Comics UK

WizzKid97 wrote:I can't believe that joke about Gnasher and the corgi got into the final script - that joke seemed to suit a tasteless Viz knock-off rather than appear in a comic strip which only last year was about a kid who loved inventing and was incredibly soft.

Thing is, what's being suggested by that joke only works if you already know what it refers to, so I see no problem with it. The dialogue works on two levels. Kids will take it as Gnasher just being friends with the corgi, and older readers will smile for a different reason.

Nigel Auchterlounie wrote:What would you say if McDonalds came to you and asked for a regular strip about Ronald and the gang?

Probaby the same as Brian Bolland said when Palitoy asked him to do the Star Wars adverts of the 70's and the early 80's.

At least it wasn't sponsored by Wonga.com!

- Phil R.

Today's Daily Mirror has a follow up article - a centre spread devoted to celebrities who have appeared in comics (Film Fun etc. excepted). Recent comics I should say.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ce ... id-1949311

About half of them are from the Beano! Weirdly, none from the Dandy...

I wonder how much ink they saved by not drawing Rebecca Adlington's hooter to scale?

Nigel Auchterlounie wrote:I was surprised (and pleased) that joke made it though. Time out is read exclusively by grown ups. So I felt something for them early on was needed. It's not something that I would have used in the regular comic.
If my 8 year old read it he would think that it was nice that they made friends.
Viz would have probably shown them being friends.

That's all fair enough, the rest of the writing is decent - some good humour from you as always. I found the corgi joke funny but just felt it seemed a little out-of-place in Dennis the Menace but I can see your reason for why you included it.

Digifiend wrote:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ce ... id-1949311

Wot? No Dan Leno?

Gnasher did disappear for 8 weeks back in 1986 and then turn up with a litter of pups.

Nigel Auchterlounie wrote:As for the product placement. It's sponsored by MasterCard. The whole thing. Without them no festival no Beanotown exhibition no strip in Timeout.

My first proper strip was an advert for toys. The whole thing was product placement. I embraced it and did the very best I could with it. The Bogies strip actually lasted longer than the toy range. What would you say if McDonalds came to you and asked for a regular strip about Ronald and the gang?

And what if it had been sponsored by Carlsberg? Or Silk Cut?

I think my original post was a bit OTT. The "adult content" is actually far tamer than what you'd see in The Simpsons at 6pm. And I do understand that it wouldn't exist were it not for MC. But it still makes me sad, perhaps due to my Bill Hicksian idealism regarding art and advertising.

I think it's interesting to consider where a line would be drawn... Would you feel comfortable with Dennis's dad treating the family with money from a payday loan? Dennis extolling the virtues of McDonalds?

I had no problem with Bogies - it was often a highlight of The Dandy, and it's a great example of an advertising strip that transcended its source material. But the MC references leave a bad taste in my mouth.

PaulTwist wrote:I had no problem with Bogies - it was often a highlight of The Dandy

MikeD was not troubled by the use of bogies per se in the strip, and I doubt whether anybody else is either. His concern was that the use of the Americanised word booger was inappropriate in a British comic strip. I agree with him that the fact that Mastercard is apparently establishing its own product placement in the strip should not therefore simply allow them to use Americanisms willy-nilly in what is a quintessentially British comic strip.

I have a small pile of these Time Out magazines and if anyone wants a copy please PM me and I'll give you my address - payment will be three second class stamps. Unused. First come first served obviously. I may regret this post.

PaulTwist wrote:
And what if it had been sponsored by Carlsberg? Or Silk Cut?

I think my original post was a bit OTT. The "adult content" is actually far tamer than what you'd see in The Simpsons at 6pm. And I do understand that it wouldn't exist were it not for MC. But it still makes me sad, perhaps due to my Bill Hicksian idealism regarding art and advertising.

I think it's interesting to consider where a line would be drawn... Would you feel comfortable with Dennis's dad treating the family with money from a payday loan? Dennis extolling the virtues of McDonalds?

I've got to give you respect for mentioning Bill Hicks.
I would love to do a spoof strip filled with wildly inappropriate sponsors and placements. Dad so stressed by Dennis's latest antics he's puffing on a E-cigarette covered in patches etc. If only to see the Daily Mails reaction!

As for the use of the word Booger. My kids are to blame for that. They say Booger. I wrote it without thinking. I'm letting them watch too many american imports I know.

It's worth bearing in mind that in point of fact, rather than being some newfangled mutation of the mother tongue, American English often preserves much older words and pronunciations. Thus it's entirely possible that Queen Elizabeth the First and William Shakespeare would have naturally referred to 'boogers' rather than 'bogies' when descanting upon their own nasal excretions!

- Phil Rushton

When I was a kid (and kids from where I'm from, still today) call the green exports from our noses 'Snatters'.

Not snot, or snotters. Or bogies, boogers.... SNATTERS.

The most ugliest, dirty word I think I've ever heard that comes from your nose.