Retro Kate!

It's always a pleasure to do new Keyhole Kate strips for The Dandy Annual and one of the most enjoyable ones was this page I did a few years ago for The Dandy Annual 2015. 

In a three-part story spread throughout the book, Kate embarks on journeys through time, thanks to a time machine built by her inventor uncle Black-Hole Bert. In this second episode she travels back to 1937 to meet her ancestor, the original Keyhole Kate, who appeared in The Dandy in its early days. 

As a homage to the past I used the original 1930s Keyhole Kate logo that I scanned from a vintage Dandy. (The particular shade of blue is also close to that used in comics of the past.) I also tried to "ghost" the style of Allan Morley (the original Keyhole Kate artist) as best I could for Kate of 1937, whilst keeping my own style for Kate of 2015. 

Note also the grey sky, thick with smoke from the chimneys, and the folded up comics clipped to the entrance of the newsagent, as comics were displayed back then. 

For 1937 Kate's speech balloon, I used more of a flourish for the tail, ending in a single line, as speech balloons were back then. The only drawback is that in 2015 The Dandy Annual wanted lower case lettering on all their strips, so I couldn't mimic the stylised upper case lettering of the 1930s. Still, a minor point and not important.

Admittedly most of the young readers wouldn't know of these little homages to the past. Most adult readers wouldn't know either, really, but it was just an indulgence I wanted for the strip for the benefit of the few who would appreciate it.