Comics archivist Irmantas Povilaika has just published a limited edition collection of Mervyn’s Monsters, written and illustrated by the legendary Leo Baxendale, published under license from Rebellion Publishing.
Introduced by cartoonist Lew Stringer, the 72-page collection is available now from the Kazoop web store, in hardcover and softcover editions, where you can also pick up copies of his previous release, The Power Pack of Ken Reid, if you haven’t already.
For those unfamiliar, “Mervyn’s Monsters” appeared in Buster and Giggle and ran for 34 weeks January and September 1968. In his autobiography, A Very Funny Business, Leo Baxendale wrote that it was an offshoot of his “Eagle Eye Junior Spy” in WHAM! comic, grafted on to a The Man From U.N.C.L.E situation.
Irmantas limited edition books are always published to the highest of standards, reflecting the quality of the strips he collects. If you’re a Leo Baxendale fan, you don’t want to miss out on this!
Along with Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale, who passed in 2017, is widely-regarded as one of the most important artists in the history of British humour comics. Starting his professional career with Dundee-based publisher DC Thomson, Baxendale created Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids for The Beano – both strips featuring anarchic adolescents, which would become a staple of his work. In the mid-sixties he started working for Odhams Press and made another significant contribution when they launched Wham! And Smash!, creating the characters Eagle Eye, Junior Spy, Bad Penny and Grimly Feendish.
Towards the latter half of the decade, Baxendale started working for DC Thomson’s main rivals, the London-based Fleetway Publications. Most of his strips were created for Fleetway’s flagship humour title Buster, including “The Cave Kids”, “Big Chief Pow Wow”, “Clever Dick” and “Snooper”. His most popular creation for Fleetway, Sweeny Toddler, first appeared in the pages of Shiver and Shake in 1973. Such was the popularity of Sweeny that he would survive mergers with Whoopee! (where he became the cover star), Whizzer and Chips, and Buster.
Baxendale received the Cartoon Art Trust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, and in 2013 was the second artist to be inducted into the British Comics Awards Hall of Fame.
• Mervyn’s Monsters is available now at kazoop-comics-shop.com
• Check out Irmantas’ brilliant Kazoop! Blog about British comics at kazoop.blogspot.com
• On downthetubes In Memoriam: Leo Baxendale
• From the Archives: Last Words from Leo – An Interview with Leo Baxendale by Joe Gordon
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Thank you, John!