The Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection by Mike Higgs

This book starts with a short written introduction (three paragraphs) before going straight into the cartoons, each with the tiniest of introductory text themselves, and in this way the cartoons are made to do the talking, which is the way it should be.

First up are 2 serial stories following the escapades of Garth, the space-travelling human, one from 1957 and one from 1969. They are by different artists and have different styles. The first is more of a prim and proper 1950s style whilst in the second one Garth sports longer hair, and takes part in a very sexist, of-the-era story.

Next is 10 pages of Andy Capp cartoons, with a couple of intro paras of course describing his origins. The cartoons evolve from 1-panel to 3-panel affairs. And you get to see why Andy Capp has become so popular as the strips here are simple, yet genuinely funny.

It’s onto longer serial strips again next, this time for Romeo Brown, a ladies-man detective. These are much more light-hearted than the Garth “adventure” style stories from before, with two tales full of fun as Romeo Brown gets into all sorts of scrapes involving a healthy dose of danger and women.

Useless Eustace is next. His intro talks about his “extremely round and extremely bald head” leading me to think of Karl Pilkington. Perhaps Useless Eustace was the Karl Pilkington of his day.

A few pages of Calamity Gulch single-gag cartoons follow, Calamity Gulch being a little Western town, with Cowboys and Indians featuring.

Then to finish is Scorer, a story strip again, about footballer Dave “Scorer” Storry, a scorer on and off the pitch it seems. This particular story sees him have a psycho female fan on the warpath for him, causing him a lot of off-field aggro, whilst also off the pitch he meets his girlfriend Ulrikka for the first time. Meanwhile on the pitch he helps Tolcaster reach his first Euro final. 

So all-in-all a selection of the Mirror’s cartoons over the years that, although a non-Mirror reader, I found enjoyable with good artwork and good fun plentiful.

This book is out of print but is listed on Amazon HERE.