If you have a spare grand or two tucked down a sofa somewhere, you might want to join the bidding war on eBay for a page of original art featuring a “Pete and his Pimple” story written by Charlie Brooker, today a hugely successful television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. Back in 1988, he was the youngest contributor to the irreverent, much-missed Oink! comic, drawn by Lew Stringer. But be quick, because the auction closes later today, Sunday 13th August 2023.
On offer is Lew’s original art – a large board, too, measuring 388mm x 495mm (15” x 19.4” x including borders published in Oink! comic No.47 in 1988. Bidding is currently at £1341, and may rise further.
For those unfamiliar, “Pete and his Pimple” centred on the misfortunes of Pete Throb, a typical adolescent plagued with really bad acne – mainly in the form of a huge and embarrassing zit on the end of his nose. It would flare up – and often explode, much to readers’ delight – at the most inappropriate of moments.
First appearing in 1986 as a small two-panel extra strip at the foot of an early “Tom Thug” strip, another character created by Lew, Pete graduated to his own page with OINK! No. 15, the character’s mishaps continuing through the comic’s run until 1988, and surviving its merger with Buster, until 1989. The strip was later reprinted in early issues of Sweden’s Herman Hedning comic, in 1997.
Hugely popular in OINK!, the character got his own pull-out comic special in No. 41, where Pete and his “Plooky Pals” battled the Zitbusters from Planet Yampy. (He headed into space again in Oink! No. 66, a strip censored by the publisher, as Lew relates here).
“I usually wrote my own scripts, but this one was written by Charlie Brooker,” Lew notes, “long before he found TV fame with TV Wipe and Black Mirror! At the time, Charlie was the youngest contributor to Oink! comic.”
“The intention was comedy-pathos with this strip, and readers were sympathetic to Pete’s plight (although I suspect they were laughing at him, too),” Lew’s previously commented of Pete Throb’s origins.
“Inspired by the ‘Dare-A-Day-Davy’ strips I read as a child, I eventually turned it into a reader participation strip, inviting kids to send in their ideas for a cure to help poor Pete! I would then integrate the ideas into a story. Their responses were numerous, and often very inventive.
“‘Pete and His Pimple’ was a popular strip with Oink! readers, but when the comic merged into Buster it fared less successfully, – mainly because the strip had to be toned down for Buster’s younger readers, so no more explosions of pus!”
A television presenter, writer, producer and satirist, Charlie Brooker is creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror. He’s written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O’Clock Show and Nathan Barley.
Brooker started his career as a cartoonist in the early 1980s; he produced adverts for the second-hand video game retailer CeX, before becoming a journalist for PC Zone.
Lew Stringer is a writer and artist of humour comics and has been freelancing in the UK comics industry for almost 40 years. His credits involve work for a range of age groups including “Combat Colin” for Marvel UK, “Tom Thug” for Fleetway, “The Pathetic Sharks” for Viz, “Team Toxic” for Toxic Magazine and many more. He’s been published in The Dandy, Oink!, Buster, Sonic the Comic, and numerous other titles. He’s also had a lifelong interest in the history of British comics and has written articles for the BBC website, Comics World magazine and others. Lew currently draws for The Beano, “The Daft Dimension” for Doctor Who Magazine, and “Sgt Shouty” for The77.
• Lew Stringer is online at lewstringercomics.blogspot.com
• Lew recently listed all his many comic credits to celebrate 40 years of working in comics here
• Check out the brilliant OINK! Blog curated by Phil Boyce for the history of the comic, creator backgrounds and more
• Join the Oink! comic Facebook group
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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: Art and Illustration, Auctions, British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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