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Leo Baxendale, Creator Of The Bash Street Kids, Dies At 86
Leo Baxendale, creator of the classic Beano strips Little Plum, Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids passed away on 23rd April, aged 86.
An incredibly influential cartoonist in Britain, his work is known and loved by many generations, as well as inspiring an anarchic spirit in children that is seen by some as the origins of the British punk scene a decade and a half later.
He was deservedly awarded a Lifetime Achievement British Comic Award in 2o13, but to so many adults and children alike, it was far more than his lifetime that was his achievement.
He could also fight as hard as his own characters, and his legal skirmish with the Beano in the eighties over the rights to his characters was settled in return for credit and the limited return of some of his original artwork. His work away from the Beano also brought us the likes of Sweeny Toddler and Grimly Feendish, his tastes became more macabre.
He was also a political activist, and produced the activist newsletter the Strategic Commentary, campaigning against the Vietnam war. His first paid subscriber was Noam Chomsky.
Forty years after his best-known work for children, he created a kids strip for adults in 1990, I Love You Baby Basil for the Guardian newspaper, as well as publishing his own adult comic, THHRP!
The Guardian newspaper remembers him here.
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