''Just Jake'' was a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

that ran for 14 years in the British

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Drawn by Bernard Graddon, it was published daily beginning 4 June 1938 and concluding early in 1952 after Graddon's death.

Characters and story

A satire of dramatic films and other comic strips, ''Just Jake'' depicted events at the village of Much Cackling in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Gertshire. The prime character, Captain A.R.P. Reilly-Ffoull, squire of Arntwee Hall, was a parody of early movie villains. He was aided by his servant/butler Eric and the local

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

, Titus Tallow. Jake, the original hero of the title, seldom appeared after the first year. Other characters were schoolgirl Missy, old crone Maida Grannit and Cactus, a black man.

Influence

The

speech balloons Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

contained colourful language with such exclamations as "Holy Polecats!", "Well, knock me down!", and the strip's

catch phrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

, "Stap Me!". The latter became the nickname of

Squadron Leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also ...

Basil Gerald "Stapme" Stapleton, a

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

fighter pilot, because it was his favourite comic strip."Stap Me! The British Newspaper Strip" by

Denis Gifford Denis Gifford (26 December 1927 – 18 May 2000)Holland, Steve, Obituaries: Denis Gifford', ''The Guardian'', 26 May 2000. was a British writer, broadcaster, journalist, comic artist and historian of film, comics, television and radio. In h ...

, Shire.

References

External links

Bernard Graddon
British comic strips 1938 comics debuts 1952 comics endings British comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1938 Satirical comics Parody comics Parodies of films Male characters in comics Daily Mirror {{comic-strip-stub