Friday 30 June 2017

COMBAT COLIN to launch at MACC-POW!

Copies of Combat Colin No.1 have just arrived from the printers and the comic will launch at Macc-Pow! this Saturday, 1st July, at Macclesfield Town Hall! It's also available to buy directly from me by post at my online shop, (I'll be posting them out next week) or from my table at the other conventions I'll be appearing at around the country.

Combat Colin No.1 features 40 pages and collects the entire run of Combat Colin strips that were published in Action Force in 1987/88. (From issue 2 onwards, the comic will begin reprinting the Combat Colin strips from The Transformers.)

Originally published by Marvel UK, the Combat Colin strip ran from 1987 to 1991 and featured the comedy adventures of gormless-but-heroic Colin and his assistant Semi-Automatic Steve battling robots, monsters, alien warlords, and anyone threatening the peace of Wallytown and neighbouring Skegpool. When The Transformers comic ended in 1991, Marvel UK returned all rights to the character to me, and I've since featured Combat Colin in various comics over the years. 

Now, at last, he's in his very own title for a six issue series that will collect the original Marvel run and subsequent appearances. My intention is to publish two issues a year. (Issue 2 is currently scheduled for December 2017.)

The stories in issue one show the development of the strip from its early half-page gag strip beginnings to its evolution to full page serialised stories. You'll see Combat Colin encounter his first foe, Doctor Nasty, and other villains such as Aunt Arctic of the Antarctic! Colin's adventures take him from his back garden to the pyramids of Egypt and beyond, and this is just the beginning! 
The strips are scanned from the original artwork, where available, or from the actual comics. Although originally published in colour (with colours added by the Marvel UK staff) the collected strips will appear in black and white (or greyscale for the pages scanned from the colour comics).
To buy Combat Colin and/or any of my other comics by mail order, check out my online shop:

...or see you at Macc-Pow! tomorrow!

8 comments:

Manic Man said...

yay ^_^ Just ordered two copies, one for me, one for my dad ^_^

a good question for.. later volumes would be what version of the place with no-name will be featured.. Yampy Tales added an extra panel for a start..

Lew Stringer said...

That Prisoner spoof will appear in issue No.3. I'm not sure yet whether I'll be reprinting the original version or the one with the extra panels.

Lew Stringer said...

Oh, and thanks for your order by the way, Ryan. I've had loads so far and will be posting them all out next week.

Craig Grannell said...

I'm amazed they returned the rights. I assume a Robo-Capers comic won't happen? I'd love to buy that.

Manic Man said...

^_^ loads of sales is good.

Lew Stringer said...

It went well at Macc-Pow! today too, Ryan!

Craig, at the time, Marvel UK were entering a new phase doing comics such as Motormouth, etc and had no intention of ever doing humour again so they gave me back the rights thanks to Paul Neary and John Freeman who were editors there at the time. I was pleased of course but I didn't want to risk my luck by asking for the rights to Robo-Capers as well. Marvel still own that. I'd be happy if they reprinted them (even though I wouldn't receive payment) but I can't see it happening. There's no comic that Panini UK publish at the moment that Robo-Capers could comfortably fit into, and I don't think a Robo-Capers solo comic would have the potential to work from Panini or Marvel's perspective.

Manic Man said...

technically.. doesn't Robo-Capers still being owned by Marvel/Panini create a minor problem for the Combat Colin 'crossover' strip? probably not any more then the guest star strips which should be fine

Lew Stringer said...

No, you're right, there are a handful of pages I won't be able to reprint because they feature Marvel or Transformers characters. What I'll probably do is run a resume for those. I'm also considering altering the one that features Doctior Doom so it's a spoof (into Doctor Notdoom or something) so I can publish it.

Fortunately we're only talking about a few so it's not going to affect the comic overall.