Joe King meets Fatty

Here's a preview of an upcoming Joe King strip, which I think is the one scheduled for next Wednesday's Beano. Once again I've included a guest-star in the strip and this time it's Fatty from the Bash Street Kids. 

This one takes us nearly half way through the series with another six to follow. Unfortunately the mini-strips in The Beano only run for about 11 weeks at a time. (Which is understandable as they want to keep things fresh.) It always takes a while to get used to drawing a new character and I felt I was getting into my stride with this episode. I hope to work on the character again one day. 

Thank you!

I'm really pleased that within 24 hours of my new Facebook page going live it's received over 300 'likes'. (That's the number of people following updates on it, for those of you not on Facebook.) My thanks to all of you.

Some of the material I'll post over there will be the same stuff I post on this blog, but some of it will be different. A few hours ago I posted a preview of my next strip for Doctor Who Magazine over there for example. I'll also be uploading some older material. 

If you're on Facebook, any 'likes' would be very welcome.
https://www.facebook.com/lewstringercartoonist?ref=hl

Expansion

...and I'm not just talking about Rasher's waistline in this scene from this week's Beano! I'm expanding my social networking with a new Facebook page that I set up last night. You'll find it here:
https://www.facebook.com/lewstringercartoonist?ref=hl

I've had a FB page for friends only for years which has a private setting but I thought it was about time I created a public one that anyone can access. I'll be showing bits of art there, plus news of upcoming strips, convention appearances etc. So if you like my artwork and you're on Facebook please 'follow' and give it a 'like'. Much appreciated. 

Preview pig pic

Here's a preview of the Rasher strip for this week's Beano. Again I'm showing a photo of the original art so you can see the construction lines (in blue pencil). The published version will of course be in full colour, but to see that you'll have to pick up The Beano, out tomorrow, 28th January.  

Support British comics. It's the decent thing to do. 

The Joker and the Minx

Here's an advance preview of an upcoming Joe King strip which guest stars Minnie the Minx! As you can see, this is photographed from my original art, before I'd scanned it into Photoshop to tidy up and colour.

By my calculations this should be the one in this week's Beano, out on Wednesday!  

The Saga of MACHO MAN!

The recent news that Marvel USA are producing a new Secret Wars comic series this summer reminded me that back in the 1980s I did some back up strips for Marvel UK's Secret Wars 2 weekly. In those days I was a frequent contributor to Marvel UK's comics, mainly due to editor Richard Starkings who gave me plenty of work. 

For Secret Wars 2 I created and submitted a full page comedy superhero strip called Macho Man. There wasn't enough room in the comic's crammed 28 pages to accommodate a full page extra so it was decided the origin story would be split in two halves, and subsequent episodes would be created as half pagers. Macho Man began in Secret Wars 2 No.42 (dated 19th April 1986) accompanied by a warm editorial welcome message...

Due to shortage of space, Macho Man only appeared occasionally, and only had 11 episodes in total. However I've always enjoyed doing superhero spoofs so brief as it was it was always great fun to do. The strip appeared in Secret Wars 2 Nos.42, 44, 51, 52, 53, 58, 63, 67, 69, 75, and 79 (3rd January 1987). Here they are. (As always, click images to enlarge them.)

A printing error with the colour on this one unfortunately.

That wasn't the end of the character though. I've always liked to incorporate the characters I've created into a shared universe so a couple of years later in 1989 Macho Man turned up during the six part Combat Colin story The Place of No Return in Transformers No.245. (Reprinted in 2005's Brickman Begins! as Village of the Doomed.) Here's a segment...

The battle in the village bonded Colin and the other characters as pals so Macho Man returned again in Transformers Nos.270 and 271 during Colin's fight against a mystery villain...

Macho Man returned one final time, in an episode of the Combat Colin serial The Invasion of Megabrain (Transformers No.296, November 17th, 1990) where he met his fate...

Yep, I killed off one of my characters. Permanently! In a Marvel comic! Never to return. 

...and that was the short career of Norman Dribble AKA Macho Man. I hope you've enjoyed it. 

Something for various tastes

There are five publications on the shelves at the moment that I've contributed to, which hopefully will appeal to a variety of readers. 


The Beano No.3768 (DC Thomson): This week's issue contains new Rasher and Joe King mini strips for kids of all ages. £2.20


Doctor Who Magazine No.482 (Panini Magazines): The Daft Dimension strip, featuring the 12th Doctor, Clara, and a bunch of famous monsters. £4.99

Toxic No.249 (Egmont UK): A new Team Toxic two-pager with 'gross' humour for kids as the Team meet Butt-Face again! £2.99

Marvel Fact Files No.97 (Eaglemoss): I've written a two page article on the Incredible Hulk's UK strips. (More info here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/marvel-fact-files-focuses-on-marvel-uk.html ) £3.99

Grindhouse No.1 (Dark Horse): Published last month but still on sale in comic shops. I created a new full page strip, - Snowmanic! - that appears on the back cover. Adults only. $3.99

Don't forget that the Skikkums app I did all the art for is still available for a free download:
http://www.stikkums.com/

As you can gather, I've been busy recently. The fear of any freelancer though is that we're never sure how long it'll last. I've completed all my Beano work now (which will still appear over the next 8 weeks or so) but hopefully I'll be commissioned for more shortly. Lots to do over the next week or two for other publishers thankfully and I'll tell you about that soon. In the meantime, buy comics!