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If it hadn't been for Beryl the Peril...
SHE was the devilish school girl who tormented her parents and teachers with a constant stream of mischief and mayhem.
He was the quiet youngster who lost himself in comic books to escape a tough Christian school where the official motto was "We will instil a fear of God into your child".
But while Beryl the Peril, the fictional Topper cover star known as the female Dennis the Menace, and Tim Quinn, the Liverpool lad who became obsessed with comic books before he could even read, might not appear to have much in common, their lives have been largely intertwined.
Both were born within weeks of each other in 1953.
He would spend much of his childhood reading and re-reading her adventures, admiring how she ran amok.
And eventually it was a Beryl the Peril comic strip, found by chance as Mr Quinn took a break while working at Leeds City Varieties aged only 19, which would inspire him to start writing and drawing his own work.
From there he went on to work for the likes of The Beano, The Dandy, Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk.
Oh, and perhaps inevitably, Beryl The Peril. "Comic books have been my life," says the 56-year-old, who left school with no qualifications.
"I loved them before I could read, just looking at the pictures of my brother's old magazines, they transported you to a world that seemed brighter and funnier and more colourful.
"And Beryl was always a bit special, she was such a terror.
I loved her and I suppose it's Beryl who inspired me to draw.
"While I was working as a gofer backstage at the Varieties club, I saw this comic and it transported me back to my childhood and I just thought 'I could do that'."
And so he did, submitting work to several comics, which was accepted with increasing regularity before he eventually got a full-time job with The Beano.
This week Mr Quinn – who was named after his mother's favourite cartoon character, Rainbow's Tim the Tiger – will give a talk in Halifax celebrating both the history of comics and his own life working on the world's biggest titles.
The evening, part of the July Project children's festival, will be the second time Mr Quinn has been to the town – and it promises to be an evening of hilarity and nostalgia.
Mr Quinn, who is based in Shropshire, will look at everything from the Victorian obsession with penny dreadfuls (staple character: Varney the Vampire) to the time when, as editor of Spider-Man while living in New York, he was forced to pull a front cover because it was too risque.
The audience will be transported from cave drawings – the first comics, says Mr Quinn – to how to draw Wilfred from the Bash Street Kids and why he and Brian May got together to create a comic book with no pictures.
Mr Quinn said: "Comic books have helped to give me such a great life and I just enjoy sharing that with people. I'm looking forward to being back in Halifax."
ARGH! The Ups and Downs of Life as a Comic Book Creator takes place at the Square Chapel on Saturday 7.30pm. Tickets 7, concessions and Under 20s 5.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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