Here's the cover of the last Christmas edition of the old-style SMASH! from 1968. A mere three months later, the comic was given a new-look and the MARVEL reprints (THE FANTASTIC FOUR and THE MIGHTY THOR) were jettisoned in favour of home-produced content. (Well - as 'home-produced' as strips drawn by foreign artists can be. The writers were British 'though.) I believe LEO BAXENDALE usually drew THE SWOTS AND THE BLOTS, but the above page looks like the work of MIKE BROWN or MIKE LACEY perhaps.
However, there's no doubt that this two-page BAD PENNY strip is by ol' Bax, as it has all his trademark daftness and drawing style. You have to hand it to him - his strips were usually always a visual delight, and tended to feature more daft sight-gags per page than an entire issue of MAD. Someone should gather together all the IPC strips that Bax produced and publish them in a series of special collectors' editions. He wouldn't like that - unless he got paid, of course - but I'm sure comics fans everywhere would love it. Although younger readers would probably presume that they were all drawn by TOM PATERSON.
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