Ken Reid (18 December 1919 – 2 February 1987) was a British comic artist and writer, best known as the co-creator of Roger the Dodger and Jonah for The Beano and Faceache for Jet (later appeared in Buster).
Biography
Born in Manchester, Reid drew from an early age. At the age of nine he was diagnosed with a tubercular hip and was confined to bed for six months, during which time he drew constantly. He left school at thirteen and won a free scholarship to Salford Art School, but was expelled shortly before graduation after being caught in a local café when he should have been in class. with a break from 1941 to 1946 when Reid was on National Service. Frankie Stein was a goofy take on Frankenstein's monster, about a harmless Frankie living with his mad scientist father, Professor Cube, at Mildew Manor. Frankie doesn't know his own strength and constantly ends up breaking everything. The Professor, meanwhile, is always scheming, and failing, to rid himself of Frankie. Frankie Stein ran in Wham! until the comic's cancellation in 1968.
One of his first strips for Smash!, in 1966, was The Queen of the Seas, a short-lived masterpiece of comic artistry. The two main characters were drawn in the likeness of comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and the strip's humour was based on their movies.
For Pow! in 1967, Reid created Dare-a-Day Davy, a character who could not resist dares set for him by readers. One episode, in which Davy was dared to resurrect Frankenstein's monster, was too gruesome for the editors and eventually saw print in the UK small press magazine Weird Fantasy, published by David Britton, in 1969.)
In 1971 he created Faceache, a boy who could scrunge his face into any shape, for Jet, which later moved to Buster where it continued until Reid's death. Reid revived Frankie Stein in 1973 in Shiver and Shake; the strip was taken over in 1974 by Robert Nixon in Whoopee!, with Frankie ultimately becoming "editor" of Monster Fun.) Through the 1970s and 1980s he created horror-themed strips for a variety of comics, including Creepy Creations for Shiver and Shake, Martha's Monster Make-up for Monster Fun, and Tom Horror's World for Whoopee!. Martha's Monster Make-up was similar to Faceache – about a girl with a mysterious jar of magical cosmetic cream that temporarily transformed someone's face into that of a hideous monster. The strip survived the end of Monster Fun and moved to Buster in 1976.
Reid was named Best Writer and Best Artist by the Society of Strip Illustration in 1978.