Top 10 Comics in Comics - No 8 Ken Dodd

In anticipation of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's long-awaited second comic book "Goes To Hollywood" - buy it now for Christmas (NB that link will work as soon as the comic's ready) - we're looking at the Top Ten comics based on comedians. And at number 8 we find...



Ken Dodd appeared in the sidelines of the strip featuring his puppet characters The Diddymen in the weekly TV Comic in the late 60s and early 70s. TV Comic also featured Dad's Army in strips drawn by Bill Titcombe, who also drew The Diddymen and who went on to draw Benny Hill's adventures in Look-In, while regulars in early issues of TV Comic, which began life in 1951 and kept going until 1984, were ITV's star comedian Dickie Henderson and childrens TV favourite Mr Pastry, while in the sixties there was a comic adaptation of the TV adaptation of the Goons, the Telegoons. TV Comic's best remembered strips include Mighty Moth and the original comic strip version of Doctor Who which began in 1964.



No 10 - Arthur Askey
No 9 - Jonathan Ross
No 8 - Ken Dodd
No 7 - S*****? C*****?
No 6 - R*? V****?
No 5 - B***? C******?
No 4 - L****? & H***?
No 3 - H***? H**?
No 2 - T*? G*****?
No 1 - ?

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Goes To Hollywood is their second comic book, an 80 page bonanza of comic strip adaptations of some of their best sketches including Star Wars, Casablanca, Robin Hood, A Christmas Carol and many more. As soon as it's ready, click here to order a copy. Their first comic book, Sock, featuring Halloween, Torchwool, Life On Mars, Primarkeval and Romeo & Juliet is still available in print and on Kindle.



SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

Top 10 Comics in Comics - No 9 Jonathan Ross

In anticipation of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's long-awaited second comic book "Goes To Hollywood" - buy it now for Christmas (NB that link will work as soon as the comic's ready) - we're looking at the Top Ten comics based on comedians. And at number 9 we find...



Jonathan Ross has a unique place in British comics history, being one of our most famous comic collectors (he has a house at the foot of his garden where he keeps his comic collection and briefly opened a comic shop with fellow fan Paul Gambaccini), a recently emerged comics writer, with his books Turf and America's Got Powers, and most significantly (for this countdown) as the man who was the model for the villian, the Devil indeed, in one of Mark (Kiss Ass) Millar's first ever comic books, Saviour. "It wasn’t really me," says Jonathan of his comic book debut (here on Comics Alliance, "it was basically Satan, but he had a talk show". He has more recently appeared in The Beano (below), in the Comic Relief comic in 1991, and was the presenter of the very first National Comics Awards in 1997, produced by the Scottish Falsetto Socks' producer Kev F Sutherland, for which Jonathan presented the show for free.



No 10 - Arthur Askey
No 9 - Jonathan Ross
No 8 - K*? D**?
No 7 - S*****? C*****?
No 6 - R*? V****?
No 5 - B***? C******?
No 4 - L****? & H***?
No 3 - H***? H**?
No 2 - T*? G*****?
No 1 - ?

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Goes To Hollywood is their second comic book, an 80 page bonanza of comic strip adaptations of some of their best sketches including Star Wars, Casablanca, Robin Hood, A Christmas Carol and many more. As soon as it's ready, click here to order a copy. Their first comic book, Sock, featuring Halloween, Torchwool, Life On Mars, Primarkeval and Romeo & Juliet is still available in print and on Kindle.



SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

I Borrowed HItler's Brain - new comics by kids

September's not been the busiest month for Comic Art Masterclasses, but I've done a few including at the last days of Beanotown on the Southbank, a school in Lincoln and libraries in Woking and Dorking. Here are the covers of the comics they produced (can we guess whose schools are doing World War Two this term?) and a smattering of my caricatures of them.

The celebs they chose for the worm-treading demonstration (see the class, it makes sense) were Simon Cowell (twice, and he is currently suggested in 90% of classes, easily beating Michael Jackson as the most popular celeb among schoolkids), Harry Hill, Keith Lemon, David Bowie, Daniel Radcliffe. and Freddie Mercury.

I am, as always, available to give my Comic Art Masterclasses to your kids, wherever they be* (*NB Within reason. I mean if you live on an island in the mid-Atlantic it'll cost, is all I'm saying.) Tweet @KevFComicArtist, find me on Facebook, or why not try emailing me? Details at comicfestival.co.uk And have you seen the new video promoting my classes? Go on then, here it is...


The Dog Did It - comics by kids Aug 2013
Bunny Dood Defeats King Lettis - July 2013
I Flushed My Magical Penguin Down The Toilet - Mar 2013
The Bean Men - Feb 2013
Aquatic Owls vs The Moon - Dec 2012
The Hairy Bottom - July 2012
Kid Afro Spaghetti - June 2012 

Top 10 Comics in Comics - No 10 Arthur Askey

In anticipation of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's long-awaited second comic book "Goes To Hollywood" - buy it now for Christmas (NB that link will work as soon as the comic's ready) - we're looking at the Top Ten comics based on comedians. And at number 10 we find...



How's about that playmates? Courtesy of OopNorth on Youtube, we have an animated version of a strip from a 1954 Radio Fun starring Arthur Askey, number ten in our rundown.

As Lew Stringer tells in his excellent Crikey blog, Big Hearted Arthur appeared in Radio Fun weekly from 1938, being promoted to the front cover by issue 18. He remained a comic strip star, here and also in Chips and Knockout, until Radio Fun amalgamated with Buster in 1961. Radio Fun turned the stars of the day into comic strips, with no official endorsement in most cases, with cover stars including Jewel & Warris, Arthur Askey & Stinker Murdoch, and Norman Wisdom. Stars as diverse as Petula Clark, Jimmy Edwards and Bernard Bresslaw had their own weekly strips.





No 10 - Arthur Askey
No 9 - J******? R**?
No 8 - K*? D**?
No 7 - S*****? C*****?
No 6 - R*? V****?
No 5 - B***? C******?
No 4 - L****? & H***?
No 3 - H***? H**?
No 2 - T*? G*****?
No 1 - ?

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Goes To Hollywood is their second comic book, an 80 page bonanza of comic strip adaptations of some of their best sketches including Star Wars, Casablanca, Robin Hood, A Christmas Carol and many more. As soon as it's ready, click here to order a copy. Their first comic book, Sock, featuring Halloween, Torchwool, Life On Mars, Primarkeval and Romeo & Juliet is still available in print and on Kindle.



SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

Socks Comic 2 on the way - a teaser

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's second comic book - The Socks Go To Hollywood - nudges closer to completion. 80 pages of artwork are drawn and scanned, now they just need completing and printing, and we could have it in the hands of some happy Socks fans in good time for Christmas. Here's a tasty teaser of one almost-complete page from The Western strip...



The new comic book contains the comic strip adaptations of ten of the Socks favourite comic strips including Star Wars, James Bond, Casablanca, Robin Hood and A Christmas Carol. Watch this space for progress reports. It's looking good.



SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Sept 21 - Sacrebleu Cabaret, Streatham
Sept 22 4pm - Nottingham Comedy Festival
Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

Socks Christmas Special - London Nov 30th

Great news, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre have added a second Christmas Special show to their itinerary - at The Camden Head, Camden, London on Saturday November 30th. (This is in addition to the already-announced Christmas Special in Bath on Friday December 6th). Both shows will feature some of their finest seasonal material, which rarely gets the chance to be seen live, and undoubtedly some new treats and the best of their recent shows. Here is the no-expense-spared new Christmas promo photo.



Tickets are already on sale for the one-off treat at The Camden Head, and if plans work out, we might add more Christmas Specials if we possibly can, stay tuned.



SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Sept 21 - Sacrebleu Cabaret, Streatham
Sept 22 4pm - Nottingham Comedy Festival
Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

Socks Christmas Special - Dec 6 Bath

Thanks to the marvellous Nick Steel of the esteemed Bath Comedy Festival, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre will be performing a Christmas Special on Friday December 6th in Bath. This will feature some of their finest seasonal material, which rarely gets the chance to be seen live, and undoubtedly some new treats and the best of their recent shows. Here is the no-expense-spared new Christmas promo photo.



Tickets are already on sale for the one-off treat at The Ring O'Bells in Bath (home to the Socks' 5-star reviewed Comedy Festival show back in April) and if plans work out, there might be Christmas Special shows taking place elsewhere in the country, stay tuned.



SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

July 31 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, 10.15pm, Edinburgh Fringe
Sept 4 - Belfast Black Box
Sept 5 - Derry Waterside
Sept 21 - Sacrebleu Cabaret, Streatham
Sept 22 4pm - Nottingham Comedy Festival
Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath