Preview: DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE No.540

There will be a new issue of Doctor Who Magazine in the shops this Thursday, 27th June, and it celebrates Jon Pertwee's centenary.

Although I'd been watching Doctor Who since the very early days of William Hartnell's original Doctor, it was the Jon Pertwee stories that engaged me the most I think. I was 11 to 13 years old when the third Doctor was on TV, which was a good age to appreciate the show's move to slightly more sophisticated stories. For our generation, Doctor Who had grown up a little to retain its audience and to pull in new viewers. 

It was also helped by the Doctor Who strip moving from TV Comic to the new comic, Countdown, in 1971, which was also more sophisticated than TV Comic was. Countdown swiftly became my favourite comic of the early 1970s, and I still have every issue, carefully stored away. (A year later, Countdown changed its title to TV Action, which I didn't like quite as much, and later dropped, but I've managed to collect a complete run now.) 

It was therefore an honour to be able to put the third Doctor in my latest Daft Dimension strip for Doctor Who Magazine No.540. Check out the full strip when it's published on Thursday! 

Marvellous Macc-Pow!

Back from a very enjoyable day at Macc-Pow yesterday, the 4th annual comics show in Macclesfield. With over 1,000 attendees and a pleasant atmosphere throughout, this was the best one yet! Good to met some very nice and enthusiastic readers of all ages, and to catch up with comics friends old and new. My thanks to organiser Marc Jackson and his tram for the invite and hospitality, and thanks to everyone who stopped by my table for a sketch and/or comic! 

I didn't have much time to take photos but here's a few...

Great to spend time with wonderful artist/writer Rachael Smith, who had the table next to me. Check out her books here:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlimsyKitten

On my other side was my old pal David Leach, creator of Psycho Gran! 

https://www.facebook.com/PsychoGran/

Across the aisle was the Beano's Nigel Parkinson and colourist Nika Nartova. 

http://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot.com

Another shot of Nigel and Nika, hard at work...

It was great to finally meet artist Jessica Lucas after being Facebook friends for ages. See her website here: http://www.jessicaonpaper.com

All in all, a fun day, proving that small comics-dedicated conventions can be as busy and engaging as the large multi-media ones. There's room for both kinds of events in the UK comics industry, and long may that be so. 

Busy days ahead!

It's often "feast or famine" as a freelancer. Metaphorically of course. Clearly I've never experienced a famine. After a very quiet start to the year I'm going to be really busy over the next few weeks! 

I'm currently drawing a new Keyhole Kate strip for The Dandy Annual 2021, and have a Postman Prat story to draw for it too this week. (Yes, Prat's back! Yay!) Unfortunately you guys won't get to see the book until July 2020! - but here's a sneak peek at my pencils (above) for Keyhole Kate. 

Then I'll be off to Macc-Pow! this Saturday at Macclesfield Town Hall, along with lots of other guests such as Nigel Parkinson, Rachael Smith, Hunt Emerson, David Leach and many more! It's free admission so hope to see you there!
http://maccpow.co.uk

Then as soon as I'm back from Macc-Pow! I'll be straight into a new strip that I can't talk about yet but if all goes well I'll be able to reveal all at the end of the month! Deadlines on this are very tight, so I'll need to give it my full attention next week.

I've also just been commissioned for a new series for a popular comic, and the first script is due this week. More on that in a few weeks! 

After that, I'll be finishing off the concluding chapter of Derek the Troll for the final issue of Goof!, drawing more pages to for The Dandy Annual 2021, a few Lord Snooty mini-strips to do for The Beano Annual 2021, my regular Daft Dimension strip for Doctor Who Magazine, my column for Comic Scene, putting together Combat Colin No.4, and anything else I can fit in. 

It's going to be intense, so wish me luck! 

Something different!

I was recently commissioned to draw the covers for a booklet for an advertising research agency, System 1, who wanted it to resemble the old Summer Specials. One big beach image on the front, and a strip on the back. 

The brief was to use several well known characters from TV adverts, such as the Meerkats and the man on the horse from the Old Spice ads. I had some leeway to change things of course, so I put him on a donkey. 

The back cover strip is Flo and her Fluent Device; the sort of "kid with gadget" strip that was popular in the old IPC comics. System 1's head of marketing, Tom Ewing, wrote the script, which was top class and would have fitted in perfectly with any comic. 

The booklet will be given away at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity next week. 

John Freeman has more info on his Down the Tubes blog here:
https://downthetubes.net/?p=108027

Thanks Cor!! Buster! It was fun!

The Cor!! Buster Humour Special was on the shelves for its allotted two months but time was up today and my local Smiths removed the remaining two copies from the shelves this morning. It was an absolute pleasure to contribute to this one-off (from John Freeman's script) and I hope that Rebellion publish another one next year.

If you missed your chance to buy it from the shops, you can still get it by post by ordering it from Rebellion's website at this link:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/RCS1951

"Lovely subversions of storytelling norms"

 My thanks to John A. Short for his great review of Combat Colin No.3 over on his Kult Creations blog:
http://kultcreations.blogspot.com/2019/06/combat-colin-3-review.html

"There's a wonderful daftness to these tales". John understands where I'm coming from. If you haven't already bought one, issues are still available from my web shop here:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

...and check out John's blog for his own comics such as Reverend Cross! All good stuff! 

1987 colour Tom Thug illustration for sale

This week on my eBay page there's a full colour Tom Thug illustration I did in 1987 which was used as the artwork for a free postcard in Oink! comic. This original artwork is far bigger than the postcard-size it was published at of course. See my eBay page for full details...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOM-THUG-ORIGINAL-ARTWORK-FROM-OINK-COMIC-by-Lew-Stringer/202702794669

The auction ends on Sunday 16th June, so you have less than a week to enter the bidding. All bids appreciated! Good luck!