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scans_daily2010-07-19 11:33 pm
icon_uk) wrote in scans_daily2010-07-19 11:33 pm
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And now for something completely different - Giles
Say the name "Giles" to most Brits over a certain age, and their first reaction will be "The cartoonist?" or more likely "The guy who created Grandma Giles?"
Giles, or to give him his full name Carl Giles, was a cartoonist of the social commentator variety in the UK for over 50 years, most of that time for the Daily Express and Sunday Express newspapers. His style was slightly, almost politely, anarchic and sardonic, and his somewhat Left wing political views were more or less at odds with the decidedly Right Wing Express newspapers.
He developed an enormous fanbase through the country with his seemingly easy-going but always astute observations on society, and his fanbase included people from all classes and all walks of life (The Royal family, regular targets of his work, were enormous fans and asked for the originals of some of his pieces (I like to think of the ones where he's taking the piss out of them, but who knows.)
No class or profession was safe from his observations, and his just-real-enough-to-be-plausible-looks at the British society of the era are still looked upon as benchmarks of their times. His only regular characters were the "Giles Family", but even so, you could easily spot elements of people you knew, or were yourself in not just his main characters, but in the minor background characters who easily crowded into his works
Of course, what's particularly amusing is how LITTLE things change from generation to generation; concerns about security... (The dates under each cartoon are the original publication dates)
Concerns about the laxity of the morals of the young (The news hoardings read - "World report on teenage sex.. WOW!" and "Teenage morals lowest ever")
The timeless problem of farm living...
The joy of General Election campaigns where prospective MP's (Members of Parliament) seek to ingratiate themselves with the hoi polloi, only to find some of the polloi are a bit more hoi than others...
The state of prison conditions
Though of course, some of the issues were were more of there time than others....
But perhaps his finest and most memorable creation was the aforementioned Grandma Giles, THE battleaxe to end all battleaxes. Opinionated, unstoppable, tending towards embarrassing opinions she sees no need to conceal behind anything as pointless as tact, and wielding a handbag in a way that's prohibited under four paragraphs of the Geneva Convention. If in doubt, think of a Sherman Tank wearing a foxfur wrap and you more or less have her to a tee.
Here we see Grandma, with her regular associate, the hypochondriac Aunt Vera, and a couple of the regular group of children that are of, or are friends of the Giles family; Larry (who is not himself a Giles, as banjomike wisely reminded me below) with the hair like a bog-brush), the ever laconic Ernie and the twins (Who are actually grandchildren to the main adult couple.)
I think the family might deserve their own crop of images, and if there's interest after this posting I might see if I can dig some up, including an appearance or two by the man who puts the "old school" into "school", the feared, the terrifying; "Chalkie".
Giles, or to give him his full name Carl Giles, was a cartoonist of the social commentator variety in the UK for over 50 years, most of that time for the Daily Express and Sunday Express newspapers. His style was slightly, almost politely, anarchic and sardonic, and his somewhat Left wing political views were more or less at odds with the decidedly Right Wing Express newspapers.
He developed an enormous fanbase through the country with his seemingly easy-going but always astute observations on society, and his fanbase included people from all classes and all walks of life (The Royal family, regular targets of his work, were enormous fans and asked for the originals of some of his pieces (I like to think of the ones where he's taking the piss out of them, but who knows.)
No class or profession was safe from his observations, and his just-real-enough-to-be-plausible-looks at the British society of the era are still looked upon as benchmarks of their times. His only regular characters were the "Giles Family", but even so, you could easily spot elements of people you knew, or were yourself in not just his main characters, but in the minor background characters who easily crowded into his works
Of course, what's particularly amusing is how LITTLE things change from generation to generation; concerns about security... (The dates under each cartoon are the original publication dates)
Concerns about the laxity of the morals of the young (The news hoardings read - "World report on teenage sex.. WOW!" and "Teenage morals lowest ever")
The timeless problem of farm living...
The joy of General Election campaigns where prospective MP's (Members of Parliament) seek to ingratiate themselves with the hoi polloi, only to find some of the polloi are a bit more hoi than others...
The state of prison conditions
Though of course, some of the issues were were more of there time than others....
But perhaps his finest and most memorable creation was the aforementioned Grandma Giles, THE battleaxe to end all battleaxes. Opinionated, unstoppable, tending towards embarrassing opinions she sees no need to conceal behind anything as pointless as tact, and wielding a handbag in a way that's prohibited under four paragraphs of the Geneva Convention. If in doubt, think of a Sherman Tank wearing a foxfur wrap and you more or less have her to a tee.
Here we see Grandma, with her regular associate, the hypochondriac Aunt Vera, and a couple of the regular group of children that are of, or are friends of the Giles family; Larry (who is not himself a Giles, as banjomike wisely reminded me below) with the hair like a bog-brush), the ever laconic Ernie and the twins (Who are actually grandchildren to the main adult couple.)
I think the family might deserve their own crop of images, and if there's interest after this posting I might see if I can dig some up, including an appearance or two by the man who puts the "old school" into "school", the feared, the terrifying; "Chalkie".
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I love the terror that is Grandma Giles, and the equal but different terror that is Carl Jr., Lenny and their sawed-off crowd, the whole dysfunctional bunch of 'em. Different culture, different politics, and yet there wasn't a single strip I didn't get the joke well enough. Sheer brilliance.
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It was odd that you posted this 'cos I just finished transferring my 50 odd Giles books to some new storage. Weird.
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Also, if someone were to mention Giles to me I would immediately go "From Buffy?" >
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But I dunno, I think Sim's most obscure parody/tribute for anyone, Americans or otherwise, may go to a prominent character lifted from the amazingly-brutal and totally forgotten Jules Feiffer satire, LITTLE MURDERS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imfWlHFEVLY (since I don't think we can embed videos in the comments)
But then again, at least Sim added "with apologies to Jules Feiffer and Lou Jacobi" in the character's appearance. Much more than Grandma got.
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Thanks for the learnin', icon_uk!
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(And the hippies being quite polite, if not too stuck on protocol.)
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* or indeed "Sir"
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I keep thinking that i should post some Perishers sometime.
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I'll have a dig around, see what I can pull together (and work out how you post to Dreamwidth, I haven't posted anything here since the Livejournal days lol :-D)
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http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2153286.html