Chalk and Cheese?

[Rob Baker]

On ebay at the moment:-

The very first BADLANDS annual by Steve McGarry. It features the popular cartoon strip Badlands which I believe still appears in the Sun.   If you enjoy cartoon strip humour such as Beau Peep or a Man called Horace then chances are you will like this too!

I don't want to slag off another Cartoon, but after this recomendation I think the buyer of this book is going to be very disappointed.....

Ok alright then , Badlands is crap.

[Roger Kettle]

Rob, I think Badlands was dropped by The Sun about seven or eight years ago.(The seller is wrong to suggest it's still running). Steve McGarry is an extremely successful cartoonist who now lives in California. I met Steve a couple of times and he's a nice lad but I'm pretty sure he'd agree that his strength was in realistic rather than humourous strips. Some of his pop and rock history stuff was widely syndicated.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I remember meeting Steve McGarry at Stringfellows, in the mid 80s, at the infamous Beau Peep party where I sorted out Lloyd Honeyghan. We had jackets on with those Miami Vice sleeves. He was in The Sun and I was in The Dandy, so we both worked for comics and had lots to talk about.

We discussed how we were each aiming to be major players in the cartooning cosmos, how we would achieve that, and whether Maria Whittaker's breasts were real or not. He seemed like (as Roger surmises) a nice lad.

Nearly 25 years later, he's now a past president of the National Cartoonists Society (twice), living in California.

I'm not.

Ho-hum! Wish I'd come up with a crap strip like Badlands.

[Malc]

Steve and I were cyber buddies for quite some time until we fell out over various issues, mostly connected with him being the NCS President, and my criticism of the US syndicates (which I felt the NCS was too close to) and my criticism of various high profile US cartoonists, who Steve had grown close to.

I honestly have never read Badlands, at least not more than a few strips, but in private (email) conversation McGarry is a hoot, very bright and his heart is in the right place. There's plenty of time for us to kiss and make up and have a few beers together, should we be spared. His mate Stromoski and I have been exchanging friendly emails for some time now, so the signs are favourable.

As for his stint in the Sun, the money he got from that enabled him to live large, I'm sure he saved his pennies, and it's a dream stint we would all be glad to have!