Comic Life

I had a relatively happy childhood growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s. There were also sad times of course, just as there is in anyone's young life; family hardships and illness, the death of pets, school anxiety etc, but on the whole they were good times. 

It helped to have an interest in something. Comics and drawing were my passions, and still are. As a result, I was never bored. Not once. If I wasn't out playing with my friends I'd be perfectly content to stay at home reading my comics or watching TV. 

We didn't have a lot of money. We lived in a council house, never owned a car, and by the time I was ten my Dad had to give up work due to thrombosis. (He had two operations to remedy it, neither of which were very successful, and he died suddenly in 1974 at the age of 52.) 

I was an only child, but I wouldn't say I was spoilt, because I was practical about what I knew my family could afford. I never had a bike and that didn't bother me. We had one holiday a year, usually a week in Blackpool but some years only a couple of days. I never had a record player until I was 15, but I did have comics regularly; Smash!, TV21, Dandy, Beano, Fantastic, Pow! and more. Back then, comics were cheap. Seven comics a week was my limit for a while, bought for me by my mum or other family members, but I'd try any new comic that was launched, even if only for the first issue, plus various American comics.

Comics not only expanded my reading and comprehension but also stimulated my imagination to create my own little comics drawn with ballpoint pens and felt tips on Silvine drawing paper folded in half to make a booklet. I became fascinated by the process of creating comics, and of their long history.

Thankfully, I never experienced the disappointment that many seem to have endured in that my mum never threw out my comics without asking me first. She knew how much they meant to me. When I eventually left home I took the comics with me.

Discovering comics, and the support of my family (particularly my mum) gave me the incentive to work in the comics industry. I did have a non-comics office job for a few years after I left school but it wasn't the path for me and I eventually quit to pursue my ambitions. Now, after 43 years in the comics industry, and all the experiences and friendships I've made, it was definitely the right direction to take. I feel that things are winding down now though but it's been a good run. My only regret, and it's a big regret, is that although I dated some nice women along my journey I never married and it's a solitary life without a soulmate. The family I had are all long gone now, but I think about them every day and I'm grateful I was so fortunate to receive their love and support. 

 

Conventional thoughts

With the current world situation, it was absolutely the right decision for the organizers of the London Film and Comic Con to postpone their events until 2027. Rising oil prices, uncertainty of international flights, it's a nightmare for anyone planning a big event to host guests from America. 

I'll really miss LFCC as it's one of my favourite events, but hopefully we'll all be back next year for the re-scheduled summer show on 14th and 15th August 2027. https://londonfilmandcomiccon.com/

I do have a few smaller shows coming up this summer, the first of which will be the Macc Pow Comic Art Festival on Saturday 27th June at Macclesfield Town Hall. Check out the details at this link:

https://maccpow.co.uk/

I'm pacing myself this year so I don't do events too closely to each other as I get very tired after a weekend's show. After Macc-Pow, my next show will be in August. That hasn't been announced yet so I'll reveal more about it on a blog post here as soon as it is.

After that, I'll be at the High Vis Kings Heath Comic Con on Saturday 19th September, just outside Birmingham. You can read all about that at this link: https://highviscomic-con.com/

Following that... I'll be going to the Thought Bubble Comic Convention in Harrogate on the weekend of 14th and 15th November. However I won't be a guest or exhibitor at that one. I'm going along as a visitor just to catch up with friends in the industry I haven't seen for years. I've heard good things about the event and have never been so I thought I'd check it out. 

All of these plans depend on my health of course. At the moment my cancer is stable and still doesn't require treatment but if that changes I'll have to cancel some shows. I'm hoping my health stays stable though and I'll be able to get out and about or there won't be a lot of joy to life otherwise. 

Anyway, let's see how it goes!

Original script from SONIC THE COMIC plus more in this week's auction

I'm selling something different this week. My actual typed script for a Tails story that I wrote for Sonic the Comic No.149 way back in 1999. As you can see at the top, I faxed this seven page script to the editor, Deborah Tate, but this is the original script not her fax copy.

The script gives descriptions and dialogue for every panel that instructed the artist on what to draw. Characters involved in the story include Tails, Charmee Bee, Shortfuse and more. Most of my scripts were lost years ago in a computer crash before I backed them up so this is a unique collectors' item for fans of Sonic the Comic! 

Also up for auction this week:

My original art for a Daft Dimension comic strip I drew for Doctor Who Magazine No.526 in 1999...

...and a full colour Tom Thug page I drew for Buster dated October 27th 1990.

 

Bidding on all these items ends on the evening of Sunday 10th April. Here's the link...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=graphite47 

 

Mervyn's Monsters!

What's this? I've always said that this blog is exclusively to promote my own work but here I am plugging a book by Leo Baxendale!? Well, Mervyn's Monsters gets a free pass because it contains a new introduction written by me.

 

Published by Irmantas Povilaika who did those two superb Ken Reid books several years ago, Mervyn's Monsters collects the full run of Leo Baxendale's comedy adventure serial that ran in Buster weekly in 1968. Similar in premise to Baxendale's Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy that he previously did for Wham!, the book involves a kid who works for the secret service, aided by his monsters in the fight against the villainous Mush, a bad guy in the Grimly Feendish mould. 

And of course it's very funny. Some of Leo's best work. 

Mervyn's Monsters is published with the permission of the copyright holders Rebellion and available in hardback (with an A4 print) or softback. The print run is limited, and only available to buy directly from Irmantas himself at this link:

https://www.kazoop-comics-shop.com/

Dandy advance preview

If you go over to Amazon you'll see that they have a few preview pages from The Dandy Annual 2027, just to whet your appetite before the book is published in August of this year. 

It includes page one of a two page Dinah Mo story I did. (There will be three two page Dinah Mo stories by me in the annual, my final work for D.C. Thomson). 

Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dandy-Annual-2027-featuring-characters/dp/1917436440

Who could that possibly be satirizing?

I'm currently working on the Sgt. Shouty page for the next issue of The77. Here's a clip from the previous issue showing the un-named villain who was a threat to society. (He was dealt with shortly after.)

 

Doctor Who Magazine No.629

There's a new issue of Doctor Who Magazine in shops this Thursday, (issue No.629), so here's a clip from my Daft Dimension strip, and the cover to look out for! Click on the image to see it larger.

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