Monday 14 October 2013

Lance Boyle and the case of the unseen comics


 Do you remember Lance Boyle, Secret Agent from the pages of Oh No!! comic? Probably not, because Oh No!! was cancelled before it was launched, with only a few copies making it to selected schools for test marketing purposes. 

Oh No!! was the brainchild of cartoonists/writers Dave King and Ian Ellery, who wanted to produce a new style UK humour comic for kids. In 1991 they took the idea to Fleetway, who gave them the green light to produce a 'dummy' issue. I was one of the artists they contacted for a contribution and I created Lance Boyle, Secret Agent, - a sort of podgy James Bond but with the halfwit intelligence of Combat Colin. The full page strip ran on the back page of the 32 page dummy issue. I've mislaid my copy, but my thanks to 'Alfie Large' on the Comics UK forum for sending me a scan...



The last panel is chopped a bit here because the scan is slightly askew, but the punchline makes more sense if you know the dog has the villain's bum in his jaws.

Back in 1997, in my Combat Colin Summer Special, I wrote an article about Oh No!! and other comics that never made it beyond the dummy stage. Here it is. Click on the images to see them full size...






If you wish to see the rest of the Oh No!! issue zero, Alfie uploaded it at the Comic UK forum here:
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5258&start=15

3 comments:

Manic Man said...

pretty interesting read.. though I don't quite agree that publishers etc are only interested in licensed comics.. they are Mostly interested in that, but not only. I still see the odd non-licenced work, or cheap rip-off work, but it's mostly licensed cause they think there is a confirmed market that way... probably right thought, which is a shame..

Lew Stringer said...

Bear in mind that was written in 1997 when publishers were moving quite heavily into licensed comics.

Manic Man said...

point. remember a number of 'unlicensed' comics on the shelves too which were tied with licensed stuff.. kinda wondered how they were legal but some companies allow unlicensed