Monday 19 January 2009

Reg Parlett's Great Buster comic work


Reprinted in Cor!! 9th Jan 1971 From Buster in the 60's. Note the advert for an exhibition on comics from Comic Cuts to Cor!!..love to have gone...anyone go to this?


Benny Hill comic page reprint from Radio Fun...1968 Buster. For all you American fans to see.:))

1966 Buster.


1978 Buster.


1968 Buster.
There's a Wikipedia page on Freddie Davies which seems accurate.

He was especially popular as a children's TV personality around 1974 when he'd guest on The Sooty Show and had his own BBC children's series 'The Small World of Samuel Tweet,' set in a pet shop.

I suppose he must have been popular with kids around 1968 when the Buster strip started, too, probably mainly appearing as a guest on variety shows back then.

It was nice to see him in the 1995 film Funny Bones.

thanks for pointing me in the right direction Raven.


Freddie 'Parrot-Face' Davies' appeal as an entertainer seems quite incomprehensible now. With his signature look of a oversize bowler hat squahed down over his ears and virtually hiding his eyes and his lisping verbal delivery I think he is one of those comedians that comes under the category of 'you had to be there'.
His strip in Buster was new by the way, not a reprint.
Benny Hill was indeed a reprint from Radio Fun.
Whacko, starring handle-bar moustachioed Jimmy Edwards, came to Buster via Radio Fun where it had been drawn by Bertie Brown, the last strip the great artist ever drew, and James Malcolm. James Malcolm continued to draw it in Buster until Reg Parlett reprints replaced him with strips that had originally appeared in the pages of TV Fun where Jimmy Edwards had starred in yet another, very similar, school based strip.

Thanks Kashgar.









Reprint from Eagle. 1968 Buster.
http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/pongo.html



1966 Buster.


1966 Buster.
http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/whacko.html



Two top Reg strips merge into a double act. Early 70's Buster.
http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/samsun.html

Reprint from Film Fun seen in Buster 1972.
http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/dimdan.html

http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/rtoz.html
look under the name Reg Parlett to see all the comic work he did for Buster.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Freddie Davies is alive and well and still touring. His autobiography, Funny Bones: My Life in Comedy will be published by Scratching Shed this summer (2014) to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of his appearance on Opportunity Knocks. Funny Bones the movie was inspired by stories of his grandfather, comedian Jack Herbert, who also features in the book. You can read the blurb on Freddie's official website here: http://www.freddiedavies.com/websitebook.pdf

Anonymous said...

Freddie Davies's autobiography is now available: http://www.scratchingshedpublishing.com/products-page/autobiography/funny-bones-my-life-in-comedy/

An interesting detail about Reg Parlett's comic strip portrayal of Freddie: he met Freddie during a rehearsal when he was wearing a polo neck, and this was immortalised in the subsequent comic strip, even though it wasn't part of his regular stage wear. There is a blog about the book here: http://funnybonesthebook.blogspot.co.uk/