Category: Cartoons

AI, we are told, is the answer to everything. It will take our jobs and solve all our problems, even though it can’t actually play hangman properly.

You may know that we run the J Edward Oliver site.

We pointed ChatGPT at it and asked it to analyse the entire site and create a graphic that summarised the content and style. It made this:

We’d give that maybe 3 out of 10.

I have had a couple of people asking me: why do you have a link to the J Edward Oliver website, and who was he?

Jack Oliver was an English cartoonist (ie someone who draws for magazines, comics etc rather than an animator for films). Jack first came to fame by drawing a small strip for the British pop weekly Disc (and Music Echo) at the start of the 1970s.

Little did anyone guess how popular this would become. The paper changed hands and became Record Mirror (and Disc) at some point. The cartoon strip changed from a small rectangle to half a page, a full page, covers and more.

Mostly it was a set of jokes about the current pop scene and characters of the day, plus tv, film, whatever and some horrid puns.

Jack’s work has featured in promotions for record companies and records, has appeared in books and even on Top Of The Pops.

Jack did a lot of work for Jonathan King, including illustrations for a published book. In recent years, King’s reputation has suffered for a variety of reasons, and some of the material on our site about Jack’s involvement with King has been removed.

By 1977, the editors decided that tastes had changed and Jack was sacked from his job. He went on to draw for many children’s comics, but eventually that work ran out too.

We loved the JEO strip from the 70s and kept our copies. When websites were becoming a thing, we used them to make a tribute site. Jack was fine with this. Although he died in 2007, the site continues and you may enjoy its silliness (especially if you remember that era).