| |
|
though this from a forbidden planet blog says a little more on the topic it doesn't really do justice to the politics of the man in the way the Raven and On Comedy bits do and i can't find anything on line that does...
'If you were to do a poll to find the most influential living British cartoonist we imagine that Leo Baxendale might well be sitting on top of the pile. In the 50’s and 60’s he redefined the level of anarchy in UK children’s comics creating along the way (among many others) Minnie the Minx, The Banana Bunch, Little Plum and most famously The Bash Street KIds. In all he produced over 2,500 pages for ‘The Beano’ and also went on to create work for other publishing houses such as Odhams (Wham and Smash) and a myriad of titles for Fleetway/IPC. His style frequently changed over the years but the drawings are distinguished by an assured line and a frenetic energy to the panels, without doubt some of the best cartooning ever. Leo now publishes wonderful editions of his work (think the UK equivelant of Peter Maresca’s ‘So Many Splendid Sundays!’ Little Nemo book) and they can be bought directly from his website here.
Now in his mid seventies – “decrepitude looms” as he put it – Leo’s characters continue to flourish, not just in the form of today’s artists continuing series he began, but cropping up in other places, as with the appearance of Grimly Feendish in the recent Albion and, as Bryan Talbot told us a few months ago Leo has also contributed a page to Bryan’s upcoming (and eagerly anticipated) Alice in Sunderland. And instead of bowing to age stereotyping and donning a trilby hat and spending his days playing lawn bowls Leo has been organising a new exhibition of some of his work entitled ‘Stroppy Women’, which will feature (as you might infer from the title) some of his stroppier female creations from Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street Kids’ Toots onwards (oh yes – long, long before Tank Girl chased kangaroos through the outback British comics boasted some seriously naughty – and yet loveable – bad girls). Stroppy Women opens in Mills cafe/winebar/gallery, which Leo tells us at the medieval Whitheys Yard, just off the Shambles in the heart of Stroud, opening on Monday 12th of March and running through to the end of April. '
although i ermember him writing about the bash street kids and imgae he started with of this funny looking gang of children running full tilt towards the reader, full of energy disobediance. always struck me how Bones wore a pirate symbol and dennis the Menace a jumper in spanish civil war syndicalist colours (tho i don't think dennis was a baxendale creation) |
|
|
