Long
before Pingu (1986), there was Super Scoop. At the outset, he didn’t have a
name. He was just a drawing of a penguin, along with a sketch of sheep (!) that
Jen put on her letters while we were courting. After a while, I started drawing
the penguin in different situations, slipping on ice, swimming, birthday cards
etc. Slowly, it dawned on us that this character had the potential for a
children’s story, so Jen began writing the adventures. In the second episode,
the penguin gets his name, and thus Super Scoop was born. Six adventures were
written, and I illustrated in colour a few scenes from each episode. We tried
getting children’s publishers interested, but the response was less than
enthusiastic, one actually citing Watership Down, stating that anthropomorphic
animals don’t sell! I approached Penguin Biscuits and the makers of a super
scoop ice cream, and sent off the drawings – fortunately, I’d made black and
white photocopies because the drawings mysteriously got ‘lost’…
B&W copy of one of several lost illos
Then
we were married and shortly afterwards I was drafted to Malta, taking Jen with
me for a two-year tour. I worked in the
cash office of RN Hospital Mtarfa, just across the valley from Rabat. (The
island inspired me to write a vampire novel set there, though its gestation
took several years thereafter!)
Super
Scoop’s first adventures were read over the BFBS Malta radio by Jen in 1975.
On
our return to UK, we intermittently attempted to evoke interest in the
character, but had no success. I wanted to establish some kind of publishing
history for Super Scoop, as I thought he was quite a unique creation. I was
serving in Faslane, Scotland, and edited the establishment magazine, so I wrote
and drew the Super Scoop adventures as a black and white comic. It seemed well
received by the families stationed there…
Faslane comic...
Leapfrog
forward to 2003 and Super Scoop appeared this time in a full colour comic strip
in the monthly magazine, the Portsmouth Post.
Beginning again - in colour...
He featured every month
thereafter until that magazine’s demise in 2007. His adventures involved
dinosaurs emerging from icebergs, an attack of leopard seals, encountering
humans (scientists), shipwrecked polar bears, a friendly arctic tern, a
long-lost relative, a journey to the centre of the earth, and fun with pals and
even snowflakes. The strip is laced with humour, too.
Since
then I’ve approached some children’s publishers and their interest is
astoundingly non-existent. I say ‘astoundingly’ because I’ve shown and read the
Portsmouth Post comics to our five-year-old grandson and he not only remembers
the stories in great detail, but asks for them again and again – despite being
strongly attracted to Angry Birds and Batman online games (under supervision!)
His response is everything we hoped it would be – but clearly Jen and I are in
a minority and publishers know best!
So
I’m now thinking that rather than let these adventures gather dust in a drawer
or sit unloved on a computer disc, I’ll self-publish, even if it means the
illustrations won’t be in colour.
Watch
this space.
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