Fortunately, Ken did find work on IPC's adventure comics! Again I'm only speculating here, but perhaps IPC felt his style was more suited to those comics as they were aimed at a slightly older reader than their humour line. Whatever the reason, we're lucky that they did. Ken Reid's distinctive brand of humour was essential for comics!
Ken Reid's first strip for IPC was Sub, which ran as a full pager in the first 31 issues of Scorcher, their new all-football weekly launched in January 1970. It concerned the plight of obese Duggie Dribble, forever doomed to sit on the substitute's bench. Every week, Dougie would hatch a new devious and outrageous idea to try and get a game, by nobbling a player or other means, but it would always backfire.
I don't know who was the writer of Sub. Some strips are stronger (ie: funnier) than others, but as the weeks go on there seem to be more of Ken's unique comedy elements in the plot and dialogue. I suspect Ken had a lot of input, even if he wasn't the scriptwriter. The artwork is easily on a par with any of his Frankie Stein or Dare-A-Day-Davy strips for Wham! and Pow!
I've chosen a selection of some of the best ones to show here. As you can see, the early ones were embellished with a grey wash. Perhaps Scorcher was originally going to be printed on better paper, or perhaps the printers promised better reproduction than they could deliver. In any case, it later switched to line work, with some having spot colour added. (Which came out as neon green some weeks!) All of these strips are from Scorcher between January and August 1970. As always, click on the pages to see them much larger.
If you'd like to see more of Ken Reid's work for Scorcher, here's a blog post I did two years ago:
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