands out because he NEVER (to my limited knowledge) drew a character that looked wooden, or looked the same in two frames running. That is what mere mortal artists have to do, not our Reg. tolworthy

This advice from comicsuk forum I've found invaluable.
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=2094&start=15

mind you horses are hard to draw...:)


Now here is Reg's work in the same comic Shiver and Shake 1973.
Reg is amazing!!!
The piano is shown from every different angle...even the back view!!!
The spooky hand is also different each time.love the way it runs along on its fingers..

The difference between the two...
Reg's work is soo 3D!!
Wonderful variety.
Try and put it into your own comic page drawing.

Dudley D Watkins King of perspective

click on both halves to see the whole page in full.

Every panel is full of depth...height...different angles..depth...and fun!

The last panel with all the item Mickey climbed is a great payoff.

Perspective should be used more in comics. It is so powerful.
Also the use of distance.

So get your rulers out..

Black Bob by Jack Prout

What a great artist Jack was.....lets have a closer look at this Black Bob strip from a 1961 Dandy comic.

The first frame shows a good white space....its very easy to fill up a picture with lots of hatching and detail..very hard to leave space...making it easier on the eye. The wording Black Bob stands out despite a dark black background and black letters...great face on Black Bob being cheeky and sticking his tongue out.

Frame two a nice mirror image of the man and Black Bob running out of view. The angle has changed in the picture. Also looking down on the image.

Frame three has wonderful brick work...no short cuts every brick is different. Lighter hatching and darker hatching by pen to different degrees. Nice wooden door effect.

Frame four has good distance with smaller bricks on the stable. This is very tricky to do. Also a good sky downward at an angle strokes. Darker bricks to show shadows.

Frame five nice use of action white lines to show the barrel rolling.

Frame six great wavy line wool effect on the ram.

Frame seven A different sky...Jack always making everything unique.

Frame eight shows lovely pen work on the corn...he really knew what each of these objects looked like...really has studyed it...not second guess..

Overall an amazing piece of work...very carefully done...no rushing...

An early Mickey the Monkey by Dudley D Watkins

a quote from Spy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT A DIFFERENCE seeing the real Mc Coy like this: 'CLASSICS from the COMICS' does this work noreal justice.........many thanks for seeing these excellent historical works, PETER......

from Beano and Dandy forum..
http://tiptopgolfy.proboards101.com/index.cgi

I agree with Spy its great to see these images as large and in colour. With all the detail intact. Some of the red wording or anything red is lost in the black and white of Classics or Best of Topper.

Studying the picture.
Dudley is great at making the picture alive. So many angles like top or bottom point of view. Also characters going in and out of the frame..perspective. If I was drawing this I would of made it flat...left to right...But Dudley has inspired me with his depth he has in each frame...nothing is flat!!! Every frame is different another amazing thing. The wheels on the chair are different each time the same with the open book...different angles a real feeling of movement (frame 7,8,9). I love frame 10....Mickey coming towards us...figures in background. Frame 4,5,6 is great animation of someone swimming. Also the room slowly spins at the same time of the push off by Mickey.

So much in one page to study and learn.....also to laugh and admire.

Beano book 1960-69

UPDATE

dandy mad
The teddy boy on the front cover of the beano book was called teddy fancy that! and he was with the bash street kids from 1/9/56 to 8/10/60

dandy mad
It was korky artist james crighton who drew the cover for the beano book 1960 and his last.

Thanks dandymad from comicsuk forum for the info.
from
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2251


Biffos face have a Mickey Mouse quality..I like the use of bluey grey on the ears and eyes and a light slit in the eyes..it is great seeing the early Bash Street kids in colour...theres the teddy boy Bash Street kid..and the almost normal Plug. Its a strange image of a picture within a picture..teacher reading the actual Beano book in a jigsaw. So many levels. The colours and drawing really have an old feeling to it.almost 30's feel its that green colour...love this image..

The back cover is very bizarre...the images are all mixed up...with a very realistic Dennis arm and hand highlighted in yellow. Dennis and Little Plum in skirts...or leave skirt...the character Dennis is mixed up with is a Black native character Pom Pom drawn by Gordon Bell in the book. The head of Pom Pom is on Little Plums legs and body...black and white mixed up. The cats head is from Kat and Kanary strip..the Kings body is Prince Whoopee...Minnies skirt is on Little Plum...




Nice use of a heavy hadow on Jonah drawn by Ken Reid. I think it was coloured by someone else has Ken wasn't well in this period. The laces are almost dancing along with the jig. Again very hyper real. It really stands out. Even the Beano wording is sinking down with the ship. I like the hat reasing on the word Book.


Theres lots of great touches in this image. Like his vest stuck in the mast. The clothes jig along to the music..nice colourful notes..







A nice swinging image. Again the character is reading the actual book.
Very 3D looking almost puppet like. A nice use of the lettering..holding the swing up.





Biffos nose looks very strange almost dog like...its almost as if he is wearing a mask. Nice use of the dumbbell as the letters 'oo' in Book.
Nice colour stripes for the background like a circus tent. Biffo is almost leaning on the strongmans head!!





Very simple drawn by Dudley D Watkins. Nice the use of the B used in both words. This looks like Biffo.







Not my favourite it is too realistic. Almost spooky. The eye lashes etc..its very creepy.



Great gag. I like Spotty hanging on the tail. Fatty still eating even though he was underwater....:))

Missing in my collection Beano book 1961, 1965, and 1967.

Beano book 1976-79

Interesting angles used on both pictures..good choices. A lower angle for the rolling snowball coming towards us and the characters. You can see undernesth there running boots. Then a high view to show the tree and the characters laughing. You can see the top of Lord Snootys Top hat. Also they are shown looking back. Great contrasts.




The bouncing goes with the bouncy clouds. Also love the Beano book wording being put behind the image. I like the fun 70's toy being used, also the face on it of Dennis the Menace. Good use of red throughout. I like this one best out of the ones shown here.






This again shows different angles...view points in each picture. Looking to the left then to the right..revealing the pond. This keeps the action moving.






lovely clouds formation on each of these images. Every Beano book title font was different from the next. Coloured depending on the main colour of the picture.

Beano book 1970-75

It is nice to see these images large. A lot of websites on comic annuals show them very small...you miss such a lot of detail that way.
You can really see the juice of this lolly...lovely idea..yummy!
Also great looking grass details. Like this one a lot!





My favourite Beano book cover. You can really see the paint colouring. Its fun seeing what eye colour they are. Fatty has blue eyes!
Billy Whizz is fun...his whizzing smoke sure saves the artist a lot of drawing loads of feet!!


Enjoy zooming in!! Good shadows...especially on Biffos shoulders. Again makes it more alive..

There seems to be a battle between Biffo and Dennis the Menace...same thing happened in the early Beano annuals between Big Eggo and Biffo...have a look for yourselves at comicsuk.co.uk annuals section under Beano.


The shininess of the frying pan is great..


The way the kids are drawn in different falling angles gives it a real 3D quality. Very hard to draw!