Ken Reid

Fan mail-
Hello, I am the current partner of Ken Reid’s Granddaughter, Sarah, who is the daughter of Ken Reid’s son, Anthony. Anthony has a large amount of original prints of the comic sketches, ranging from Ali Ha Ha to Roger the Dodger, and I have to say I think they are amazing. It is only now I realise how much talent this man had, when you compare his originals to the ghost sketched ones. The difference in quality is obvious. Your site is a great memory to the man. Regards,
Lee

Hi Peter Simply WONDERFUL to see your site. I was rummaging through stuff in my attic today and came across my collection of 'Faceaches' (I only kept those - not the whole comic). I am very proud of my original Ken Reid drawing. It came about when Faceache was dropped from Buster for a while and I, as a snotty, pompus teenager, took issue with IPC magazines. Not long after, I received an invitation to the Buster offices AND, not long after that, a lovely long letter from Ken along with a Faceache drawing signed "To my friend Chris Marsh, from Ken Reid". We kept in touch for a few years. Anyway, nice site. I now plan to go and look at it in more detail. Chris Marsh
Wow what a great story Chris..... maybe you got Kens job back.... Thanks for your kind comments......Peter

Hi Peter Congratulations on your superb Ken Reid website which I have just discovered! I have been a fan of the artist for many years (over 25 in fact!) and have a small collection of Buster Comics. Faceache is my favourite! And the WWWeirdies cartoons are brilliant too! I only wish that there was a book published containing much of Ken Reid's cartoons. It's nice to see the scans of his artwork on the internet but it would be even better to get hard copies of his cartoons. I photocopied many of the Faceache comic strips and put them in a folder which I read a lot!
I am also an artist, and I have a website which is at
www.alphalink.com.au/~martinh
Once again, you have a fantastic website and keep up the good work! Kind regards,
Martin Harris (Melbourne, Australia) Thanks Martin......Peter

Ever since I was a spotty kid I’ve been fascinated and inspired by the genius of Ken Reid. Through boarding school, Jonah, Ali Ha-Ha and Faceache appeared from nowhere on the pages of my schoolbooks and got me into loadsa trouble! Thanks to people like Ken Reid, I now earn a decent living as an illustrator and cartoonist. Well done Peter. Francis Kaye (Ireland) http://homepage.eircom.net/~athenryart/westside.htm

Thanks for that site, I have only seen a fraction of his work (some of Faceache that is) but love the cartoons and the stories. The good thing for me is that there is so much yet to see, althrough New Zealand is not the easiest place to see it - which is why there is a big thanks to this site. Daniel

First Name : Paul email : couvela@yahoo.co.uk
Seeing Ken Reids comic work again after thirty years is like discovering a secret room in my subconscious which I never suspected was there. Id forgotten all about Faceache and those creepily fascinating wanted posters! Ive been inspired to buy back on eBay all the old Shiver and Shake and Cor!! annuals I had as a kid. Even at seven years old, I knew there was some intangible quality that set Ken Reids work apart from all the rest - but I never even learned his name until I found this site! I hope it will thrive and expand into a comprehensive archive of Kens work.

Ken Reid
1919-1987
He was born 18th Dec 1919 in Manchester.
He started cartoon work with The adventures of Fudge the elf 7th April 1938 for The Manchester Evening News.
After war continued with Fudge up to 1961. He did work for Comic cuts before 1953 for the characters Foxy and Super Sam..(Anyone has a example of this please email me and send by JPEG and I'll add to site!)
When Comic Cuts folded..He then did work for DC Thomson in 1953 with Roger the Dodger followed by Grandpa...Jonah..Bing Bang Benny etc..
Jonah had scripts written by Walter Fearne and Reid...Jonah created soon to be Beano editor George Mooney.
Ken Reid encouraged by Leo Baxendale moved to a new comic by I.P.C Wham in 1964 with characters like Frankie Stein. Cosser/Alf Wallace was the Managing editor of Wham. With work in Wham...Pow...Smash..then in Scorcher..Score...he then in 1971 drew the super Faceache for short lived Jet which merged with Buster. He did many other characters and super horror posters for Monster Fun..Shiver and Shake...Whoopee!!..Cor!!...etc.. ..Ken worked on Faceache all the way to his last in 1987. Being the last character he was doing. Alan Clark and others later did the scripts...Ken used to write these himself.
This information is taken from the Alan Clark book.

A special thanks to Paul MCScotty this website is for you.. without your scans and encouragement would not have happened...and I'm so glad it did...I've really got a new appreacation of a super talented artist ..Ken Reid.
Thanks Paul!







Hi, I've just started to search for an issue of Whoopee from either 1974/75 (probably 75) with my world wide weirdies winning entry in when I came across your website through a google search. My winning entry was 'The Silly Isles' and I was shocked, surprised but very happy to see the picture on your pages, complete with my name! The picture I sent in bore no resemblance to the picture that Ken Reid drew at all. Mine was of an island that had ridiculous things like gold bars and toothpaste growing on the trees, so I was a little annoyed that they changed my drawing but also pleased that my idea had been picked. I do have the picture itself as I used to cut them out, stick them on card and blu-tack them to my bedroom wall but sadly I no longer have the comic that it was in. I would love to know which issue it appeared in so I can continue with my quest to find the complete comic. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Wayne Rogers (from Derby)........can someone help.....I can't find it .Peter.....
Thanks to Chris Marsh for sharing this letter and drawing he recieved from Ken Reid. Funny enough my Birthday is the 20th December has well......see the letter...









http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Interviews/KenReid/KenReidOverview.asp