Sunday 2 February 2020

Bad Penny returns!

This week, 54 years ago in 1966, Odhams published the first issue of Smash!, a companion comic to Wham! that, for many of us, was even better than its sister paper. One of the main characters was Bad Penny, created by Leo Baxendale. It has to be said that Penny was inspired by the Beano's Minnie the Minx (also created by Leo) but she was a great character in her own right, and the strips were often even more unrestrained than those of the Beano at the time. 

It was an honour to bring back Bad Penny last year as part of the comic gang in Who's In Charge (written by John Freeman) in Rebellion's Cor!! Buster Humour Special. I'm pleased to say that I've also put her in this year's Cor!! Buster Easter Special as part of the crowds in the Buster and Dilbert strip I've drawn (also written by John Freeman). 

As far as I'm concerned, Bad Penny deserves her own strip once again, and hopefully she will one day, but for now at least she's back in a guest star role. Look out for The Cor!! Buster Easter Special when it goes on sale in April!

...and if you're nostalgic for the original Smash!, see my article on the first issue that I wrote on my other blog a few years ago...
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2016/01/50-year-flashback-smash-no1.html 


5 comments:

Manic Man said...

Always good to see characters still in use, speaking of which... Rebellion own the rights to characters like Draculass now... I wonder if she'll ever return

Lew Stringer said...

They've put Draculass on a T-shirt so I presume they must be bringing her back soon.

Manic Man said...

Ohh, hadn't notice that ^_^ thanks

SteveJailbirdMatt said...

I'm considering Bad Penny as the equivalent of Minnie The Minx in a spoof l'm doing pitting IPC characters against those in DC Thomson. I must admit l don't recall her but l do recall Gal Capone in Shiver & Shake eventhough it had a short run.
The most likely candidate is Tomboy. She ran for years in Cor! and Buster.

Lew Stringer said...

I'm pretty sure you don't have permission to use characters owned by Rebellion or DC Thomson Steve.