An Interview With Tom Paterson

Some of you might remember back in the days this blog published a bit more frequently I also put out a comic fanzine called Atomic Comic. Fanzines are a LOT of hard work and issue three was certainly the hardest, especially as we decided to print physical copies of this one. Anyway, it was always something I was proud of and I recently came across my copy of it when going through a stack of comics and remembered the interview I had with the great Tom Paterson. Since most people don't have a physical copy (I can't remember how many we sold, but I do remember taking a loss on each one!), I thought it would be a valuable exercise to share the interview on this blog too. This interview is originally from 2016. Enjoy!

I'll start by asking about the smelly sock. It has become the most famous piece of heavily scented footwear in the world but why do you include it in all your comic strips? What was the inspiration for it?

Well, obviously, it's a fundamental symbol of democratic solidarity isn't it? Everybody gets smelly socks... from the humblest tramp to the highest lord in the land... I mean, even the Queen gets smelly socks - in fact, not a lot of people know that her man has got a right pair of pongers humming away inside those great steaming green wellies she's always clomping around the Highlands in! Naah... actually, I used the smelly sock as a kind of trademark because when I started drawing comics, the artists weren't allowed to sign their own names on their work, and I chose a smelly sock because it was a daft little thing that made me laugh... then again, maybe I'm very easily amused!

And of course, you've also got the 'Little Squelchy Things' that appeared in a large amount of your calamity James strips - how did those come about?

I first came up with the Little Squelchy Thingies at school - my old notebooks and sketchpads were covered with them. Later, I was reminded of the, when the great Leo Baxendale started putting little squiggly creatures in-between the frames of some Sweeny Toddler stories, and decided that I could use the Squelchies to inject more humour into my own strips. When I began drawing Calamity James for The Beano, I thought that a James was so con genetically unlucky, he would naturally be plagued by some kind of annoying pests and the Little Squelchy Thingies fitted the bill perfectly and, of course, they proved very popular and were great fun to draw. 

What was your very first published work and where did it appear?

Hmmm... not sure about the first published work, but the first strip I was asked to draw for Fleetway was called Biddy's Beastly Bloomers - a story about a little girl who had three horrible, gluttonous Triffid-like pet plants which was originally drawn by Sid Burgon. Sid was a terrific artist and he had a unique drawing style that I was asked to reproduce. Unfortunately, at the age of 17, I really didn't have a clue what I was doing and I made an embarrassing, ghastly mess of it... it was so bad, it's a miracle they gave me more work!

In the 1970s you drew a fire pages of a strip called 'The Dangerous Dumplings' for D. C. Thomson but you instead ended up working at Fleetway/IPC. What caused you to change?

When I was 16, I sent some examples of my work to D. C. Thomson's and was very surprised when the Albert Barnes, the legendary editor of The Dandy, visited me at my mum's house and asked me to draw a new strip called The Dangerous Dumplings. Now, for a young lad, Albert Barnes was a very distinguished and intimidating gentleman, looking like a retired ex-army major (actually he had been in the navy). Anyway, he wanted me to draw the Dumpling family with large, prominent chins, (he was quite proud of the fact that Desperate Dan's famous chin was based on his own large chin... Albert had quite a thing about chins!) whereas I, with my vast experience, (Not!) was of the opinion that the name "Dumplings" suggested that they should be a flabby, overweight bunch of obese slobs... and so we had a bit of a stand off, during which Fleetway stepped in with the offer of a regular supply of weekly work and that was that. 

When Watford Gapp first appeared in Whizzer and Chips in the late 1980s you used a different style to draw him, which you now use on your current Viz character Jasper the Gasper. What caused this change? Do you have a style you prefer? 

Bob Painter, the managing editor at Fleetway, asked me to come up with a few ideas for some strange, slightly weird strips, one of which was Watford Gapp, and I just thought that it needed an alternative style to give it a different, darker look from my other strips which were running at the same time. I've worked in a number of styles over the years, but I enjoyed the Sweeny Toddler/ Calamity James style, which was of course inspired by the legendary comic genius Leo Baxendale - and the Watford Gapp one, which was influenced by the amazing Robert Crumb. 

You have drawn many characters over the years for various comics. If you could draw any character again, who would it be? Did you ever have a character you would like to have drawn but never got the chance?

I always loved drawing Calamity James and Sweeny Toddler, but I'd really like to have my time over doing Leo Baxendale's brilliant creation, Grimly Feendish. I was asked to draw the strip when I was quite young, but I really didn't have the first idea what I was doing and made a right pig's a**e of it! I'd also have loved to have drawn the unforgettable 'Jonah' and 'Frankie Stein' by the incomparable Ken Reid. Jonah especially used to have me in absolute hysterics... the combination of great scriptwriting and Ken's hilariously manic artwork is simply unsurpassed.

And what inspired you to start drawing? Did you have any artists you looked up to and learned from, or was it just a natural ability that you taught yourself?

I've been fascinated by comics for as long as I can remember. Apparently, I was copying Disney characters around the age of 4 or 5, but the first comic character I really latched onto was "Nick Kelly" in the Topper comic, which was drawn by a great artist named George Martin. I later discovered the beautifully drawn, technically brilliant and fantastically funny work of Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid and I knew what I wanted to do... although the idea of drawing comics for a living seemed a ridiculously remote notion at the time.

What is your all time favourite comic, either to work on or to read?

My favourite comic has always been The Beano, although I also loved Dandy, Beezer and Topper. Later, I discovered the amazing Wham and Smash comics, which were almost entirely the brilliant work of Leo Baxendale. These days I find Viz comic very funny and am lucky enough to have been writing and drawing regular strips for it over the last year or so, which has been really enjoyable. 

Your strips are well known for the many bizarre and random objects lying around, or eccentric millionaires throwing away fivers etc. Were you told to put these in by scriptwriters or are they just added in by yourself whilst drawing up a page? What was the inspiration for these?

All the additional humour and subsidiary shenanigans I always came up with by myself. One of the many things that drew me to Leo Baxendale's work was how, once you'd read the basic story, you could go back time and time again and discover hidden jokes and funny goings-on you'd missed the first few times - his strips were always fantastic value - and Ken Reid's strips were similarly detailed and rewarding. I've noticed how a lot of aspiring artists seem to base their work on the "Cartoon Network" look, and while that works great on telly due to the movement and sound effects, once transposed onto the printed page, it can look very flat, static and one-dimensional. Animation and comic art are two entirely different mediums - a comic artist has to convey the illusion of depth, movement, speed and even sound, and had to add extra character, humour and interest to make the page work on several levels. I would seriously urge any budding comic artist to seek out the superb back catalogues of Leo Baxendale and Ken Redi - if you can't learn anything from those two comic masters - you'll never learn!

You have drawn a lot of pages, but what happens to all the original artwork? Does it all pile up in a corner of your house?

Years ago we used to post the original artwork (I know!) in to the editorial office, so there must be an awful lot of my pages lying somewhere in a leaky warehouse in Dundee - I really must make enquiries about that. (Are you listening, D.C. Thomson?) These days, it's all emailed off so I'm gradually accumulating quite a tower of dusty pages of artwork which is fast becoming a critical space problem - potential buyers, please apply within!

Have you ever considered creating your own comic or annual, such as Leo Baxendale's Willy the Kid books? I'm sure fans would love to see something along those lines from you.

I've had a go at creating my own comic a couple of times, but the problem's been that the nasty, greedy, grasping publishers tend to want to steal all the copyright from the artist for doing exactly f**k-all!

What work do you have planned for the future?

As I say, I'm very happy writing and drawing for Viz at present, although I'd like to get into the children's market again. I recently contributed to Jamie Smart's new venture, Moose Kid Comic, and I'm currently working on a specific idea for another weekly publication, so watch this space!

Before we conclude the interview, have you anything else you'd like to share?

Oh, dear... how much space have you got? I'd just like to say how sad I am at the continuing deterioration (with one or two exceptions!) of the children's comic market. What happened at The Dandy, for instance, was in my opinion, nothing short of criminal. 75 years of unique history and precious comic legacy, lost in a few short years due mainly to catastrophic managerial and editorial decisions - and I fear The Beano is headed down the same dead-end route. For f***'s sake!... please, please let's get rid of this mindless obsession with here-today-gone-tomorrow, tenth-rate, so-called celebrities being palmed off as comic characters! (Note to the dim editors... Alan Titchmarsh, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell are NOT and NEVER will be FUNNY!! You're meant to be in the HUMOUR business, remember? Du-u-uhhh!) I'd like to see people back in charge who really understand and genuinely cherish the very special art form that is British comics, and stop relying on useless accountants, vacuous marketing types and pointless focus groups. Instead of giving readers what they THINK they want, let's employ truly creative writers, editors and artists to give them something they can't even IMAGINE! That's what BRITISH COMICS should be all about! Tom Paterson... having a rant... and no f*****g wonder!