Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: carry on, kev f sutherland

The Carry-On Comic Book Spinoff That Never Was

Cartoonist and publisher Kev F Sutherland writes on social media, "Things that never happened, no 93: Carry On Comic.

Published Sun, 05 Jan 2025 02:57:08 -0600

Kev F Sutherland writes on social media, "Things that never happened, no 93: Carry On Comic. Back in 1992, I was making magazines for Century 22. Mostly pop star poster mags, our most ambitious (& final) project was The Gladiators comic. Before that, this very nearly happened. We were based at Pinewood Studios, and that's where they were making Carry On Columbus. I was part of the Viz-lookalike humour comic scene. And it looked for a while like we might have been able to bring those worlds together and hit the newsstands with an adult comic based on the Carry-On franchise. These sample pieces are drawn by Russ Carvell, the rough layout scribble is by me. It's possibly a good thing that the idea didn't happen cos the film turned out to be sh-t."

: Carry On Columbus by Russ Carvell,

: Carry On Comics by Russ Carvell,

: Carry On Columbus by Kev F Sutherland

Kev F Sutherland is one of my favourite people in comics. Broadcaster, host, stand-up comedian, performer, TV and stage producer, comic con organiser, comic book writer, artist and inker, he has worked on everything from Doctor Strange to The Beano to putting on the first Bristol Comic Cons, creating the stage show and TV show The Sitcom Trials, which featured both an early version of Miranda and, well something of mine as well. He is also the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre and one of the leading comic book classroom educators in the country, travelling the land teaching the joys of comic books to school classrooms. Kev F Sutherland is the renaissance man of comics, in our very midst, and we covered his fourth Shakespeare graphic novel adaptation, Richard The Third, in the style of Dav Pilkey.

Carry On is the biggest British film franchise comprising 31 films, four Christmas TV specials, a television series, radio shows and stage shows produced between 1958 and 1992, starring a regular ensemble that included Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas, and Jim Dale. All films were made at Pinewood Studios near Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire.

As for that Gladiators comic Kev F mentioned, artwork for that is up on eBay right now. "Artwork you never knew you needed for your collection: GLADIATORS COMIC from 1992. Four pages by me, including the unpublished cover from issue 4, are up on that there eBay now. I wrote and drew this comic, having arranged the licensing with LWT and brought them together with Century 22, with whom I'd been doing poster mags. We made enough material for more than four issues, but only two ever hit the nesstands, sold miserably, and had to be pulled because the company was running out of money. Very little was recouped. Comics. It's a sh-t business."