Early Marvel work

Over on my Blimey! blog I've been posting about Marvel UK's great 1983 comic The Daredevils. As I mentioned there, it was the first comic I sold any professional work to, so I thought I'd show those early cartoons over here on my art blog.

Encouraged by Alan Moore, who was always helpful to people trying to break into the business, I sent a batch of cartoons to The Daredevils editor Bernie Jaye. Fortunately Bernie liked them, and began running them in the comic from issue 7 (July 1983). There's that first one above. Here's the rest...

From The Daredevils No.8 (August 1983)...

From The Daredevils No.9 (September 1983)... 

From The Daredevils No.10 (October 1983)...

My slot in issue 11 was replaced with an announcement saying that The Daredevils was merging into The Mighty World of Marvel. My cartoons continued in the merged comic for a few issues, albeit on an irregular basis. 

From MWOM No.8 (January 1984)...

From MWOM No.9 (February 1984)...

From MWOM No.13 (June 1984)...

From MWOM No.15 (August 1984). This one was inspired by the 'Marvel Work-In' at one of the Westminster Comic Marts around that time. The caricatures of Alan Moore and Alan Davis show why I'm a cartoonist and not a caricaturist. 

Of course, looking at them now I can see how crude my style was in those early days of my career. However I'll always be grateful to editor Bernie Jaye for giving me my first break, and to Alan Moore for the encouragement.

After that run of cartoons ended, new editor Chris Gill didn't commission any more but my work for Marvel UK continued on other comics, creating strips such as Captain Wally, Snail-Man, Robo-Capers, Macho Man, and of course Combat Colin! 

You can read more about The Daredevils comic here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-daredevils-1983.html

...and here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-daredevils-posters.html

Latest Daft Dimension preview (Updated)

Is there any better a destination for a Bank Holiday Monday than Blackpool? Don't answer that. But that's where the Doctor and Clara arrive in this week's Daft Dimension strip in Doctor Who Magazine No.487 on sale Thursday 28th May. It'll be full of other good stuff too. Don't miss it!  

Bonus: Here's the above panel when it was in the rough pencil stage...

...and here's the cover to look out for! 

Space Clown!

Team Toxic encounter a new villain this Wednesday when they journey to the Moon and meet the cosmic prankster known as the Space Clown! See the two page funventure Moonface in Toxic No.255, on sale in newsagents and supermarkets on 27th May!

Sheffield for August

I'm pleased to say that I'm one of the guests at the Sheffield Film and Comic Con this August at the Motorpoint Arena. It's a two day event but I'll be there for one day only on Saturday 15th August. See you there? 
http://www.sheffieldfilmandcomiccon.com/

I'll be adding more dates to my convention schedule soon.  

Monster Fun!

Although IPC's Monster Fun Comic didn't last long (1975 to 1976) the company kept the title to use in the Buster and Monster Fun Holiday Special. This was an extra publication to the regular Buster Holiday Special. I'm not sure how many there were but it was still being published in 1990 when I was asked to contribute.

Here are my pages from the 1990 edition. I was pleased with how the Tom Thug in Monsterland story turned out and it's still one of my personal favourites. Putting Tom into a fantasy scenario went against the usual theme of the strip but I got around it by having him enter the 'Monster Fun Zone' which was free of the more grounded aspects of Bustertown. Script, art, colours by me, lettering by Mike Peters. And yes, that's Grimly Feendish on the second page. I couldn't resist the chance to include one of my favourite characters from Wham! and Smash!

The other story I had in that special was The Vampire Brats meet Doctor Prankenstein. I enjoyed doing this one too. Script and art by me, lettering by Jack Potter. As always, click on the images to see them full size.

Back to the drawing board

I'm feeling a lot better after my recent virus or whatever it was but still not 100%. However, I need to catch up with work so tonight I'm finishing off the latest Team Toxic two-pager for a forthcoming issue of Toxic, then over the weekend I'm writing a new one-off page. This will be for a future issue of Dark Horse's Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out comic. Good trashy horror fun for adult readers. If you missed the first two strips I did for that comic you can read about them here and here. 

After that, I'll be working on a new three page Combat Colin strip for an issue of Aces Weekly. More about that later this month.

Then it'll be time to start work on another Daft Dimension for Doctor Who Magazine, and another Team Toxic strip. Also, I'm hoping to be commissioned for some pages on the 2017 dated annuals soon. All in all, this is a busy month I'm glad to say. 

Anyway, back to work...

Stikkums update!

There's a new pack of digital 'stickers' available for the Stikkums app that I provided the artwork for. The new set of Stikkums is just 79p and this time has the theme of Family and Pets. 

Stikkums is a behavioural reward app for children but it's also fun for any age. Imagine the old rub-down-transfers or felt pictures but done on screen, with characters that you can reposition, resize, recolour, and remove or repeat indefinitely. The app is free to download and comes with a starter pack of Knights themed Stikkums plus two backgrounds. You can then choose to buy additional packs at just 79p each. So far the other packs are Monsters, Outer Space, and the new Family and Pets one. Each pack comes with two backgrounds, and Stikkums can be used on any background, so you could have Monsters in the Family living room if you wished, or Grandad in Outer Space. There's also a new addition of a Sound Effects pack so you can add comic sfx to your scenes.

To see more sample images of the various characters I created for the app and to download the free app for your iPad or phone, go to the Stikkums website:
http://www.stikkums.com/

Krunk goes crazy!

After a visit to the cinema to see the latest Avengers movie, Team Toxic have their own mad robot to contend with when Krunk flips his lid in the next issue of Toxic!

The story entitled Krunk Goes Crazy sees the faithful robot turn bad and attack his teammates. Is cinema that influential or is there a more sinister reason behind the robot having a screw loose? Find out in Toxic No.254, on sale Wednesday 6th May!