Author Topic: It was twenty years ago when...  (Read 9747 times)

Offline Roger Kettle

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It was twenty years ago when...
« on: February 14, 2009, 09:34:47 PM »
...Andrew and I were approached by The Daily Mirror and asked if we would be interested in doing a strip for them. This approach had been based on research they had done about the percentage of readers who followed a comic strip in their chosen newspaper. Apparently, Beau Peep in "The Star" had come out top. We were hugely flattered and, in this business, opportunities like this seldom come along so we put our heads together. I really liked the idea of a Western strip. We had already done a series of one-off cartoons for men's magazines which spoofed the Lone Ranger and I suggested to Andrew that we expand on that. And so it began. Having decided that we were going in that direction, we then had to come up with a title. In my mind, I started trawling through the titles of famous Western films and the obvious one was "High Noon". My first suggestion was "Five Past Twelve" which Andrew, rightly, discarded as too obscure. Then I remembered one of my favourite Westerns of all time---A Man Called Horse. Not a huge step to A Man Called Horace.
From the beginning, I always thought that Horace was going to be a kind of brief spin-off from the (at that time) reasonably successful Beau Peep.
It's now been going 20 years and---well, I can't believe it.

peter

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2009, 09:40:28 PM »
From the mouths of genius comes Horace scurge of the west.

Offline Mince

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2009, 11:01:07 PM »
From the mouths of genius comes Horace scurge of the west.

"mouths"? Are you saying Roger has more than one mouth?

Offline Diane CBPFC

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2009, 03:23:20 AM »
20 years used to sound impressive to me - but now I have sweaters that old.  ;D

The only Horace I have been able to see are the strips written in books #1 and #2. I think it is just a real shame how Beau Peep and Horace aren't marketed properly - I think they would be top sellers.

People will come from strange lands to hear me speak my words of wisdom. They will ask me the secret of life and I will tell them. Then maybe I'll finish off with a song. The Nomad

Tom

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2009, 12:29:19 PM »
I started reading Horace in 1992, 17 years ago. 1992 doesn't seem that long ago either.

Time flies when you're having fun!

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2009, 09:24:21 PM »
Diane, this could be interesting. Well, maybe. You mention owning sweaters that are more than twenty years old. I have a Snoopy sweatshirt that my sister brought back from The States in 1967. I also have a Partick Thistle strip that my Dad bought me in 1963. Both still fit, remarkably. Anyone beat this?
P.S. Tarks, do you remember that Partick strip from our five-a-side games in Newport?

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2009, 09:56:44 PM »
You played in those games?
I apologise, in advance.

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2009, 10:39:55 PM »
I was the impish Denis Law type who scored all the goals.

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2009, 11:35:01 PM »
Ah - I thought that was Dave Torrie.

Joking aside, folks, I have to own up that Roger was a class act in the football arena. Silky skills, poise, elegance, vision, a curly perm and a keen eye for goal were his hallmarks. He couldn't tackle for toffee, but then neither could Denis Law. Happy days!

Was that a Partick Thistle strip? I thought it was a Bumble Beez Club T-shirt.
I apologise, in advance.

Offline The Peepmaster

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2009, 12:52:39 AM »
Yes, but "Silky skills, poise, elegance, vision, a curly perm and a keen eye for goal" weren't what they normally demanded from a tea-lady.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Malc

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2009, 01:58:21 AM »
Cartoonists 5-a-side. I could go for that. I'm more of a Johann Cruyff with a bit of Benny Hill final credits thrown in.

Rob Baker

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2009, 11:32:36 PM »
20 years ?!! I've got a HUGE stack of strips going back years that I need to paste into my scrap books. Alway a pleasure , never a chore!

I got a load of Horace cuttings off Ebay, a few years back, of the Daily Record ones when the Mirror stop printing Horace for some daft reason.  Why was that? 

Is'nt  Terry Wogan a Horace fan Roger?

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2009, 11:54:36 PM »
Rob, I've no idea if Terry Wogan is a Horace fan. I've certainly never heard anything to suggest this.
The Mirror dropped Horace for 18 months or two years. The editor at the time, Piers Morgan, wanted space for a strip by Tom Johnston---a former colleague of his at The Sun. This kind of thing happens in the newspaper world so I was neither surprised nor particularly bitter. However, it WAS nice to get invited back.

Offline The Peepmaster

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2009, 01:22:19 AM »
Piers Morgan. I've never liked the twat - now I know why. To think he's on the same show as my belov?d Amanda Holden...
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Malc

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Re: It was twenty years ago when...
« Reply #14 on: May 19, 2009, 01:04:30 PM »
It is all about who you know, and the fact that Horace came back after Morgan and Johnston's old pal's act fell through - well, that's brilliant.

I don't know Tom Johnston, nor anything about him other than I heard he was one for the night clubs, but I think he is total and utter sh*te. When cartoonists wonder why they are not taken seriously as a profession, they need only examine the Johnston phenomenon wherein someone so utterly bereft of talent and ability managed to keep a career going for 20+ years. There's your answer. Would people respect surgeons if the Head of Surgery at Guy's had a death rate of 98%?

Even after Not The Nine O'Clock News lambasted Johnston on their show, his career staggered on. He was editorialist as well as having TWO strips running in the paper. If I ever met Johnston I would never tire kicking the idiot.