Life and work of Jim Baikie in full colour at The Orkney Museum

 
The life and work of award-winning comic book artist and local creative genius Jim Baikie is on show at The Orkney Museum this summer. 
  
Jim Baikie (1940-2017) was a truly remarkable Orcadian, who is perhaps best remembered for his work as an award-winning comic book artist.  
 
During his career he worked for many comic book publishers, like 2000 AD, DC Comics and Marvel Comics.  
 
But his story is not limited to his artwork - he was also a writer of sci-fi as well as an illustrator and talented musician, mastering guitar and bass guitar, banjo, harmonica and the ’jaw harp’. 
  
This exhibition looks at the many aspects of Jim’s life, from his birth at Boathouse, Crockness, North Walls, Hoy on 28 February 1940, to his ‘Boy Entrant’ in the RAF just before his 16th birthday, to his life in London in the Swinging Sixties, where he jammed with rock legends – supporting the likes of The Barron Knights, The Pretty Things and The Kinks, and rubbing shoulders with Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones - and worked for the comic genius Spike Milligan. 
 
It explores his work as a comic book artist and how he encouraged an upcoming generation of artists.  
 
Jim was born during a time when Orkney was experiencing air-raids aimed at the Royal Naval base at Scapa Flow.  
 
As the war years passed the young Jim would benefit from finding comic books on the shore, thrown overboard the battleships that were anchored nearby. These may have been American ships, but to Jim they were “freebies in the ebb-tide”. The comic books were often incomplete, so Jim would make up his own beginning and end. Comic books were treasured and shared between the island children.  
 
Jim went on to create his own cartoon books, using his talent as an artist as well as a writer. When his friend Alan Isbister found a competition in a magazine for the best drawing, he enlisted Jim’s help. Jim recalled: 
“…the prize was one of every product that Fry’s Chocolate made. Alan did the paperwork and I did the drawing and we won it. So we got this big bag of Fry’s Chocolate and we ruined ourselves on that for a couple of days.” 
 
Well into his success in the illustrating world, Jim bumped into someone he’d not seen since his youth during a visit to a local shop. Recalling the exchange, in typical unassuming style, he said:  
 
“I came across someone in Stenness post office, and he said, ‘the last time we met you were over in Hoy, aged seven, drawing cowboys’ and he said ‘what are you doing now,’ and I said ‘drawing cowboys.’ ” 
 
Jim was a giant in his chosen career, yet he encouraged up-and-coming young artists whenever possible and loved to teach. He once said: 
 
“There is an argument that we’re in such a small industry, where there is not much work going about, that if you encourage a youngster, you are encouraging competition for yourself. But I can’t get into that kind of thinking.” 
Jim was too much of a gentleman to harbour such thoughts. 
 
Jim passed away in December 2017, aged 77 years after enduring and working through the demobilising effects of Parkinson’s for years. 
 
Many thanks go to Jim’s family, who were the centre of his world, for their help creating this exhibition. It is his generosity and unassuming nature that is documented, alongside his notable achievements, in this celebration of a remarkable man who packed so much into one lifetime. 

The exhibition begins on Saturday 3 May. A free walkaround with Jim’s daughter, Ellen Pesci, the Museum’s Social History Curator, and Tom Muir, Exhibitions Officer, will take place at 2pm that day, no need to book. 

The Orkney Museum is open Monday to Saturday from 10.30am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-5.00pm. Admission is free.