"GHOSTING ALONG WITH SAM'S SPOOK!" (PART 1)

 

B & W copy of colour cover (sans logo) of the ICJ, in
which the Baves' article was first intended to appear

Back in 2004, famous cartoonist TERRY BAVE responded to my request for a submission to THE ILLUSTRATED COMICS JOURNAL by writing the following article. The ICJ languished in limbo, so I eventually passed it on to CRIKEY!, who were going to print it but ceased publication before they could. Since Terry was kind enough to write it, it seems only fair that others get the chance to read it; so, here for the first time anywhere, are Terry and Shiela's reminiscences about "ghosting" for comics. All of the illustrations from this point on were provided by Terry himself.

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"SHIELA and I have been creating, writing and drawing many, many children's comic strips since way back in 1967.

Our break came via ALBERT 'COS' COSSER, the Editor of WHAM!. He bravely handed me SAMMY SHRINK, "The Smallest Boy in the World" - my "first" of many "ghosted" features, and one we were to make our own. In fact, over the following years, we supplied many of the weekly scripts and drew the strip for over 20 years. SAMMY SHRINK appeared in WHAM!, SMASH!, POW!, KNOCKOUT and WHIZZER & CHIPS.

Terry's version of Danny Dare from Wham! Annual 1971

A comic artist would be called upon to "ghost"
(copy) another artist's strip on a weekly basis when, for example, the regular artist was sick or found himself in the enviable position of having too heavy a workload.

As each artist had his own individual style of drawing, it was important to "ghost" that particular style as closely as possible. With luck, and if the Editor showed willing, over a period of time it would be possible to "make the strip your very own" by gradually introducing your own distinctive style of drawing. This didn't happen too often, and certainly not in the short term.

I was very lucky - I found it a reasonably easy task to copy LEO BAXENDALE's basic drawing style, which appeared in WHAM!, SMASH!, and POW! at that time.

The Baves supplied script and art for The Swots &
the Blots for the Smash Fun Book 1971

 Being particularly keen to make my way in this FUN business, I jumped at the chance when "COS" offered me the chance to create a brand-new comic character of my own.

He wanted a wicked "baby" fun character as a mascot for WHAM!, so Shiela and I came up with BABY WHAMSTER. This was very quickly followed up by BABY SMASHER, the new mascot for SMASH!. We supplied scripts and artwork. Both babies were very successful, appearing in their respective comics, then later appearing together in both WHAM! and SMASH!. Each baby made a perfect foil for the other."

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(TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2)