Still Game’s Jack and Victor to return in comic book form

Actors Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill described it as ‘wonderful’.

Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan on a bench reading comic books, with cardbook cutouts of their Still Game characters in cartoon form behind them

One of Scotland’s favourite comedy double-acts will make the jump from stage to page as their hit TV series returns as a comic book.

Still Game’s main characters Jack Jarvis and Victor McDaid are to star in He Who Hingith Aboot Getteth Hee Haw, featuring cartoon versions of the cast.

The TV show ran for nine seasons between 2002 and 2019, with a hiatus in between.

It also sold out three multi-date live productions at the Hydro in Glasgow, performing to a total of around 500,000 people across 50 shows from 2014 to 2019.

A cartoon strip of Still Game characters slipping on the ice — A page from the book, which re-imagines Still Game episode Cauld in cartoon form (Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill/PA)

Ford Kiernan, who plays Jack, and Greg Hemphill, who portrays Victor, worked on the book alongside Gordon Tait of publishers Scunnered Ink, who hired a team of cartoonists to adapt the beloved characters on paper.

Hemphill said: “We still love Jack and Victor, and Ford and I are still always talking about them.

“It occurred to us that we had never seen them in cartoon form, never really explored that as an art form.

“That’s where Gordon and the Scunnered Ink team came in.

Ford Kiernan, Gordon Tait and Greg Hemphill pose with a copy of the book — Ford Kiernan, left, and Greg Hemphill, right, with Gordon Tait of Scunnered Ink (Wattie Cheung/PA)

“The comic version of Still Game has its own flights of fancy. There are things in the comics which the cartoonists have put in which didn’t exist either in our head or in the TV show. So there are loads of Easter eggs in there for readers.

“Working with Gordon and his team on the comics was like seeing Still Game with fresh eyes. The results are super-exciting, the new version of the characters look adorable. And we don’t have to spend an hour and a half in the make-up chair.”

Kiernan said: “Greg and I are huge fans of things like Oor Wullie. Greg has a Marvel connection and has always collected comics.

“Gordon has taken our idea to see Jack and Victor and all the Still Game gang in comic book form, and turned it into something wonderful.

“We have a long history in Scotland of waiting for Christmas to get an annual, then spending an hour on Christmas Day in a corner reading it. It’s an old fashioned idea in that respect, back to roots, and I love that about it.

“It’s an incredible road to be on. We had an idea, we wrote it into a script, it became a sit-com, and now it has become a comic book. We’re really happy with it. I love how my wee cartoon guy looks.”

Mr Tait is a former DC Thomson heritage editor and has worked on well-known comics like Dennis and Gnasher, Oor Wullie and The Broons.

A cartoons trip featuring Jack and Victor with another man on a bench — A cartoon depicting Jack and Victor in Glasgow Central Station alongside a commuter (Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill/PA)

He said: “We wanted to keep it a secret for a while.

“A few of the artists we approached were really busy and in high demand, but the minute they found out it was for a Still Game comic book, they signed up right away.

“Not every TV show will lend itself to the comic book treatment, but Still Game has been perfect.

“It’s the most ambitious project that I have ever worked on and the most creatively rewarding one too. We’ve already started work on the second book.”

The book will be published on Monday September 16 and is available to pre-order from stillgamestuff.co.uk.