Outside of comics

Over the last 30 years about 99% of my work has been exclusively for comics. Maybe even 99.9%. I haven't kept count. However, sometimes I'll be contacted by companies outside of comics to do commercial illustrations for them. Often, it makes a refreshing change, especially when it's for a good client. (And every artist has horror stories about the bad clients, but I don't use my blog for muckraking.) It can be a rewarding experience and it's an area I'd like to venture into more often really. (As long as I can keep doing comics as well of course.)

One pleasurable job recently was doing a few illustrations for Meello, the crowdsourcing company for the built environment. There's the builder 'John' on this blog, and you can see him in context at the Meello website:
http://meello.co/

Perhaps I'll show some of my other non-comics work here sometime if enough people are interested?

Aces! It's a Busy Beano week ahead

Like waiting for a bus and three turning up at once I have a load of work to do over the next week or so, all with deadlines close together. Not that I'm complaining! So expect this blog to be a bit quiet until I've cleared the workload a little. For The Beano I have five separate feature pages to illustrate and three Rashers to draw, and for Aces Weekly a new three page Combat Colin to do. 

In the meantime, here's a preview of this week's Rasher strip from The Beano No.3681, in the shops now! http://www.beano.com/

Also, if, like me, you're old enough to remember 50 years ago - or you're curious what what happening in pop culture and the news back then, - check out Nigel Parkinson's brilliant new blog 1963 and all that. It's a blast!
http://1963andallthat.blogspot.co.uk/

New character

Last week I drew a half page strip for the next issue of Viz. It stars a new character, or rather a spoof of a public figure. I won't say who it is yet or it'll probably raise your expectations and you'll be thinking of him in funnier scenarios than the one I've written. Then you'll only be disappointed and claim Viz Isn't As Funny As It Used To Be. 

It's only intended as a one-off strip. Here's a sneak preview. You can read the full strip in Viz No.225, on sale April 24th.  

Oink! and Buster pages for sale

I'm selling off some more of my old pages on eBay this weekend. This time there are a selection of original pages from Oink! and Buster, including Pete and his Pimple, The Vampire Brats, and Tom Thug. 

One of the Tom Thug strips in the auction is the one I did for the first combined issue of Buster with Oink! It's the very first Tom Thug's Skooldayz page, rebooting the series for Buster readers. 

The auction ends late tomorrow afternoon (Sunday 14th April). All bids welcome! Click here to see the listing. 

More Beano fun

One of the things I enjoy about writing and drawing the Rasher strip for The Beano is that it gives me the opportunity to draw other Beano characters from time to time. This week's mini-strip has cameos from several classic Beano stars, with at least one in each of the four panels. The Beano No.3680, - out now!

I've also been drawing a few pages for The Beano's companion comic, BeanoMax, recently. I've provided several illustrations for a feature in issue 77 (on sale 24th April) and I think I have three pages in issue 78 (out at the end of May). I can't really show the images here until they're published but here's a Max-imum screen-grab close up of one that'll be in No.78. 

Never Be Without A Beano!

Just a quick reminder that the latest Beano is in the shops now. Here's a preview of my Rasher strip from the current issue. If you haven't bought The Beano for a while, it'd be worth your time to pick up a copy. It's had a gradual revamp over the past six months or so and it's in great shape these days. Just as it should be of course, with its upcoming 75th anniversary in July!

http://www.beano.com

Four forgotten strips

Click to see larger size.

I can usually remember most of the work I've done over the past 30 years but sometimes I'll stumble across pages that I've completely forgotten about. Case in point this page of four strips from Little Nipper comic. They're undated, but I think I drew them in the late 1980s or early 1990s. 

Little Nipper was a four page glossy A4 comic that was produced as a giveaway for kids riding on the 'Nipper' mini-buses for South Yorkshire Transport. I don't know who drew the cover strip.

Only pages one and two feature strips. Pages three and four being taken up by a competition. I know I definitely created the four strips shown above, wrote the scripts and drew the artwork, and Little Nipper was a one-off so they never appeared again. 

Anyway, I thought I'd share these obscure strips here. Unless you rode on South Yorkshire mini-buses one summer many years ago you've probably never seen them before! 

Artist unknown.