Celebrating one of the finest talents in comics, The Tom Paterson Collection is a gorgeous hardcover bringing together strips from Tom Paterson, artist on titles such as Buster, Whizzer and Chips, and many more.
Continuing our series of short essays commissioned from selected comics critics that explore 2000 AD and the Treasury of British Comics’ latest graphic novel collections, Doris V. Sutherland takes a look at the mad, mad worlds of one of Britain’s best cartoonists…
Generations of children (and not a few adults) have loved the comic strips of Tom Paterson. His bizarre characters and their exploits always did stand out in British comics; and with the range of styles he mastered, many will doubtless be surprised that all of these strips were drawn by one man. Now, with The Tom Paterson Collection, a selection of his best work has at long last been reissued.
Inside, readers will find the likes of Jake’s Seven, an early-eighties Jackpot strip about schoolkids travelling to the future and meeting a Dick Dastardly-esque villain. From 1987 comes Kipper‘s ‘Felix the Pussycat’, a superhero spoof about a boy who fights crime dressed as a cat — not a cat-themed superhero, just a cat. Come the nineties. Paterson was drawing ‘Lucy Lastic’ for Buster: a girl whose lengthy, rubbery limbs prove both blessing and curse.
One of the book’s biggest draws is Paterson’s 1984-7 work on ‘Sweeny Toddler’ in Whoopee and Whizzer and Chips. Here, we see one of Paterson’s most readily-evident gifts: his uncanny ability to emulate Sweeny’s creator, Leo Baxendale. Many cartoonists may be able to cobble together an outward imitation of Baxendale’s style, but to produce anything more than just a soulless copy would require the artist to share Baxendale’s oddball sense of visual humour. The bulk of Paterson’s ‘Sweeny’ strips are practically indistinguishable from Baxendale’s own work.
If there is a significant difference between the Baxendale and Paterson ‘Sweeny Toddler’, it would be the additional layer of rubbery grotesqueness that occasionally appears on Paterson’s work. The strip where Sweeny takes part in a face-pulling contest with Frankenstein, for example, recalls more the inspired cartoon ugliness of Ken Reid.
Paterson perfects this half-Baxendale, half-Reid style with ‘Fiends and Neighbours’ (from the 1976 Cor!! Annual) and its spiritual successor, the early-eighties Whizzer and Chips strip ‘Strange Hill’. These feature lovable grotesques who range from harmless cartoon spooks to genuine oddities. The latter are put on display when the Strange Hill teacher takes his class on a trip to Stonehenge, and encounters a band of hooded, faceless figures: “Nyaargh! Ghostly druids!!”
In Paterson’s world even pretty girls can be pretty odd-looking. Witness the ‘School Belle’, who debuted in 1983 and migrated from School Fun to Buster. Far from being generically attractive (like the Dolly Parton parody who turned up in Jackpot‘s The Park, drawn by Paterson two years earlier) she is a comically lumpy, lanky portrait of adolescence.
Another clear influence on Paterson is Robert Crumb. This shows up in some of Paterson’s later work, particularly Whizzer and Chips’ rap-themed ‘Watford Gapp’ from the late eighties and Buster‘s cool-dude superhero Captain Crucial from the nineties. The rubbery line-shading, Mr. Natural pickle-noses, borderline psychedelic starscapes and exaggerated-perspective “keep on truckin'” gaits found throughout these strips all speak of Crumb.
The Crumb-influenced strips also show a distinct touch of Reid. ‘Sportsfright’, ‘Thingummy-Blob’, ‘Coronation Stream’, ‘Teenage Mutant Turnips’, ‘Goon Moon’ and ‘Cosmo Zocket and his Insterstellar Rocket’ – all Buster strips from 1990 – depict worlds of monsters, aliens and strange animals that exist on a slider-scale with Crumb at one end and Reid at the other. The Buster of 1990 was clearly fertile ground for Peterson, as he also drew the bizarre ‘Monty’s Mutant’ and ‘Stupid Street’.
The book contains a selection of Paterson’s earlier work from the seventies, including such forgotten strips as Buster‘s ‘Crowjak’ (a bald-headed corvid sleuth), Cor‘s ‘Dial “T” for Twitt!’ (about an uncle-and-nephew team of detectives) and Jackpot‘s ‘Scooper’ (about a father-and-son team of reporters). These afford a clear look at how he developed as a cartoonist.
Consider ‘Full o’ Beans’, a 1979-debuting Jackpot strip about a boy who develops super-strength after eating a tin of beans, Popeye-fashion. Although generic in both premise and character design are generic, the strip allowed Paterson some grotesque fun, as when a baby eats the beans and grows into a bloated hulk. Compare this to ‘Guy Gorilla’, a Whizzer & Chips strip from 1983 about a scruffy-headed boy who becomes a huge, jelly-jowled ape after eating peanuts: the idea is essentially the same, but there is far more visual fun.
Another example of Paterson’s development is his work on Shiver & Shake‘s ‘Grimly Feendish’ – like ‘Sweeny Toddler’, a character inherited from Leo Baxendale. Early strips from 1973 show a bulgy-eyed Grimly distinct from Baxendale’s version: the spirit is similar, but the technique is very different. Come 1974, however, Paterson has mastered the faux-Baxendale style that so many know and love.
The book shows how Paterson juggled multiple aesthetics at the same time. Even after establishing his madcap style, he was still drawing relatively sedate fare typified by the unrequited-love comedy of ‘Horace and Doris’, debuting in Whizzer & Chips in 1978; or the boy-and-his-android-double strip ‘Robert’s Robot’, running in the same comic five years later. Tamest of all is the football-themed ‘Team Mates’ from the short-lived Wow!
The book opens with Paterson’s work on the title character of Buster, drawn between 1985 and 1989. Introduced back in 1960, Buster is a rather generic character (his main selling point being that he wears the same hat as Andy Capp) but Paterson does much to enliven the stories, cramming scenes with sight gags. The Baxendale influence is still evident; but this is the earlier, more elaborate Baxendale of the ‘Bash Street Kids’.
A few odds and ends sit alongside the longer-running strips, including some one-off Oink! tales from 1986. Rounding off the volume is six pages of Blerp, an unpublished comic about various Crumb-esque aliens.
As well as celebrating the cartoonist’s career, The Tom Paterson Collection is offers snapshots of British humour comics as they existed in the seventies, eighties and early nineties. The topics of parody (Kojack, Judge Dredd, He-Man and rap music) are a time capsule themselves. Those who were around at the time will have plenty to gaze at with warm nostalgia — and newcomers to Tom Paterson’s strange world are also in for a treat.
Doris V. Sutherlandis the UK-based author behind the independent comic series Midnight Widows and official tie-ins for television series including Doctor Who and The Omega Factor. She has contributed articles to Women Write About Comics, Amazing Stories, Killer Horror Critic, Belladonna Magazine and other outlets.
“a huge hit of superb artwork, compelling, caper-style cops ‘n’ robbers fantasy and thrill-a-minute adventure” – Now Read Thison The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime
Never reprinted before, this hardcover collection brings together the pulp adventure stories of The Spider from the Picture Library series written by Jerry Siegel (Superman) and Donne Avenell (Adam Eterno)!
Don’t miss this collection of long-lost and fast-paced stories that helped make The Spider one of British comics’ greatest anti-hero comic strips!
The Spider is the uncrowned king of the New York underworld, so elusive to the police that he even manages to taunt the Police Commissioner at his retirement party. But Professor Aldo Cummings, a famous but ill-tempered scientist, determined to stop the schemes of the Spider once and for all, invents a ray-machine which will eliminate the evil from a person’s personality. But a tragic miscalculation will turn Professor Cummings into the Professor of Power, and he will seek a more direct confrontation with the Spider!
Out on 3 February 2022, this hardcover book (measuring 245 × 177mm) follows the The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime collection from earlier this year. It is available to pre-order now from the Treasury of British Comics webshop and online retailerts and will be available from all good book and comic book stores, as well as digitally through the 2000 AD app.
The Jaume Rumeu Collection is out now, with four terrifying tales from the pages of the legendary Misty by this overlooked Spanish master artist.
Continuing our series of short essays commissioned from selected comics critics that explore 2000 AD and the Treasury of British Comics’ latest graphic novel collections, Claire Napier discusses femme fatales, fashion, and and Jaume Rumeu’s spellbinding art…
“A raging femme fatale with killer style and a bone to pick with the British establishment” – who can’t relate to that? If you’re tragically square, and need further convincing to give this book a spin, let me weave you a welcome to this new set of Misty reprints.
Unlike other Black Widows we might mention, the Spider Woman of Misty’s ‘Black Widow’ claims the narrative for her absolute own right from the jump by acting as a hostess. She’s a promise and a threat: the story may begin in a small, ordinary way, in a girls’ school science class, and go no further this time than the roads outside our heroine’s homes, but glamour and danger are coming. They’re guaranteed. The Black Widow is stalking her own story—a fine choice to add presence and authority for the girls, and other.
‘The Black Widow’starts strong, with all the melodrama and venom you can expect from girls’ media or media about girls: the threatening, deniable, fictional sexuality of the spider woman and the interpersonal texture of strict school discipline; the spite between girls forced into close, fairly closed community. A rowdy, dark-haired girl, Freda, feels inferior to a sensible simpering blonde, Sadie, who, more’s the worse, appears to bear her no malice. Rumeau’s art, like many of the Spanish artists working in British comics last century, and like many comics artists generally, is intimate where he can get away with it (a nipple-specific breast profile here and there, for example), and the character designs for both girls, the Black Widow, and even their science teacher are idealised to standards of desirability. They take turns in being in various amounts of thrall to each other, and of desperately needing to protect each other. The girls, though rivals, discover solidarity in the face of persecution—from groomers, from parents and teachers who don’t understand, and from bullying peers.
“I need no one to show me out, my sweet,” says “Mrs Webb,” dangerous spacewoman Black Widow in disguise as a rich and lovely lady, cupping schoolgirl Sadie’s face. Freda’s curls, in close proximity, call to mind the sapphic over- and undertones of similar moments in the British career of Marvel’s Kitty Pryde that locked in so many long-running readers in the 80s. Oh, no, attractive danger! And it’s being really nice to me!
But don’t worry. The Black Widow is only giving Freda and Sadie special necklaces and hypnotising them into framing out the crowds and appreciating beauty whence, before, they saw it not… because she’s really upset that her husband died. No further reason than that. Except that she’s “so far round the twist that she oughta be locked up.” Just normal lady reasons.
In his foreword, David Roach says Rumeau has “a gift for layouts, decor and architecture”‚ and it’s true, the Black Widow’s lair is a Phibesian confection, a place you want to hang out. But really, “decor,” “architecture”—just say fashion, darling! This is Girlsville, it’s not a taboo here. The Widow’s spider silk halter neck dress with crotch-level spider decal is deadly elegant, her opera gloves heightening the drama and echoing the spot black of her big, outré, gimmick hair. Her pre-raphaelite gown with padded cuffs and spider-girdle is a dream. Is that velvet? It must be velvet. Let me get a closer look… She entices through the luxury and detail of her fashion narrative. Rumeau makes her jewellery look heavy enough to lift—so tactile! John Miers’ essay in the back of this book, about theme in texture, will provoke further agreeable thought.
Sadie’s late seventies Safari/Disco debut ensemble is a kick, getting across her studious, practical, scientific nature along with a generally atmosphere-inducing aspirational glamour. A girl who tucks her trousers into her knee-high boots can’t be all stick-in-the-mud. And Freda’s rougher, more casual style—jeans, fewer modesty layers when she wears a v-neck or open-necked shirt—reminds us that she’s the more streetwise: the one who’s going to say “pay us” when the scary lady asks if she can have their spider, and finally figure out Mrs Webb is a phoney. I was brought right out of the story to think “should I buy some clogs with a high arch?” when a pair dominates a panel so their owner might squash a spider. You could say this was lost readership, but consider its original format: Misty was a magazine with four-bag chapters of this story. The longer you could draw out your reading that week, the better. Inducing a little wardrobe daydream is, in fact, adding value.
Longrunning cultural scripts are visible even here, in Misty, the comic for girls who liked living on the gothic edge. Freda, notably long, lean and thin, says she’ going to earn money from selling the Space Spider Sadie found instead of “laying round here getting fat.” Just a throwaway line of mundane, we-swear-it’s-true horror fiction—getting fat is corrupt (no it’s not) and it could happen to you—to, today, distract from the more studied horror of being caught in a giant spider web with your rival, inside of a derelict house that’s probably haunted. It’s supposed to be naturalism, the kind of thing that girls say and mean, and of course it was—but it didn’t have to be, and might not have been so much if it weren’t replicated in entertainment, and by men making that entertainment, whose business it is not.
Bill Harrington’s script is a little odd. It gives the impression that it was created art-first, with Rumeau drawing a good-looking sequence of panels and Harrington creating dialogue and captions to go over the top of those—or perhaps of there being some disconnect due to language difference, Rumeau being Spanish and Harrington, presumably English. Dialogue sometimes suggests that a scene is going one way, and then suddenly course-corrects to match what is happening in the next panel. The original implication, that the spider Sadie finds in the first chapter is from space, is moved decisively over to make way for a plot about revenge on the military and advanced radio electronics. It doesn’t spoil the fun, or detract from the impeccable atmosphere of frustrated glamour and restricted, big-dreaming adolescence. It’s just an interesting window into a world do wondering about exactly how it was that weekly production of comics used to be a genuine, scrappy, lifestyle-supporting industry in Britain, instead of the hold-out domain of an organised few. Another window, perhaps less welcome, is the old school lettering throughout. Words are (typewritten?) and squeezed into squared-off, retro-television-shaped boxes with wonky spacing, cramped leading and no modern plasticity, nothing to imply tone or enhance mood. I revel in its staid awkwardness, because I grew up reading this style of comic and consider it an aesthetic value of its own… to me it’s a cultural comic book Britishness that’s revealing and familiar. It’s not “good,” but it is indicative, if only of the fact that everyone agreed it was good enough!
In ‘The Black Widow’, Rumeu’s faces value even arrangement of features, heavy lashes outweighing 30s-throwback brows, and the high-contrast implication of blemish-free, porcelain skin, but despite the restrictions that places on the movement of facial muscles (can’t draw a frown if forehead lines are illegal) he does manage to create a range of interesting, readable expressions. Sadie squints towards the sky having seen a mystery comet, and her upturned, narrowed eyes and slightly open mouth convey a sense of focus, internal preoccupation, that allows her to feel human and real even if she is a goody two-shoes.
Unfortunately—fictionally speaking—the Black Widow is foiled by the courage and mutual support of Freda and Sadie before she can kill the Prime Minister. Her hold over them is dissolved, and the creeping yuckiness of her evil, radio-controlled spiders recedes. Until… The Spider Woman! A year or two later, the team gets back together, for a second tale of terrorism against a good, nice girl. This time Mrs Webb gives us a little Corto Maltese cosplay, amongst the banana leaves and bamboo huts of an island shipwreck, and Raume draws grandparents enough for it to really register that restricting his art to youth-obsessed facial minimalism is a loss and a shame.
His Black Widow — ‘Spider Woman’ — is different, almost looking designed for animation, with less interest visible in his rendering of her wardrobe. The two stories together really make for an interesting artistic comparison. The book is worth picking up for that alone—the adventure, peril and pluck of these stories, and the following, classically-toned horror anthology shorts, just a bonus.
Claire Napier is a comics critic and editor, with cartoonist coming in a struggling third. She spent nine years in critical editorial at WWAC and is now a freelance editor who works with independent creators, optimising their projects and helping their voices rise. Find her at clairenapier.com
A brand new showcase from the Treasury of British Comics brings the stunning work of a Spanish master artist back into print after more than forty years!
The Jaume Rumeu Collection includes four terrifying tales from the pages of the legendary Misty, the late ’70s supernatural horror comic book marketed for girls.
Also known as Homero, Jaume Rumeu Perera brought his flare for the intoxicatingly to British comics, with macabre stories full of black widows, femme fatales, mad scientists and giant spiders. One of the unsung masters of British horror comics, this collection celebrates his timeless talent and is a must have for fans of great comic book art.
Out now from all good book and comic book retailers, as well as in print and digital from the Treasury of British Comics webshop, it also showcases one of the most iconic villains in British girls’ comics: the lethal Mrs. Webb, a raging femme fatale with killer style and a bone to pick with the British Establishment.
Determined to take over the country with her army of giant arachnids, only two schoolgirls stand between her and global domination! Full of stunning artwork, terrifying twists, beautiful – but deadly – women, and, of course – giant spiders, this is an essential comic for any horror connoisseur.
The Jaume Rumeu Collection continues the Treasury of British Comics’ mission to bring hidden and forgotten gems from the world’s biggest archive of English-language comic books back into print, all remastered and presented for a whole new audience. It follows the publication in 2019 of Misty Presents: The Jordi Badia Romero Collection, a collection of stories by Catalan artist Jordi Badía Romero – also known as Jorge – who worked on Pink, Misty and Creepy before moving onto Tarzan in the 1980s.
Buy now from the Treasury of British Comics webshop:
Out on 25 November, The Tom Paterson Collection is a gorgeous hardcover celebrating one of the finest talents in comics. In his regular look at classic British comics and the Treasury archive, David McDonald explores the career of the madcap cartoonist…
“The English-speaking world is divided into those who prefer the little squelchy things OR the smelly socks which appear in most of Tom Patterson’s work.” Not sure if I have that quote quite right, but my favourite joke from the work of Tom Paterson is the ‘feed other end’ sticker that usually appears on the posterior of any large animal that appears!
Tom Patterson has been a near constant presence in humour comics since the seventies, his art is instantly recognisable – anarchic, inventive, interactive. irreverent, chaotic, and most importantly, funny. Everything the art in a humour comic should be!
Starting drawing professionally at the age of just sixteen for DC Thomson on the strip ‘Dangerous Dumplings’, Patterson soon moved to working for IPC filling in for Sid Burgeon on ‘Biddys Beastly Bloomer’, which appeared in Shiver and Shake. When ‘Sweeny Toddler’ transferred from Shiver and Shake to Whoopee, Patterson took over the strip from its creator, Leo Baxendale, and soon made the character his own to the point where it is probably the one he is most associated with. He went on to work on numerous characters right across IPC’s humour line like ‘School Belle’, ‘Roberts Robot’ and taking over from Fleetway veteran Reg Parlett on IPC’s humour comics flagship character ‘Buster’.
On ‘Sweeny Toddler’ he hit his creative height in the mid-eighties on the front covers of Whoopee and Whizzer and Chips, where the character moved in the merger of the two titles.
Patterson’s now (in)famous ‘Sweeny’ covers – including ‘Sweeny Dredd’, ‘Sweeney Dracula’ and ‘Sweeny He-Man’ – are some of the highlights of IPC humour comics! Indeed, it could be argued that Patterson’s output in the eighties and nineties, along with artist John Geering – who drew ‘Bananaman Man’, ‘Smudge’, and ‘Gums’ – might give the creative output of Baxendale and Reid in the sixties a run for their money.
With the decline of the comic market in the late eighties, Patterson returned to DC Thomson, Working on characters like ‘Calamity James’, ‘Minnie The Minx’, and ‘The Banana Bunch’.
The Tom Patterson Collection from The Treasury of British Comics collects a large swathe of his work from comics like Buster, Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee and School Fun. It shows the progress from his early Baxendale-influenced work to later ‘Full-on Patterson’ that graced Whizzer and Chips and Buster. As well as strips like ‘Buster’, ‘Sweeny Toddler’ and ‘Strange Hill’, The Tom Patterson Collection also includes lesser known gems like ‘Guy Gorilla’ from Whizzer and Chips and the brilliant ‘Felix the Pussycat’ from Nipper, and many others.
Another thing I may have gotten wrong is saying that he hit his creative height in the eighties – looking at his recent work which appeared in the Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular, it’s clear that he continues to really hit the ball out of the park. If you haven’t seen it yet, track down a copy now – you won’t be disappointed!
David McDonald is the publisher of Hibernia Comics and editor of Hibernia’s collections of classic British comics, titles include The Tower King, Doomlord, The Angry Planet and The Indestructible Man. He is also the author of the Comic Archive series exploring British comics through interviews and articles. Hibernia’s titles can be bought here www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia. Follow him on Twitter @hiberniabooks and Facebook @HiberniaComics
A sweeping historical fantasy. Stunning art from one of British comics’ undisputed masters!
Following its best-selling reprints of his The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire series, the Treasury of British Comics brings one of master artist Don Lawrence’s most popular and enduring comic book strips back into print.
Out on 19 January, the paperback collection is now available for pre-order from The Treasury of British Comics, alongside the limited webshop exclusive hardcover, with a brand new cover by breakout comics artist Tom Foster (Judge Dredd)
Originally serialised in Lion, Karl the Viking is a sweeping historical fantasy story of an orphaned Saxon boy, adopted and raised by the Viking Eingar after his raid on Britain. Upon coming of age Karl succeeds Eingar and leads his tribe into battle in Britain against wild tribes of Picts, and re-connects with his old Saxon family, gaining an ally in his cousin Godwulf, and making an enemy of the Earl of Eastumbria.
These fast-paced stories were drawn by Don Lawrence shortly before he revolutionised painted comic art with The Trigan Empire, when he was already a master of pen and ink, and his Karl the Viking series was the pinnacle of black and white comic art.
Thrilling supernatural war comics from the pages of classic British comics Lion and Thunder – the second volume of the misadventures of nefarious German World War One air ace Black Max and his giant bats is out now!
This new collection comes in paperback with a new cover by Chris Weston (Judge Dredd, The Filth) while the exclusive hardcover comes with a new cover by legendary artist Ian Kennedy (War Picture Library, Dan Dare).
Ace fighter pilot Baron Maximilien Von Klorr is the scourge of the skies, menacing the Allied forces during the bloodiest battles in WWI. Skilled, ruthless and in possession of two giant, mutated kingbats who fight by his side, Von Klorr AKA Black Max is almost unstoppable. Only the brave pilots of the Royal Flying Corps, including Lieutenant Tom Wilson, oppose the Black Max’s complete dominance of the air…
These strips were originally printed in Lion and Thunder from 15 May 1971 to 25 December 1971 and the Thunder Annual 1973.
Skilled, ruthless and the master of a legion of deadly, giant bats who fight by his side, Von Klorr AKA Black Max is almost unstoppable. Only the brave pilots of the Royal Flying Corps, including Lieutenant Tom Wilson, oppose Black Max’s complete dominance of the air… Originally serialised in Thunder from 17 October 1970-13 March 1971, Lion & Thunder from 20 March 1971-8 May 1971, Lion & Thunder Holiday Special 1971 & Thunder Annual 1972.
Get an incredible slice of classic and modern British comics at unbeatable bargains in the Treasury of British Comics Christmas sale!
With delays to postage affecting everyone, we’ve brought forward our festive sale to give Earthlets the opportunity to buy their Xmas presents in plenty of time!
There’s up to 75% off titles such as Adam Eterno, Bella at the Bar, Steel Commando, Black Max, Charley’s War, Deathwish, Dr Mesmer’s Revenge, El Mestizo, Faceache, Janus Stark, Jinty, Major Eazy, Misty, One-Eyed Jack, Sugar Jones, Sweeny Toddler, The Dracula File, The Leopard from Lime Street, The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, The Thirteenth Floor, War Picture Library and many more!
Plus there’s 75% off all Rebellion comics book specials, including Battle, Smash, Cor!!Buster, Black Beth, Tammy & Jinty, and Misty & Scream!
The sale ends 10 December, but pressure on postal services is likely to only increase in the run-up to Christmas and we won’t be able guarantee delivery in time for the big day if you leave it to the last minute. So now’s the time to get the present buying sortedf and bag yourself a bargain!
Britain’s kookiest, legendary anthology returns from the great beyond with 48 pages of brand new, HELL-arious comic strips!
The Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular is out now!
Frankie Stein, Kid Kong, Draculass, Sweeny Toddler, Gums, Teddy Scare and the Hire A Horror crew have returned with a diabolical host of new frights – including one of Britain’s best loved superheroes, The Leopard from Lime Street – to usher in the witching season with SPOOKTACULAR fashion!
Don’t forget – Monster Fun launches next April as the UK’s first all-new on-going humour comic for kids in 30 years! With new issues every two months and packed with all new stories, the first regular issue of Monster Fun will be available from all good newsagents and comic book stores in April, but readers can subscribe now at monsterfun.co.uk and receive brilliant free gifts!
Out right now, the Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular brings you 52-pages of classic British humour comics from all-new creative teams. You’ll see the return of Frankie Stein, Gums, Kid King, Sweeny Toddler, and many, many more from the likes of Cavan Scott, Tiernen Trevallion, Tom Paterson, Kek-W, Lew Stringer, John Reppion, PJ Holden and many more!
But, alongside the return of many much-loved Brit humour strips, you’ll also find the return of one of THE classic Brit comics characters, as we get the continuing adventures of Billy Farmer, better known to generations of comics fans as The Leopard From Lime Street!
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After getting scratched by a radioactive leopard, young Billy Farmer soon discovered that he had acquired the strength, agility and senses of the mighty jungle cat – and so he became The Leopard from Lime Street!
Created by Tom Tully, Mike Western and Eric Bradbury, The Leopard from Lime Street is one of the most fondly remembered creations in British comics history and it’s quite right that he should be making a reappearance in the pages of the first new kids comic for many years – Monster Fun!
That’s happening from April 2022 – but before that, there’s the Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular to enjoy, including the first spooky tale of the new adventures of The Leopard of Lime Street, Totem, from writer Simon Furman and artist Laurent LeFeuvre, and we were lucky enough to catch up with Simon and Laurent to talk about the fun of bringing back a favourite!
The return of a legend – the first page in the new Leopard from Lime Street! – art by Laurent LeFeuvre
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So Simon, Laurent – I guess the first thing to ask is just what it’s all about for you?
SIMON FURMAN: For me, it’s revisiting a strip I loved as a younger comics fan. Here’s the quick story: I was 15, and comics were kind of behind me by then. I’d moved on to movies (horror movies in particular), books and (in theory) girls. But I saw the cover to Buster that announced the debut of Leopard From Lime Street, and just got pulled back in. I loved it. And got that it was a British version of Spider-Man (all the tropes were there – kindly aunt, irascible editor, radioactive bit [scratch] etc) and just loved it more for that.
So, yeah, I was a BIG fan of the original strip. Great stories (and, perhaps more important, Fun stories) and the art of Eric Bradbury and Mike Western just blew me away. Both at the top of their game (and that’s saying something!).
LAURENT LAFEUVRE: I discovered the Leopard when I was around 7 or 8 in France, in the mid-80s (I was born and still live in Britanny). Like many other English series, The Leopard from Lime Street was then published in small booklets of 130 pages, in novel format, with a colour cover. This format was very widespread among us, although very ignored in my country where the standard of the genre remains the traditional hardcover album (Tintin, Asterix etc.). These formats have long played the role that manga embodies in the current market: a popular, inexpensive form of black and white comics. And yet the names of the authors were not specified there, unlike the Marvel series which were then a hit in France at the same time.
Anyway, I instantly felt the English aspect of them all, which added to my interest. This is how I discovered The Leopard. And I found it amazing.
I was born in 1977, so I read the Leopard at the perfect age, between 7 and 10. I remember that perfect catchphrase: ‘Attrape-moi si tu peux…chasse-moi si tu l’oses’ – ‘Catch me if you can…hunt me if you dare!’ (Ok. It sounds so much better in English!)
Laurent, I don’t know – as a non-speaker of French past the age of 14, I think that scans really well!
Simon, you’ve already had some experience with the Leopard in your Vigilant trilogy with Simon Coleby, but that was a rather different sort of version of young Billy Farmer.
The previous Simon Furman version of The Leopard – from The Vigilant – art by Simon Coleby
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So, what can we expect from your new version of The Leopard?
SF: For The Vigilant, it was more of a revamp/reinvention (while staying true to the original wherever possible). Here, it’s as if just a year or two have elapsed in the life of Billy Farmer/The Leopard and we pick up his adventures (as both) in exactly the same vein as the original strip, if somewhat more slanted to a creepy/supernatural threat/storyline.
How did you get involved in the Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular?
SF: I’m hugely lucky that editor Keith Richardson likes my stuff, so I was in line for The Vigilant and then the Leopard as his writer of choice. We found we had a lot of the same IPC/Fleetway touchstones, and as excited as I was using characters like The Steel Commando and Blake Edmonds (Death Wish) in The Vigilant it was the Leopard I was most keen to get to grips with.
LL: Keith Richardson and I met at the Angoulême BD festival in January 2019. At the time, I was presenting some new opus of my own Fox-Boy series, a sort of French version of Spider-Man, with less muscles. My graphic universe being largely marked by my childhood readings, I imagine that the obvious parallel between my character (a teenager who embarks on a career as a vigilante of the block) and the Leopard will have intrigued him! I remember Keith walking on eggshells then wondering if I knew the Lime Street Leopard, which of course I did!
I can even admit that Billy Farmer’s outfit was a big inspiration to Pol Salsedo when he created his own in 2011 (You can even see my own booklets drawn in a panel, back in 2012).
So you can imagine that since the day he told me about the Leopard from Lime Street rebirth project in Monster Fun until today, I’ve been so proud to finally be able to say that I am the new designer!
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And why Leopard from Lime Street?
SF: For all the above reasons and the fact that through the Treasury of British Comics collections of Leopard from Lime Street I’d already re-immersed myself in the world of Billy Farmer/The Leopard. I was raring to go with some new material and grabbed the chance with both paws!
It’s a very Halloweeny episode of Leopard, and one that definitely leaves us with a few questions about the nature of Billy’s powers. Now, I’m hoping you’re going to tell me that you’re both going to be involved in doing more Leopard for the new bi-monthly Monster Fun – will we be getting this as a story slowly unfolding?
SF: At the time of writing Totem, I had no idea if it would end up a one-off or the start of something bigger. But my instinct is just to ask questions about the character (and often go right back to the beginning). Y’know, I love the Leopard‘s origin, but radioactive leopard? Really? It’s kind of hokey but I had no intention of messing with that. Just… looking beyond it a bit and, as you say, posing some searching questions. Did I have half an eye on being able to continue that slight bombshell the Totem story drops? Of course.
And with the bi-monthly Monster Fun just around the corner, it looked like I might get to probe even deeper into the origin of the Leopard‘s powers, and Billy’s life before the original storyline in Buster.
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Now, assuming you’re both taking this on in future Monster Funs… what sorts of things can you tease us with? What can we expect for Billy?
SF: Definitely more creepy bad buys (and gals), definitely peeling back more layers of Billy’s past and his powers. Seriously, I have some game-changing stuff up my sleeve, which I think (hope) will serve to expand the world/cast/reach of the Leopard of Lime Street.
LL: And I must say that I can’t wait to draw more!
Okay then, let’s put Simon on hold for a moment and talk art – Laurent, let’s start with that logo! As a fan already, how wonderful was it that you got to do that classic logo? – something that all of us who’ve ever experienced the greatness of the strip have loved seeing.
LL: Absolutely! This logo is one of the great ideas of the series as a trademark. Keith thought it was important to keep it as close as possible and I couldn’t agree more, just as Simon’s script kept the special flavour of the original series – with a special touch of his on top of that.
Of course, the obvious similarities with a certain web-head have been mentioned. But it’s just a starting point and the magic of The Leopard is that you NEVER think of Peter Parker when you read his adventures, so singular is this universe. In fact, it’s the Leopard who tells the child in me, and then the artist, what I can make him do… or not!
Laurent’s thumbnails for pages 1-2 of the Leopard From Lime Street – Totem
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How do you work – what’s your process? Did you approach the Leopard of Lime Street with a view to the work that’s gone before – all that stunning Western and Bradbury artwork?
LL: That’s exactly it, yes. I’ve tried to keep this particular layout, with boxes of all shapes, as if the Leopard was too wild to be consigned to neat little boxes. Even the fastest draughtsman should not be able to lock him up! This is the way Western and Bradbury showed us.
Oh yes, I was going to mention the fabulous page designs and all those wonderfully different panel shapes!
LL: So, after translating Simon’s script into French (thanks Google translate), I reread it several times to make sure I understood the sometimes complex movements for a non-English speaker like me.
In this respect, I must say that it is very appreciable to have someone who writes with such a rich and evocative vocabulary because he immerses me in the right mood, the right tone.
First, I visualise key images that I try to project onto the paper while trying to insert a coherent reading movement so that the reader’s eye moves from one image to another. This is the rough sketch stage. You mustn’t censor yourself, try things out, without detailing, so that you can eventually mourn the loss of a first idea, which is a bit weak, and take it back to satisfaction. You have to be concentrated. This is the stage in absolute silence!
More of Laurent’s stunning art on Leopard from Lime Street – the inking process
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LL: Then I rework my compositions digitally, even adding the first semblance of inking to determine the location of the masses of black, optical greys (the hatch areas, for example), and whites that will blend with the text. I can then listen to the radio, at the other end of the room. And relax a little!
I’m not inventing anything, these are methods that allow a narrative to be developed step by step through drawing, while correcting at each stage the problems of articulation from one panel to another, from one sequence to another.
When everything is settled, I draw the borders of the boxes, and draw the bubbles and define the lettering (the size of the letters, for example, gives the intonation – I then rely on Simon’s script: EVERYTHING is already there!)
Then comes the inking – also done digitally (this is the coolest part!). I can even sing while I work in my studio – that’s saying something!
The colour helps to bring everything to life (movement, atmosphere, clarity…). I think of the colour stage as the music in a film: everything can be nuanced, amplified… or ruined! Far from simple colouring, it is literally the emotional dressing of a sequence.
Another one of those part-inked pages from Laurent
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The new Monster Fun comic, beginning right here in the Halloween Spooktacular and continuing into the new Monster Fun bi-monthly that begins in April, is the first big new children’s comic to come out since The Phoenix – so it really is something of a big deal.
SF: HUGE! On the newsstand again. That’s SO important. Something for a new generation of kids to discover and get their teeth into! I envy them. They’re going to have that moment I had when I walked into a newsagent and saw that first Leopard cover! I think they need more Monster Fun (and Leopard from Lime Street) in their lives.
LL: Well said Simon!
SF: A comic (for kids specifically) that’s about more than a bunch of licensed characters and how many free gifts you can wedge on a cover. More, more, MORE!
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SF: I got into comics first by loving comics, the thrill of running to the newsagent or it dropping on my mat. Then, in some strange quirk of fate, I ended up working for IPC and getting to scratch that itch all over again – and get paid for it! Who knew? I started in Scream! and now, nearly 40 years later, I’m in the Halloween Spooktacular. Kinda neat, huh?
LL: There’s also an aspect of it where we’re celebrating something that we should think of as Europeans, our common comics culture. Whilst Marvel succeeded in creating and transmitting its own mythology from generation to generation, and in exporting it all over the world, we should also do the same with our own stories, our own characters, which also say something about our common culture as Europeans? That Euro-Brit comics adventure thing that doesn’t come to us with American superheroes. After all, with comics and popular culture – take Harry Potter for example, we ALL grew a little more English, I can assure you!
And in this case, I think that the working-class origins of the Leopard speaks to everyone, after all, as cool as they are, I never recognized myself in a billionaire in armour or a bat suit! I was far more in tune with young Billy!
Oh yes, absolutely! Here in the UK, we may have a comics culture based in the superheroes in so many ways, but our roots, all that adventuring, all those humour comics, and so many of our comics makes with their roots in Asterix, Tintin, Lucky Luke and the rest, we have a comics culture that’s a wonderful mix of both that European and US comics culture and our own unique sensibilities.
Now, for both of you – how about influences?
Influences? Who is it that really makes you sit up and go wow?
SF: My main (biggest) influence was Stan Lee (and Marvel as a whole). But Alan Moore, Chris Claremont and others are who fed my professional passion for comics.
LL: Same for me. Claremont, Miller, Eisner, Corben (and I won’t even mention Italians, French or Spanish !). The usual suspects. And just to stay in England, I could mention many English comics that have meant a lot to me when I was a kid : Janus Stark, Kelly’s Eye, Marney the Fox, Adam Eterno, King Cobra, Klip & Klop or Darkie’s Mob (These last two were also drawn by Mike Western – not by chance!).
Alan Davis is also someone I praise since I discovered his work on Excalibur. He embodies the perfect combination of clear storytelling, respecting the characters and the continuity, and yet always exploring angles, movements. I had the chance to meet him and Mark Farmer in Paris a few years ago. Same for Barry Windsor Smith. Frank Quitely is also someone whose work is always inspiring. I could go on for hours!
And finally, what’s next from you both?
SF: More creator-owned projects (including more To The Death in fellow newsstand comic Shift), more Transformers (natch) and a bunch of exciting things I can’t talk about yet. But really, top of my pops right now is the Leopard from Lime Street – loving every page, every panel of it!
LL: I’m doing more of my Fox-Boy series… and drawing Simon’s wonderfully evocative scripts of the Leopard at the same time. Hey, maybe they’ll have a crossover sometime! More seriously, I’m very honoured to be part of the return of this old childhood friend and I really hope that readers won’t be disappointed in me.
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Thanks so much to Simon for taking the time – you can catch The Leopard from Lime Street in the brand-new Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular – out from 6 October at all good newsagents and from the 2000 AD web shop and Treasury of British Comics web shop.
Plus, you can subscribe to the all-new bi-monthly Monster Fun comic at their website.
And be sure to follow Simon on Twitter and Laurent at his website and on Instagram – I believe the kids are calling it the ‘gram.
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And once you’ve delighted to the all-new adventures of Billy Farmer, remember you can go back and read the classics by Tom Tully, Eric Bradbury, and Mike Western with the Leopard from Lime Street collections!
And as for Laurent’s Fox-Boy – well, here’s a shout out to Europe Comics and Cinebook – let’s see it translated!
And finally – here’s that cover to Buster of 27 March 1976, the one that introduced the Leopard and started the young Simon Furman on the route to right here!
