Review: Smash, Pow, Wham!... It's The Splank Generation

Splank! - Issue 1 (Peter Duncan, 2018) 

So you think that comics like Smash, Crunch and Wallop* are strictly a thing of the past, do you? Well think again, Buster: the onomatopoetically titled humour anthology is back in Action, Nutty as ever, and it's a Cracker!

*Not an actual comic

The Splankety-Splank chequered book history and pen(guin).

The Origins Issue

You may find that the word "splank" itself has several unsavoury meanings such as: a messy ejaculation that did not go as intended, taking a bloody shite, having a spliff and a wank at the same time, and the act of a penis being slammed. However, editor and publisher Peter Duncan assures us that it has actually gone down on record as the sound that is made of someone being hit over the head with a wet plank ...and thank God for that!

There is a rather quaint and amusing little (fictional) backstory to how this comic came about which I feel needs to be told in the creator's own words, so here is the introduction copy & pasted directly from the Splank! website:

An interesting oddity and a perfect example of what may have gone wrong with the Odhams line, Splank! was a short-lived Irish version of Pow! It replaced the main title from issue 32 through to number 34. Someone, probably an Englishman on the Odhams Staff, was concerned that Mike Higgs' Cloak strip, was featuring a villain called "The Leprechaun", something thought not likely to go down well in 1960’s Ireland. 

At the time Irish/ British relations were not great and there had been complaints in the Irish press, mainly in the Sunday World, about the stereotyping of Mick the Marmaliser of Ken Dodd’s Diddymen as a violent, bad-tempered redhead. Indeed Dodd had been forced to cancel a series of shows in Dublin following the controversy, with the IRNPA (Irish Redhead National Provincial Army) threatening his life. 

Pow! was the best-selling comic in the Irish Republic at the time and Odhams were worried that the loss of Irish sales could be critical to the survival of the title. It was felt to be worth re-lettering the Cloak strip to remove what could have been seen as anti-Irish sentiment and retitling the comic to make it more Irish. Splank! was believed by the editors, totally incorrectly as it happens, to be an english version of an Irish word for bog oak. It had been used to denote the sound of “a man being struck over the head with a wet plank” on Irish TV in a sketch on The Late, Late Show parodying the immensely popular Batman TV show. 

The first issue of Splank!, numbered no. 32, went on sale in September 1967 and sank without trace. Careless production led to an early joke cover being used, one which used language not deemed suitable for children. The failure to change the banner from ‘Britain’s’ to ‘Ireland’s Super-Hero Action Comic’ meant that The Sunday World had another front page story. The title lasted only three, very badly distributed, issues before fading into oblivion. 

Copies of Pow! were transported from the North and were much more popular that the ersatz Splank! For a month it overtook butter as the item most often smuggled across the border with Northern Ireland. Not many issues survive and I came across this one in a bundle of old comics at a second hand book shop in west Cork owned by a sailor with a wooden arm. Irish comics fans all know about Splank!, but few are willing to talk about it, there are so few copies in circulation that we want to keep them all for ourselves, but word has got out and this article, published on April 1st, is our way of casting doubt on the reality of the comic. But we know lads, don't we?

You wouldn't think it, but Ninja Monkey is actually deadlier than a silent bottom burp.

The Power (Comics) of Love

As if it wasn't already clear, Splank! is a contemporary comic anthology in the style of the classic Power Comics weeklies that were published by Odhams Press in the late 1960s. It's a personal project that attempts (more than adequately) to envisage how comics such as Smash!, Wham! and Pow! would be presented nowadays, whilst keeping within the traditional brand guidelines that made these publications so popular in the first place.

The production values are considerably higher than the originals, and printed largely in full-colour/greyscale, on thick, semi-glossy magazine paper. There is little chance of this publication turning into brittle, yellowed parchment fifty years from now.

The trademark navy blue line-art has been (mostly) disregarded in favour of a more conventional black ink, although the colour is affectionally referenced in the masthead, alongside the equally familiar red and yellow that were synonymous with the original comics. Readers (and connoisseurs) will also be grateful to learn that the poor colour separations and shoddy offset printing have also not been revisited. However, the front cover does endeavour to reconstruct the sepia colour and noisy texture of the old British weekly. It works rather well in this case, especially if you consider that this design technique is particularly tricky to pull off (and thus generally avoided) in most other contexts.

Ooh-hoo, everybody's talking 'bout the new kid in Spookytown.

P-P-Pick up a Grumpy Penguin

There is a really great, eclectic mix of strips inside the pages of this first issue Enniskillen Comicfest special edition. You're guaranteed something for everyone, and I really feel that a lot of effort has been put into maintaining that distinctly leftfield element that distinguished the Odhams line from other children's comics of the era.

That isn't to say that Splank! should be considered a children's comic... or perhaps it is. I tend to look at it as a something that appeals to the inner child, and should therefore be enjoyed by both youngsters (not too young, mind) and adults alike. Indeed, there is enough fresh air within the inner pages so as to appeal to everyone and anyone, as well as including more than a little something for the nostalgics. Nevertheless, an equal amount of care has also been taken to ensure that anyone who is not already familiar with the Power Comics' humour imprint of the 1960s, will not feel alienated.

I don't intend to go through each story of this anthology, as I fear that to do so would kind of ruin the surprise. Reading Splank! should be experienced as a journey, or an adventure. It's a bit like when you used to pick up one of these new and exciting weeklies for the first time; always wandering what not to expect, as you turned the pages to discover each brand new weird world of wackiness to sink your eyes into.

There is a running gag featured throughout some of the strips starring Peter Duncan's alter-ego, The Grumpy Penguin. The character is referenced in pretty much the same way that many Odhams and D.C. Thomson comics used to present and lampoon their own Editor, and to popular effect. You may also note the return of a couple of long-lost traditions I have always had a penchant for in classic comics: speech bubbles on the front cover, and a story that continues on the back page. Lovely!

The Best Within

To prove that this is anything but an amateur publication, there is very much an all-star cast feel to the list of contributors on this first edition of Splank! There's some excellent work from established artists and writers like Davy Francis, Dave Windlett, Nigel Parkinson, John Farrelly and Peter Duncan himself, as well as some fine stuff from indie press creators such as Marc Jackson, Morgan Eardley, Colin Sinclair, Cat Byrne, Glenn Matchett, Morgan Brinksman, Scott Twells, John Robbins, Alan Nolan, Mal Coney and Andrew Pawley. A mention should also go to the extremely nice work from established colourists Ellie Wright and The Beano's own Nika Nartova, letterer Patrick Brown, and the feature presentations of Michael Carroll. However, the star attraction has to be Mike Higgs and the most welcome return of his iconic strip featuring The Cloak, which is worth the entrance fee alone.

Each and every strip is very different in style and content, and are remarkable in their own way. I personally enjoyed them all and found redeeming features within every single one, as well as that edgy, slightly surreal and offbeat quality that is consistent throughout the entire comic.

Amongst the many highlights, there is also an interesting little piece called Cthulhu Kids which has all the hallmarks of a successful standalone character licence, but my own personal favourites are Dresden Q. Otherside and Walter Wonder, which I feel are two features in particular that really capture the essence of what Pow! was really all about. However, the real standout strip for me is most definitely Mouse, which is like an IT version of Calculator Kid from the pages of Whoopee!, or Vid Kid from later issues of Buster. What really makes it though is the seemingly bizarre randomness of the strip, the slender adult theme and the indisputably dark undercurrent, all presented with the long-lost brio of former strips like The Group or of Leo Baxendale's work for Odhams. Fabulous stuff!

Ethel Dead is a tale of sibling skull-duggery that is sure to get into your head.

The Finished Article

I heartily recommend this comic anthology; it really is something special, and loaded with a wide range of strips from new talent and old hands alike. As far as I am aware, there is nothing else like it around, and possibly hasn't been since perhaps something like Oink! in the mid-1980s.

I really would have loved to have gone through and sang the praises of each and every story, writer and artist, but thought that to do so would spoil the magic. You really do need to pick up a copy and experience this anthology yourselves, as you would have done once upon a time; possibly along with a quarter of Kola Kubes, and of course with a slightly more developed mind...

The editor of Splank! Peter Duncan is also on the lookout for contributions for the next issue. Find out further details here.

You can visit Peter Duncan's Box of Rain Magazine website here, or go directly to the Splank! blog here.

For information on how to get your copy of Splank! now, go here.

Issue 1 of Cthulhu Kids should be out in September, so check out the Kickstarter campaign for more info, here.

All visual content is for demonstrative purposes only and is the property of the respective owners.