Hallo Cheeky - Jan 19 1976

From the recently discovered, long-thought-lost early diaries hidden in a suitcase at my Mum's house for forty years, here's a spread from this week in 1976. Nothing much happens in my actual life, which is very much a theme in these things, but boy did I love my telly.

On the Monday I complain about a dentist visit, not because of any pain or discomfort, but because it makes me miss all "ALL" of the kids telly. And I seem rather obsessed by the fact that Tuesday's TV contains no first episodes of new series. An odd child indeed.

The 6 Million Dollar Man illustration shows you the level my drawing had reached by the age of 14. I was a dab hand with the felt tip pens, but had yet to master the realistic portrait. Hopefully I've got that together over the intervening years.

My Records For The Day go from most famous to most obscure quite nicely. I doubt there's anyone who's unfamiliar with Sgt Pepper, but who remembered Jump In My Car by Chris Spedding?

Shoved under the shower - Jan 17 1975

By January of 1975, my Picture Diary has almost given up on trying to tell my life story in comic strip form, but a few examples were still sneaking in. Here we see the dramatic incident of me being forced under a shower at Scouts - I was ever the unfortunate victim of lighthearted bullying it seems - leavened by the fun of me drawing my face in the back of a spoon.

On the right hand page we see Doctor Who among the TV shows that night. And coincidentally, as I type this, it's Tom Baker's 85th birthday. And on Friday night we see Ed Stewpot Stewart presenting Crackerjack. And what photo have I also just found among the piles of stuff at Mum & Dad's house..?

Mum and Dad with Ed Stewpot Stewart, at some event or other, sometime in the 70s.

By Jan 1975 I'd introduced the feature to my diary known as Record For The Day, this pair's treats being The Bay City Rollers' Saturday Night and Stevie Wonder's Boogie On Reggae Woman. I knew good music when I heard it.

Entry No 2: June 25 1974

From the newly discovered treasure trove that is my long-lost teenage diaries (discovered while clearing out Mum's house in January 2019, until now I thought only 3 volumes survived), here are the second and third entries, from June 1974.

The idea was, when I began my diary age 12, that I would turn my life into a comic strip. It wouldn't be long until I discovered my daily routine offered little in the way of visuals, and my diary morphed into a heavily decorated scrapbook of TV shows, music and comic reviews, with a little bit of diary squeezed in.

What a violent time I was having at Kibworth High School. Punched in the face and chucking someone down some steps yesterday, and now having my dinner ticket ripped. The horror.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

Found - All my long lost diaries. Entry No 1: June 24 1974

Clearing out the cupboards and hidden corners of Mum's house I found something that I thought had been lost forever - my missing diaries.

I have had, and been posting pages on this blog, just three volumes of my teenage Picture Diary, volumes 9, 10 and 11 (mid 1976 to late 1977). For years I've assumed they were the only ones to survive the various clear-outs and tidy-ups that have happened in the 40-odd years since I drew them. Now I know better and I couldn't be more pleased.

From the very first skimpy folded-paper diaries, through the hardcover art books, I now have them all. I began on June 24th 1974 and entries dry up in 1978 as I start taking my O levels seriously. A written diary continues into the 1980s, but the full colour fully decorated version lasted a little over four years. As you can see from this first entry, the plan was to do a comic strip of my life. I don't think it took long before I realised there was nothing in my life worth illustrating. Though I must say, Day One proved quite action packed.

Further pages to follow when time allows.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here.