26 Feb
2011

Posted in: Blog, Pictures, Words
By Fanton    7 Comments

Hip, Hippo Hooray!

IF YOU picked up the latest issue of The Dandy (£2.50 from all good stockists) you’ll have seen the teaser for my new strip which starts next week – Harry and his Hippo!

Harry and his Hippo is my first attempt at working on a pre-existing Dandy character,  which is both EXCITING and TERRIFYING. But having seen Desperate Dan so brilliantly reworked by Jamie Smart, along with Phil Corbett’s excellent take on Korky the Cat and Wayne Thompson’s brilliant Bananaman, I really wanted to dip into The Dandy’s rich, seventy-three year history and have a go at bringing back one of my personal favourite strips – Harry and his Hippo.

A panel from the classic Harry and his Hippo.

For the uninitiated, Harry and his Hippo was a popular strip that ran in the Dandy back in the early to mid eighties, when it was drawn by the legend that is Ken Harrison (currently weaving his magic on Minnie the Minx for The Beano). The strip ran for a good few years, and was even the subject of the fourth ever Dandy comic library, showing how well-liked it was.

I loved it as a kid, just because it was such a barmy idea – a boy (Harry) owns a hippo as a pet. A HIPPO. Cue lots of madness and mayhem that comes with having a giant, water-dwelling creature in your life. What’s not to like?

So when I was contemplating a new comic idea for The Dandy, I decided I’d like to resurrect this strip, because quite frankly wanted to see some MORE.

I’ve not veered too wildly off of the classic template, Harry’s hair’s a little different, Hippo is now purple (I like purple) but aside from that Hippo still eats too much, breaks lots of stuff and winds up getting Harry in (and sometimes out!) of trouble.

I hope you’ll all enjoy it when it begins next week, and don’t think I’ve ruined a classic comic, which is always a danger when reworking such a character – hence the aforementioned NERVOUSNESS.

The strip comes as part of The Dandy’s new ‘Strictly Come Laughing’ contest, which sees four characters pitted against one another to see who’ll go on to get a full series. Alongside Harry comes Steve Beckett’s awesome-looking Daredevil Dad, Phil’s Finger by Chris McGhie and Tag Team Tastic by Warwick Johnson Cadwell and Robin Etherington. Hop on over to The Dandy’s Facebook page to see previews of each of the contenders!

Frankly, I think that they all look like great strips, and in an ideal world we’d ALL win.

That being said, only one of us can win so FORGET THOSE STINKY GUYS AND VOTE FOR ME!

- Fanton.