Thursday, January 31, 2008

Ken Houghton

My last day at Look and Learn (*sniff*), so I thought I'd try to post something apt. And this is it, the last comic strip to appear in Look and Learn magazine back in 1981. Actually, this is the first episode of the last serial and it appeared in issue 1003 (30 May 1981); Look and Learn continued to appear for almost another year, coming to an end with issue 1049 (17 April 1982).

The artist for 'Lorna Doone' was Ken Houghton about whom I know very little. This was his only strip work in Look and Learn and I've not seen much else by him apart from an episode of 'Rat Pack' in Battle Picture Weekly and some complete stories in Tammy, both in the mid- to late-1970s. The earliest work of his I've stumbled upon is the advert below which dates from 1972.

Although he shares his surname with another comic strip artist, Stanley Houghton, they were apparently unrelated. It is thought that Ken Houghton died some time in the 1980s.
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4 comments:

  1. Dave Gibbons31 Jan 2008, 10:38:00

    I believe Sean Philips knew Ken well and worked as his assistant at one time.

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  2. Sean Phillips19 Feb 2008, 15:34:00

    I did indeed know Ken. I met him when I was 13 and was ghost pencilling for him on stories for DC Thomson from when I was 15. He taught me there was more to comics than superheroes and barbarians, and really helped me a lot. I remember him drawing that Lorna Doone strip at the time. He did a lot of work from I think the mid '60's onwards for IPC and DC Thomson but sadly died in the late '80's. There's a few examples of his inks over my pencils over on my blog...

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  3. Anonymous13 Aug 2010, 08:39:00

    I am ken's granddaughter I never met him and I got my artistic skills from him, I haven't got any of his artwork and would really love at least one piece but i dont have any i'm only 13 and i really dont know much about him as he died before i was born, my dad only has one piece of art work of his and it means alot, but if you have any pieces of his work i would love to see it (: Thanks, Issie

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  4. Steve13 Aug 2010, 09:52:00

    Hi Issie,

    Thanks for commenting. Maybe your dad could get in touch (at the address below the photo, top left) as it would be interesting to know more about Ken.

    I've not heard of any original artwork for sale but I will ask around and may have some news when your dad gets in touch.

    Best wishes.

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