Comics UK

I've been listening to the Byrd's quite a lot lately since I put their best of double CD onto my mp3 player. My ebay picture shows me wearing a pair of those tiny dark glasses that I think Roger McGuinn wore.

I just bought a Best of the Byrds CD last week. I had their early stuff on vinyl. Wish I'd kept it that way. All that country music at the end was pretty tedious.

I think even Bob Dylan himself was impressed by what the Byrds did with Mr. Tambourine Man. By comparison the Melanie version is terribly shaky - but it's that very note of fragility in her voice I like so much. As a result it somehow manages to evoke the impossibly naive aspirations of the Summer of Love while simultaneously anticipating their imminent disintegration in drugs and violence. For those of us who watched it happen it's almost heartbreaking to hear the plaintive way in which she sings 'I want to forget about today until tomorrow'!

From Poor Cow (1967). In this scene Joy (Carol White) asks Dave (Terence Stamp) if she can read one of his comics. He hands over what he tells her is a copy of 'Lewis Lane featuring Superman's girlfiend', so Dave is clearly no comics aficionado. I recorded the film when it was shown on the Talking Pictures TV channel which, although it broadcasts on the Freeview HD platform, doesn't transmit in HD. Had it been shown in HD we may have been able to identify some of the other titles on Dave's bed.



This young girl is reading her comic to Joy's son, Johnny (Stephen King). The girl mentions Sooty and Soo, while the page facing us features a character called Joe, who I believe also appeared in a TV series. Can anyone identify which comic this would be?

The yellow cover, just visible, leads me to believe it is Jack and Jill and a quick google gives a wiki page for Jack and Jill comic characters and Joe is in the list (from the bbc tv series). But not Sooty and Soo.

Maybe the girl couldn't read and was just making up a story about Sooty!

The comic is Pippin, which featured both Joe and Sooty and Sweep - on pages next to each other - in 1967.

Cheers Raven!

I meant Pippin, slip of the tongue, honest guv.

Actually it did occur to me there was more than one nursery comic with a yellow border to the cover but I coudn't think of any names. Pippin was a Polystyle comic wasn't it? I think I remember seeeing it advertised in TV Comic.

From the Doctor At Large episode entitled Change Your Partners, originally broadcast 11 April 1971. This episode concerns the romantic dilemma in which Michael Upton finds himself when, despite being the object of Su's affections (Su is played by the gorgeous Madeline Smith), he pursues another woman (the fool). Michael is seen reading a publication called Sweetheart, which is revealed, when his colleague grabs it from him, to be a comic or at least a mag with some comic content. Was there such a comic/mag, or is this a mocked-up cover? The scene then progresses in a series of comic panels, as if from a romance strip. The end titles reveal that the artwork is by Pat Gavin - not a name I'm familiar with.









I'm sure the many fans of the lovely Ms Smith would be disappointed if I didn't include a pic of her...

From British film All Neat In Black Stockings (1968). In one scene we see the contents of a scrapbook belonging to an artist. Into one of the pages has been pasted part of the cover of the same year's SMASH! POW! It's FANTASTIC SUMMER SPECIAL.

From Alexi Sayle's Merry-Go-Round (1998) - a few issues of Spit and Zit and the like can be seen on the top shelf to the left of Alexi's head:

COMIC ARTISTS ON RADIO.

I listen to talksport most of the time and on the Saturday night show they mentioned they would be getting a Roy of the Rovers artist in soon. I can't remember the presenters but they are on about 10pm to midnight on Saturdays. Their show isn't that much sports based more popular culture - they play lots of vintage tv theme music.

Barrie Tomlinson was the "artist". He was interviewed last night on talksport. Ex editor of Tiger he has written a book about Roy of the Rovers. He was also interviewed in yesterday's Daily Mirror.

stevezodiac wrote:Barrie Tomlinson was the "artist". He was interviewed last night on talksport. Ex editor of Tiger he has written a book about Roy of the Rovers.

There are several copies of this book up for grabs on eBay as we speak.