Baby Face Finlayson

Favorite Childhood Comics Characters (37 items)
list by kathy

Baby Face Finlayson is a fictional character in a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano, first appearing in issue 1553, dated 22 April 1972. Baby Face Finlayson "The Cutest Bandit in the West" is an outlaw from the American Old West, and is, in fact, a baby.

His name is derived from the real-life American gangster of the '30s Baby Face Nelson (real name Lester Joseph Gillis).

He was originally a minor character in Little Plum, but was later given a strip of his own. He rode around in a motorised pram, stealing everything that wasn't tied down, whilst shouting "Yuk Yuk!". He had a number of accomplices, including Jessie James, Sid the Kid and Goo Goo McGoo who were also, apparently, babies. Their chief nemesis was Sheriff "Marsh" Mallow of Cactus Gulch.

When the strip returned in 1980, the Wild West theme was dropped, and the setting was moved to England. The tagline was also changed to "The Cutest Bandit Around". However, in the final strip of the second series, he was posted back to America by the angry Beano editor, whom Baby-Face had tried to kidnap. On both occasions the strip was drawn by Ron Spencer.