| Oink! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Fleetway |
| Schedule |
|
| Format | Comics anthology |
| Genre | Humour, children's |
| Publication date | 3 May 1986–22 October 1988 |
| No. of issues | 68 |
Oink! was aBritish comic book magazine for children which was published from 3 May 1986 to 22 October 1988. It set out to be deliberatelyanarchic, reminiscent ofViz but for children. The creators also citedMad magazine as a major influence.
Part of its difference in the marketplace was that it attracted writers and cartoonists from a wide range of previous disciplines. It was devised, launched and edited by Patrick Gallagher,Private Eye regular contributorTony Husband and Mark Rodgers, although within the fiction of the comic it was "edited" by a character called Uncle Pigg (similar to2000 AD'sTharg the Mighty). The comic also followed2000 AD's lead in crediting its contributors for their work, still a rarity in British comics at that time. Featured artists and writers included comedian Bard of Timperely and aspiring pop starFrank Sidebottom akaChris Sievey, Husband'sPrivate Eye colleague David Haldane, ex-The Fall member and futureBBC Radio 1 radio hostMarc "Lard" Riley,Malcolm Douglas,Brickman creatorLew Stringer, futureBeano writer/artistKev F Sutherland, future Marvel artist, writer and editor andSpongeBob SquarePants Magazine editor David Leach, futureFinancial Times cartoonist Jeremy Banks, and satirical media commentator-to-beCharlie Brooker.Viz founders Davy Thorp andChris Donald also contributed some one-off strips, as didThe Beano'sTom Paterson andJohn Geering. IllustratorSteve McGarry was an occasional contributor, including creating front covers for three issues.[1][2]
Oink! proved somewhat controversial, with variousconservative groups and a chain of newsagents branding it offensive and unsuitable for children. A notably controversial item was the story "Janice and John and the Parachute Jump", a parody of theJanet and John readers which appeared in issue 7, which prompted an official complaint to thePress Council. The Council ruled in Oink's favour (and the strip was subsequently reprinted in the comic alongside an editorial about the affair) but the negative publicity resulted in some newsagents, includingWHSmith, placing it on the top shelves away from other comics, thus damaging its sales potential to its young target audience. An item on how thepoll tax meant people owningparrots had to pay tax unless they were members of theConservative Party was read out in theHouse of Commons.[3]
Originally a fortnightly publication, it became weekly and finally monthly and was finally wound up in November 1988 after 68 issues, though both a summer and winter special were published in 1989, and a final summer special (consisting almost entirely of reprinted material) in 1990. ThreeOink! strips transferred toBuster: "Weedy Willy", "Pete and his Pimple" and "Tom Thug", the latter appearing through to the comic's last issue in 1999.
The comic's editors Patrick Gallagher,Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers, would go on to create theCITV programmeRound the Bend forITV Yorkshire andHat Trick Productions. Hat Trick co-foundersJimmy Mulville andRory McGrath would be credited as script editors on series one, alongsideGeoffrey Perkins.[4]
In 1987Oink! was made into a computer game of the same name.[5]
Mark Rodgers' archives relating toOink! are held by Archive Services, University of Dundee.[6]
Some of the most popular recurring characters in the comic were:
SatiristCharlie Brooker, who was still at school at the time, contributed various strips, none of which were true "regulars" individually, but which recurred in loose rotation. These included "Freddie Flop (He Falls to Pieces)", "Disgusting Des", "Clint Gritwood, The Trigger-Happy Cop", "The Adventures ofDeath" and "Transmogrifying Tracey (She Can Change Into Anything She Likes!)".
Aside from straightforward comic strips, the comic would also include spoof news items, adverts (usually for the fictional GBH brand) and so forth. The comic also featured many parodies of films, TV shows, and strips from other comics. There were also regular photo stories, with photography by James Gallagher (and sometimes Martin Zukor), often starring Snatcher Sam, who was 'played' by Marc Riley.
As the title suggested,pigs were a constant theme. Celebrities would regularly becaricatured as pigs, complete with punning names (Peter Swillton,Michael Jaxham,Janice Pong, etc.) and even existing comic strips would be parodied with a pig theme (e.g. "Ham Dare, Pig of the Future!").Russell Grant and his horoscopes were also parodied as "Russell Grunt's Hogoscopes". BesidesMary Lighthouse, Uncle Pigg's biggest enemies werebutchers, the most vicious of whom was Jimmy "The Cleaver" Smith.
For most of the comic's run, each issue had a theme (e.g.,Christmas, holidays, family etc.) which often allowed the comic to experiment. One issue (dubbed "Oink! goes Peculiar") showed everything going wrong in the Oink! offices, leading to strips being printed upside down or being drawn by the wrong artist etc. In another issue, Uncle Pigg and the Plops all went on holiday, leaving a skeleton staff (of literal skeletons) to produce the comic. The themes were dropped when the comic went weekly at the beginning of 1988.
Some items aimed slightly over their target audience's heads – in one strip, Weedy Willy wandered around moaning whilst being followed by a shadowy stranger who was writing down everything he said – for example, "Oh,I would go out tonight but I haven't got a stitch to wear", and "Heaven knows, I'm miserable now." At the end of the strip, the figure was revealed asMorrissey, getting ideas.
The first issue came with a free flexi-disk single featuring "The Oink Song" and "The Oink Rap" credited to Uncle Pigg and The Oinkletts, mostly the work of Marc Riley.[7]