Easter Fun with Tom Thug

OINK! 1988

 

Happy Easter if you celebrate it to all readers of this blog. Here are a few scrapes that Tom Thug got up to in the Easter issues of Oink! and Buster between 1988 and 1994.

BUSTER 1989

 

BUSTER 1990

 

BUSTER 1991

BUSTER 1992

BUSTER 1993

BUSTER 1994

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Easter with Tom Thug (1989)

A little something for you this Easter, with a Tom Thug page I did for Buster way back in 1989. Script and art by me, lettering by Mike Peters.

Thirty-one years later, Tom Thug makes a cameo appearance in the new Cor!! Buster Easter Special, on sale now in print or digital at this link:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/RCS2052

I may post something else this weekend if I have time but if not I hope your Easter weekend goes as well as can be expected, and that you and your loved ones are safe and well.  

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Tom Thug's Easter Adventure (1991)

Here's the Tom Thug page I did for the Easter issue of Buster 24 years ago! (Issue dated 30th March 1991). Script, art, colouring, logo design and sound effects by me, dialogue lettering by Jack Potter. 

Pink is way too dominant a colour on this page but the idea was that Tom's Mum (who always wore pink) would be the one to have chosen the bedroom decor and it'd be funny that Tom's Dad, an unsophisticated brutish thug, slept in a bedroom with pink sheets, pink wallpaper, and a pink wardrobe unit. I should have used a much lighter pink for the background though. It's all a bit too heavy and the brush strokes too visible.

I drew that page back in the days when I used coloured inks, years before I had a computer. I prefer colouring with Photoshop far more than I ever did using a brush. Computer colouring is ideal for revising the colours before settling on the finished result, and I feel it suits my style better. 

Anyway, I hope you like this old page, despite its garishly clashing colours. Happy Easter!  

Tom Thug's Easter: Buster 1992

Detail from original art. 

'Appy Easter, as Tom Thug might say. Here's the Easter Tom Thug strip I did from Buster comic of 22 years ago this week...

...and if you're interested in buying the actual original artwork for that page, I have it up for auction on eBay right now:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOM-THUG-EASTER-STORY-ORIGINAL-ART-from-BUSTER-comic-1992-Lew-Stringer-/201076746557?pt=UK_Books_comics_Magazines_UK_Comics_ET&hash=item2ed11ba93d

Happy bidding, and Happy Easter!

Tom Thug, Easter 1990

With the 14th April 1990 issue, Buster comic underwent a significant revamp, gaining a new masthead and gaining 'all colour' throughout its 32 pages. (It had previously featured a large amount of black and white pages.) Truth be told, some of the 'all colour' pages were only done with basic primary spot colour rather than hand inked/painted full colour. However, I was fortunate in that Tom Thug had proved popular enough to be one of the pages to switch to proper full colour.

Above is the Tom Thug's Skooldayz page I did for that issue. The first in full colour for the new-look Buster. I created a new logo for it because the previous blackboard style one would have looked too drab for a colour page. I thought a tatty, stained exercise book style would be more suitable and still 'Thuggish'.

The colours of the strip reproduced more dark and intense than I intended in this issue, but I kind of like the richness to it. 

And, as it's Easter weekend, the Eater Egg theme of this story seemed appropriate. Hope you like it. Happy Easter!