Review by Ian Keogh

Created in 1976 for Monster Fun in response to the cinema release of Jaws, Gums is a boastful shark whose feeding is hampered by his having false teeth, which he keeps losing. Although a good idea for a single strip, it hardly seems set up for the long term, yet the creative imagination of Roy Davis ensured enough eccentricity surrounded Gums to sustain the feature for a decade. This collection supplies all the strips created prior to Monster Fun’s absorption by Buster.

Set in Australia, the early strips are a battle of wits between surfer Bluey unable to resist confiscating the false teeth, and the increasingly complex schemes arranged by Gums to retrieve them. Davis gradually builds a cast of marine creatures bullied by Gums into helping out, but as none of them like Gums they’re keen to sabotage any plan. Unusual for comedy strips of the time, Davis doesn’t automatically reset everything back to the starting point with each new strip. He’ll sometimes have elements of continuity, such as a billionaire’s yacht prompting comedy plots over several strips.

Gums is brought to comedic life by a veritable who’s who of British humour comic artists whose reputation isn’t as high as it ought to be. The constant use of a giant set of false teeth is a visual gift, whenever removed from Gums’ mouth, and the artists make the most of the opportunities. The sample spread combines the two most frequent contributors. Robert Nixon designed Gums and his accessories, and supplies the ridiculous sight of an octopus with false teeth, and many other fine moments delivered with perfect comedy instincts. Alf Saporito’s Gums is a little more exaggerated, and his sample page indicates the switches from colour to black and white again throughout the collection. Terry Bave’s only contribution is important for revealing how Gums acquired his teeth in the first place.

While starting strongly, as Gums continues Davis resorts to imaginative, but increasingly contrived scenarios to spark the comedy. Scenes of Bluey lugging a cannon about and an expert caber tosser just happening to be adrift in a raft lack the finesse of earlier strips. Allowed a longer page count for annuals and specials, the strips are more inventive, although one of these inclusions is a reformatted version of a strip from the weekly comic. They also offer the first sightings of Captain Mayhem, who’d prove a more eccentric opponent than Bluey in later strips.

Not everything here is comedy gold, but there’s a surprising hit ratio from what might have been presumed to be a one note joke, although the proviso is slapstick being the default level of humour.