The life story of one of the UK’s most celebrated comedians has been reimagined as a graphic novel.
The 290-page graphic novel Hancock:‘The Lad Himself’ will be published in April 2023, and covers the story in words and pictures of the comedian’s rise to stardom – and subsequent decline – retold from a completely unique perspective.
Created by writer Stephen Walsh and drawn by Keith Page, the anecdotal slightly stream-of-consciousness narrative allows the graphic novel to hop around the timeline of Hancock’s life. ‘The Lad Himself’ even encounters his own ‘character’ at different times and uses the opportunity pass comment and interrupt the narrative!
The Hancock in this book has already demanded a look at the script and caught a glimpse of his fate, proving a little infuriated at how his story is told – as those who know and love his work would fully expect. And he’s not having it, he’s not having it at all.
In the opening section, the novel establishes the gap between Hancock the comedy persona and Hancock the very fallible human being. There is an exploration of the origins of his comedy and the novel follows him through the Second World War and back to London afterwards where, along with just about every other British comedian of the period, he almost starved to death chasing a big break that defiantly refused to arrive.
The novel sees Tony in the company of Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, following him through his lean years to his success as a radio comedian, surrounded by a team of co-stars that included Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques. The reader then observes the transfer of his radio character to television, with Hancock ultimately becoming the nation’s favourite.
For more than a decade nothing seemed to go wrong for him. From 1951 to 1961 he stood at the top of the British comedy profession. Streets and pubs would empty when his programme was on the telly. Everybody loved him.
He was a bright-eyed lover of life and enormous fun to be around. An enthusiast, always pushing forward and exploring ideas, though rarely pursuing them to their end, Hancock’s Half Hour writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, picked up on this tendency – which they shared to a degree – and made it part of Hancock’s comic character.
This was before the darkness set in, when Galton and Simpson had been dispensed with and Hancock had alienated many others. Wives, friends and acquaintances suffered, and sometimes broke, under the strain of Hancock’s self-destructive nature.
Hancock died from a fatal overdose of barbiturates washed down with vodka on 25 June 1968 in Sydney, Australia, where he was attempting to resurrect the glory days of his television career. He was only 44 but his body was ravaged by alcohol. He left a series of increasingly incoherent suicide notes. The last legible note said: “Things seemed to go wrong too many times”.
Despite this, Hancock’s legacy and talent has lived on and, since his early death, there have been numerous works about the man and his life. There have been dramas, re-tellings, performances, re-makes, but there has never been a biographical work presented as a comic book – though his character did feature in his own comics in ‘Film Fun’ in the 50s.
‘The Lad Himself’ is Tony Hancock’s colourful life and career told truthfully but with great originality. The Hancock in this novel is presented warts and all, while still capturing and maintaining the qualities for which he was so loved.
Writer, Stephen Walsh, explains how the ‘voice’ of Hancock came to be so pervasive throughout the novel. “After reading all the books again and watching all the DVDs, scribbling tons of notes and walking up and down a lot, I was surprised one day at the laptop to hear a voice mocking me for even attempting to capture Hancock in something as piffling as whatever it was I was trying and failing to do. I looked around and, no, the ghost of Hancock wasn’t there. But he’d somehow come to life as a ‘character’ in my head. And he wouldn’t shut up.
“So, I wrote down everything he said. The ‘voice’ of Hancock became central to the story that started to emerge. I sent off the first bunch of pages to Keith and he seemed to agree that we were onto something. He quickly ‘staged’ the scenes I’d written and gave me a look at the pages. What astonished and pleased me the most was the ‘performance’ he was managing to get from ‘our’ Hancock.”
B7 Comics (an imprint of B7 Media) is the publisher of the graphic novel due out in April 2023.
Associate Publisher, B7 Comics, Helen Quigley, says: “Tony Hancock’s legacy as a comic performer is still filtering down the generations, refreshing his fan base year on year as he continues to inspire writers and comedians. There are just as many 20 and 30-somethings today who appreciate his work as there were when he was still with us. To be able to tell his story in this new way is both hugely exciting and a great honour.”
The Lad Himself is illustrated by Keith Page and written by Stephen Walsh, published by B7 Comics, edited by John Freeman. ‘The Lad Himself’ graphic novel will be available from GetMyComics/B7 from April 3, 2023 and available now to pre-order from B7Media.com