Dear
Frazer or possibly Frazier,
Thank you
for your exciting e-mail!
I'd be most
delighted if you ran a feature on Fresco. Feel free to illustrate it with any
of the strips I've sent you. I wasn't sure if it was factual or fictional info
you needed, but here goes with a brief bio:
In the 29th
May, 1971 episode of 'E. C. Ryder', my cartoon strip in the popular popular
music paper 'DISC', the titular hero and his sidekick, Elf Garnett, had been
transported back into the Stone Age. A distant silhouette of a raging
prehistoric monster could be seen thundering towards them. In the following
issue (5th June), the monster was revealed.
At the conclusion of the next chapter, our heroes were frozen in ice,
thus enabling them to return to the present (well, 1971), leaving the nameless
brontosaurus never to be seen again. Or so I thought.
A couple of months later, Gavin Petrie, the reclusive
DISC Editor, said that he thought that the dinosaur had been an interesting
character and suggested that I might bring him back. And so, in the issue dated
26th February, 1972, guess who is discovered in a remote cave? Strangely, the
dinosaur has now shrunk (previously he had been big enough to ride on) and has
lost the ability to talk!
As the years
wore on, the character grew in popularity, despite his catch-phrase of 'Nobody
loves a two-million-year-old dinosaur'.
He acquired the name Fresco-Le-Raye thanks to a reader's entry in a
'Name The Dinosaur' competition and had his own fan club of almost over two
thousand members. Where are they now?
When DISC was taken over by Record Mirror, Fresco-Le-Raye featured
largely in the publicity and even appeared on their logo, letterheads and
T-shirts.
Finally, in 1977, the strip
(latterly titled 'J. Edward Oliver') was suddenly dropped. They told me that,
in the era of punk, my style was no longer appropriate!
For the next twenty years or so, I wrote and drew strips
for Fleetway. When it became apparent that their last surviving title, Buster,
couldn't last much longer, I decided that the time had come for me to return to
my original ambition of producing a daily newspaper strip. In the days of Disc
and Record Mirror, I had resisted making Fresco the lead character, thinking
that this might lead to a lack of variety. However, I now thought that it was
worth a try, given Fresco's proven past popularity.
Sadly, no newspaper showed any interest, so I worked on
various other pilots (with the same result).
I thought no more about Fresco until a former reader, Pete Sanders,
tracked me down and revealed that he had set up a web site in my honour! Then,
in March '03, Pete sent me an e-mail that said 'Don't forget Fresco's
two-million-and-thirty-first birthday on March 10th'.
This inspired me to draw a brand new Fresco strip, which
I e-mailed to everyone in my address book. While working on this cartoon, an
idea for the next one came me, then the next and so on. The bad news is that I
don't get paid for this. The good news is that I'm now e-mailing a weekly
Fresco cartoon to anyone who wants it. Free!
I'd like to be able to tell a national newspaper that the strip is
currently being read by 2,000 people. Only 1,959 to go!
The next chapter in the Fresco saga is up to
you! |
Well, there you go, Fraze. I
hope the above is of some use to you. Feel free to shorten it (free) or let me
know if you need more.
Before I leave,
here are a couple of other points:
I
notice that, in Mark Bennington's interview, he refers to me as 'JED'. This
seems to be spreading, so please can we nip it in the bud? I've never been
known as Jed. What he actually meant was 'JEO' (my initials)!
Next, if you should ever desire it, I could probably
supply you with a complete list of my work for IPC, compiled from my financial
archives!
Next (Part Two), though your
interpretation of my box with a handle on it is ingenious, it is not, in fact,
correct. Nor, sad to say, are your thoughts on 'Abolish Tuesdays'. For someone
so broke, I seem to be amazingly busy, but when I get a moment, I've promised
to send Pete a list of the reasons behind all my 'hidden' items. I'll send you
a copy, too. I've finally worked out the reason for your 'Toon Hound' nom de
web. It's obviously an anagram of 'To Nunhood'. Or maybe even 'Oh, no do-nut!'
Best wishes,
Jack. |
