Charlie Brooker scripted “Pete and his Pimple” art from Oink! by Lew Stringer attracts fierce bidding

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.

  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)
  • Pete and his Pimple by Charlie Brooker and Lew Stringer (OINK! comic No.47, 1988)

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.

The Buster issue dated 26th March 1988 featured a half page ‘Pete and his Pimple’ strip Lew was commissioned to do, to promote Oink! comic, which makes this his first Buster strip.  “Not only did they let a then-relative-newcomer like me loose in the pages of this fine, well established comic but I even got to co-star Buster himself in the story,” says Lew, “although as you can see, it didn't end well for him!”. Scan by Lew, re-used here with his kind permission
The Buster issue dated 26th March 1988 featured a half page ‘Pete and his Pimple’ strip Lew was commissioned to do, to promote Oink! comic, which makes this his first Buster strip.  “Not only did they let a then-relative-newcomer like me loose in the pages of this fine, well established comic but I even got to co-star Buster himself in the story,” says Lew, “although as you can see, it didn’t end well for him!”. Scan by Lew, re-used here with his kind permission

“‘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.

You can bid on this unique “Pete and his Pimple” art here on eBay. The auction ends at 9.00pm tonight, Sunday 13th August 2023

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



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