In 2023, some intriguing pages of an unpublished “comic”Super Comic” project created by The Beano artist and writer, creator of WHAM!, Leo Baxendale surfaced in two auctions by Surrey-based auction house Ewbank’s, in August and December. It’s prompted this page which seeks to document the planned title, adding information as we obtain it.
This page was last updated on Saturday 18th May 2024, and includes the surviving pages from the “Super Comic” we are aware of.
Writing in his autobiography, A Very Funny Business, Leo Baxendale, who died in 2017, revealed how he conceived the idea of a monthly comic – the Super Comic.
“Monthly comics are common enough in America, but not in Britain,” he explained. “My intention was that four week’s work poured into one issue would produce a truly super-comic. I circulated publishers with the idea, and Odhams took it as an affront.”
Comics archivist Steve Holland noted in his 2017 tribute to Baxendale that, as the artist’s two-year contract was coming to an end at Odhams in 1965, he began circulating the idea of a monthly ‘super-comic’ to publishers and his relationship with Odhams soured.
So far, nine pages are known to have come to auction, three sold for a tidy sum in August and the other four in December 2023, two in May 2024, all by Ewbank’s, some carrying a copyright date of 1967.
Were you working for a publisher back in the 1960s? Do you remember seeing these pages?
If you’re a comics journalist who interviewed Leo during his lifetime, did he mention the project? We’d love to know more!
Leo Baxendale Remembered
Born in Lancashire on 27th October 1930, Leo Baxendale was an inspirational figure in the world of British comics, rightfully described as “one of the genuine innovators of British comics” by comics archivist and author Steve Holland.
Most of his fans will remember him as the creator of The Beano strips “Little Plum“, “Minnie the Minx“, “The Bash Street Kids” (first published as “When the Bell Rings”) and “The Three Bears“, but for me it’s his work in the 1960s for WHAM! – particularly that superlative, wickedly funny character Grimly Feendish, foil to Eagle Eye, star of “Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy“, that I enjoyed most.
As the Comic Creators Project noted of his work of that time, Baxendale was free to experiment with page layout and full colour in the pages of WHAM!, and he attempted to break the mould of older strips by the use of bizarre humour, outrageous puns, and surreal plots. His joyful creativity that resulted from these experiments are clear to see on the page. He would take such mania even further with his later work – and it appears these “Super Comic” pages are a previously unknown example of this.
A specially-made Baxendale print – “Baby Basil Does His Bit” – is on permanent display in Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre. The installation is a permanent tribute to an extraordinary and influential creator.
• Read our tribute to Leo Baxendale here
• Find a copy of A Very Funny Business by Leo Baxendale on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Richard Sheaf highlights Leo’s later work, such as Wicked Willy, here on downthetubes
• Artist Highlights: Leo Baxendale
A tribute to Leo on the Cartoon Museum’s Comic Creators project
• In 2013 Leo was awarded a Lifetime Achievement British Comic Award and that is marked here
With thanks to David Roach and Richard Sheaf for spotting these artworks