The censored Tom Thug!

Usually when creators work on strips we instinctively 'self censor' in that we know how far to push the limits for the particular comic we're working on. On rare occasions an editor might think we've overstepped the mark even though we thought it was ok. That's when the white out and patch paper came out to mask over any offending item. 

One such occasion was in Oink! No.60, published in 1988. In my Tom Thug story that issue I had Tom dressed as a Sumo wrestler, doing his warm-up exercises, when he accidentally passed wind, with such comical force as to blow the hat off a passing girl. 

When the strip saw print, the fart clouds and the 'PARP!' sound effect were gone, proving too much for IPC. Yet the passing girl was still reacting with disgust. They'd changed the intent of the humour from a ludicrously exaggerated fart joke into a scene where we're supposed to think it's funny for a guy to moon at a girl. IPC may have thought this lessened the vulgarity, but to my mind it just made the scene worse. I must admit this did concern me a bit at the time although it's not something I dwelled on. 

Anyway sorting through some old artwork to sell I found the original art of that page today, which reminded me of that incident. Interestingly, the censorship was done with 'patch paper' and the censored stuff is now slightly visible through it (as you can see in the photo above). 

So, to cut to the chase, if you're interested in buying that page, the original is up on eBay this week along with a few other things. All bids are very much appreciated! Auction ends next Sunday, 1st March. See here for the listings:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/graphite47/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686