'The Treasury of British Comics Presents: The Tom Paterson Collection' edited by Keith Richardson with reprints by Tom Paterson is a graphic novel tribute collecting comics from one of the most influential cartoonists in British comics.

This collection feels like what Hieronymous Bosch would churn out if he grew up in England being forced Clockwork Orange style to watch Grange Hill and read the Beano. That is to say, it's delightful.

The writing will probably not have anything to offer anyone over the age of 11. The stories and punchlines are usually cliché or just dumb. A lot of the strips are characters I've never heard of.

Doesn't matter.

When Tom Paterson really gets locked into drawing something ugly... Wow.

Look, honestly, there's a lot of variety here. The material spans decades and a ton of different styles and characters. The more monstrous the better in my opinion.

Some of the more grounded strips are a bit pedestrian. Early on, that is. Later in his career it looks like Paterson started squeezing every panel full of character and mad nightmarish grotesques.

Some of these panels have more humour in them than plenty of comics artists squeeze out of their entire career.

As I say, I wasn't even familiar with a lot of these characters. By the mid 90s when I was consuming British kids comics the landscape seemed to have shrunk down to the choice between Dandy and Beano. But how, please I'm genuinely asking, how have I got to my thirties without hearing of Sweeney Toddler??

Remember what I said about the jokes being poor? That's only really the dialogue. The best stuff here is so crammed with visual gags, stink lines and mad marginalia that it is genuinely hilarious.

This book is an absolute riot.

I quite enjoyed this. Paterson's style is very typical of the British school of comedy comics which reminds me of stuff I used to read as a kid and in fact it surprised me how recent the material is. It looks a nice package so if this is your type of stuff then worth looking at.

It took me a while to read this gem of a book. Well, read and explore. This is, as is written on the cover, something from the Treasury of British Comics. And it makes perfect sense. Tom Paterson (for whom I, strangely, never heard of) is really an underground or alternative cartoonist, dropped into commercial world of British comics. And you can see that he insists on recognition, that he rebels trough specific details that enrich those funny but mediocre scripts for comics magazines intended for children. I really like that his signature move is a smelly sock. You see? Rebel! Punk!

I'm surprised that many of "original" characters in this book actually rip-off some American comic strips. So Calvin & Hobbes become Sweeny Toddler and Henry dog, Fiends and Neighbours stand-in for The Addams Family, and Felix the Pussycat is NOT who you think it is. But then again, when characters are original for real, they are really bizzare. Like Watford Gapp King of the Rap bizzare. Not even going to explain it to you. Rap it to yourself while reading.

My favorite comic from this collection is Mega-Belly. Fortunately for me, that previously unpublished one-page panel is added in Extras section. I translated it in Serbian, and laughed my belly off. You will probably find many things you'd like, especially if you're British. This is a nice collection with really fine high-detailed artwork that will keep you entertained for a long time. The collections spans 1970s and 1980s after which Mr. Paterson switched teams and went on to work for another publishing house. The guy works on a comics for one of my all-time favorite characters - Bananaman! (And the weird thing is that I never read one panel of it, just watched a cartoon series.)

So, go, explore new worlds trough Tom Paterson's talent and some ink, and enjoy! I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this lovely book by leaving this one smelly sock here. Titter!

'The Treasury of British Comics Presents: The Tom Paterson Collection' edited by Keith Richardson with reprints by Tom Paterson is a graphic novel tribute collecting comics from one of the most influential cartoonists in British comics.

Collecting comics from the 1970s in to the late 1980s from titles like Buster, Whoopee! and Oink! this is a nice collection of some of the wackiest art I've seen. With characters like Sweeney Toddler and Calamity James. There are superheroes in cat suits, monsters who get foiled and a malicious toddler.

As someone who grew up in the US, I remember hearing about some of these comics, but had no exposure to them. These sugar filled explosions of mayhem are so imaginative and sometimes gross that I couldn't tear my eyes away. I had a lot of fun reading this along with the tributes from some of the writers that worked with Tom Paterson along the way.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Rebellion, 2000 AD, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This is my childhood in a book !
Nostalgia is wonderful in these difficult times. This book brought me (and the husband) great pleasure. We laughed and giggled like children and remembered reading these many years ago. This is a book we will dip into over and over again. It also solved the problem of what to buy friends of a similar age for Christmas. We love this book and will continue to enjoy it !

The name Tom Paterson didn't mean anything to me, but I recognised that style instantly. And then felt very old that someone whose fabulous Calamity James seemed very much part of the new guard when I was reading the Beano should now be at the point where he's getting a loving career retrospective. Jamie Smart's introduction sums up that style perfectly: "Every panel he draws is so crammed with energy, all the grotesque hooting, the squelching rasps and the honking shrieks, the characters squashed and contorted, their faces joyously pummelled from one emotion to the next." It reminds me a little of the 18th century cartoonists, Hogarth or Gillray – but where they were appalled, Paterson draws every gurn and zit with not just a fascination but a gruesome fondness. Starting with work from Buster, this collection sadly omits that Beano material that hit my younger self at just the right time, it being one UK comic whose rights Rebellion have yet to snap up. But there's plenty from its long-gone contemporaries like Shiver & Shake and Whizzer & Chips, right down to also-rans like School Fun, Cor!, and even the unpublished Blerp. Strips include Paterson's own creations alongside work on the likes of Grimly Feendish and Sweeny Toddler, all depicted with the same manic, gruesome energy. Material from the controversial Oink! – a sort of pre-teen Viz – is here too. Not only is it lovely to see this material again, but it leaves me wondering: does this mean the Treasury of British Comics has the rights to Oink! in its entirety? Because between the Frank Sidebottom contributions, and some of the earliest work of Charlie Brooker, there has to be enough of a market to justify some archive editions.

Not everything here has aged well - fashion-conscious superhero Captain Crucial is as dated as his name - but it's amazing how often Paterson trademarks which really shouldn't work, like captions signposting the characters' emotions ("Nervous gulp!", "Sweat!"), or what some horrible item is, which would normally be an admission of defeat in a cartoonist, only serve to make it funnier. Although as with any collection of comics from before collected editions past a Christmas annual were even a notion, it really isn't something that benefits from binging – I took a couple of months over it, and even that felt like more of a rush than really suited material whose overload of details and delighted corniness works best in occasional dipping.

(Netgalley ARC)

Oh man this takes me back to the mid-to-late 1970s when I was a regular reader of Whizzer and Chips, Shiver and Shake, Whoopee and all the other British comics of that era.

A fab collection spanning through the 70s and 80s featuring Tom Paterson strips there are various lampoons of popular shows at the time. No guesses where the inspiration for Jake’s Seven or Strange Hill came from.. And Fiends and Neighbours feels like a mash-up of Bless this a house and Love Thy Neighbour. And Crowjack - the crime-busting, lolly-sucking crow that solves crimes, is Kojak in feathers.

There’s also almost Viz-like strips here but less brutal obviously with the likes of Full o’ Beans (Freddie eats beans and becomes super strong - every week) and Guy Gorilla who, erm, eats a peanut and turns into a gorilla - every week.

Thanks to #NetGalley for this digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Relive your childhood (if you were under 10 in the 70s) with #TheTreasuryofBritishComicsPresentsTheTomPatersonCollection

All good clean, unpolitically correct fun.

A trip down memory lane with (some!) of these pages, from Buster through to Whizzer & Chips with distinctive style and good humour.

The Treasury Of British Comics Presents: the Tom Patterson Collection


Omg, when I was a kid I remember getting the Beano every year for christmas. I'll also admit all these years later I still enjoy getting the Beano at christmas. It's kind of a family tradition which my mother never stopped regardless of my age. When my mum died I thought that was it but my sister took up the mantel.

So when I saw this on netgalley I just knew I had to request it. And I was not disappointed. All the old favourites. Dennis The Menace, Gnasher, Buster and more. Absolutely brilliant.

This is showing the brilliance of the cartoons and all good fun. No violence, no blood just mischief. Yes, it's just good old fashioned fun.

Loved it.

Being from the U.S. I had no idea who Tom Peterson was and chose this simply based on the cover and description. I expected artwork and jokes like I found in the old 70's Mad Magazines.

I was not disappointed. Even when I didn't get the joke because of my unfamiliarity with some British references, I still enjoyed the style of art that reminded me of Robert Crumb style artwork.

I found this collection to be a delight. Funny, irreverent, and no time for Political correct humor. I miss when jokes were funny and no one took offense...another time, another world.

Recommended if you want a laugh or to try something different.
Thanks to @Netgalley and Rebellion for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Such a great collection of comics, it reminds me of getting the Beano annual each year at Christmas. Although old, the stories are timeless and I can quite imagine even the current young generation enjoying these, and parents quite happily buying it for their kids knowing it contains nothing bad, just normal youthful hijinks

Oh my, what a nostalgia fest this is.
Tom Paterson started out in comics like Jackpot and Buster, charting the early adventures of the perpetually hard-up character Buster and would later go on to draw, among others, the Bash Street Kids and the utterly bonkers Calamity James in the “Beano”. Comics like “Whoopee”, “Whizzer and Chips” (my favourite) and “Shiver & Shake” all showcased his talents. All these classic British comics are represented in this bumper volume. Still working in comics, he regularly contributes to Viz.
Each Paterson panel is stuffed with detail, often like an entire strip in their own right, with hilarious slogans pointing out sight gags and his trademark smelly striped sock taking the place of the then frowned upon artist’s signature. Every strip has the usual Paterson madness and lurid Robert Crumb-esque art.
All Paterson strips are funny, irreverent and downright barking. There are too many highlights in this marvellous book to list. A snapshot of freer times, there’s not a lot of political correctness in a Paterson strip, thank goodness, just honest, not entirely innocent and downright weird fun. This book is perfect for collectors or to keep those of a certain age, who remember reading these comics the first time around, entertained for hours.