Tuesday 19 June 2018

The Power Pack of Ken Reid.

Ken Reid collected book form edition Irmantas Povilaika volume 1
Anyone who ever read a British comic in the period from the 1940s to the late 1980s will be familiar with the work of Ken Reid who produced sterling work for the likes of The Beano, Dandy, Cor, Buster, Smash, Pow, Whoopee and Monster Fun. Among his claims to fame was that he co-created Roger the Dodger and Faceache.

But now there's a chance for any Ken lovers to express that love in book form because Irmantas Povilaika is aiming to release a complete official collection of Reid's strips from Wham, Smash and Pow, including the complete Frankie Stein, Jasper the Grasper, Queen of the Seas, Dare-A-Day Davy and The Nervs.

As well as all that, the venture will include unseen sketches, drawings, and facsimiles of hand-written scripts, with introductions by Ken's son Antony J Reid, Beano artist Nigel Parkinson and British comics historian Steve Holland. There'll also be a detailed illustrated biography, covering the years when Reid worked for Odhams Press.

Ken Reid collected book form edition Irmantas Povilaika volume 2
The collection consists of two hard-cover volumes, of 204 pages each and, to raise the money for this venture, Irmantas is now running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The campaign has just three more weeks to run, so if you want to help the project become a reality, you can find out more at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-power-pack-of-ken-reid-books/x/18513990#/  and by visiting Irmantas's own blog Kazoop!!

3 comments:

Charlie Horse 47 said...

The man deserves a statue somewhere having no created Roger the Dodger! Roger was a serious fav with me and me siblings in the 60s and 70s though I have no idea if Ken did those strips in the Annuals.

Steve W. said...

Roger the Dodger was always one of my favourite Beano characters, along with Minnie the Minx.

pete doree said...

Frankie Stein for me