I think it's great that after 60 years Doctor Who continues to experiment and try new things. As you may already know, Lux is the episode that features Mr Ring-A-Ding and it was a privilege to draw a full page one-off strip featuring the character that exclusively appears in the current issue of Doctor Who Magazine! The next issue of DWM is out on Thursday, so if you haven't bought No.615 yet, time is running out!
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Will I ever reprint the material within? I dunno. Everything depends on my health these days, so it's not on my radar. My main focus is on getting Combat Colin No.6 out this summer if possible.
A big thank you to all of you who bought Brickman Begins over the years. Hope you enjoyed its 152 packed pages!
I still have other comics available so check out my KoFi page here:
https://ko-fi.com/lewstringer/shop
Back in 1991 Viz comic produced a summer special for kids called The Pathetic Sharks Bumper Special. I drew most of the pages for it and the original art has all been all sold to collectors now except for this three page story.
Albert O'Balsam and his Magic Hats is an unusual one because I drew it over tight layouts by top artist Roger Langdridge. (In fact Roger's version was completed art but Viz strangely felt his detailed rendering didn't suit the style they wanted. A great shame! So mine was basically a Vizified redraw on the lightbox from stats of Roger's art.)
Anyroad up... I'm currently selling my original pages as one complete item in this week's art auction. Story by Chris Donald, art by me based on work by Roger Langridge. A rare item!
The auction ends on Sunday 13th April (this coming Sunday) and all bids are appreciated! Here's the link...
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| The very first Robo-Capers from this week in 1985 |
I've just been reminded by Transformers collector Graham Thomson on Bluesky that it's 40 years since my Robo-Capers strips began appearing in Marvel UK's Transformers comic! In fact it was my first ongoing strip for a mainstream comic, thanks to editor Shiela Cranna accepting them.
I had a great deal of enjoyment creating new robots every week; the sillier the better! I know the strip is still fondly remembered by readers of the comic. I can't do a Robo-Capers comic collection because Marvel hold the rights (even though it's unlikely they'll ever reprint it) but I've posted the early ones in previous blog posts here:
https://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2019/07/robo-capers-early-strips.html
...and here:
https://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2024/01/robo-capers-part-2.html
...and I'll post some more later this week!
Here's the link:
Here's the link:
And for any Thunderbirds fans, I'm also selling this Thunderbirds Sticker Book from the 1960s... Bidding ends on Sunday 6th April.
All bids appreciated as always. Good luck!
Mr Ring-A-Ding is a character who'll appear in episode two of the forthcoming new series of Doctor Who. Jason Quinn, the editor of Doctor Who Magazine felt it'd be a nice idea to have a page in the latest issue based on the character, in the same way that TV Comic etc featured strips based on tv cartoons.
So... Jason wrote a script for a Mr Ring-A-Ding comic strip, I drew it (based on character designs the BBC sent me), and it's in print today in Doctor Who Magazine No.615.
I wanted it to look a little different to my regular Daft Dimension strip in DWM so instead of hand lettering I used a dialogue font I'd created a while back that looked a bit like an old comic font. I chose not to give the speech balloons any borders so it'd look sort of similar to the old Gold Key comics of 60 years ago. For the same reason, I decided to leave the colours flat without shading.
I hope it works OK and readers enjoy this unusual one-off.
The magazine also includes another Daft Dimension mini-strip by me, this time bringing back the Zarbi, still worried about their public image problem.
There's a wealth of other material in the mag too of course; interviews, news, reviews, previews of the first three episodes of the new series, and lots more, plus it's bagged with extra items!
Doctor Who Magazine No.615. In shops now!
https://doctorwhomagazine.com/doctor-who-magazine/doctor-who-magazine-615/
Doctor Who returns to BBC One on Saturday 12th April. The episode featuring Mr Ring-A-Ding will be shown on 19th April.
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I suppose it was my fault for writing such a long post the other day for people to wade through.
So in short: I'm still self-employed, I'm still paying my taxes, but now I'm 66 and entitled to my State Pension it means I won't have the stress of deadlines all the time so I can work when I feel like it.
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