Review by Frank Plowright

It’s to be presumed that it wasn’t creator Bob Wilson’s decision to reduce Stanley Bagshaw’s adventures from full colour albums last seen with The Rather Dangerous Miracle Cure, to greytoned illustrations in A5 pocket books. Sadly, though, that’s the format of his final appearances, which end with the following Show-Jumping Mouse.

Wilson starts by breaking the fourth wall as Huddersgate resident Stanley notices a man in the sky drawing a picture of him. Huddersgate remains up north, where it’s boring and slow, and famed for its tramlines. Stanley lives with his Gran, and everything about the strip evoked a byegone era even when published during the 1980s and 1990s, especially Stan, dressed in his woolly sleeveless jumper and shorts.

He heads to the cinema hoping to see a cowboy film – another dated aspect – but instead discovers Macbeth is playing, not that he knows what that is. There’s a fair build-up of the helpful Stan allowed in the projection room, where a bit of a mix-up occurs. Stan, however, is a resourceful lad, and if a few bits of film need connected again with sellotape, he’s capable of that. The pay-off is what screens becoming a glorious mash-up of several different films, beautifully choreographed by Wilson. Of course, it wouldn’t work that way in reality, but allow Wilson the dramatic licence for his comedy.

The art suffers from not being in colour on more expansive pages, and from Wilson working in a less defined style for some film clips. Macbeth is an especially scratchy specimen, reproduced from pencils only.

This is another joyous and charming adventure, but mystifyingly sabotaged by the format.