Bear Alley: Mild Bill Hiccup

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Sunday, December 09, 2012

Mild Bill Hiccup

Our second European reprint following on from yesterday's 'Pooch'. This one looks like it was created as a rival to 'Lucky Luke'. Like 'Pooch', this one ran very briefly in 1966 and probably originated in Spirou or Journal de Tintin.

If anyone can tell me where this originally appeared and who it is by I'd be very grateful.

6 comments:

imil19 Dec 2012, 19:04:00
Hi Steve,
judging by the art I am pretty sure that it is Chiqui de la Fuente (Victors young brother). Not sure if it is from Tintin, since he also worked for Fleetway.
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Anonymous19 Jan 2013, 12:11:00
hi, don't know for sure who is the artist, but I'm pretty sure it's not Chiqui's work. I would rather bet on Paul Deliége.

Would really love to know who didi this strip.

Alberto
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Steve19 Jan 2013, 23:49:00
I have to say I also don't think it's Chiqui, although he was working for Fleetway around that time - but drawing adventure strips. I'll continue to dig around to see if we can confirm who the artist was and whether it was a reprint or an original British strip. My guess has always been that it is a reprint. However, I would be happy to be proven wrong if only to resolve the mystery.
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mct1631 Jul 2013, 23:26:00
I submitted this to a French comics forum. After a few months, a contributor put forward an answer. Curiously enough, he also assumed at first that it was Chiqui de la Fuente's work as well, but then claimed that it is actually an original British strip which appeared in "Lion" in 1966, written by Joe Colquhoun (of "Charley's War" fame) and drawn by Ron "Nobby" Clark. In an interview, Colquhoun is quoted as saying that Clark drew "Hiccup", though he does not mention himself as the writer.
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Steve2 Aug 2013, 10:39:00
Hi mct16,

Unfortunately, the interview doesn't say that he drew the strip. Nobby was a writer and in the same paragraph Joe Colquhoun also mentions "Messy Schmidt", drawn by Juan Rafart. However, we do now know the writer ... and with so many people thinking it was Chiqui, I'm beginning to think that maybe it was and that, like Colquhoun, Chiqui switched to humour when there was a lull in adventure work available in UK comics.
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Unknown3 Sept 2013, 13:58:00
The artist of this pages is Juan Rafart (Raf).
In Spain si a very important artist.
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Sunday, December 09, 2012

Mild Bill Hiccup

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