badtime bedtime books

This one is a great little story. Full of jokes, visual spectacle, crazy ideas, and exotic locations. Definitely one of my favorites. It's interesting to see how closely the writer/artist has copied Baxendale's style. It has the same kind of art, the same kind of characters, the same kind of humor, even the same kind of tiny jokes in the corners of each panel.

But there are several clues that this is not Baxendale. The art is not quite as crazy (the characetrs don't have such thin necks as his style at the time). the layout is not quite as crazy (very formal looking panels here) and above all the dialog is more formal. It's somehow safer and friendlier, more polished and less crazy. It's hard to put into words, but compare this strip with Baxendale's stuff and you'll see what I mean.

I don't envy the creative team. They had to create a whole min-book for of new ideas, and also slavishly follow the style of another person. And I bet they didn't get paid any more than they would have for a regular four page story. But the result is top class, as I'm sure you'll agree.

All comic art copyright IPC magazines (1970s) and Egmont International (today).

Thanks to Irmantas, Muffy, the Hornet, Toonhound, Peter Gray, John Pollock, and Andy & Sharon Laney-Davis for most of the scans. Thanks to Kashgar, Lew Stringer, Bustercomic, philcom55 and SteveZodiac of comicsuk.co.uk for general help and information. And of course thanks to Leo Baxendale and all the writers, artists and editors who created these gems in the first place!