Venturing into 2025

You can keep your honours list, Charlie! Receiving my Hall of Fame award at the London Comic Festival in July was better than any knighthood.:)

Wishing you all the very best for 2025!

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Original artwork up for sale!

I've just put more of my original art pages up for auction if anyone wants ro take a look. Two Tom Thug pages from Buster (1992 and 1996), a Snail-Man strip from Spider-Man (1985) and a Daft Dimension from Doctor Who Magazine (2023). Bidding ends on Sunday 5th January.
Here's the link:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections on 2024

2024 hasn't been the best of years for me and things aren't going to improve but I know millions are worse off so I won't drone on about the downside. Fatigue from CLL continues to be a problem but on better days I did enjoy working on some fun comics and attended conventions in Manchester, Macclesfield and London, and get to Blackpool a few times for a break. Even started the year with an invite to the old BBC HQ to celebrate 600 issues of Doctor Who Magazine.

 

It occurs to me that I spend about 90% of my life on my own these days, so meeting up with friends really means a great deal to me and it's been a pleasure to catch up with those of you I was fortunate to spend time with. One big highlight of the year was receiving a LFCC Hall of Fame award in July for my 40 years in comics. That has pride of place on top of my bookshelf. 

 

A big thank you to friends for the laughs and great company, and to everyone who's invited me to a show or supported my art over the past 12 months. 

I'll get my state pension next April so all being well and depending on health I'm pleased to announce that I'll retire and focus on selected commissions, self publishing, and selling more of my old artwork. So 2025 could be an exciting year.

 

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Update:

I'm sorry my Reflections on 2024 post was a bit downbeat in places. I'm trying to remain optimistic and I do have plans for 2025 as long as my health holds up. 

 

All being well you'll see the return of BRICKMAN in one comic, SGT. SHOUTY in another, the 6th issue of COMBAT COLIN, and that's just the first half of 2025. I have lots of plans for self publishing and I won't be giving up on mainstream comics completely when I retire. So watch this space for future developments!

 

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First Daftness for 2025

I hope you all had a good Christmas. Here's an advance peek at a panel from my next Daft Dimension comic strip! You can see the full version in Doctor Who Magazine No.612, on sale Thursday 2nd January 2025. 

Here's what else you'll find in that issue (taken from the Panini website):

https://www.panini.co.uk/shp_gbr_en/doctor-who-magazine-612-gbdrw612-uk02.html

• An in-depth look at the making of The War Games in Colour, including the brand-new model work and the Troughton/Pertwee regeneration sequence.
• EastEnders veteran RUDOLPH WALKER recalls his role in The War Games…
• Writer and exec producer STEVEN MOFFAT discusses Joy to the World, including scenes that never made it to screen.
• RUSSELL T DAVIES explains what connects The Pirate Planet, The Christmas Invasion’s ill-fated Danny Llewellyn and a branch of Marks and Spencer…
• Build your own half-scale Dalek with a new Doctor Who partwork. We talk to the team behind this exciting new project…
• Script to Screen – on the creation of BabyStation Beta – as seen in the 2024 season debut Space Babies.
• LISA BOWERMAN, JAMES GOSS and GARY RUSSELL reflect on the enduring appeal of archaeologist adventure Professor Bernice Summerfield.  
• In the second part of our coverage celebrating 50 years of stage play Seven Keys to Doomsday, we talk to JAMES MATHEWS who played companion Jimmy.
• The Memory Worm gets its teeth into YEE JEE TSO – Chang Lee in the 1996 TV movie.
• We look at how fandom reacted to the casting of BONNIE LANGFORD as companion Mel in 1986…
• ALISON ZRADA asks us what advice can be found in Doctor Who for New Year’s resolutions.
• The Fact of Fiction looks at the opening episodes of 1968’s The Dominators.
• The continuing adventures of the Doctor and Ruby in the comic strip!

Plus, regular features:

• Gallifrey Guardian – looking ahead to the 2025 series!
• Shelf Life – featuring reviews of the latest books and audio releases.
• Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.
• Prizes to be won including a special Blu-ray bundle!
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It's Christmaaaaas!

Wishing you all the compliments of the season and thank you for following this blog, buying my comics, supporting my auctions and for generally being the best! 

I don't know if this joke has been done before on not. I suspect it has! Hope you like it anyway. Happy Christmas!

First comic con announcement for 2025

So far I've been invited to four conventions for next summer. All being well I'll be able to attend them all, and hopefully more. I won't reveal what they are until they've been announced but one that has just been promoted is Lawless Comic Con, in Bristol over May 24th and 25th 2025.  

Having attended two of their previous shows (in 2022 and 2023) I'm very pleased to be returning. It's a convention that is totally dedicated to comics and I'm privileged to be part of such an impressive guest list.

You can find out more and book tickets from their website at this link:

https://lawlesscomiccon.co.uk/ 

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Get your Tough Guy digital comic!

Two years ago I compiled all my Tough Guy superhero parody strips into a 32 page digital comic and it's still available if you missed it! You can read it on your phone, tablet or desktop computer.

As I'm not selling any original art at present due to the Christmas backlog, and not doing a lot of mainstream comics work, any little income is very much appreciated.

Tough Guy and Scruffy collects all 12 episodes of the strip from the short-lived Triffik! weekly of 1992 plus a few bonus features and a new Christmas story into a 32 page digital comic. The humour is similar to Combat Colin; daft comedy-adventure and even dafter villains, and the strips are suitable for all ages. 

You can read or download the comic at the following link. After which, please, please donate the cover price of £3 (or whatever you wish) to me by PayPal. It's entirely voluntary and I know some people think everything online should be free for the taking but if you can donate a small amount my PayPal address is lew.stringer@BTopenworld.com

Thank you.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xOty4Q1HLooI6KVk9kmoVmodf5Pa7QTn/view 

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Keep a Dandy handy for Christmas

It's the last few days for you to buy your Dandy Annual 2025 in time for Christmas! Many shops have them discounted so you can grab a bargain. 112 pages of all new content featuring a mixture of old favourites and new characters. 

One of the new ones is the revamped Dinah Mo, using an old name but with a totally new character. Meet Dinah Modise and her family in four new two-page stories in the book. The character was created by the Dandy editors and assigned to me to write and draw her adventures. 

This is the 14th consecutive Dandy Annual I've contributed to and I won't be in the next one but it's been a pleasure and a privilege to work on the books. It's actually been 60 years this Christmas since I had my first Dandy Book (as it was called then) and I still remember unwrapping it and reading it on that happy day of long ago. (Yes, I still have it). For some readers, The Dandy Annual 2025 will be their first annual, and I hope it also gives them happy memories to last a lifetime.

Future auctions

All of my artwork from this week's auction was dispatched the other day Special Delivery and should be in the hands of the winners by now. Thanks again for your bids!

My next auction won't be until January as I feel it's best to avoid posting valuable items on the run up to Christmas. If there are any pages you're particularly interested in, please let me know, either by commenting below or via email or private message on social media. 

I will be blogging again before Christmas though. I just need to do my annual cyber-Christmas card first!

 

 

Thank you.

Thanks for your bids on my last auction of the year. The pages had far less bids than I expected (especially the Viz page) but I guess it's because people have Christmas expenses.

Nevertheless I do really appreciate your support this week and over the past year. It has helped. Thank you.

 

Original comic art pages! Auction ends soon!

It's very quiet on my eBay page this week which as surprised me as I've put some collectable pages up. I guess it's because people are saving for Christmas? Anyway, there's just one bid on each item so far and the auction ends tomorrow (Wednesday 11th). I know it's an expensive time of the year for many, and bills are coming in too, but if you want some original comic art for Christmas please bid what you can afford. Thank you.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

 

Art auction ends this Wednesday

 

Not a lot of activity on my art auctions this week so you could grab yourself some original comic art for Christmas. Auction ends this coming Wednesday (11th Dec). Pages from VIZ, OINK!, BUSTER, TOXIC, and DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&_ssn=graphite47&_sop=10

 

SHAAARRKS!!

The Pathetic Sharks appeared in Viz comic for many years, initially by Viz's co-founder Chris Donald and then throughout the 1990s and into this Century by me. The bickering, rambling, somewhat camp dangers of the deep were always fun to work on and they proved very popular. I'm currently selling the original artwork for a page I wrote/drew back in 2009 for Viz No.188, and this original artwork could be yours! Auction ends on Wednesday 11th December. Good luck with your bids!

Here's the link:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205146170686?itmmeta=01JEGY50D9T74KFB62P8JQF6ZT&hash=item2fc3aa253e:g:DA4AAOSwsQtnUMyP

LAST AUCTION BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

For what's likely to be my final auction listing this year before the post goes bananas, I've just listed SIX items of my original artwork from over the years. A variety of pages that I hope will appeal to various tastes. There's a PETE AND HIS PIMPLE vs PIGSWILLA two pager from OINK! BOOK 1987, a TOM THUG page from BUSTER (1990), two items from TOXIC magazine from around 2012, a DAFT DIMENSION from DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE (2002) and... the one I think will gain the most interest, a PATHETIC SHARKS page from VIZ COMIC (2009). 

 
Auctions run for a week and end on the night of Wednesday 11th December. All bids appreciated! If you want to buy some comic art for Christmas here's the link...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

 

 

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Daleks: The Ultimate Guide!

Just in time for Christmas, Panini UK have published an impressive slipcased 224 page Doctor Who bookazine called Daleks: The Ultimate Guide which covers everything you need to know about 60 years of Dalek history on TV, in comics, toys, movies, books, and beyond. And there's even an interview with me in there regarding my regular Daft Dimension comic strip. 

 

As a lifelong fan of the Daleks it's a privilege to be a small part of this bumper volume of facts, features, and photos. Edited by Marcus Hearn, who certainly knows his stuff, this slipcased bookazine should soon be available in WH Smiths or you can order it directly from the pubishers at this link:
https://www.panini.co.uk/shp_gbr_en/doctor-who-daleks-the-ultimate-guide-gbdrwz036-uk02.html

 

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Captain Wally meets Snailman. Original artwork from 1985.

 

Thanks to everyone who placed bids on my Doctor Who artwork. Next up is a very early item that I drew in 1985. It's a two page crossover between Captain Wally and Snailman that appeared in Spider-Man comic No.650. The first time I had two of my characters meet up. Auction ends on Tuesday 3rd December.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205129921386?itmmeta=01JE1MC2MMSMSJ6X1N5CKQNJDY&hash=item2fc2b2336a:g:I30AAOSwfMJnRi0s

 

Also up for auction and ending the same day is this Tom Thug page from Buster (1993)...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205129874714?itmmeta=01JE1MC2MM5FSAGDC9NH4X4E9F&hash=item2fc2b17d1a:g:ZPcAAOSwDC1nRinp

Good luck with your bids!

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Christmas Preview

Cover preview of the Christmas issue of Doctor Who Magazine, plus a sneak preview of my Daft Dimension comic strip that's inside.

And, yes, there's snow on the logo! (On my strip at least.) I couldn't resist that festive comics tradition. 

The issue goes on sale this coming Thursday, 5th December.

 

 

MEGABRAIN!

NEW PRICE! My original artwork of Megabrain for the back cover of Combat Colin No.5. Bids now start at £40 or you can Buy It Now for £60. Includes the printed comic as well.

Heres the link:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205129879176?itmmeta=01JDQVSXBYP578396ZNBSYR7TX&hash=item2fc2b18e88:g:Lz8AAOSwzT5nRirQ

Testing, testing, 123....

 

There seem to be problems with Blogger at the moment and I can't log in from my desktop so I'm trying this from my phone to see how it turns out.

If it looks a bit odd you'll know why. Hopefully normal service will resume soon. 

Meanwhile here are some sketches I did for the Kickstarter backers of The77 and LoLz No.1.

Artwork from 1985, 1993, and 2024 for sale!

I've put more of my original artwork up for sale. A two page Captain Wally / Snail Man crossover from 1985 from Marvel UK's Spider-Man comic (some of my earliest work), a Tom Thug page from Buster (1993), and the back cover of Combat Colin No.5 drawn this year featring Megabrain! Here's the link:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

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Happy Birthday to Doctor Who!

As it's 61 years today since Doctor Who began on TV here's the comic strip I did for the official Doctor Who Magazine last year to celebrate the 60th! 

I'm currently selling the original black and white artwork here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205123921952

 

45 Years of BRICKMAN!

The History of Brickman!

It was 45 years ago this month, in November 1979, when I published the third issue of my fanzine After Image. It carried a mixture of strips and articles and on the back page of the slim 14 page publication was a new character I'd created... Brick-Person!

Wait, Brick-Person, not Brickman? Yes, because I felt that as every superhero was something-man or something-woman it'd be funny just to call him Brick-Person. The character was of course a spoof of Batman, with comedy inspired by the Batman TV show, and in this scenario it's the protagonist's parents who turn out to be villains. Loose Brayne's father is revealed to be The Poker! 

I had a "soft launch" for After Image No.3 at a local social club. Truth to tell it was just me handing out copies to my mates so they could read it in the bar. Here's a photo of that November night in 1979, back when I had a bit more hair and poor taste in shirts. (Please note I didn't have an afro. That's just a shadow caused by the flash!)

As it turned out, I decided that would be the final issue of After Image. Sales hadn't been great so I needed a rethink. Two years later in 1981 I launched a new fanzine, Metamorph No.1, and that contained the continuation of Brick-Person's cliffhanger where Loose Brayne's mum turns out to be Gnatwoman! 

I still wasn't satisfied with the strip though, and I don't just mean my crude art style of the time (athough that made me cringe). With the third issue of the 'zine in 1982, now renamed Fantasy Express and a focus on British comics, Brick-Person became Brickman. He'd also gained a partner, Tina Trowel, AKA... er, Trowel! 

Ever restless in those days, I ended Fantasy Express with issue 5 in 1983 to focus on working in comics professionally. Brickman had proven popular though so I decided to put him in his own mini-comics: Blimey! It's Brickman, Brickman on Toast, and the part-reprint The Early Brickman.

This gave me the chance to revamp Brickman a bit more. His debut story and the awkward revelation of his parents being The Poker and Gnatwoman was completely written out of Brick-history and a new Poker and Gnatwoman made their debuts with no connection to the originals.

By 1985 I was busy as a professional comic artist so Brickman was on the back burner again until Martin Lock, publisher of Harrier Comics, invited me to come up with a replacement for my Rock Solid strip that had been running in the early issues of the anthogy comic Swiftsure. I thought this was a good opportunity to revive Brickman once more so a new one-off three pager appeared in Swiftsure No.6. This was followed in 1986 by Brickman getting his own Harrier comic, which included guest pages by my friends Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill, Mike Collins and Mark Farmer, with an intro by Alan Moore and a back up Cloak story by Mike Higgs. Quite a package that I'm still proud of. 

 

The conclusion of that Brickman story ( a 20 pager called The Brickmania Caper) saw Brickman quit and head off into the sunset... perhaps forever? Not quite. For the next few years I had Brickman or his alter-ego Loose Brayne make anonymous cameos in the various other comic strips I worked on, such as Loose Brayne being a stallholder at the fair in this Combat Colin strip from Marvel's Action Force No.6 in 1987...

...and as a Brickman who'd forgotten who he was in this Combat Colin story from The Transformers No.245 in 1989...

The reason I didn't disclose his name in that story was so that I could retain copyright, but after Marvel UK returned all rights on Combat Colin to me I changed that panel when I reprinted it so he introduced himself as Brickman.  

The daft knight remained in limbo until 1996 when I created a brand new Brickman story for my new self-published comic Yampy Tales...

Here's the opening splash page of the story. As you may have gathered, Brickman was never aimed at children. Some people assumed it was for the Beano age group because of my art style but I always considered the demographic to be teenagers and older. Incidentally, when this 1996 story was reprinted in 2005 I had to change the plane into an alien, as it was too close for comfort in the post 9/11 world. 

Brickman ran in Yampy Tales 2 and 3 (the final issue), concluding with him riding off into the sunset again. I'd intended that to be the end of the character, but he has a habit of returning!

In 1997 Chrissie Harper asked me to ink a photocopy of Jack Kirby's pencils of a Captain America illustration, replacing the Red Skull with Brickman! The page appeared in No.11 of Chrissie's Jack Kirby Quarterly...

In 2005, my old Marvel UK editor Richard Starkings, now a successful writer and lettering artist in America, offered to publish the entire Brickman saga in a 152 page digest size softback. Under his Active Images imprint, Brickman Begins appeared, bringing the stories to a new audience in the USA. Bonus pages included legends such as Tim Sale, Charlie Adlard, Hunt Emerson and Alan Davis depicting their versions of Brickman!

 

The book included a brand new four page prologue I created that could segue into the reprints...

Richard Starkings also invited me to create brand new Brickman strips as a back up feature in his award winning Elephantmen comics that were published by Image Comics. With each episode being a full colour page, the series ran from 2006 to 2009...

In 2015 I decided to get back into self publishing as a sideline to my mainstream comics work. My first title was Brickman Returns, gathering all the stories I'd done for Image Comics into one publication...

 

At the end of that comic, Brickman retired again, and I thought that would be his swan song...

...but not just yet! Earlier this year I reprinted a couple of Brickman stories in Lew Stringer's Comic Sampler, an anthology of some of my "best bits" from comics over the years...

 

...and... I'm currently creating a brand new series of Brickman and Trowel mini-strips that will appear in a new British comic set to debut in 2025! It's all hush-hush for now but more news on that in a few months' time hopefully!

Brickman will return... again!

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