OGRI – EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE
Biking’s most famous fictional character returns in this fan’s favourite book featuring 150 of his greatest cartoon strips
Review of a new book full of the exploits of biking’s most beloved cartoon character
FOR MANY OF us, the antics of cartoon character Ogri and his daft mate Malcolm were essential reading in the early days of Bike magazine – and now it’s possible to relive some of the great Ogri moments thanks to this new book
Ogri – Everybody’s Favourite. It features 150 cartoon strips and is published by Laughing Gnome.
Ogri was created by artist Paul Sample. He is best known in the book trade as the cover illustrator of Tom Sharpe’s
Wilt novels, but bikers identify with the amazing body of Ogri cartoon strips that ran from 1972 until 2013 – first as a regular in Bike magazine, then in custom bike mag Back Street Heroes and even enjoying a short stint in the motoring section of the Telegraph.
Paul Sample said: “Ogri started as a drawing in one of my sketchbooks when I was at art college in 1966 – it was the year when I began riding motorcycles, having bought one to get about, rather than using the bus.
“Then Ogri developed into a strip cartoon from my riding experience and lack of expertise in keeping the rubber bits of the bike on the tarmac.
Bike magazine liked the stories, and Ogri started appearing in the publication in 1972. I never thought
Ogri would last so long. By the way, the dog, Kickstart, was real. He used to ride on my petrol tank, race me back home from the pub, and was a generally disreputable character. Great fun as an inspiration on life.”
Sample finally retired in 2013, but with 450 numbered strips and numerous single-panel illustrations, Ogri’s legend lives on. In 2017 Laughing Gnome published a private subscription edition of Sample’s Ogri cartoon strips called Now to Make My Getaway; The Complete Compendium of all the Ogri strip cartoons 1972-2013, the print run of which sold out. The book weighed a whopping 4.5kg! Now, the publisher has compiled this latest compendium – a lighter, slimmer and considerably more ‘aerodynamic’ volume, featuring the 150 most popular strips, as selected by crowd-sourced nominations from the character’s tens of thousands of fans around the world.
The book also features an interview with Paul Sample in which he describes the creative process, as well as neverbefore-seen illustrations drawn from his private sketchbooks.
We love it, so here’s a taster strip from the book...