Comical comics
Comical comics |
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Page 8 of 34  Cover, The Beezer (BC Thomson, 1962). Art/script for 'Pop, Bich and Harry' by Carmichael. These elements endured through the 1940s and 1950s, and the two comics went from strength to strength (with The Beano having a slight edge over its rival in terms of sales). The old story structures were continued, but modified, and this was especially true when it came to transgressions against adults. In the 1950s, three creators, David Law, Ken Reid and Leo Baxendale, made juvenile naughtiness their trademark. Law was a barely average artist with a flair for creating memorable characters, most notably 'Dennis the Menace', a shock-haired urchin followed everywhere by his similarly shock-haired dog, Gnasher. Reid's strengths were expressive faces and comic horror, both used to good effect in his most famous strip, 'Roger the Dodger', about a scheming schoolboy ('trickier than a cageful of monkeys!'). Baxendale was more inclined to anarchy, and his 'Bash Street Kids', about a grammar school full of misfits ruled by sadistic teachers, is today recognized as a masterpiece of destructive slapstick. |