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How did cartoons pair start? It’s a bit sketchy...
The work of irreverant satirical cartoon duo Mick Kidd and Chris Garrett is being celebrated in a new exhibition, writes Dan Carrier
AN illustrator’s holiday gave the creators of Biff, the satirical cartoon, the break they needed with their sideways and intentionally corrupting glance at modern culture.
When Guardian stalwart Posy Simmonds fancied taking a sabbatical, the paper approached Mick Kidd and Chris Garrett, the boys behind Biff, and offered them a temporary contract to fill the gap in the Saturday arts section.
Instead of quitting after six months, they stayed for another 20 years, with Biff building up a loyal following. But despite its popularity, when the paper’s new Berliner format was introduced two years ago, there was no room for the Biff team.
Mick, who lives in Highgate, recalls how the strip started.
“The comic strip began really as a student prank, the outlet for pent-up high jinks,” he said.
The pair were both from Leicestershire, and would eke out their summers by working as waiters and dishwashers in the the Isles of Scilly.
To stave off boredom and cabin fever, the two began to produce an independent magazine, the Scilly Globe.
“We would hawk it round the island pubs and sell a few copies,” Mick recalls.
Their generation (they’re now both in their 60s) had devoured comics, and you can see their influences on the 1950s-style figures who feature in Biff vignettes.
Mick said: “I used to take The Eagle when we were kids, I liked Dan Dare.”
The pair have always conducted a long-distance relationship; Chris settled in Devon and has since moved back to the Scilly Isles, while Mick ended up in north London. In the mid-1970s they brought out Interplanetary News, a Viz-like offering, followed by the International Times Counter Culture Paper.
Their work was recognised and slowly appreciated, and it was a simple formula they stuck to.
Mick said: “We had fun. It was like doing the front covers of Private Eye. We’d find images, recreate them and then put captions into the wrong people’s mouths.”
Loosely following the French comic school of Situationism, they had a field day playing off each other for quirky ideas.
Mick said: “Now I spend a long time trawling old junk shops, old comics, anywhere for images. I’ll write something using them as a basis, then send them off to Chris in the Scilly Isles to add to.”
The finished product is Pop Art with a vicious streak, a sense of caustic humour that people recognise. And nothing is safe from their wit.
“The Guardian’s readership provided particularly good copy,” recalls Mick.
Academia was a good target – film and art critics also were in their sights.
“Academics these days are forced to teach new subjects, they are forced to do PhDs and then teach bullshit,” said Mick.
“Before, they used to just get on with teaching.”
He added: “We looked for jokes about the kind of people who read the Guardian.
“Luckily, people are able to recognise the absurdity of it all and laugh at themselves.”
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