Saturday 20 January 2024

Snow and faded Banda - Jan 19 & 20 1978

My heavily decorated Picture Diary was on its last legs by this stage, January 1978. I was 16 years old, and working towards my O levels that summer. I was also getting more serious about writing and drawing comics, and it was possible that things might actually start happening in my life. Or not, it certainly doesn't make a riveting read yet. Okay, it snowed. That was quite a big deal.

The illustrations have, appropriately, faded too. They were from Banda, the school magazine which I edited and produced most of. It was run off on a Banda machine, which produced a weedy purple ink, with a smell much stronger than its actual permanence. These images have almost gone, haven't they? I should imagine the next time I look at these pages they'll have evaporated forever.

They're from a strip called The Hawk, co-written by me and Steve Noble when I'd visited him in Bristol over the Christmas and New Year period, and drawn by me through the novel method of pressing hard with a biro so you could make an impression on a carbon/purple copy sheet below. The type had to be hammered through, on a manual typewriter, on the same carbon paper sheet, with no scope for error.

Try and tell the kids today the effort we had to go to to see something in print, and they won't believe you.

My Record For The Day was new at the time, though it's hard to imagine that ever being the case.
 


My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon Etsy 
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Amazon

Richard The Third Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons
The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon Webtoons
Captain Clevedon - Amazon
Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

Friday 19 January 2024

6 Million Dollar Man & er that's it - Jan 19 & 20 1976

My, someone had a whole load of nothing much going on in his life when he was 14 years old. January 1976 and you'd be hard pressed to find a less interesting couple of days of diary. A nifty, if lop sided, attempt at drawing The Six Million Dollar Man by me, and it looks like Fawlty Towers was being given a re-run which would mean me seeing it for the first time.

My Records For The Day were the long-forgotten follow up to Motorbiking by Chris Spedding (who must have been meeting the Sex Pistols for the first time about now), and Sgt Pepper, which I think I had recently bought with my Christmas money.

 




My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon Etsy 
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Amazon

Richard The Third Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons
The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon Webtoons
Captain Clevedon - Amazon
Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Me In A Spoon & Under A Shower - Jan 17 & 18 1975


Excitement of excitement, something actually happens in this diary, and I even try and draw it. This is from the early days of what I called my Picture Diary, when I honestly thought I was going to make a comic strip of my life. Sadly this was as eventful as it ever got: me being pushed under a shower fully clad at Scouts, then having to walk home, and me drawing myself in the back of a spoon.

My fascination with what I was watching on TV was clearly worth spending more time over, with episode four of Doctor Who in Robot getting the full treatment, along with cameos from Jennie Hanely, Ed Stewpot Stewart, and Black Beauty. And, for no obvious reason, The Lone Ranger.

My Records For The Day were a couple of classics from Stevie Wonder and the Bay City Rollers.




My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon Etsy 
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Amazon

Richard The Third Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons
The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon Webtoons
Captain Clevedon - Amazon
Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

Wednesday 16 August 2023

Death of Elvis - 16th August 1977

Here we have the day Elvis Presley died. A commemorative spread, and why not. We were on holiday in Montrose at the time, and my enduring memory is that, when I broke the news to Uncle Bill about Elvis he confessed he'd never been that big of a fan. I remember thinking that was a sacreligious thing to say, though in truth I wasn't that much of a fan either. It was my generation's Princess Di moment, and 15 year old me was happily swept up in it. Though I see that, by the following day, I've moved on from listing Elvis records in the RFTD slot and featured David Soul and Harry Chapin instead (let's face it, Harry Chapin knocks spots off Elvis).



Because there's been interest in using some of my childhood diary spreads in a BBC TV show called the Peoples History Of Pop - my Records For The Day caught the eye of a researcher - I've dug a few more out and put them up here on the My 1970s Diary. (I kept the Picture Diary from 1974 to 1978 but to date have only found a couple of volumes from 1977).

UPDATE: August 2022. I'm running the Kickstarter for my new Shakespearian graphic Novel, Richard The Third, and I'd love your support. Check it out here! 



Saturday 26 December 2020

Frank Ifield in Panto - Dec 26 & 27 1974

As I post this at the end of 2020, it serves as a cruel reminder of what we're missing this year. Namely the Christmas panto. In 1974 we were treated to Jack And The Beanstalk starring comedian Ken Goodwin and yodelling Australian Frank Ifield. What I thought of it goes unrecorded here, my only note being an apology that I'd had to use an orange pen to colour his face in. A career as a theatre reviewer was definitely lower on my list than a career as a designer who colours things badly then finds excuses for it.

Some legendary TV on at the time, including On The Town (which we watched only a couple of weeks ago), MASH (which the Socks did a song about only last month) and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (about which I was reminiscing very recently). And this must, I assume, be the first time I'd seen Help! It was definitely the first time, and possibly the last, I tried drawing The Beatles.





Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here


The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre will be touring near you sometime. Catch up with them on Facebook for the latest. 

The Christmas Dayth - Dec 25 1974


The first Christmas captured by my Picture Diary (which began life towards the end of term in June 1974) concentrates on illustrating the goodies I've received. Which include the legendary Goodies Files, a book that crops up regularly in second hand bookshops at pocket money prices. Does no-one realise the sheer quality of that book? With its cutout pages, overlaps and folds, and of course top notch comedy writing and pictures it is rivalled only by another pressie I got that year, The Brand New Monty Python Papperbok.

I had in fact been bought the Papperbox the previous Christmas (well, the hardback Bok version) by Mum who then took a lot through it and decided I was too young for it. She wasn't wrong. There are gags in this book that I wasn't going to understand for a few years yet. 

That trouser belt was one I treasured and wore for the next five years, into my student days. It may still exist somewhere, it was a solid piece of brass was that buckle. That Giles book may well have been the foundation stone of my collection, which now included all but half a dozen very early books. To be honest, some could use replacing with less tatty versions. I wonder if I'll remember that in time for next year's Christmas presents?



Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here


The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre will be touring near you sometime. Catch up with them on Facebook for the latest. 

Friday 25 December 2020

"Post Christmas Ghost Town" - Dec 26 & 27 1975

Market Harborough was, according to my diary on December 27th 1975, a "post-Christmas ghost town". Boy did I have no idea what the whole country would look like 45 years later (I'm writing this at the end of 2020, where ghost towns have been a familiar sight for a few months now).

The rest of post-Christmas 1975 looks much like it does today. Somewhere they'll be showing The Railway Children, Tom Thumb, and Dad's Army, and folks will be reminiscing about the time they saw Genesis Of The Daleks. In my case, it was at the bottom of page right.






Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here


The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre will be touring near you sometime. Catch up with them on Facebook for the latest.