Britain’s best known litter pickers, The Wombles, have not only enjoyed an amazing life in books, animation and books. They were popular characters in children’s magazines, too, and The Illustration Art Gallery has some beautiful examples of art commissioned for them by Jesus Blasco – probably known for his strip work on boy’s adventure comics – for sale right now.
Created by author Elisabeth Beresford, the Wombles first appeared appearing in a series of children’s novels from 1968. Although Wombles supposedly live in every country in the world, Beresford’s stories were mainly focused on the creatures on Wimbledon Common in London. Making “Good Use of Bad Rubbish”, their subsequent success as a BBC children’s animated series in the 1970s, made by Film Fair, produced by Graham Clutterbuck and directed by Ivor Wood using stop-motion, voiced by actor Bernard Cribbins, firmly established them as champions of recycling and reuse that lives on today, including through the charity work of The Wombles Community Charity. Boosted, of course by Mike Batt’s memorable novelty hit songs, performed by The Wombles themselves.
All 60 remastered original episodes bringing fans the adventures of Orinoco, Great Uncle Bulgaria and co., are available to watch on The Wombles Official Youtube channel.
Jesús Blasco Remembered
As The Book Palace website notes, Jesús Monterde Blasco (3rd November 1919 – 21st October 1995, Spain), who was was awarded the prestigious Yellow Kid at Lucca and the French honorary award Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1982, carved an astonishing path through British comics. He produced some of the most popular stories of their times, from November 1954 onwards, when his first strip appeared in the UK.
His artwork inspired a generation of new artists, Brian Bolland, Alan Davis and Dave Gibbons acknowledging his influence.
Born in Barcelona, Jesus Blasco started drawing for Spanish comics while still in his teens, shortly after his first prize-winning drawing appeared in Mickey when he was just 14. He was one of five siblings – brothers Alejandro, Adriano, Augusto and sister Pilar – who, to one degree or another, all worked in comics.
Entirely self-taught, at age 15 he created ‘Cuto’ for Biloche in 1935. The boy hero become one of Spain’s most popular comic creations following his appearance in Chicos in 1940 and Blasco added a second popular strip to his CV when he created “Anna Diminuta” for Mis Chicas.
Although called up to serve during the Spanish Civil War and, after the war, serving three years military service, he still managed to keep up a steady output of comic strips from war stories to nursery tales.
In 1954, he made his debut in the UK and continued to contribute to British comics for over 20 years. From drawing “Buffalo Bill” and “Billy the Kid” in Comet and Sun, Blasco took over the artwork of those most British of heroes, “Robin Hood” and “Dick Turpin”. In addition to Thriller Picture Library, he contributed many strips to the Cowboy Comics Library. He also turned his hand to fairy tales, drawing beautifully painted spreads for Playhour featuring Pinocchio, the Dancing Princesses, Rumpelstiltskin and others.
While drawing “Vengeance Trail” for Eagle in 1962 he began work on his two longest-running strips: the darkly menacing adventures of “The Steel Claw” in Valiant and the whimsical children’s fantasy, “Edward and the Jumblies”, for Teddy Bear.
Aided by inking by his largely uncredited brothers Alejandro and Adriano, the Blasco family were able to turn out an astonishing number of pages each week with no fall-off in quality. He began working for Look and Learn in 1968, and its companion, Treasure. In the 1970s, he also drew the adventures of “The Wombles” for Jack and Jill Weekly (a title owned today by Look and Learn Limited) and “Return of the Claw”, but became more heavily involved in the Portuguese comic, Jornal do Cuto and the Spanish comic, Chito, in from 1974 onwards, and his output in the UK fell away.
Although he did draw a few episodes of “Dredger” for Action, and the opening three episodes of “Invasion”, for 2000AD, Blasco turned his sights to Europe, where he was invited to adapt the Bible as a series of comic strips. He also worked with Victor Mora on reviving “El Capitán Trueno”, the strip caught up in the collapse of its publisher, and for Italian publisher Bonelli, on the long-running western saga “Tex” and science-fantasy ‘Zona X’. He also teamed up again with Victor Mora to recount the historical adventures of “Tallaferro”.
• Check out “The Wombles” art for sale at The Illustration Art Gallery/Book Palace
• The Wombles Community Charity is online at thewomblescommunity.com
• The Wombles Official Youtube channel
• The Wombles Official Site (Current being redesigned as of 8th December 2024) – womblesofficial.com
JESÚS BLASCO
• Jesús Blasco Profile at The Book Palace
• Jesús Blasco art available from The Illustration Art Gallery/ Book Palace
• Jesús Blasco art at Comic Art Fans
• Jesús Blasco Profile at Lambiek
• Jesús Blasco Profile at Tebosfera (in Spanish)
- About the Author
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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.
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