1989 [2]
IT'S BEEN GREAT FUN RIFLING THROUGH these 'vintage' inkings I churned out in 1989, and apart from the intruige in seeing how much my style has changed in the intervening years, I am happy to report there is a lot of diversity within this material, including my renditions of favorite established characters, usually from the D C Thomson stable.
During the 80s, my absolute favorite cartoonists like John Geering or Robert Nixon had gone the dreaded sketchy route so I looked elsewhere for quality stuff: it duly arrived in the shape of CUDDLES and DIMPLES, a DANDY strip by BARRIE APPLEBY that started around late 1986: there were a lot of upheavels in the UK comic biz at this time, with many IPC titles closing down and former employees looking for work on the BEANO, etc: improved color and paper stock appeared in the late 80s too.
The 80s were not a brilliant time for British Comics but I am glad I got a wee bit of work back then: the Industry was starting to die to be sure but at the very least I did get to 'see what it was like' and there is no doubt that my style of drawing is heavily influenced by many of the top artists in this field, of the 60s and 70s.
Anyway, I done some test inkings of Cuddles and Dimples and took them into the Editors: the splendidly-named Dandy Editor Morris Heggie was sufficiently impressed enough to give me a trial on these characters, and whaddyaknow: he even gave me a double-spread original of Applebys' work to take home and study, replete with stamped artist logo on the back of the shiney paper! --I remember some of the word balloons started to fall off and I had to reglue then back myself!
I mailed in a pencil-version of the artwork to Mr Heggie but alas he never replied.
There seems to have been a fair bit of casual callousness on the part of the Comic Editors: I distinctly remember seeing a batch of cartoon crow drawings someone had sent in, sitting on the desk in front of me, and two Editors just glanced at this effort amusingly, one of them dismissively quipping: 'it's not for me!' ---then walking off. This may come accross as flippant, but on the other hand, these Editors were getting new stuff on their desk day after day and I expect it became a case of having-seen-it-all-before: they must have seen a Helluva lot of pure dross as well, so who can blame them for acting like this? For all these shortcomings------ I was sometimes treated exactly the same way-------- seeing the very heart of this Comic King Empire is something I still would not have missed for the World.
Anyway here is my rendition of the anarchic infants, done completely in my own style: there is something not quite right about making alterations to artwork from another Century, so I am presenting it 'as is', warts and all :
CUDDLES and DIMPLES Characters COPYRIGHT D C THOMSON and CO. LTD, 2015
MORE 1989 CURIOS ON THE WAY: HONEY I gotta million of 'em........
During the 80s, my absolute favorite cartoonists like John Geering or Robert Nixon had gone the dreaded sketchy route so I looked elsewhere for quality stuff: it duly arrived in the shape of CUDDLES and DIMPLES, a DANDY strip by BARRIE APPLEBY that started around late 1986: there were a lot of upheavels in the UK comic biz at this time, with many IPC titles closing down and former employees looking for work on the BEANO, etc: improved color and paper stock appeared in the late 80s too.
The 80s were not a brilliant time for British Comics but I am glad I got a wee bit of work back then: the Industry was starting to die to be sure but at the very least I did get to 'see what it was like' and there is no doubt that my style of drawing is heavily influenced by many of the top artists in this field, of the 60s and 70s.
Anyway, I done some test inkings of Cuddles and Dimples and took them into the Editors: the splendidly-named Dandy Editor Morris Heggie was sufficiently impressed enough to give me a trial on these characters, and whaddyaknow: he even gave me a double-spread original of Applebys' work to take home and study, replete with stamped artist logo on the back of the shiney paper! --I remember some of the word balloons started to fall off and I had to reglue then back myself!
I mailed in a pencil-version of the artwork to Mr Heggie but alas he never replied.
There seems to have been a fair bit of casual callousness on the part of the Comic Editors: I distinctly remember seeing a batch of cartoon crow drawings someone had sent in, sitting on the desk in front of me, and two Editors just glanced at this effort amusingly, one of them dismissively quipping: 'it's not for me!' ---then walking off. This may come accross as flippant, but on the other hand, these Editors were getting new stuff on their desk day after day and I expect it became a case of having-seen-it-all-before: they must have seen a Helluva lot of pure dross as well, so who can blame them for acting like this? For all these shortcomings------ I was sometimes treated exactly the same way-------- seeing the very heart of this Comic King Empire is something I still would not have missed for the World.
Anyway here is my rendition of the anarchic infants, done completely in my own style: there is something not quite right about making alterations to artwork from another Century, so I am presenting it 'as is', warts and all :
CUDDLES and DIMPLES Characters COPYRIGHT D C THOMSON and CO. LTD, 2015
MORE 1989 CURIOS ON THE WAY: HONEY I gotta million of 'em........
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