Cor!! Buster Easter Special 2020: Ned Hartley talks Grimly Feendish and Ivor Lott & Tony Broke
9th April 2020
It’s a trying time for us all right now and we’ve never needed a good laugh more than now – and that’s just what the Cor!! Buster Easter Special will deliver. Page after page of funnies from the glorious golden age of Brit humour comics, brought up to date by the best in the biz.
Buy now in print and digital >>
There’s so much in here, some you might know, some you might not and all perfect for the next generation of comic readers who, after all this social distancing and staying at home, will be desperate to get their hands on something great to put a smile on their faces.
And here, we’re talking to Ned Hartley, writer on both Grimly Feendish (with artist Tom Paterson) and Ivor Lott & Tony Broke with Milly O’Naire & Penny Less (with artist Mick Cassidy).
The Cor!! Buster Easter Special 2020 goes on sale Wednesday 8th April 2020 from all good newsagents, whatever comic shops may still be open (please support them however you can!), and through the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics web shops.
So, let’s talk Grimly Feendish first. What’s it like being the man to bring the words to a Leo Baxendale creation?
Ned Hartley: It’s so much fun to be able to work on something this brilliant and silly, I absolutely love the concept behind Grimly Feendish – it mixes horror and crime, but in a ridiculous way. What’s not to love? Obviously working on a Leo Baxendale creation is a huge honour, my dad has original Leo Baxendale artwork on his wall at home, so I wanted to get this right!
What can we expect from the story this time round, more of the usual crooked carrying on from the ‘Rottenest Crook in the World’?
NH: DOGS! Big, evil scary, ridiculous dogs! Comics is a visual medium, so I love putting big stupid monsters in my comics, and I know that Tom will be able to make them look incredible.
In this story, Grimly decides he wants to win the local dog show.
Yep… it doesn’t go too well…
I know it’s a single page tale, is there any particular difficulty in delivering a satisfying and funny tale within the confines of just one page?
NH: I think it’s very much like telling a joke. You need a setup and you need a punchline. You need the setup of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and the punchline of “Because Grimly Feendish had genetically altered it to become a monstrous super chicken.” But better, obviously.
In a sense, Tom Paterson is perhaps the one artist in the comic who has a foot in both the old and the new, having already spent many years himself working on some of these classic characters. What does it feel like to be getting to see his art to your story?
NH: Absolutely one of the best experiences of my professional life. How good is Tom? He’s an absolute legend! He is so funny – look for all the incredible jokes he hides in every panel.
And, just as an aside, do you find yourself singing the Damned song Grimly Fiendish whenever you think of Baxendale’s character?
NH: Bad lad, bad boy, bad lad, bad boy
Yep… wears a coat that’s black and long.
Going onto Ivor Lott & Tony Broke, it’s another of those so simple strips of two contrasting characters, one good, one bad, one poor, one rich… and of course, you’re also featuring another two characters here with almost identical themes, Milly O’Naire & Penny Less.
But like so many strips with a very strict and simple story device (for example, Spy Vs Spy in Mad and so many British strips such as Faceache), the joy is how the writers play with that simple concept, how far they can push the joke, or at least that’s how I see it.
What do you think?
NH: I think opposites are always good for storytelling because there’s a shorthand for understanding who the main characters are. Ivor and Tony live in a very rigid moral universe, Tony always has to win at the end. Everyone likes an underdog story, so that works really nicely.
Hopefully, we’ll see more of these kids specials coming from the Treasury of British Comics. And thinking ahead, what other characters would you love to get your hands on in the future from the massive archive at the Treasury of British Comics?
NH: Odd Ball is such a strange idea that I’d love to do something with that. A sentient rubber ball? I love it!
The Cor!! Buster Specials, last year and this new Easter Special for 2020 is all about getting the comic into younger readers’ hands.
Have you had any feedback from people indicating that we’ve seen new readers picking the comic up?
NH: I’ve done some comic workshops for younger readers at various comic shops and it has gone down really well with the kids there! My daughters both told me they liked it too, but they know that they have say that because I have a very fragile ego.
What do you think is the way forward for kids comics? Is it something along the lines of the Cor! & Buster Special publishing a few issues per year and then delivering a bigger collection, or is it some type of original graphic novel format perhaps?
NH: I think both work really well for different sales channels, different stories and different age groups. I’d love to see kids exploring both. I think you can have fun monthly comics and then bigger graphic novels that kids can really get stuck into. I think that bigger bookshops are starting to see that kids want graphic novels, so we’ll see more of those in the next couple of years.
As for Cor!! Buster, I want to see them produced weekly, each selling a million copies!