Professor Crackpot by Protheroe...

Another of those Golden Age British nightmare pages to share.

Firstly, thanks to smoky1980 for scanning/forwarding this and its from a batch of loose pages marked "Swan 1948/49".

Even had this not been signed the art style is a dead give-away.  This is the work of Glyn Protheroe who was born in Swansea, Wales, on the 3rd July, 1906.  Sadly, I can find no record of when he died. After leaving school, Protheroe went on to study art under Walter Fuller.  

In the 1920s he moved to London and became a professional cartoonist and press artist.  At that time he had a studio in  Shaftesbury Avenue but also worked from Southampton Row. His work appeared in Sports Post, The Journal, Sporting News and The Leader -all well known national publications.

His comics work took off in the 1940s when Soloway, Amex and Gerald Swan used his work.  His first work for Swan appeared in 1942 and titles he contributed to included War Comics, Cute Fun, Topicaol Funnies, Slick Fun, Thrill Comics and New Funnies.  Work was also contributed to a number of albums from Swan -Albums were collections of reprint strips with more pages than weekly comics -more like the yearly annuals but soft covered not hard cover.

For Soloway, starting in 1943, he contributed to Comic Capers, All Star and Comic Adventures.

For Amex, Protheroe contributed to Merry Midget, Midget Comics, Bantam Comics these were all from 1943.

The sets (strips) that Protheroe provided were usually a collection of jokes strung together in a "talking heads" format.  According to Alan Clark, from whom most of the data is culled: "His style was instantly recognisable; his characters looked like clowns...a distinctive 'morose' quality." 

And the artist signed himself as either "Glynne" or "Protheroes".

The below Professor Crackpot strip is a typical nightmare and the orange ink might have looked bright and fun to war time kids but....oy.

I had to remove the colour and alter brightness and contrast four times to make it a mere black and white page. 

So, here is your example of Glyn Protheroe at work!

An extra treat for you all!

William A. Ward's Sheriff Fox

William A. Ward, creator of The Bat (for Gerald Swan) and many others. A 1948(?) strip of Sheriff Fox!

No "Point Scoring" Allowed.

In the old days you had the fan press that used to have LOCs -Letters of Comment".  There were articles by fans on characters and or specific comic titles or artists. You would get the odd "nasty" letter but once the moron responsible realised he would be getting no publicity he stopped.

The advent of the internet has put pay to that.

Trollers and flamers abound not just attacking via peoples' personal blogs but on "comic forums" (where for the most part they seem to be allowed to write whatever they want and get away with it -the moderator/owner having a spine of jelly).

I have been the victim of name calling, lies, slurs on my reputation and skills and knowledge.  I have had this every week, sometimes as many as ten mails a week.  Now I note ISP numbers and report them. They seem to think that they and their snide little pals can hide behind anonimity. That shows how dumb they are.  Even posting from cyber cafes or, of all places, public library computers, you leave a signature.

Those people, they know who they are, have mental health problems. It is as simple as that.  They contribute nothing.

But the type I really do hate are those who set themselves up as "comic experts" and who try, continuously, to demean other comickers.  They waste your time as you try to be helpful and then do not reply via email, where they set you queries, giving you all the information they asked for, but on publiv comments on blogs.

WHY would someone ask for information on characters and then tell you they have the information already having wasted hours of your time?

These are not true comickers. Not fans. They are trying to score points against you -"Nyah-nyah -HE doesn't have the information I asked for but I do!"

Sadly, these people get onto internet You Tube communities where it is easy to set up fake email names. Or they join your groups under THREE different names so if you kick them off once for misbehaving they are still there with two more chances.

All we can do as an online comic community is cold shoulder these people. Ignore them.

Comics are fun and some of us enjoy them!