If I were drawing for D C Thomson today.......
In my youth, I was able to pick up some comic-strip work from Scottish publishers D C Thomson, the best-ever purveyors of 'cartoon comics-fare within these shores, in my view........it was a lot easier to attain work in the mid-80s, of course: although the standards and sales of comics in general were undoubtedly starting to slip overall during that time , the situation and opportunities/outlets for new artists was absolutely thriving in comparison to the bleak state of affairs that is the reality seen in this industry today.
When I was doing this in my early 20s, I had a lot of enthusiasm: but to be honest, my patent lack of experience in putting together effective comics-imagery is often painfully evident the few times I ever dust down the published material for a 'butchers' hook' : nevertheless, there is one aspect I DO share in common with top comics artist Dudley D Watkins: we both took a few years to 'get any good', we both needed some experience under our belts before we were able to 'do' decent-looking stuff. I am no Watkins of course,---nowhere even close!------- but everyone has to start doing this somewhere.
Anyway, recently I have been looking through a large selection of early 90s BEANOS, -----a much later period of the comic I totally missed at the time------and overall, it was better than I expected: although true Masters like John Geering and Bob Nixon were putting out stuff that was always worth a look, their deliberate sketchiness during this period is a bit off-putting for me personally. There is a lot of very 'cute'-looking stuff from artists like Barry Glennard, and also the improved paper stock in use in the 90s---along with pretty good, increased use of color----marks a most definite upgrade in quality in some respects, compared to the dire newsprint and limited Ben Day 'colored dots' in use in the 60s and 70s.
I really like the 'updated' versions of BIFFO the BEAR drawn by Sid Burgon and Trevor Metcalfe: it's clearly very different from the Watkins original of course: the bear is completely redesigned , and the use of pantomime, non-verbal frames and absurdist humor is more akin to something out of MAD Magazine-----it's all the better for it, though. I'll take this later Biffo over the slick but calculated version seen following Watkins' death.
Overall, though, it would be difficult to argue that the BEANO was putting out really creative work from the mid-70s onwards: the output is most definitely still good fun to look at...but there is certainly a strong impression of the comic 'going through the motions' and putting out far too much Baxendale-inspired fare. For me at least, it's a real case of the Law of Diminishing Returns coming into play, over four decades now.
HOWEVER! Here you can see a hypothetical drawing I would do if employed by the BEANO today...............I have no BEANO ambitions left these days, of course---much prefer 'doing me own stuff'.
MINNIE the MINX, PA BEAR and TED BEAR Characters are all COPYRIGHT of D.C. THOMSON and CO. LTD, 2016
When I was doing this in my early 20s, I had a lot of enthusiasm: but to be honest, my patent lack of experience in putting together effective comics-imagery is often painfully evident the few times I ever dust down the published material for a 'butchers' hook' : nevertheless, there is one aspect I DO share in common with top comics artist Dudley D Watkins: we both took a few years to 'get any good', we both needed some experience under our belts before we were able to 'do' decent-looking stuff. I am no Watkins of course,---nowhere even close!------- but everyone has to start doing this somewhere.
Anyway, recently I have been looking through a large selection of early 90s BEANOS, -----a much later period of the comic I totally missed at the time------and overall, it was better than I expected: although true Masters like John Geering and Bob Nixon were putting out stuff that was always worth a look, their deliberate sketchiness during this period is a bit off-putting for me personally. There is a lot of very 'cute'-looking stuff from artists like Barry Glennard, and also the improved paper stock in use in the 90s---along with pretty good, increased use of color----marks a most definite upgrade in quality in some respects, compared to the dire newsprint and limited Ben Day 'colored dots' in use in the 60s and 70s.
I really like the 'updated' versions of BIFFO the BEAR drawn by Sid Burgon and Trevor Metcalfe: it's clearly very different from the Watkins original of course: the bear is completely redesigned , and the use of pantomime, non-verbal frames and absurdist humor is more akin to something out of MAD Magazine-----it's all the better for it, though. I'll take this later Biffo over the slick but calculated version seen following Watkins' death.
Overall, though, it would be difficult to argue that the BEANO was putting out really creative work from the mid-70s onwards: the output is most definitely still good fun to look at...but there is certainly a strong impression of the comic 'going through the motions' and putting out far too much Baxendale-inspired fare. For me at least, it's a real case of the Law of Diminishing Returns coming into play, over four decades now.
HOWEVER! Here you can see a hypothetical drawing I would do if employed by the BEANO today...............I have no BEANO ambitions left these days, of course---much prefer 'doing me own stuff'.
MINNIE the MINX, PA BEAR and TED BEAR Characters are all COPYRIGHT of D.C. THOMSON and CO. LTD, 2016
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