A 1947 cover by Hugh McNeill

These days we're used to seeing the covers for Beano, Viz, and The Phoenix featuring one big image, but that wasn't the case decades ago. Covers featuring comic strips were often the norm, so it made a refreshing change to find this issue of Knockout on eBay from 1947 featuring a full page image.

The artwork is by Hugh McNeill, who was an excellent, though sadly under-rated, cartoonist. He was the first artist on Pansy Potter for The Beano in 1938, before moving on to the competition at Amalgamated Press to work for comics such as Knockout. 

With his charmingly funny and busy style, McNeill was a natural as the regular cover artist on Deed-a-Day Danny for Knockout, and you can see several examples of that strip on an earlier post of mine here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2017/08/deed-day-danny-by-hugh-mcneill.html

The comics historian Steve Holland wrote a well researched article on Hugh McNeill on his Bear Alley blog here:
https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2006/12/hugh-mcneill.html

I wasn't aware of McNeill's work when I was growing up as he was busily illustrating nursery comics then, which I hadn't read. However it's been a joy to discover his work in later years and appreciate just what an incredibly talented artist he was. 

UPDATE: My thanks to Peter Gray for sending me this scan of another issue of Knockout from the same period, showing another great cover by Hugh McNeill!
You can follow Peter's blog at
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.com

Looking back at VALIANT No.2 (1962) - updated

I showed a few pages from Valiant No.1 in my previous post so I thought you might like to see some pages from issue 2 today. 

It kicked off with another striking cover by Geoff Campion, with Captain Hurricane about to lob a terrified Nazi. Good for him! Inside, R.Charles Roylance illustrated the three and a half page Captain Hurricane strip. As you can see, this was before Roylance exaggerated Hurricane's physique and "Ragin' Furies" to more cartoonish levels.

The second episode of The Steel Claw by Ken Bulmer (writer) and Jesus Blasco (artist) saw Louis Crandell embark on his life of crime...

Although it was a new comic, Valiant contained a few reprint pages from the outset. One of which was Paladin the Fearless, a British translation of the French strip Belloy, drawn by Albert Uderzo. (More info: 
https://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/paladin-fearless.html )

Another reprint was from a source closer to home. Jack O'Justice was a renamed Dick Turpin strip that had appeared in Sun comic in 1953. Art by the very versatile Hugh McNeill.  Valiant would continue to reprint more renamed Dick Turpin strips like this for a while, before commissioning brand new Jack O'Justice strips at a later date. Towards the end of the Sixties, the strip was brought into the present day with the character's descendant, Jack Justice. 

The back page of Valiant No.2 featured another Famous Fighters article illustrated by Geoff Campion.

I hope you've enjoyed these brief glimpses at the early issues of one of Fleetway's leading comics. 


UPDATE 5/9/17: My thanks to 'matrix' of the Comics UK Forum for these photographs of the free booklet from Valiant No.2. 

Front cover.

Back cover.

Interior pages.

Deed-A-Day Danny by Hugh McNeill

Deed-A-Day Danny began as a half-page black and white strip in A.P.'s rival to The Beano, The Knock-Out Comic No.1, dated March 4th 1939. (Later simplified to just Knockout Comic.) The character of Danny was a well-meaning boy scout whose attempts to be helpful usually backfired. 

The first Deed-A-Day Danny strip from Knock-Out No.1 (1939).

The strip proved popular enough to be moved to the front cover of Knock-Out with issue 15. There it remained throughout the war years and a few years beyond. The strip ended in 1954.

The artist was Hugh McNeill, who had created Pansy Potter for The Beano No.1 in 1938 before freelancing for their rival company. He continued to work for A.P. after the war, notably as the main artist on the nursery weekly Jack and Jill in the 1950s, and as the second artist to draw the Buster strip for Buster comic in the early 1960s. He passed away in 1979. You can read more about him at Steve Holland's excellent Bear Alley blog here:
https://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/hugh-mcneill.html

His covers for Knockout in the 1940s were lively and full of fun, so I thought I'd show a handful of them here today. All images are scanned from my collection of the actual comics.

This week in 1952: KNOCKOUT No.690

Knockout was a popular weekly from The Amalgamated Press / Fleetway that ran from 1939 until its merger into Valiant in 1963. (See the first issue here: 

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/knockout-no1-1939-and-1971.html )

Let's take a look at a few pages from issue No.690, which went on sale on Wednesday 14th May 1952, priced 3d (1p) for 16 pages. The cover feature at this time was Mike, drawn by Eric Roberts, who would later produce Winker Watson and Dirty Dick for D.C. Thomson's The Dandy. 

On page 3, a nice busy full page illustration by Reg Parlett featuring a Scout group called The Beaver Patrol...

Knockout featured a mixture of humour strips, prose stories, and adventure strips. Here's Tod and Annie, The Runaway Orphans, by Hugh McNeill...

A prolific cartoonist of the 1950s was Denis Gifford (who was also a noted comics historian of course). Here's his Steadfast McStaunch strip years before he revived and redesigned the character for Whizzer and Chips...

Our Ernie was a long running character in Knockout, with each surreal strip ending with the catchphrase "Daft, I call it!". The dated appearance of this strip makes me wonder if it might be a reprint. Art by Hugh McNeill...

Another popular adventure character, Sexton Blake. Artwork by Graham Coton I believe...

On the back page, the ever-enjoyable Sporty by Reg Wooton, one of the few comics creators back then allowed a credit. (And quite a predominant credit too, always beside the logo.)

Knockout changed quite a bit over its 24 year run. I'll show some pages from another issue soon.

A Knock-Out cover! (1940)

The schedule of a freelance cartoonist can often either be barren or blisteringly busy, and I'm glad to say it's the latter this month. Things could swing the other way at a moment's notice of course but at present I don't have time to post any detailed articles on this blog. Instead, here's a quick look at the cover of a wartime issue of Knock-Out from my archives. Issue No.88, dated November 2nd, 1940. World War 2 was well under way, but comics like these brightened up the lives of children across the UK. 

Knock-Out was published by The Amalgamated Press as a rival to Thomson's Dandy and Beano. The artwork to this Deed-A-Day Danny strip is by Hugh McNeill, and you can read a lot more about this talented artist over at Steve Holland's blog here:
http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/hugh-mcneill.html

Right, back to the drawing board to draw strips of my own that perhaps someone else will be blogging about in 70 years time! 

This week in 1940: KNOCK-OUT COMIC

  
Here's the issue of Amalgamated Press' Knock-Out Comic that went on sale this day in April 1940, issue No.58. It may have been created to rival Dandy and Beano but Knock-Out had its own identity and some great characters.

The cover strip Deed-A-Day Danny was drawn by Hugh McNeill who not only had an appealing cartoon style but also filled his strips with amusing and often surreal background extras.

Inside, one of Knock-Out's biggest stars in more ways than one; Frank Richard's Billy Bunter.  The character was appearing in prose stories in The Magnet at the same time of course but would become Knock-Out's most enduring character. (The strip appeared throughout Knockout's run, and transferred over to Valiant for the duration of that comics run when the two comics merged in 1963.) The artist here is the distinctive Frank Minnitt.

If you thought the topline on the cover suggested an upcoming free gift you'd be mistaken. Instead it referred to Knock-Out's reader's page The K.O. Flying Club and the gifts were only awarded to the members whose numbers came up. A similar idea was used in Buster (Buster's Birthday Club) in the 1960s. The strip beneath the club info is Sandy and Muddy, an appropriately wartime military fun strip drawn by Norman Ward.

 Amongst the strips in the centre pages was another Hugh McNeill gem; Perky Parker's Police Station. Underneath, Daddy Doolittle and Spunky, artists unknown. 

 On page 13, an ad for the latest books in the Knock-Out Library, presumably prose novelettes rather than comics.

Sexton Blake was already long established as a detective in prose fiction before he appeared in Knock-Out for a long run of strip adventures. Here, Blake and Tinker encounter "Britain's enemies" that are clearly modelled on Nazis. Artwork by Alfred Taylor.

"Daft I call it!" Possibly the comic's best remembered humour strip, Our Ernie was bizarre and genuinely funny. It'll come as no surprise to know that it's another Hugh McNeill creation.

On the back page, Stonehenge Kit - The Ancient Brit, a great comedy serial by Norman Ward.

Artist information, when unknown, was obtained from Knockout Comic, An Illustrated Guide - an informative small press index on the history of the comic by David Ashford, John Allen-Clark and Steve Holland. (New printings sometimes turn up on eBay so have a search if you want a copy.)