'The Bash Street Kids'.
Leo Baxendale was one of the most important and influential British artists of humor comics. Together with David Law and Ken Reid, he innovated the genre in the 1950s through their work for DC Thomson's The Beano. Baxendale created two two of the magazine's longest-running and most beloved series: 'Minnie the Minx' (1953- ) and 'The Bash Street Kids' (1954- ), both dealing with misbehaving children. While this wasn't a new concept in comics, Baxendale's work had an anarchic streak which delighted his target audience. His child protagonists frequently rebel against authority, but aren't always punished for it. Baxendale's drawings were wild, wacky and chock-full with goofy characters and background gags. While he only worked for the Beano less than a decade, he laid the foundations for its house style, with several of his series reprinted and continued to this day. At the same time, Baxendale also sued his former home magazine, and won back the rights to his characters. Historically, this is still a rare event, with 'Superman' creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the USA being another famous example. At Odhams Press, Baxendale was co-founder of WHAM! (1964-1968) and its sister magazine SMASH! (1967-1968), the first British comic magazines under complete creative control by one artist. Notable creations for these magazines were 'Eagle Eye, Junior Spy' (1964-1968) - with its memorable villain Grimley Fiendish - as well as 'The Tiddlers' (1964-1968), 'Bad Penny' (1966-1968) and 'Danny Dare' (1964-1968), although some rehashed territory he had previously explored in The Beano. Baxendale then spent several years working for IPC/Fleetway magazines like Buster and Whizzer & Chips, where 'Clever Dick' (1970-1979), 'Nellyphant' (1972-1976) and 'Sweeney Toddler' (1973-2000) were his most enduring creations. Later in his career, Baxendale reinvented himself as a more adult cartoonist with his outlandish 'Willy the Kid' books (1976-1978) and his underground graphic novel 'THRRP!' (1987). In the history of British comics, he remains one of the most headstrong and freespirited cartoonists, whose style still resonates in countless humorous British comics and cartoons.
'Minnie the Minx'.
Early life
Leo Baxendale was born in 1930 in Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire, as the son of two weavers. After the local mill closed down, his parents moved to Preston, where his father worked as a jack-of-all-trades to supply the family income. Despite being completely self-taught, young Leo Baxendale settled upon an artistic career. His first job was designing paint labels for the Leyland Paint and Vamish Company. Between 1949 and 1950, he fulfilled his national service in the R.A.F. and afterwards became a cartoonist and advertisement illustrator for The Lancashire Evening Post. Among his main graphic influences were Carl Giles, Julius Stafford Baker's 'Casey Court', Tom Browne, George Wakefield, Dudley Watkins, David Law and the manic energy of the Looney Tunes cartoons by Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Bob McKimson, Frank Tashlin, Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. Another inspiration were the novels of Richmal Crompton ('Just William') and British radio comedians like Max Wall, Tony Hancock and the Goon Show, whose dry and surreal sense of comedy influenced his own.
The Beano
When Baxendale was 22, he happened to read a copy of The Beano, published by DC Thomson & Co in Dundee, Scotland. He was familiar with the magazine, but felt most of the content was extremely old-fashioned. One series, however, caught his attention: David Law's 'Dennis the Menace' (1951- ). This comic featured a bratty spiky-haired boy and his equally mean dog who frequently pull pranks on their environment. Moral guardians were concerned, but young readers were extatic. If such a comic was possible in The Beano, then Baxendale was glad to join in. Hired by DC Thomson editor George Moonie, he started out as a freelance artist, submitting short-lived gag comics like 'Oscar Krank, The Mad Inventor', the Charlie Chan parody 'Charlie Choo, the Chinese Detective with his sons Ah Choo and Choo Choo' and 'Jamie the Gamie'. However, none of them were picked up by the publisher. It wasn't until a couple of years later before 'Charlie Choo' appeared in the 1955 Beano Annual, and 'Jamie the Gamie' ran in a Dundee newspaper.
Kat and Kanary
Baxendale's first series with a longer lifespan in The Beano was 'Kat and Kanary' (1952-1958), made in collaboration with Charles Grigg. The comic strip features the never-ending rivalry between a black-and-white cat and a little canary, clearly inspired by Friz Freleng's animated cartoon series 'Tweety & Sylvester' and Hanna-Barbera's 'Tom & Jerry'. Baxendale drew the feature until 1956, after which it was picked up again by Albert Holroyd, and then continued by Gordon Bell until 1958.
'Little Plum'.
Little Plum
Baxendale's first classic Beano series was 'Little Plum, Your Redskin Chum' (1953-1986), a gag comic set in a Native American village, where the title hero is a kid who always tries to show off his bravery, strength or hunting skills, but usually utterly fails. The setting was inspired by the Disney character 'Hiawatha', down to the design of Plum and his Indian chief father. Baxendale always remained fond of 'Little Plum', because he saw the character as less one-note than some of his others. Plum wasn't overly nice, nor mean and not particularly smart or stupid. The series also saw the first examples of elements that became Baxendale's trademarks. The artist had a lot of fun thinking up puns, like the names of the tribes: Smellyfoot and Puttyfoot. The only thing that always bothered him was the printers' decision to leave Plum's nose white instead of pink: "It made him look as if he had gangrene in his nose."
'Little Plum' was Baxendale's first genuine hit. He drew the feature from 10 October 1953 until 1962, after which Robert Nixon briefly took over, before Ron Spencer continued it until 1986. In 1998, 'Little Plum' briefly returned under the pen of Tom Paterson. The character made his official comeback in 2002, when scriptwriter Claire Bartlett and Hunt Emerson revived him. Since 2012, a four-panel gag comic starring Plum in the Funsize Funnies series has been drawn by Laura Howell and sometimes Andy Fanton.
Debut of 'Minnie the Minx' (1953).
Minnie the Minx
In the early 1950s, most of Baxendale's comics were typical children's comics of that era. Even Little Plum, who frequently caused trouble, never did it on purpose. Eventually Baxendale's editor gave him the chance to make a more mischievous gag comic for The Beano, 'Minnie the Minx' (1953- ). The title character is a naughty little girl, deliberately created as a female copy of David Law's Dennis the Menace. She even wore the same red-and-black striped jersey, while her black beret reminded of Dennis' black locks. While Dennis has a vicious dog, Gnasher, Minnie has a mean cat named Chester. Some readers have pointed at Minnie's nemesis, police officer PC Thyme, as a rip-off of Sergeant Slipper in 'Dennis the Menace & Gnasher'. In reality, Thyme debuted as Minnie's foil long before Sergeant Slipper first appeared in 'Dennis the Menace'. Readers first met Minnie on 19 December 1953. Within a month, she and Dennis appeared in a crossover comic. As the decades progressed, they were paired in many more gags, either as friends or as rivals. Later crossovers also pitted Minnie against Barrie Appleby's 'Roger the Dodger' or Baxendale's own 'Bash Street Kids'.
Minnie the Minx was quite a remarkable character. While young girls in British comics at the time were generally seen as well-behaved, Minnie was an utter brat. She takes delight in playing pranks on other people or, as she calls it, "minxing". In several episodes, she rebels against authority, with her parents, teachers, pompous adults and police officer PC Thyme as frequent victims of her shenanigans. But she is equally merciless against other children, particularly snobby ones. In several gags she even beats up boys! In English comic history, she only had two stylistic precedessors. The first were Ronald Searle's girls from 'St. Trinians' (1946-1952), the second David Law's 'Beryl the Peril' (1953-2012), a similar misbehaving young girl created only half a year earlier for DC Thomson's The Topper (which later became The Dandy). Originally, Minnie only appeared in short black-and-white gags. Readers - particularly girls - liked her so much that she soon received a full page in color. The character offered Baxendale a lot of creative possibilities, which helped him discover and build out his own style. He even upped the ante in terms of Minnie's mischievousness. While Law's Dennis was an unmistakingly bad boy, editors still insisted that he was in some way punished for his deeds. Initially, Baxendale did the same with Minnie, but he gradually let her get away with her crimes.
'Minnie the Minx' became one of The Beano's signature characters. In 1962, Jim Petrie took over the series and continued it for nearly four decades. In 2001, he was succeeded by Tom Paterson, occasionally assisted by ghost artists Steve Horrocks and Leslie Reavey. Since 2008, the main artists for 'Minnie the Minx' have been, subsequently, Ken Harrison, Laura Howell and Nigel Parkinson.
'When The Bell Rings', early version of 'The Bash Street Kids'.
The Bash Street Kids
Baxendale's other famous comic series for The Beano is 'The Bash Street Kids' (1954- ). When the feature first appeared in print on 13 February 1954, it carried the title 'When the Bell Rings', but changed to its current name on 11 November 1956. For the creation of this comic, Baxendale was inspired by a 1953 cartoon by Carl Giles, which featured a group of pupils storming away. The Bash Street Kids consist of ten pupils who go to Bash Street School in Beanotown, where they frequently undermine their headmaster's authority or skip school. Originally, Baxendale used an entire class of nameless pupils as protagonists, but eventually realized it would be better to reduce them to a mere ten. That way he could give each one a name and personality so readers could individualize them.
Danny - who wears a red cap and skull T-shirt - is the gang's leader and creative brain. Second in command is Toots, the only girl in the gang and twin sister of Sidney, who is the trickster of the group. Spotty (renamed "Scotty" in 2021) is a loud-mouthed boy with spots all over his face. He never misses an opportunity to make a sarcastic remark in class. Smiffy is dim-witted, Fatty (renamed "Freddy" in 2021) obese and gluttonous and Wilfred so shy that he rarely talks and just pulls his green jumper up to his nose. The buck-toothed and dumbo-eared Plug is the most recognizable gang member due to his height - he is even as tall as an adult. The only outcasts within the gang are Erbert and Cuthbert. The first is a nerd who wears glasses, but still always bumps into things because he is so short-sighted, the second is bright, well-behaved and basically the teacher's pet. Both are generally nice boys who try to fit in with the other kids, but are only accepted up to a certain level. One thing that stuck out about the Bash Street Kids was that they are distinctively working class, while most school-themed British comics until that time featured pupils in school uniforms to avoid such notable class differences.
'The Bash Street Kids'.
Just like 'Minnie the Minx', the Bash Street Kids are playful troublemakers who sometimes get punished, but often get away with their schemes. The format allowed Baxendale to draw huge crowds of children in all kinds of over-the-top mayhem. The Bash Street Kids do everything to disrupt classes, including bringing a tank to school and blowing up the building up. However, Baxendale didn't simply make the children the heroes. "Teacher" - whose real name is Algernon - is an equally fun and even mischievous character. He seems to accept and even enjoy his pupils' misbehavior as part of his job. It allows him to think up creative ways to punish them back.
After Leo Baxendale's departure from the Beano, David Sutherland continued the series from 1962 until 1998, and again from 2000 until 2023. In the 1970s, the comic was frequently ghosted by Gordon Bell and John Sherwood, and one decade later Kevin Reynolds also drew some episodes. Ghost artists in later decades were Tom Paterson, Mike Pearse, Kev F. Sutherland, Nigel Parkinson and Shannon Gallant. As one of The Beano's most enduring series, 'The Bash Street Kids' spawned several spin-offs, mostly about individual gang members, such as 'Says Smiffy' (1971-1972) by Jim Petrie, 'Simply Smiffy' (1985) and 'Winston' (2012-2013) by Paul Palmer, and even one about the children's dogs: 'Pup Parade' (1967-1988, 2003- ) by Nigel Auchterlounie. 'Singled Out' (2004-2009) by Mike Pearse, Tom Paterson and David Sutherland was a comic series that centered on one individual member of the gang each week. 'At Home with the Bash Street Kids!' (2011) by David Sutherland offered a look at the children's domestic settings. 'The Bash Street Squelchies' (2015) by Les Stannage teamed up the kids with another Beano character, 'Calamity James' (originally created by Tom Paterson).
Between 1977 and 1979, DC Thomson even launched a separate magazine around the character Plug. In 2007, the kids briefly received an eleventh member, Wayne, as part of a competition organized by the British children's TV show 'Blue Peter', but he only stayed for one year. 'The Bash Street Kids' were so popular that the format was frequently imitated by other artists, even in The Beano itself with Gordon Bell's 'The Belles of St. Lemons', which was basically a female version. Other magazines also ran their own copies, such as 'Whacko!' (1971-1984) by Ron Spencer and 'P5' (1998-2000) by Jimmy Hansen, both in The Dandy.
'The Three Bears'.
The Three Bears
Baxendale's final classic series for The Beano was 'The Three Bears' (1959), a spin-off of 'Little Plum'. First published on 6 June 1959, it starred a grizzly bear family - Pa, Ma and Little Teddie - obviously inspired by the Joseph Jacobs fairy tale 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Many episodes center on the family's never-ending search for food. They always try to outwit shopkeeper Hank, a local sheriff and two rival bears, Grizzly Gus and his son Gus's Grizzly. When Baxendale's workload became to heavy, 'The Three Bears' was the first series he dropped, passing it on to Bob McGrath, who drew it for several decades. In 1985, the comic was briefly discontinued, but it returned with irregular intervals drawn by Tom Lavery, Bob Dewar, David Parkins and Robert Nixon. Between 1999 and 2007, it made its definitive comeback in The Beano's pages, drawn by Mike Pearse until in 2002 he passed the pencil to Chris McGhie. The bear family returned one final time between 2010 and 2011, drawn by McGhie, David Parkins and Ken Harrison.
The Beezer
Besides The Beano, Baxendale was also part of the original contributors to DC Thomson's comic magazine The Beezer in 1956, for which he notably created 'The Banana Bunch' (1956-1993), basically another version of 'The Bash Street Kids', scripted by Walter Thorburn. Originally appearing in a single large picture on the magazine's back page, it starred the pupils of Banana Crescent School, including Porky Simmons, Tiny Jenkins, Softy Simpkins, Joe Porter, Dick Mullins, Dopey and others. Baxendale drew the feature until 1964, after which Bob Hill notably drew it for many years until The Beezer came to en end in 1993. Leo Baxendale's other creation for The Beezer was 'The Gobbles' (1962-1964), a gag comic about a family of goofy vultures.
'The Gobbles'.
Style
During his relatively short stay at DC Thomson, Baxendale was an innovative enrichment for both The Beano and Beezer. Partially thanks to his popular series, sales of both magazines skyrocketed during the 1950s and 1960s. A typical Baxendale drawing has an inviting look, full of fun and energy. As he told in a 1999 interview with Janet Scott for The Big Issue: "I wanted to create something with the most comic possibilities (...) I never based my drawings on real life - I did things that can only happen in a drawing. Things occurred by chance, or cause and effect - disaster was visited on characters, though they were gormlessly oblivious of where their actions would leave them." Though his comics were somewhat formulaic, Baxendale explained this repetiveness the following way: "When I was creating my characters for The Beano, I made them part of an uncertain world and there were two strands to this world. One was the medieval concept of disasters happening out of a blue sky for no reason whatever. And the second one was the more modern idea of cause-and-effect. Very often, the ambitions that made my characters set events in train led to disaster; but the thing was, they were absolutely unaware of this so they made the same errors again and again."
Still, Baxendale had clever ways to make his storylines interesting. He was a master in creating panels that vibrated with movement and crammed in dozens of little gags, both visual and verbal. Every illustration had something funny going on in the foreground as well as the background. Baxendale's signs, book titles and written commentary were larded with witty puns, and the author also enjoyed toying around between image and text. For instance, a character would be eating rice pudding, which was literally written out on his plate. Baxendale also enjoyed putting his readers on the wrong track. In the interview with Janet Scott he remarked: "A particular feature of my drawings was leaving off at a point where something else was about to happen." The final panel of some of his comics often reveals a different punchline hidden underneath the main punchline. When it appears the teacher has won, for instance, one pupil might still lurk in the background with an extra trick up his sleeve - or vice versa. Extras like these made it worthwhile to re-read his comics over and over and spot jokes one had missed the first time.
'The Banana Bunch'.
Role at DC Thomson
However, Baxendale spent so much time on each comic that he frequently missed his deadlines. For him, this had a plus side. By the time his pages finally arrived at the office, his editors usually had no time or interest to check every detail of his immensly busy panels. Since the drawings were already overtime, they just went ahead and print them. As a result, Baxendale could avoid censorship and became the only comic artist at The Beano and The Beezer with more creative freedom than the others. Still, the overall workload remained exhausting. As sales increased, so did the demand for his work. He didn't just whip out several weekly features for two separate magazines, he had to create material for their annual specials as well and occasionally ghostwrite - and draw - for some of his colleagues. Baxendale hardly found the time and energy to maintain his personal quality levels.
To release the pressure, he first dropped 'The Three Bears' in The Beano. Then his editors took the decision to pass over 'Little Plum' to Robert Nixon, without informing Baxendale about this matter. Since the comic was his personal favorite, Baxendale took this act very seriously and left the magazine in 1962. While Baxendale's time with The Beano lasted less than a decade, his style and influence were so huge that his successors all continued to copy his designs, style and comedy. Two years later, Baxendale also left The Beezer.
From a 'Whodunnit' strip for the Beano Book of 1960.
Odhams Press
In 1964, the publishing house Odhams Press offered Baxendale the opportunity to start his own comic magazine, which became WHAM!. Launched on 20 June 1964, WHAM! gave Baxendale the freedom he yearned for. He started writing more wacky storylines and experimented with lay-out and color, living up to the magazine's promise of being "wilder, dafter and more unpredictable" than all other comic magazines. The initial success of WHAM! was such, that in 1966 Odhams already launched a companion paper, SMASH!. Still, some of Baxendale's series in both magazines were basically continuations of his earlier work The Beano. WHAM!'s 'The Tiddlers' (1964-1968) once again dealt with a group of rebellious school kids and 'Bad Penny' (1966-1968) in SMASH! featured a mischievous girl with even the same black beret as Minnie the Minx.
A more original series in WHAM! was 'General Nitt and his Barmy Army', about a pompous general and his incompetent privates. Terry Willers also assisted on this series. Another new WHAM! creation was 'Danny Dare' (1964-1968), centering around a young boy who looked up to comic book aviator 'Dan Dare' by Frank Hampson from The Eagle, but whose own attempts to imitate Dan's heroism usually lead to disaster. One interesting aspect of this particular comic was that Baxendale actually tried to mimic the realistic drawing style of 'Dan Dare' and later received assistance from real-life 'Dan Dare' assistants Bruce Cornwell and Don Harley. For WHAM!, he additionally created 'Pest of the West' (1964-1968), about the sheriff of Powderkeg Gulch and his gunslinger son, nicknamed the "pest of the west". Besides Baxendale himself, Brian Lewis and Stanley McMurtry also provided pencil work for this comic.
'Bad Penny'.
Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy
With 'Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy' (1964-1968) in WHAM! and 'The Man from B.U.N.G.L.E.' (1966) in SMASH!- which spoofed the TV series 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.', Baxendale ventured into spy parodies. 'Eagle Eye, Junior Spy' had the most staying power, and was notable as one of the few comics by Baxendale built around longer adventures, told in serialized episodes. Secret agent Eagle Eye travels the entire world while trying to prevent evil schemes. His arch enemy is a pale, bald headed creep called Grimly Feendish, who resembles Uncle Fester from Charles Addams' 'The Addams Family', and made his debut on 11 July 1964. Nicknaming himself "The Rottenest Crook in the World", Grimly lives in a dark castle, assisted by numerous little monsters. The colorful villain quickly became a readers' favorite and between 1966 and 1969 received his solo strip in the new SMASH! magazine, followed by a 1973-1974 feature in Shiver & Shake magazine. In 1985, the punk band The Damned even named one of their songs 'Grimly Fiendish', deliberately misspelled to avoid copyright issues.
'Eagle Eye, Junior Spy' also received a foreign translation. It ran as 'Archibald Razmott, Mini-Barbouze de Choc' in the French Disney magazine Le Journal de Mickey, where Eagle-Eye was named Archibald Razmott and Grimly "Sinistroteur". Other WHAM! and SMASH! comics by Baxendale translated into French were 'Petsy la Peste' ('Bad Penny'), 'Larry Tournel' ('The Man from B.U.N.G.L.E.') and 'La Bande à Zozo' ('The Tiddlers'), which appeared in the bi-monthly Akim.
'Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy'.
From Odhams to Fleetway and back
Although Baxendale got a lot of personal joy and creative fulfillment out of WHAM!, sales began to decline. After a failed attempt at rehashing some of his previous Beano successes for the Odhams titles, Baxendale's relationship with the publisher soured. By 1966, Baxendale also began working for Fleetway Publications, which eventually became his main publisher. Coincidentally, in 1969, Fleetway's parent company IPC also bought over Odhams Press. While now part of one big corporation, there still remained a lot of competition and animosity between the two imprints. But even though officially Baxendale was now working full time for Fleetway, he still secretly drew a lot of comics as a ghost artist for Odham, because their pay was highter. Aided by Irene Rooum, wife of cartoonist Donald Rooum, Baxendale set up Hampstead Studio, where he secretly made his preliminary sketches and inked them, after which he sent them to Odham. Sometimes he just offered the pencil drawings, with Mike Brown doing the inking afterwards. To avoid anybody noticing, Baxendale worked in a different, more sparse style with minimal backgrounds. He actually enjoyed this privilege, because now he could earn considerable sums without having to overwork himself.
'The Swots and The Blots'.
In January 1968, WHAM! had been absorbed by another Odhams Press title, POW!, which in turn was absorbed by SMASH!. Even though his previous work in SMASH! had been signed, Baxendale continued to work for the title anonymously until the early 1971. This included drawing new episodes of 'Bad Penny' and 'The Swots and the Blots', but also creating the new horror-themed humor comic 'Sam's Spook' (1970-1971), about a schoolboy who receives help at dealing with bullies and other problems by a ghost called Spooky. In 1969, Baxendale also continued a humor comic about a group of rebellious children named 'The Swots and The Blots', originally created in 1966 by Ron Spencer and Mike Lacey, who obviously tried to copy Baxendale's own 'Bash Street Kids'. Since the series was already so similar to his own style, Baxendale had no trouble taking it over and putting it to his own hand. Some episodes were drawn by Les Barton and Terry Bave, but the majority was quintessential Baxendale. In 1971, SMASH! merged with Fleetway's Vailant magazine, where 'The Swots and The Blots' continued for another couple of years.
'The Tiddlers'.
Buster
Even though his work for SMASH! continued, Baxendale was mainly working for the Fleetway titles, most notably Buster. In 1967, he drew a couple of fill-in installments of 'Buster's Diary', which featured the diary entries of the magazine's mascot Buster Capp. At the time the regular artist of this feature was Angel Nadal. Other contributions to Buster were original Baxendale creations, starting with 'The Pirates' (15 October 1966-13 January 1968), a gag comic about three kids who pretended to be buccaneers. 'The Cave Kids' (3 June 1967-13 January 1968) followed another group of young brats during the Stone Age. 'Big Chief Pow Wow' (14 September 1968-31 January 1970) was cut from the same mold as 'Little Plum' and centered around a not-too-bright Native American chief and his often suffering tribesmen. The shortest-lived of all of Baxendale's comics in Buster was 'Mervyn's Monsters' (1968) about a bespectacled boy named Mervyn and his monster friends.
Among his most popular and longest-running comics in Buster were 'Clever Dick', 'Nellyphant' and 'Snooper'. 'Clever Dick' (7 February 1970-6 October 1979) centered on a young boy with genius I.Q. who made amazing inventions which never worked according to plan. It also ran in Whizzer and Chips and was later ghosted by Steve Maher and Baxendale's son, Martin Baxendale. 'Nellyphant' (28 October 1972-23 October 1976) was a gag comic about a goofy elephant and his zoo keeper, scripted by Derek Skinn. 'Snooper' followed the incurably curious Snooper who could never mind his own business and therefore always paid the price for it. After one year, it was also continued by Martin Baxendale.
'Sweeny Toddler'.
Further work for IPC/Fleetway
In addition to Buster, Leo Baxendale also appeared in other IPC/Fleetway magazines. As early as November 1966, he appeared in Tiger with the historical gag comic 'The Nits of the Round Table', which followed the exploits of three Arthurian knights and their nemesis Big Bad Bonkers. This comic was later reprinted in Buster. In the newly launched Whizzer & Chips, Baxendale created 'The Champ' (1969), a character who wanted to be the best at everything he did, but actually only excelled in boasting. This feature was eventually taken over by Colin Whittock, and later by J. Edward Oliver and Paul Ailey. Around the same period, he also drew 'The Lion Lot' in Lion, a feature that also had other artists working on it. For the renewed edition of Knockout in June 1971, he drew the first episodes of 'The Katts', a feature quickly taken over by another artist. In that same year, he also continued his SMASH! feature 'The Swots and the Blots' in Valiant. For this magazine, he also created 'Bluebottle and Basher' (1968-1971), about a bumbling bobby and a chubby convict on the loose who constantly tried to outwit one another. This feature was later also reprinted in Buster. For the weekly comic magazine Lion, Baxendale created the comic 'The Lion Lot', which was yet another series about a group of rebellious children.
In 1973, Baxendale was also present in IPC's short-lived horror-flavored magazine Shiver and Shake, drawing 'Match of the Week' and, most notably, 'Sweeny Toddler' (1973-2000), starring a little toddler who caused chaos wherever he went and was often seen in the presence of his little dog Henry. His name is a pun on the penny dreadful character Sweeney Todd. On 10 March 1973, the comic debuted in the first issue of Shiver and Shake, but was soon taken over by Tom Paterson, who continued it in other IPC titles for several decades, with Graham Exton as writer and later Jimmy Hansen as his graphic assistant.
Bad Time Bed Time Book
In 1975, despite being already 45 years old at the time, Baxendale made an unexpected career move. He started making more alternative comics for a more mature audience. His first comic in this direction was 'Bad Time Bed Time Book', originally published in the middle pages of IPC's Monster Fun magazine. The feature's four pages could be pulled out of the heart of the magazine and folded into a little book. Every week each one of these books presented a different storyline and characters, usually a media parody. Children could read this at night underneath the sheets with the aid of a flashlight. Baxendale only made these fold-in books for about a year, before other artists like Mike Brown and Artie Jackson continued the idea. Once Monster Fun merged with Buster in 1976, the 'Bad Time Bed Time Books' ended. It was his final work for IPC/Fleetway.
'Willy the Kid' and 'Thrrrp'.
Alternative comics
Baxendale's next idea was 'Willy the Kid' (1976-1978), a comic story about a little boy and his thrilling adventures. Contrary to his previous work, this comic wasn't serialized in a magazine, but published directly in three annual books by Gerald Duckworth and Company. Between 1979 and 1980, Baxendale even made a couple of episodes directly for the Dutch magazine Eppo, where it ran as 'Willie de Kid'. In one of 'Willy the Kid' books, Baxendale created a back-up feature with the character Spotty Dick, a young lad who kept losing jobs because he had a tiny brain and big feet. One particular story was picked up by the American underground artist Gilbert Shelton, who reprinted it in Rip Off Comix #8 (1981). This gave Baxendale a certain underground reputation, resulting in the British publisher of alternative comics, Knockabout Comics, contacting him to create a 'Spotty Dick' book. By then, Britain suffered under massive unemployment, so the artist felt the subject was now in bad taste. Instead, he created 'THRRP!' (1987), a pantomime comic for youngsters, in which the deviant Spotty Dick is confronted with the conformist inhabitants of the Planet Url. As to mark his change in content, both comics were also drawn in a different, more loose and almost unrecognizable style.
'Spotty Dick' story from the first 'Willy the Kid' book.
Beano court case
By the 1980s, Baxendale's production had slowed down. On top of that, a large part of the decade was spent with his court case against his first publisher, DC Thomson. In 1980, he took the most audacious and widely admired step in his entire career, and sued The Beano. Baxendale felt the magazine profited from the sales of series and characters he had created, without him receiving any financial compensation. No other British comic artist had ever dared to bring their former publisher to court. The case was brought before the High Court, but after seven years, DC Thomson and Baxendale reached an out-of-court settlement on 27 June 1987. He received the rights to his characters back, as well as thirty pieces of his original artworks, that he could display at exhibitions. Baxendale commented upon this verdict in his book 'Hobgoblin Wars' (2009): "During my 22 years creating and drawing for the three major firms of the comic industry, I had drawn between five-and-a-half thousand and six thousand pages. Of these, I now had thirty. Thirty isn't much in the scale of things, but that thirty, all drawn for The Beano, was crucial." He used the money to found his own publishing house Reaper Books, through which he brought out several autobiographical books about his career and cartooning in general.
Recognition
A testament to the enduring popularity of Baxendale's creations is that in 2001 both Dudley D. Watkins's 'Desperate Dan' as well as 'Minnie the Minx' received their own statues in Dundee, Scotland. They were created by Tony and Susie Morrow. Baxendale's work has often been exhibited, including - and fittingly - during the 2010 exhibition 'Rude Britannia' at the Tate Gallery in London, where three centuries worth of British caricatures and cartoons were put on display. In 2003, he received the Cartoon Art Trust Lifetime Achievement Award and ten years later he was inducted into the British Comics Awards Hall of Fame. That same year, on 26 February 2014, a street in Dundee was officially renamed Bash Street.
Final years and death
One of Baxendale's final comics was 'I Love You Baby Basil' (1990-1991), which ran in The Guardian. An eyestrain eventually forced him into retirement, but he remained active as a writer and spokesperson for British comics. In 1978, Baxendale had published his semi-autobiography named 'A Very Funny Business: 40 Years of Comics' (1978). To pay tribute to his main idol, Baxendale wrote a letter to Carl Giles to acknowledge his heavy debt to him and offer him a copy of this book. His court case against DC Thomson became the subject of another book, 'The Encroachment Part One', which Baxendale self-published in 1988 under the imprint Reaper Books. It was followed one year later by 'On Comedy: The Beano and Ideology', and then later by other books that gave great insights into his career, as well as his personal thoughts about cartooning, such as 'Pictures in the Mind' (1998), 'The Beano Room' (2005) and 'Hobgoblin Wars' (2009).
Baxendale also wrote a page of Bryan Talbot's graphic novel 'Alice in Sunderland' (2007), starring both him and Talbot as characters. Leo Baxendale died of cancer on 23 April 2017, at the age of 86.
'I Love You, Baby Basil'.
Death, legacy and influence
Already during his lifetime, Leo Baxendale was considered a legend. Countless British comic artists have been influenced by him, including Lew Stringer, David Sutherland, Mike Lacey, Graham Allen, Pat Mills, Dave Jones, Jonathan Edwards, Nigel Auchterlounie, Alan Moore, Savage Pencil, Tom Paterson, Bryan Talbot, Andy Fanton, Nigel Parkinson and Steve Bell. Outside of the UK, two of his biggest fans have been the Greek artist Spyros Andrianos and Swiss artist Zep. Some critics have made a connection between Baxendale's anarchic comics and the rebellious rock 'n' roll generation that emerged in the United Kingdom during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. While many of his young misbehavin' child characters are often punished for their mishaps, Baxendale was less concerned with giving his audience a decent moral than making them laugh. More than often the little tricksters get away with their ploys or take their punishment all in good humor. When asked by Janet Scott in 1999 whether he would consider himself an anarchist, Baxendale replied: "No, I'm not, really. I'm more like water seeping into the woodwork and rotting it."
Leo Baxendale.
In a way, Baxendale had something in common with the anti-authoritarian rebel characters in his comics. Once he was invited to a garden party in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, but outright refused. When he heard that some of his admirers tried to recommend him for a MBE medal, he strongly objected. Between 1965 and 1967, Baxendale published a two-page activist newsletter named 'Strategic Commentary', which protested against the Vietnam War. He spent most of his own income to send hundreds of free copies to members of government in the Houses of Parliament. One of its first subscribers was famed linguist Noam Chomsky. Even as an artist, Baxendale was an independent soul who dared to take risks. Leaving the best-selling Beano and trying to create his own comic magazine, WHAM!, were one thing. Making a move from classic comics to alternative comics late in his career was another. But most of all, he was brave enough to protest against the way he was treated, as his court case against DC Thomson illustrated. A "bashing street kid" to the end.
Baxendale presents his career overview.
Leo Baxendale on the Bear Alley blog
Leo Baxendale on Lew Stringer's blog