OINK! A PUERILE PIECE OF PUTRID PISH FIT ONLY FOR THE PIGSTY...

Who misses WHIZZER & CHIPS, BUSTER, VALIANT,

LION, EAGLE, TV21, TIGER, and - well, I could go on and on, but

I'm sure you get the point.  The afore-mentioned periodicals were, in the

main, quality comics, but that's not always why we miss things from our

past, sometimes we miss them mainly because they represent a happy

and carefree period when we were young and thought we had forever.

However, kids my age were lucky in that the comics on sale in our

day were usually produced to a high standard.

Such nostalgia must surely explain why anyone would look back

with any degree of fondness on a weak title like OINK! 'though.  What
a putrid pile of pish it was, with badly-drawn strips and puerile humour
by adults trying a tad too desperately to be anarchic and down-wiv-the-
kids.  There were some good artists working on the comic as well, but
sadly not enough to elevate it above where it belonged - in a pigsty
along with all the other sh*t to be found there.

Believe it or not, there are some deluded individuals out there

who claim that Oink! was a success and one of the all time greats,

but here's a few facts to consider.  Back in the day when this country

actually had a comics industry (a real one that is, not the pale, shrink-
ing shadow that clings on today by its decaying fingertips), it took a
publisher around two years to recoup the expense of launching
a new comic onto the market.

Basic, repetitive art, overwhelmingly bad lettering.
H'mm, now I see where The Dandy took its cue from

However, Oink! only lasted for 68 issues over a two and
a half year period.  It started as a fortnightly, changed to a weekly

at the end of its second year, then turned into a monthly before being

merged into Buster.  Newsagents didn't like the comic, but neither did

enough kids, otherwise it surely would've lasted longer than it did.  The
fact that the page count was soon reduced and the mag switched to

cheaper paper after only around 26 issues seems to indicate that it

was struggling pretty early on, so claims of it being a success

should be regarded with some degree of skepticism.

However, if you liked the comic, don't worry - you're allowed
to.  Nobody will come to your house and arrest you, although it
could be argued that bad taste should be a chargeable offence - with
capital punishment as a possible option when it comes to sentencing.
So your memories are secure, but face the facts - a crime was
committed and the comics-buying public was the victim.

So - Oink?  Ouch!  Perhaps that was when the decline set in.

Posted in: Cartoons