Tom Thug - in colour for the first time (1986)

It seems hard to believe now but there was a time when most pages in British comics were printed in black and white. Colour printing was an expensive luxury, usually restricted to the covers and (if you were lucky) a few interior pages. Things started to change significantly in the 1980s, presumably as colour printing became more economical to use. Even then, although my first mainstream work appeared in 1983 it would be three years before I did a full colour strip for a comic.

Here's my first published full colour page. A Tom Thug strip that appeared on the back cover of Oink! No.8 (cover dated 9th to 22nd August 1986). It was a bit of an honour to be given the back page of a comic so I was very pleased with that. 

I'd done a bit of colour work before when I was working as Mike Higgs' assistant on his Learn with Moonbird books in 1983/84 but they were single illustrations for children's books. This was the first time I'd been let loose on a comic strip in colour. 

After inking the linework with a Rapidograph I coloured it with Dr.Martins watercolour inks and Faber-Castel pencils. Looking at it now, the colouring is quite crude in places but it suited the rawness that Oink! was about. I'd improve as time went on, but I wish Photoshop had been around back then because I prefer colouring digitally far more than with a brush. (And I think my digital colouring is far better than my hand colouring ever was.) 

I did all my own lettering too. Each balloon had to be done on patch paper (sticky back paper), cut out to the required shape, and stuck onto a clear acetate overlay. 

Anyway, so there you have it. My first full colour comic strip. Yep, the story has some crude elements too, but again that was part of the remit for Oink! Incidentally, Tom's last line was changed by the editor. My original version had him saying "bog" instead of "sink". Yes, even Oink! had its limits. 

Bash Street in the Beano

I had the opportunity to draw The Bash Street Kids recently for a joke page and you can see it in this week's Beano No.4012, on sale Wednesday 20th November.

I also put some of the Kids in this week's Pup Parade too for the same issue...

It's always a pleasure to draw such iconic characters that I enjoyed so much when I was a child. 

Beano No.4012, price £2.75, will be available from WH Smith, supermarkets, and all good newsagents or you can subscribe at this link and save money!
https://www.beano.com/subscribe

Meet The Liver Birds!

Here's something new I'm working on. Meet Askey and Dodd, The Liver Birds! It's a brand new full page strip, created and written by Tim Quinn and drawn by me for a new comic magazine that's coming soon! The magazine was announced at Liverpool Town Hall the other week, with Tim Quinn giving a presentation of some of the contents. Thanks to Alan Cowsill for the photo above.

Here's how Tim announced the strip on his Facebook page:

"THE LIVER BIRD has been a symbol of Liverpool for over 800 years but little has been known about the private life of this extraordinary creature ….. until now!

Askey & Dodd, the two beloved Liver Birds who stand proud with watchful eyes high above our beloved city, will feature in each issue of the brand new LIVERPOOL HEARTBEAT MAGAZINE hatching in January 2020. The work of comic book legend Lew Stringer (Bash Street Pups, Brickman, Keyhole Kate, Combat Colin, Doctor Who’s Daft Dimension, etc), the Liver Birds strip will be a bird’s eye view of Merseyside’s most famous characters.

The magazine will also feature the imaginative work of school children of all ages from across the region alongside pages created by some of the greats from the comic book world. Editor Tim Quinn says, “I’ve met so many talented young people in Merseyside that it is great to be able to create a brand new magazine to showcase their ideas.” Keep an eye on the Liverpool Heartbeat sites for launch date! http://www.liverpoolheartbeat.com/ "

More news soon!

Behold my Six Pack!

Now you can order all six of my comics in one parcel and save money! That's Combat Colin issues 1 to 4, Derek the Troll, and Pedantic Stan. Six comics, 200 pages in total! 

Combat Colin reprints the strips that appeared in Action Force and Transformers in the late 1980s'early 1990s. Most pages have been scanned from my original art. 

Derek the Troll reprints the strips that appeared in Warlock and White Dwarf magazines in the late 1980s. PLUS the second half of the comic reprints the complete Rock Solid, Space Hero series that appeared in Swiftsure comic in the mid-1980s. 

Pedantic Stan, the Comic Fan reprints the 1990s strip that appeared in Speakeasy fanzine. It was created by John Freeman and myself.

Six comics in one parcel. Shop early for Christmas! Here's the link if you're interested:

http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm 

Please note: The prices on my website are for UK customers only. If you live outside the UK, contact me at lew.stringer@BTopenworld.com for postage rates. 

In this week's BEANO...

Characters Copyright ©D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

Here's a sneak preview of my next Pup Parade strip. This week, Manfrid is in the spotlight! See the full story in Beano No.4011, on sale Wednesday 13th November, £2.75. 

Coming in the next DAFT DIMENSION...

It's Daleks like you've never seen them before, - playing football! Here's a preview of my next Daft Dimension comic strip, and you can see the full version in the official Doctor Who Magazine No.545, on sale this Thursday (14th November). 

Lest we forget

Quick finger painting done digitally on my iPad with the Procreate app.