Calamity James is a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano. it is about a boy, called Calamity James, (a pun on Calamity Jane) and he has disastrous luck. He first appeared on the 1st November, 1986. He has a pet called Alexander Lemming, (a pun on Alexander Fleming) who used to have just as much bad luck as James, although now he is rather normal and does not have any bad luck. Calamity James has black hair, wears black trousers, and has a red jumper with the number 13 on it. he also has big eyes, and lots of buckteeth, but in his early days, he had small eyes and only two buckteeth. His shirt with the number 13 on it could well be the source of his bad luck. Once he gave his shirt to Alexander Lemming, and he had a day of bad luck and James had a day of good luck. Soon, Alexander got fed up with the jumper and gave it back. One of Alexander's hobbies is plummeting. A distinctive feature of the strip is its cluttered appearance, with much surreal and incidental background detail. Various themes recurr, notably the "Little Squelchy Things" (which appear in a wide variety of guises), and a constant scatter of winning lottery tickets, gold bars, and bags with 'Vast Dosh' written on them which James walks past yet somehow never manages to spot. There has been only one main artist for the strip, and that was Tom Paterson, Although Steve Bright has drawn the strip on occasions. As Tom Paterson has a lot of work with Dennis the menace and gnasher and Minnie the Minx, Calamity James does not appear as regularly as those strips.
Timeline
1st November 1986 calamity James debuts in the comic December 1986 James' Pet, Alexander Lemming, debuts. October 1988 "little squelchy things" debut in the comic October 1993 James Gets slight changes, including Bigger eyes, and more buckteeth, as well as being rendered in full colour 1997 the strip gets printed on a computer in bright, shiny colors 2007 the strip semi-retires, as Tom Paterson starts drawing Dennis the menace
