''Oink!'' was a
British comic
A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper.
British comics are usually comics anthologies which are ...
book magazine for children which was published from 3 May 1986 to 22 October 1988. It set out to be deliberately
anarchic
Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...
, reminiscent of ''
Viz'' but for children. The creators also cited ''
Mad'' magazine as a major influence.
Part of its difference in the marketplace was that it attracted writers and cartoonists from a wide range of previous disciplines. It was devised, launched and edited by Patrick Gallagher, ''
Private Eye'' regular contributor
Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers, although within the fiction of the comic it was "edited" by a character called Uncle Pigg (similar to ''
2000 AD''
's
Tharg the Mighty). The comic also followed ''2000 AD''
's lead in crediting its contributors for their work, still a rarity in British comics at that time. Featured artists and writers included Husband's Private Eye colleague David Haldane, ex-
The Fall member and future
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
radio host
Marc "Lard" Riley,
Malcolm Douglas, ''
Brickman'' creator
Lew Stringer
Lew Stringer (born 22 March 1959 in England) is a freelance comic artist and scriptwriter.
Biography
Stringer began his career from the late 1970s with a series of fanzines, many featuring his popular '' Brickman'' character; these were read by ...
, future
Beano writer/artist
Kev F Sutherland
Kev F. Sutherland (born 18 October 1961) is a Scottish comedian and comic strip creator. He has drawn for a variety of publications, including ''The Beano''. He has produced several shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including The Sitcom ...
, future Marvel artist, writer and editor & current SpongeBob SquarePants Magazine editor David Leach, future ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' cartoonist Jeremy Banks, and satirical media commentator-to-be
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
. ''
Viz'' founders Davy Thorp and
Chris Donald
Chris Donald (born 25 April 1960 in Newcastle, England) is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine '' Viz''.
Biography
Donald attended West Jesmond Primary School,http://www.communitychannel.org/c ...
also contributed some one-off strips, as did ''The Beano''
's
Tom Paterson
Tom Paterson is a Scottish comic artist who drew characters for Fleetway in 1973–1990, and D.C Thomson from 1986 to 2012. As of 2013, he currently draws strips for Viz. He lives in Leith, with three children, and is a Hearts supporter.
Ta ...
and
John Geering
John Keith Geering (9 March 1941 – 13 August 1999) was a British cartoonist with a distinctive, occasionally flamboyant style, most famous for his work for DC Thomson comics including '' Sparky'', '' The Topper'', '' Cracker'', '' Plug'', '' ...
. Illustrator
Steve McGarry was an occasional contributor, including creating front covers for two issues.
''Oink!'' proved somewhat controversial, with various
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
groups and a chain of newsagents branding it offensive and unsuitable for children. A notably controversial item was the story "Janice and John and the Parachute Jump", a parody of the
Janet and John
''Janet and John'' is a series of early reading books for children, originally published in the UK by James Nisbet and Co in four volumes in 1949–50, and one of the first to make use of the "look and say" approach. Further volumes appeared l ...
readers which appeared in issue 7, which prompted an official complaint to the
Press Council. The Council ruled in Oink's favour (and the strip was subsequently reprinted in the comic alongside an editorial about the affair) but the negative publicity resulted in some newsagents, including
WHSmith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
, placing it on the top shelves away from other comics, thus damaging its sales potential to its young target audience. An item on how the
poll tax meant people owning
parrots
Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...
had to pay tax unless they were members of the
Conservative Party was read out in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
.
Originally a fortnightly publication, it became weekly and finally monthly and was finally wound up in November 1988 after 68 issues, though both a summer and winter special were published in 1989, and a final summer special (consisting almost entirely of reprinted material) in 1990. The comic's founders, Patrick Gallagher,
Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers, were offered a TV deal which resulted in the show ''
Round the Bend''. Three ''Oink!'' strips transferred to ''
Buster'': "Weedy Willy", "Pete and his Pimple" and "Tom Thug", the latter appearing through to the comic's last issue in 1999.
In 1987 ''Oink!'' was made into a computer game of the same name.
Mark Rodgers' archives relating to ''Oink!'' are held by Archive Services, University of Dundee.
Notable strips
Some of the most popular recurring characters in the comic were:
* Uncle Pigg, whose staff were known as the Plops (apparently, sentient mounds of
faeces
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
) and who had an ongoing battle with conservative critic Mary Lighthouse (an obvious
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
of
Mary Whitehouse) (usually written by Mark Rodgers, artwork by Ian Jackson)
* The Street-Hogs (writer Mark Rodgers, artwork Malcolm Douglas as J.T. Dogg), anthropomorphic crime-fighting biker pigs.
* Harry the Head (he was only a head) (Marc Riley)
* Billy's Brain (he was only a brain) (David Haldane)
* Horace "Ugly Face" Watkins (Tony Husband)
* Weedy Willy (artwork Mike Green, sometimes written by Mark Rodgers, Vaughan Brunt or others)
* Pete and his Pimple (the Pimple was on Pete's nose and was bigger than he was) (Lew Stringer)
* The Secret Diary of Hadrian Vile (an obvious parody of
Adrian Mole) (writer Mark Rodgers, artwork Ian Jackson)
*
Tom Thug (who spent most of the first six months of publication attempting to tie his shoelaces) (Lew Stringer)
* Mr Bignose (Jeremy Banks)
* Burp The Smelly Alien (who could talk to his
internal organs
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a ...
, many of which could talk back) (Jeremy Banks)
* Rubbish Man (an inept
superhero) (David Haldane)
* Hugo the Hungry Hippo (David Haldane)
*
Cowpat County (
Davy Francis)
*
Frank Sidebottom
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Cur ...
(Chris Sievey)
* Psycho Gran (David Leach)
Satirist
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
, who was still at school at the time, contributed various strips, none of which were true "regulars" individually, but which recurred in loose rotation. These included "Freddie Flop (He Falls to Pieces)", "Disgusting Des", "Clint Gritwood, The Trigger-Happy Cop", "The Adventures of
Death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
" and "Transmogrifying Tracey (She Can Change Into Anything She Likes!)".
Aside from straightforward comic strips, the comic would also include spoof news items, adverts (usually for the fictional GBH brand) and so forth. The comic also featured many parodies of films, TV shows, and strips from other comics. There were also regular photo stories, with photography by James Gallagher (and sometimes Martin Zukor), often starring Snatcher Sam, who was 'played' by Marc Riley.
As the title suggested,
pigs
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
were a constant theme. Celebrities would regularly be
caricatured as pigs, complete with punning names (
Peter Swillton,
Michael Jaxham,
Janice Pong, etc.) and even existing comic strips would be parodied with a pig theme (e.g. "
Ham Dare, Pig of the Future!").
Russell Grant
Russell John Dammerall Grant (born 5 February 1951) is a British astrologer and media personality. He has written several books on astrology, provides syndicated newspaper horoscopes and operates premium rate astrology phone lines. In March 2 ...
and his horoscopes were also parodied as "Russell Grunt's Hogoscopes". Besides
Mary Lighthouse, Uncle Pigg's biggest enemies were
butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...
s, the most vicious of whom was Jimmy "The Cleaver" Smith.
For most of the comic's run, each issue had a theme (e.g.,
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
, holidays, family etc.) which often allowed the comic to experiment. One issue (dubbed "Oink! goes Peculiar") showed everything going wrong in the Oink! offices, leading to strips being printed upside down or being drawn by the wrong artist etc. In another issue, Uncle Pigg and the Plops all went on holiday, leaving a skeleton staff (of literal skeletons) to produce the comic. The themes were dropped when the comic went weekly at the beginning of 1988.
Some items aimed slightly over their target audience's heads - in one strip, Weedy Willy wandered around moaning whilst being followed by a shadowy stranger who was writing down everything he said - for example, "Oh,
I would go out tonight but I haven't got a stitch to wear," and "
Heaven knows, I'm miserable now." At the end of the strip, the figure was revealed as
Steven Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since the ...
, getting ideas.
The first issue came with a free flexi-disk single called "Poo Poo Tinkle Tinkle Parp Parp Oink Tiddly Widdly Widdly Widdly Plop."
References
External links
''Oink!'' at Comicgrapevine- Details and scans on each issue (has copyright permissions)
'Oink!' - the Controversial Children's Comic h2g2
The h2g2 website is a British-based collaborative online encyclopedia project. It describes itself as "an unconventional guide to life, the universe, and everything", in the spirit of the fictional publication '' The Hitchhiker's Guide to ...
{{Buster
Fleetway and IPC Comics titles
Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom
Defunct British comics
British humour comics
1986 establishments in the United Kingdom
1988 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1986
Magazines disestablished in 1988
1986 comics debuts
1988 comics endings
Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Biweekly magazines published in the United Kingdom