The Gambols Book: No. 38 (Gambols Cartoon Annual)

Product Information

The two central characters are George and Gaye Gambol, a happily married, suburban, middle class couple. George is the main breadwinner working as a salesman while Gaye is primarily a housewife, but she does occasionally take on part-time office jobs. The stories revolve around the Gambols’ everyday life, in particular Gaye’s passion for shopping and George’s attempts at home improvements. The couple is childless but, at least once a year, they have their non-sibling nephew and niece: Flivver and Miggy, stay with them. In the following years Roger compiled, laid out and drew The Gambols annuals numbers 46-48, published from 1997 to 1999. Most of the Gambols strips were three or four panels long, however the Sunday Express published longer strips. Some of these strips also appeared in colour. On Barry Appleby's death in 1996 Mahoney took over the writing and drawing of "The Gambols" for Express Newspapers. Continuing the strip created by Barry and his wife Dobs was daunting, and Mahoney recalled later that "if I could get through the first six months I knew it would be all right but living up to the Applebys remained the challenge." Mahoney compiled, designed, scripted, and drew The Gambols annuals Nos 46-48, published from 1997 to 1999. In November 1999 the Express dropped the strip, but in the following month Mahoney moved it to the Mail on Sunday.

The Gambols is a British comic strip created by Barry Appleby which debuted 16 March 1950 in the Daily Express where it ran for almost 50 years: as of 1999 The Gambols has appeared in the Mail on Sunday. The strip itself, if seen only occasionally, seems somewhat reactionary today, dealing as it does with everyday domestic situations of an ageless, childless couple; the two kids who appear once or twice a year, Miggy and Flivver, are a nephew and niece - a comic-strip pregnancy was considered editorially unsuitable. But that is evidently the strip's secret, for it is widely published in several languages around the world, and continues to prove that good art work is not necessary in a comic strip. It's the appeal of the ideas that counts. When Barry Appleby died in 1996, Mahoney took over the writing and drawing of “The Gambols” for Express Newspapers, and continued to work on the strip, in flawless imitation of Appleby’s style, when it transferred to the Mail on Sunday, after the Express dropped the strip in 1999. The Gambols is a British comic strip created by Barry Appleby which debuted 16 March 1950 in the Daily Express where it ran for almost 50 years: as of 1999 The Gambols has appeared in The Mail on Sunday. [1] Originally The Gambols appeared three times a week formatted as a strip of three or four panels, and three times in single panel format. As of 4 June 1951 - when paper rationing officially ended - The Gambols was featured daily in multi-panel format, and as of 1956 an extended three row strip was prepped for the Sunday Express. Some of the strips also appeared in colour. [3]Most of the Gambols strips were three or four panels long; the Sunday Express, however, published longer strips as it was assumed that people had more time to read a paper on a Sunday. Some of the strips also appeared in colour. Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/. Vowels Mahoney works mainly in pen and coloured inks, but also uses pencils, felt-tip pens, and watercolours.

Mahoney created his first strip ("Mopsy") for the weekly Fleetway Publications magazine Princess, and afterwards contributed strips and jokes to a number of publications including the Scottish Daily Record ("Agony Is" and "Sammy the Caterpillar"), Woman's Realm ("Mum"), Daily Mirror ("Millie", "The Greens", and "Mandy Capp"), Sunday Express ("L") and Daily Star ("What's in a Name?" and "Last of the Summer Wine"). From The Gambols' inception, Appleby received input into creating the strips from his journalist wife Doris "Dobs" Appleby - she suggested "Gambol" as the surname of the married couple who are the strip's focus - and from the 1960s Dobs Appleby received official credit for co-writing The Gambols. Social historian David Kynaston has opined that "the Gambols [inhabit] a frozen-in-time world closely mirroring the Applebys' own in Kingston-upon-Thames Surrey in the early 1950s". [2]

Cite

From the 1960s, Appleby's wife Dobs (Doris) was credited alongside him. After Dobs' death in 1985, Appleby continued with the strip alone until his own death in 1996. The strip was then taken over by Roger Mahoney until it moved from the Daily Express to the Mail on Sunday in 1999 [1]. Mahoney recalled later that “if I could get through the first six months I knew it would be all right, but living up to the Applebys remained the challenge.” In a sentence this would be said like this ‘Go on then, do a gambole so we can see’. Gambole Origins and Meaning