Willy the Kid badges (again!)

I have written about the Willy the Kid badges before (link here) and am pleased to say that, only 10 years later, I have finally completed my set with the badge 'Willy the Kid a bit of a twit'! I do, however, have one question about them: does anybody know the order?

Before he passed away in 2017 I did speak several times with Willy's creator Leo Baxendale. Although he confirmed no badge was made for the special edition book in 2002, titled The Worst of Willy the Kid, I foolishly neglected to ask him about the order. Oops. So if you know, please do comment.

In some personal news, I have recently moved from New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia! Before I left NZ I did take a few photos of some comics I want to cover so do stay tuned for that. Sadly I had to leave my comic collection behind. I still own them, but 2600km or so doesn't exactly make them accessible. Til next time (very soon)!

Willy the Kid Badges

As I mentioned in yesterday's post today I have another interesting item from one of the greats. This one comes from Leo Baxendale and was produced in the 1970's to go with his Willy the Kid books. I am of course, talking about the Willy the Kid badges, and I'm sure a few of you will have seen them at some point, or maybe you're lucky enough to own them!

As far as I'm aware there were three badges, one for each of the Willy the Kid books and were given out to kids who sent in the tokens (found inside the books) to apply for them.

There was one more Willy the Kid book produced about 10 years ago, but didn't feature any new material. Instead it was reproductions of artwork printed in A3 format so it was close to its original size, and cost over £100. As you can probably guess, no badge was produced for that.

Themes in Comics: The Loch Ness Monster

Recently, a skipper claims to finally have evidence that proves the existence of the Loch Ness monster! Reading this, I wondered how many British comic characters have actually come face to face with the monster, so I took a look through my comics, and it turns out - quite a few of them have seen it!

This Bumpkin Billionaires strip is concluded here:

http://www.wackycomics.com/2012/08/the-bumpkins-meet-loch-ness-part-2.html

From the 1977 Frankie Stein annual (reprinted from Wham!).
 Art by Ken Reid.

Joke from the 1977 Monster Fun annual.

The first Willy the Kid book by Leo Baxendale was massive on the Loch Ness theme, with it's covers featuring  the monster, a drawing competition and a 13 page story in the middle!

Here's a few Loch Ness monster background details from Willie's Highland Holiday.

And here's the 13 page story where Willy and his pals meet the Loch Ness Monster!

The Loch Ness (or Loch Mess) monster also appeared in the other two Willy the Kid books - Baxendale seems to have quite a fascination with the monster!

The Five Greats - No. 3: Leo Baxendale

The creator of some of the most famous characters in British comics is Leo Baxendale, and that earns him a rightful place in the five greats!

Born in the early 1930's, Baxendale created his first characters for The Beano in 1953. He came up with Little Plum, Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids, which was originally called When The Bell Rings.

Then in 1964 he created Wham! comic, and drew a majority of the strips inside (everything he drew for the title was signed). It would last for 187 issues before merging with Pow! in 1968.

Leo then left comics for good in 1975 after drawing the Badtime Bedtime Story Books for Monster Fun - and went on to create his Willy the Kid series, which lasted for three years!

Leo is one of my favourite artists, and his artwork is always a joy to behold.

Willy The Kid Book 2

Leo Baxendale's Willy the Kid was launched in the mid 70's and book two came out in 1977 (although it was probably 1976 when it first hit the shops). For £1 you got 66 part colour pages. That isn't as many pages as most annuals, but this was written and drawn by just one person! Willy the Kid ran for three years, and there was a 'Best Of' book published around 10 years ago. The '77 annual was advertised on the back page of Denis Gifford's latest revival of Ally Sloper - the worlds's first comic character. The ad below is from issue #3 (the christmas issue), and is a full page taken from the annual itself, with a few bits edited.

Here's the page that actually appeared in the annual. It looks like the Willy that appears on the ad is actually a new drawing not taken from the book, as I can't see it on any pages.

It wasn't all comic strips though, as there were a few text pages throuhout the book, the first was Going For A Walk With Grandad.

Willy the Kid's book wasn't based entirely around him, as a lad named Spotty Dick also got a story to himself! It was all about a kid named Dick (Richard) who was trying to get jobs, and either did really well (by accident) or failed miserably!

Now I bet you can't see where this is going...!

This really is a fantastic read, but one of the most interesting pages has to be the one where Leo Baxendale is listing all the characters he created and when he drew them from!

And finally, the back cover!

If you can, I highly recommend grabbing yourself a Willy the Kid book. Willy is one of my favourite comic characters