I've never looked at an issue of Smash on this blog but today that changes as we dive into the pages of the third issue, dated 19th February 1966. It cost 7D, which seems like a lot of money, especially in comparison to The Dandy and The Beano that cost 3D, but then Smash did have eight more pages and was bigger in size. To add to the package was the free 'Flying Phantom Fighter', which Leo Baxendale's superb front cover piece promotes. I don't own the gift but here's an image of it:
Baxendale drew four pages in this issue and was drawing pages for Wham as well, so was a very busy man in 1966. His first strip inside is Bad Penny, an excellent two pages with lots of lovely detail.
Of course, I can't write about Smash and fail to mention Ken Reid's contribution. Queen of the Seas is a beautiful set with so much detail and depth that I'm sure I could feel the rocking of the boat as I read it!
Next up - Danger Mouse; no, not the animation but the comic strip version by Artie Jackson, which predates the television show by fifteen years!
To wrap up this post I'll leave you with the back page strip - Grimly Feendish by Leo Baxendale.
2 comments:
Queen of the Seas is a true masterpiece... There's a book that pops up on eBay from time to time collecting the whole thing, or there's the Giant Holiday Fun Comic Album (Mike Higgs, 1989), that has about half of them in it.
A surprisingly high body count for a humour comic as well!
Ah, the mighty Ken Reid. A true artistic genius if ever there was one.
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