Leo Baxendale (born Joseph Leo Baxendale 27 October 1930 – 23 April 2017) was an English cartoonist, writer, and publisher who reshaped post‑war British children’s comics. Best known for creating and drawing The Beano’s Little Plum, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids (originally When the Bell Rings), and The Three Bears, Baxendale later powered Odhams’ 1960s humor boom with Wham!, Smash!, and strips such as Eagle‑Eye, Junior Spy, Grimly Feendish, and The Swots and the Blots. He went on to make Sweeny Toddler and Clever Dick at IPC/Fleetway, then founded Reaper Books, producing adult‑leaning work including Willy the Kid and THRRP!. In 2013 he entered the British Comic Awards Hall of Fame.
“A lifetime of original, anarchic, hilarious and revolutionary comics.” — British Comic Awards Hall of Fame citation
Infobox: Leo Baxendale
| Born | Joseph Leo Baxendale — 27 October 1930, Whittle‑le‑Woods, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 23 April 2017 (aged 86) — England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupations | Cartoonist, writer, publisher |
| Known for | The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Little Plum, The Three Bears, Grimly Feendish, The Swots and the Blots, Sweeny Toddler |
| Spouse | Peggy |
| Children | 5 (including cartoonist Martin Baxendale) |
| Awards | British Comic Awards Hall of Fame (2013) |
Overview
Baxendale’s pages burst with crowd choreography, slapstick escalation, and visual noise that felt gloriously unruly yet precisely staged. From the mischief of Bash Street to the pop‑surreal villains of Grimly Feendish, his work codified a house style for British humor comics while constantly puncturing authority figures—teachers, prefects, busybodies—with giddy, anti‑pomposity energy.
Early Life & First Steps (to 1952)
Born in Whittle‑le‑Woods, Lancashire, Baxendale was raised in a working‑class family and attended Preston Catholic College, where he showed an early aptitude for drawing and storytelling, often illustrating school magazines. After completing RAF national service, where he was known to sketch fellow servicemen and lampoon military life, he joined the Lancashire Evening Post as an artist. There, he produced adverts, spot cartoons, and occasional illustrated features—honing not only his speed and gag timing but also his ability to cram multiple visual jokes into a single frame—skills that would become a hallmark of his later work in national children’s comics.
DC Thomson / The Beano Years (1952–1962)
- 1952: Begins freelancing for DC Thomson, quickly becoming a mainstay of The Beano.
- Key creations:
- Little Plum
- Minnie the Minx (begun 1953; taken over by Jim Petrie in 1961)
- The Three Bears
- The Bash Street Kids (originally When the Bell Rings)
- 1956: Helps launch The Beezer; also contributes features such as The Banana Bunch.
- Relocates to Dundee to be close to DC Thomson; output balloons across multiple pages per week. By 1962, overwhelmed and exhausted, he left abruptly—later describing the burnout as “blew up like an old boiler.”
Signature of the period: elastic anatomy, mob gags with class clowns, and densely choreographed classroom chaos that influenced British humor comics for decades.
Odhams Press: Wham! and Smash! (1964–1968)
- 1964: Hired by Odhams Press to help set up and design Wham!; 1966: sister title Smash! follows.
- Breakout strips & ideas:
- Eagle‑Eye, Junior Spy — spawned The Man from B.U.N.G.L.E. (a spy‑spoof spinoff) and the villainous breakout Grimly Feendish.
- Georgie’s Germs — bacteriological slapstick with wordplay and wild staging.
- The Tiddlers — a classroom strip that would evolve directly into The Swots and the Blots in Smash! (1966).
- Bad Penny — a mischievous tearaway akin to Minnie, with a refined storytelling focus and a giant penny emblem in the logo.
- Style notes: Baxendale pushed bizarre humour, outrageous puns, and surreal plots—stretching beyond his Beano formulas. Early Smash! entries sometimes featured ghost art (e.g., Mike Lacey) commissioned to match his style, while Baxendale focused on design and new concepts.
- Reported earnings at Odhams were strong (his first year reputedly £8,000), reflecting the commercial bite of his new strips.
The Swots and the Blots (1966–1973): Initially ghosted by Mike Lacey, it hit a new peak when Baxendale took over in 1969. The strip—effectively a retitled continuation of The Tiddlers—became a byword for sophisticated artwork and deliriously daft classroom warfare, continuing into Valiant and Smash with occasional fill‑ins by Les Barton.
Fleetway / IPC: Undercover Work & New Hits (c. 1968–1975)
- Around 1968, Baxendale moved to IPC’s Fleetway Publications for better pay—even as Odhams and Fleetway remained rivals within the Mirror Group.
- To keep income from Odhams while at Fleetway, he sometimes worked “undercover,” pencilling strips (e.g., Bad Penny, Grimly Feendish) that were then inked and sold under collaborator Mike Brown’s name—allowing simplified layouts and rapid turnaround.
- New Fleetway creations:
- Big Chief Pow Wow (Buster, 14 Sep 1968 – 31 Jan 1970; some fill‑ins by others)
- Clever Dick
- Sweeny Toddler — a toddler terror who became a long‑running British humor staple.
Baxendale on working “undercover”: without the expectation to cram panels with extra gags, he could strip pages to their essence—minimal backgrounds, story‑first layouts—showing his range beyond maximalist mischief.
Adult Work, Publishing & Rights (1975–1992)
- 1975: Leaves mainstream children’s comics to create the more adult‑oriented Willy the Kid series (published by Duckworths), foregrounding anarchic longer‑form humor.
- 1980s: A seven‑year legal battle with DC Thomson over rights to his Beano creations concludes with an out‑of‑court settlement.
- Proceeds help him found Reaper Books (late 1980s), publishing his own material including THRRP! (adult comic).
- 1991–1992: Before retiring from cartooning to focus fully on publishing, Baxendale draws I Love You Baby Basil! for The Guardian.
Personal Life & Views
- In the mid‑1960s, Baxendale published an anti‑war weekly newsletter, Strategic Commentary, which provided critical commentary on global conflicts, with a particular focus on the Vietnam War and British foreign policy. The newsletter had paying subscribers—including linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky—and it also reached academics, journalists, and anti‑war campaigners. Baxendale, committed to influencing public debate, mailed hundreds of free copies each week to Labour MPs and other policymakers at his own expense, often accompanying them with personal notes urging action.
- He and his wife Peggy had five children. Their son Martin Baxendale followed in his father’s footsteps as a cartoonist, collaborating on some of Leo’s strips and later developing his own successful career in humor publishing, including producing satirical gift books and workplace cartoons.
Death
Baxendale died of cancer on 23 April 2017, aged 86, at his home surrounded by family. News of his passing was widely reported by the BBC, national newspapers, and comics media. Tributes poured in from across the British comics world and beyond, with fellow artists, editors, and fans celebrating his decades of innovation. Beano writer Andy Fanton called him “the godfather of so much of what we do,” while cartoonist Lew Stringer described him as “a giant of UK humour comics whose influence is woven into the DNA of the medium.” Memorial features and retrospectives soon followed in publications such as The Guardian and The Beano, highlighting both his rebellious creativity and his generosity towards younger cartoonists.
Awards & Recognition
- British Comic Awards — Hall of Fame (2013)
- Citation praised a “lifetime of original, anarchic, hilarious and revolutionary comics” with incalculable influence on children and artists.
- The BBC described him as “one of Britain’s greatest and most influential cartoonists,” and cartoonist Lew Stringer deemed him “quite simply the most influential artist in UK humour comics.”
Notable Creations (Selected)
D.C. Thomson
- The Beano: Little Plum; Minnie the Minx; The Bash Street Kids (When the Bell Rings); The Three Bears
- The Beezer: The Banana Bunch
Odhams Press
- Wham!: Eagle‑Eye, Junior Spy; The Tiddlers (→ combined as The Tiddlers and The Dolls when Pow! merged); General Nitt and His Barmy Army; Georgie’s Germs; Grimly Feendish
- Smash!: Bad Penny; The Swots and the Blots; Sam’s Spook; The Man from B.U.N.G.L.E. (spinoff)
IPC / Fleetway
- Big Chief Pow Wow (Buster); Sweeny Toddler; Clever Dick
Other
- Willy the Kid; THRRP!; I Love You Baby Basil! (for The Guardian)
Timeline (Selected)
- 1930 — Born in Whittle‑le‑Woods, Lancashire
- RAF service — Post‑school national service
- Early 1950s — Artist at Lancashire Evening Post
- 1952 — Joins DC Thomson; creates major Beano strips
- 1956 — Helps launch The Beezer
- 1962 — Leaves DC Thomson (burnout)
- 1964–66 — Leads Wham!; helps launch Smash! at Odhams
- 1966–73 — The Swots and the Blots (peaks from 1969)
- 1968–70 — Big Chief Pow Wow in Buster; new creations at Fleetway
- 1975 — Debuts Willy the Kid (Duckworths)
- 1980s — Legal battle with DC Thomson; founds Reaper Books
- 1991–92 — I Love You Baby Basil! in The Guardian; retires from cartooning
- 2013 — British Comic Awards Hall of Fame
- 2017 — Dies, aged 86
Selected Bibliography
- Baxendale, Leo (1978). A Very Funny Business: 40 Years of Comics. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co.
- Baxendale, Leo (1988). The Encroachment pt.1. Stroud, UK: Reaper Books.
- Baxendale, Leo (1989). On Comedy: The Beano and Ideology. Stroud, UK: Reaper Books.
Frequently Asked Questions
What made Baxendale’s Beano work so influential?
Hyper‑kinetic crowd scenes, rebellious kids, and gag‑dense classrooms forged an enduring blueprint for British humor strips.
Is The Swots and the Blots just The Tiddlers renamed?
Essentially yes: same school, “Teach,” and the Blots—with the Swots added so “Teach” had allies. Baxendale’s 1969 run elevated the art and lunacy.
Why did he leave DC Thomson?
Overwork and burnout; he later sought more creative freedom and better pay at Odhams and Fleetway.
