Before Tom Paterson took over Buster on the front cover of a comic of the same name, he drew (amongst other characters) a story about a lass named School Belle (Belle meaning beautiful in French).
 |
| School Belle's very first comic strip. |
School Belle started out on the back cover School Fun issue #1 in glorious full colour, and when the title merged with Buster comic Belle moved with it! Belle's very first strip can be seen above, click on the image, and then again to see in full size!
In her very first strip in Buster, the lad the comic is named after walks in after Kate Crapabble (the girl who has a crush on him, but not vice versa) forces him to tell Belle to, in short 'get lost', as the comic doesn't need another pin-up girl. Here is the strip for you to see...
Could this be Tom Paterson's very first published drawing of Buster? I've never seen one before this, so it could well be! The style is influenced by the great Buster artist of the time of course, who goes by the name of Reg Parlett! Really then, that second to last panel is pretty much a Parlett drawing!
Tom Paterson took over drawing Buster on the front cover with issue dated 25th May 1985, which I'm lucky enough to own a (sadly ripped) copy of. So, for all you lucky readers, here is Tom's very first official strip of a lad named Buster!
6 comments:
You may be interested to know that IPC Group Editor (Humour Dept) Bob Paynter later admitted that changing Buster from Reg Parlett's version to Tom's might have been a bit of a mistake. He told me so himself just outside the door of his office. He thought the change in styles was too severe.
I have to admit when I was young it put me off Buster...of course now I love Tom's work...I was just so used to Reg's work...
I didn't like seeing Buster getting bashed up all the time...
funny how tastes change as you grow up...Tom and Leo are my favourite comic artists..
School Belle's a lot funnier nowadays - as in, I couldn't stand her when I was younger. The whole theme of boys and girls chasing each other just wasn't something I was interested in as an 8-year-old.
Peter and Kid: Tom's style is completely different to Reg's, and not only that but the stories started to change as well, so I can see why it might have put some people off As you say Peter Buster often got beaten up a lot more.
I like Tom's artwork, it's amazing, I always see him as madder that Leo Baxendale, cramming more random stuff into his stories that Leo did!
TwoHeadedBoy: School Belle isn't too bad a strip in my opinion, but she is sometimes a bit of a self centered twit so sometimes she deserves to come last.
Tom Paterson is such an amazing artist - even all those years back when first working for Fleetway when I do believe he was only 16!
He did some amazing work in the years, particularly The Numskulls for me - his 90s Numskulls were incredible with beautiful artwork complete with some very funny storylines!
Did you hear that the great Tom Paterson despite retiring last year, is returning to draw for The Digital Dandy? Morris Heggie has requested for Tom's return and he is now drawing a comic series for them called 'Castle Bleurgh'!
Yes - he was snatched up by IPC as soon as he finished cartooning! He was originally going to work for a different comic Albert Barnes planned to set up, but I'll let you read about that in The Art and History of The Dandy, when you get your copy!
My favoruite work was his Sweeny Toddler strip - the stuff he drew was simply incredible, with funny storytelling to go with it! Some day I hope to see a book of all the Sweeny Toddler stories, including both Leo Baxendale's version and Tom Paterson's version. If only I had every single issue with the toddler terror in! (And a slightly biger scanner!)
And he's returning! That's awesome! If only I could sign up to the Digital- Dandy, pity I'm having trouble... :(
Post a Comment