Oink! (comics)

The comic's editors Patrick Gallagher, Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers, would go on to create the CITV programme Round the Bend for ITV Yorkshire and Hat Trick Productions. Hat Trick co-founders Jimmy Mulville and Rory McGrath would be credited as script editors on series one, alongside Geoffrey Perkins.^[4]

In 1987 Oink! was made into a computer game of the same name.^[5]

Mark Rodgers' archives relating to Oink! are held by Archive Services, University of Dundee.^[6]

Notable strips

Some of the most popular recurring characters in the comic were:

• Uncle Pigg, whose staff were known as the Plops (apparently, sentient mounds of
  faeces) and who had an ongoing battle with conservative critic Mary Lighthouse (an obvious parody of Mary Whitehouse
  ) (usually written by Mark Rodgers, artwork by Ian Jackson)
• The Street-Hogs (writer Mark Rodgers, artwork Malcolm Douglas as J.T. Dogg), anthropomorphic crime-fighting biker pigs
• Harry the Head (he was only a head) (Marc Riley)
• Billy's Brain (he was only a brain) (David Haldane)
• Horace "Ugly Face" Watkins (Tony Husband)
• Weedy Willy (artwork Mike Green, sometimes written by Mark Rodgers, Vaughan Brunt or others)
• Pete and his Pimple (the Pimple was on Pete's nose and was bigger than he was) (Lew Stringer)
• The Secret Diary of Hadrian Vile (an obvious parody of Adrian Mole) (writer Mark Rodgers, artwork Ian Jackson)
• Tom Thug (who spent most of the first six months of publication attempting to tie his bootlaces) (Lew Stringer)
• Mr Bignose (Jeremy Banks)
• Burp The Smelly Alien (who could talk to his
  internal organs
  , many of which could talk back) (Jeremy Banks)
• Rubbish Man (an inept superhero) (David Haldane)
• Hugo the Hungry Hippo (David Haldane)
• Cowpat County (Davy Francis
  )
• Frank Sidebottom
  (Chris Sievey)
• Psycho Gran (David Leach)

Satirist Charlie Brooker, who was still at school at the time, contributed various strips, none of which were true "regulars" individually, but which recurred in loose rotation. These included "Freddie Flop (He Falls to Pieces)", "Disgusting Des", "Clint Gritwood, The Trigger-Happy Cop", "The Adventures of Death" and "Transmogrifying Tracey (She Can Change Into Anything She Likes!)".

Aside from straightforward comic strips, the comic would also include spoof news items, adverts (usually for the fictional GBH brand) and so forth. The comic also featured many parodies of films, TV shows, and strips from other comics. There were also regular photo stories, with photography by James Gallagher (and sometimes Martin Zukor), often starring Snatcher Sam, who was 'played' by Marc Riley.

As the title suggested,

For most of the comic's run, each issue had a theme (e.g., Christmas, holidays, family etc.) which often allowed the comic to experiment. One issue (dubbed "Oink! goes Peculiar") showed everything going wrong in the Oink! offices, leading to strips being printed upside down or being drawn by the wrong artist etc. In another issue, Uncle Pigg and the Plops all went on holiday, leaving a skeleton staff (of literal skeletons) to produce the comic. The themes were dropped when the comic went weekly at the beginning of 1988.

Some items aimed slightly over their target audience's heads – in one strip, Weedy Willy wandered around moaning whilst being followed by a shadowy stranger who was writing down everything he said – for example, "Oh, I would go out tonight but I haven't got a stitch to wear", and "Heaven knows, I'm miserable now." At the end of the strip, the figure was revealed as Morrissey, getting ideas.

The first issue came with a free flexi-disk single featuring "The Oink Song" and "The Oink Rap" credited to Uncle Pigg and The Oinkletts, mostly the work of Marc Riley. ^[7]

References

External links

• Oink! at Comicgrapevine
• The Oink! Blog - Details and scans on each issue (has copyright permissions)
• 'Oink!' - the Controversial Children's Comic,
  h2g2