PART TWO OF THE BAXENDALE LETTERS...

Way back in the mid-1980s, I wrote to comics legend LEO BAXENDALE (c/o of GERALD DUCKWORTH publishers) and offered to letter any strips he was doing  for free.  (Not that there was anything wrong with his own lettering, but I thought it might save him some time.)  I never heard anything back and it's likely that Duckworth's never forwarded my letter in the first place.  However, in January of 1992, I had occasion to get in touch with him again and happened to enquire if he'd ever received my letter from a few years before.

I got a nice handwritten 9 page response, which is rather amazing when you think about it.  What other comics legend back then would have gone to all the time and trouble to do that?  Very few, I'd wager.  Because Leo's letter offers some interesting insights into what he was doing at the time, I thought all you crazy Criv-ites might like to read it, so here it is in all its unexpurgated glory.  Leo's handwriting is a bit hard to decipher in places, so I've provided a transcript  to make reading easier.

Incidentally, when Leo says that the WILLY The KID Annuals sold around 80,000 per book, he's referring only to the first two; the third only had a print run of 10,000 and, as a result, is difficult to find and is much sought-after.  Have you got one?  I've got all three, so yah-boo to you!

******

Incidentally, A.V.F.B. refers to the title of Leo's 1978 autobiography, A VERY FUNNY BUSINESS.  (Duckworth.)

TRANSCRIPT:

      Eastcombe.  Saturday 7th. March '92

      Dear Gordon,

      Many thanks for your letter of 14th January, and I hope you won't mind

      that my reply is belated.  (I've had a lot on in recent times)

      I can't remember whether Duckworths ever forwarded your letter to me,

      but it's 14 years since A.V.F.B. was published, & a lot's gone on since then...

      Immediately after A.V.F.B. and the third Willy the Kid Book were published

      in the Autumn of 1978, Duckworths decided not to continue with any more

      (though sales of the Willy Books were respectable @ circa 80,000 each, being

      low-priced hardback annuals didn't make them v. profitable, & Duckworths

      are mainly (smallish) academic publishers, so they fell back exhausted.)

      At exactly that point (Autumn 1978) I was approached by the Managing

      Editor of the Dutch Magazine 'Eppo' to write and draw Willy the Kid strips

      for him, which I did for the next 18 months.

      The lettering on these (being of course in Dutch) was translated and

      lettered in Haarlem, not far from Amsterdam.

      Then I began a High Court action over the rights in my creations for The

      Beano (Bash Street, Minnie the Minx etc), and this action in Chancery

      lasted for 7 years, from May 1980 - May 1987.  There was a pre-trial

      settlement in May 1987.

      Naturally, I did no drawing in those years, as the legal work took all my

      energies.)

      I had decided to stop drawing after that, & in fact didn't do any for 2 3/4

      years, until I happened to call in The Guardian for a drink with Richard

      Boston, & the editor asked me to create a weekly strip, which I did -

      "I Love You Baby Basil!".

      After two years on this strip, I've just decided to have a break from weekly

      production (the last Basil appeared in today's Guardian) & give my eyes a

      rest.

      In 1987 I set up my own imprint, Reaper (as in Grim Reaper) Books.  So

      far I've published 3 books (all written by me)...well, it's a step up from

      Samizdat, & is fun.

      The first (1988) was 'The Encroachment', an A4 paperback about power

      & ideology in history, & part autobiography.

      The second (1989) was "On Comedy;  The Beano and Ideology" - an A4

      paperback, a racy account of my 9 years for The Beano, but dealing in

      much greater depth than in A.V.F.B., with what was "going on" in the

      drawings, and in my head while I was creating and drawing them.

      The third book, published last year, was a v. swish hardback, "I Love

      You Baby Basil!" (The Collected Strip Cartoons from The Guardian

      March 1990 - March 1991) and with a 5,000 word Prologue which

      deals with the history of the previous ten years (I encase* everything in

      history nowadays.)

      Again, many thanks for writing, Gordon, and my best wishes for the

      future with your work.

      With kind regards,

      Leo Baxendale.

(*That's my best guess - I can't make out the word at all.)