Episode 725 - Your fave comics as a kid
Feb 3, 2025
We're chatting about the comics you liked as a little kiddo this week! The topic was inspired by a thread in the DD forums. This is always a fun topic and I always have to mention Asterix because it was so amazing. This week Tantz had to bow out but we have Gunwallace to replace her, and Banes is back! Gunwallace is a fellow Antipodean, that means he and I share many of the same cultural touch stones, particularity the comic Footrot Flats. (Tantz is still on the Patreon only video)
Topics and Show Notes
Footrot Flats is a newspaper comic by the New Zealand creator Murry Ball. It's about a working sheepdog called “Dog” who lives on a farm owned by Wal, a single guy who works hard, drinks beer, and loves rugby. It's a comic that Australians saw as very “Australian” because it played into the mythological rural, working class image that we invented for ourselves, New Zealanders who have a similar history and felt the same, hence the shared popularity of this amazing very classically Kiwi comic from New Zealand.
Footroot flats comics be seen in many great collected works as well as an awesome animated film from the 1980s called “Footrot flats: The Dog's tale”. I fondly remember it for the hit theme song sung by New Zealand singer Dave Dobbin, “Slice of Heaven” which is one of my favourite ever songs. Gunwallace has even designed a cocktail inspired by it. I will list the recipe here and I urge to try it while listening to that song!
Cocktail recipe!
Slice of Heaven
— Dave Dobbyn & Herbs
50 ml Beerenburg jenever herbal gin
20 ml Drambuie
2 dashes bitters
Half-fill an Old Fashioned Glass with ice, pour ingredients into glass.
Add dashes of bitters. Stir gently. Garnish with a slice of orange.
We used : Sonnema Berenburg, Drambuie, Peychaud’s Bitters
-New Zealand Music Cocktails by David Tulloch & Michael
Sutorius
The comics you enjoyed as a kid are determined by what was available to you at the time. For me what I recall most are the newspaper strips like Modesty Blaise, Mandrake the Magician, Wizard of Id, Crock, B.C., Footrot Flats, Hagar the Horrible, Peanuts, Blondie, Denis the Menace (British version), Andy Cap, Torkan,The Far Side, Garfield… The comics I actually bought were the Commando war comics, Scrooge McDuck, Mad Magazine, and The Phantom, which was very popular in British Commonwealth countries. I loved Asterix but would only get those from the library. Looking back a lot of those comics were quite influential on my art style and even my outlook on the world in some cases. My character Pinky has a LOT of modesty Blaise in her look, and I can see that I thought of myself as Torkan!
Which comics did YOU like as a kid, which can you say STILL influence you now?
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Snake in the Office - Chaotic, sexy, rocking, snake charming to layers of groovy electric guitar and a piano tiptoeing around with a charming little tune tying it all together like a fine Persian rug! A sinuous synth clarinet impersonates a snake charming flute while giving us a lovely 1920s feel.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Slice of Heaven, theme song to Footrot Flats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0pWejAnLUQ
Featured comic:
Rebellion the monster inside us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jan/28/featured-comic-rebellion-the-monster-inside-us/
Featured music:
Snake in the Office - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Snake_in_the_office/ - by Athorist, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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