Oojah

Oojah was an Elephant comic strip character as featured in the Daily Sketch Newspaper and various children's books.

The first Oojah comic strip was issued on 18 February 1919. By the early 1920s the newspaper was issuing a 4-page 'The Oojah Paper' supplement starting Saturday, 8 October 1921. It later became 'The Oojah Sketch' that ran until 23 November 1929, the 4-page section reduced to 3 pages from 29 April 1922 and 2 pages from 22 July 1922.

Other characters were Snooker, a small black cat who always wears bedsocks and lives with the Great Oojah and Don, a little boy who is the Little Oojah and the Jum-Jarum. Later, additional characters included Jerrywangle (aka Jerry), the Oojah's elephant nephew who was always up to mischief with his tricks, as well as Lord Lion and his family.

The character name for the large elephant that came to be known simply as 'Oojah' is quoted as initially being 'Flip-Flap the Great Oojah'. The 'Oojah House' book gives this description: 'FLIP-FLAP is a magic elephant who lives in a strange animal-country called Oojahland. He is the Great Oojah.' Later annuals and comic strips name him 'Uncle Oojah'.

There are some phrases that are mentioned frequently in the stories, such as exclamations by Snooker the cat with "My Bedsocks!", "My Whiskers!" and The Oojah himself with "Lovey-lovekins!" and "Jimmy-ninnikins!"

The series was revived as the comic strip 'The Wonderful Adventures of Jerry, Don and Snooker' running for 203 episodes from 27 February 1954 to 11 January 1958. 'Jerry's Jolly Jingles' featuring Jerry, Oojah's cousin, ran for another seven months. This was the last issued of the Oojah series.

Thomas Maybank (full name Hector Thomas Maybank Webb) born in Beckenham, Kent on 29 February 1869, was the original artist for the series. Maybank died on 27 March 1929. The 1929 Annual featured Maybank's artwork, the 1934 annual featured artwork by the anonymous 'JHL'. Later, H. M. Talintyre (full name Henry Matthew Talintyre) continued the series in the same style until the early 1950s.

The Oojah series' first appearances were in the 1920 issued children's annual 'Once Upon a Time - Hulton's Children's Annual 1921' firstly with a 27-page story entitled "Flip-Flap in Wangletown" which included a colour plate entitled "The Band will now Sing a Dance", and secondly with a 23-page story "The Wonder-man" including a further colour plate "The Rabbits were playing 'Oranges and Lemons'". Oojah's second annual appearance was the 1921 issued 'The Joy Book Children's Annual 1922' with a full story entitled 'Flip Flap In London Town'. All stories in both annuals were told by Flo Lancaster and pictured by Thomas Maybank.

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