Heroes or villains?

Most of the lead characters in British humour strips are either well meaning goodies or mischievous anti-heroes, but I tried to make some of mine a bit more complex at times. Here's a brief rundown of characters I've created over the past 40 plus years (not including characters written and created by others). 

War-Bot (originally War Droid). After Image fanzine 1979. 

A futuristic robot created for destruction but begins to question his programming. Definitely a hero. 

Brickman and Trowel (various since 1979).

More of a grey area. Brickman and Trowel mainly want to defend Guffon City from the villains, but they can also be selfish and their relationship is often unstable and self destructive. So... heroic intentions but definitely "red flag" characters who you wouldn't want to associate with in reality.

King No-Nose (Robo Capers). Transformers comic 1985. 

He wants to invade and destroy using mad robots. Even though he's inept and the robots are useless and often malfunction, his intentions are evil. Certainly a villain.  

Rock Solid, Space Hero (Swiftsure, 1985)

Well he thinks he's a hero but he was a total narcissist. Died "saving" Earth (which involved him destroying the Earth). 

 

Captain Wally (Spider-Man Comic, 1985).

He may be naive but his intentions are good and he's dedicated to fighting crime. 100% hero.

 

Snail-Man (Spider-Man Comic 1985).

Slow moving but determined. Definitely a hero. Valiantly died fighting The Brain in a Combat Colin episode in 1989. 

 

Derek the Troll (Warlock, White Dwarf 1985)

Grubby and smelly but usually means well, even though things go wrong. Yeah, he falls into the heroic category.

 

Macho Man (Secret Wars, 1986)

Sole survivor of Planet Klakton, the essence of Macho Man merged with Earthman Norman Dribble to become the world's most powerful hero. Well, until he was killed during The Invasion of Megabrain in a Combat Colin episode in 1990. (Yikes! That's two heroes Megabrain killed!) Let us remember him. 100% hero.

 

Tom Thug (Oink! 1986)

Not a decent bone in his body. A selfish bully who never learns his lesson. Definitely not an anti-hero, but 100% a villain. 

Pete and his Pimple (Oink! 1986)

Considering he's doomed to have a massive zit flare up on his nose at any moment, Pete copes really well. Certainly a good guy, but has been known to have a flawed personality. Nevertheless, a sympathetic figure and basically heroic, especially when fighting against the Zitbusters from Planet Yampy.

 

Pigswilla (Oink!, 1986).

A co-creation between me and Mark Rogers, Pigswilla the Giant Robot Pig fought massive monsters and an evil robot butcher so lets give a big cheer for an undisputed hero!

 Specky Hector, Comic Collector (Oink! 1986)

Originally a one off character for Oink! in 1986, then a recurring character introducing Specky Hector's History of Comics in Buster in the 1990s. He just wants to indulge in his hobby of reading comics and spreading the word. A hero in my book. 

Combat Colin (Action Force, Transformers, etc 1987 to present).

He might be a bit gormless but he's pure of heart and often endangers himself to save the world. Like his assistant Semi-Automatic Steve, Colin is 100% hero.  

 

Norma Snockers (Sunday Sport 1989) 

"One for the Dads" as they say. Commissioned to create a "dolly bird" character for the Sport I tried to make her the hero of the strips, with the leering dirty mac brigade being portrayed as the losers. Quite a tightrope to walk in a publication devoted to objectifying women. I consider Norma a hero. Some might disagree.  

Pedantic Stan the Comics Fan (Speakeasy 1990)

Co-created with John Freeman, Stan is quite obsessive about the details of his comics! Not a villain but not exactly heroic. Stan is Stan. 

Alistair Sadgitt (Camera Obscura fanzine, 1990s). 

Similar to Pedantic Stan but Alistair is obsessed with The Prisoner TV series. And far weirder than Stan. Neither hero or villain but definitely not someone you'd want to be trapped in a lift with. 

 

Tough Guy and Scruffy (Triffik comic, 1992)

Super strong but super dense and the most conceited superhero you'll ever meet, Tough Guy tries to be heroic but it's always his assistant Scruffy who saves the day. Scruffy is the real hero here. 

 

Shortfuse the Cybernik (Sonic the Comic, 1995).

Conceived and created by me and illustrated by various artists in the comic, Shortfuse existed in the Sonic universe and was a squirrel trapped inside badnik armour. Originally a villain, then redeemed as a good guy. Yep, 100% hero. 

Tekno the Canary (Sonic the Comic, 1995).

Another character I created for the Sonic universe that was illustrated by various artists. Tekno was a scientist forced to work for Dr Robotnik and later escaped to become a Freedom Fighter. She also had various adventures in other dimensions with her best friend Amy Rose. Tekno is certainly a hero. She fights dictators! 

 

Suburban Satanists (Geek, Herman Hedning comics, 1997 to around 2003).

Created for comics in Norway and Sweden, this devil-worshipping family were more likely to summon up deckchairs than demons as they were so bad at being Satanists. Even so, hardly heroic. Inept villains. (Yes, I do still intend to publish a British edition, health allowing.)

 

The Dark Newt (The Dandy, 2012)

He was a superhero fighting crime in the local pond. Yes, it's The Dark Newt, a six part story created for The Dandy in its final year. Very heroic, amongst pondlife anyway. 

 

Sgt. Shouty of the Moon Force (The77 comic, 2020)

Set in the far future (and a sequel to Rock Solid), Shouty is a synthetic soldier created in a lab. Initially the process was sabotaged by Dr.Plank, making Shouty volatile and violent, but he's learning to control it, if he can. A hero ...for now!  

 Deja Vu Man (Goof, 2025).

He lives a cyclic existence repeating his crime patrol over and over forever... and that's why there'll never be a second episode! A hero, repeatedly!

Snowman of the Yard (This Comic Is Haunted, 2025),

He's a living snowman and he solves crimes. Only a one off strip so far but hopefully he'll return. There's "snow" doubt he's a hero! 

...and there you have it. A brief rundown of most of the lead characters I've created for comics. This is just the titular characters of course, not including all the monsters, mad scientists, and other villains and supporting characters.  How many do you recognise?

 

Preview: Doctor Who Magazine No.633

Doctor Who Magazine No.633 hits the shops this Thursday (August 20th) and amongst its 84 pages of interviews, news, features and strips will be another Daft Dimension from me.

As this issue has a new interview with David Tennant on his return as the Doctor in new audio adventures, I've included the 10th Doctor in my comic strip this month. (You may have noticed that my Daft Dimension often reflects the main feature in each issue.) 

You'll find issue 633 in TG Jones, Asda, Tesco, some branches of Sainsburys, comic shops, and even the few surviving newsagents that stock it. Or you can subscribe directly from Panini UK at this link...

https://doctorwhomagazine.com/ 

Back from Gloucester!

Thanks to Shane Chebsey for organising Comics Assemble, a brand new all-comics festival in Gloucester yesterday with an impressive guest list from the UK and overseas. An enjoyable day meeting friends old and new. I hope it returns next year and develops into a regular event because we need more shows totally dedicated to comics!

**************

The next show you'll find me at will be the High Vis Kings Heath Comic Con on Saturday 19th September, which will be my final convention for the foreseeable future. (Although health permitting I hope to attend Thought Bubble in November as a visitor, but sadly not as a guest.) 

 

See you at COMICS ASSEMBLE today!

I'm looking forward to being a guest at this brand new event today (Saturday August 15th). Comics Assemble takes place at the Gloucester Leisure Centre from 10am to 5pm. Organised by Shane Chebsey, other comics creators include John Wagner, Sabine Rich, Paul Hogan, David Hitchcock, Jesus Merino and more! (Sadly Doug Braithwaite has had to cancel for personal reasons.)

I'll be bringing along a few of my comics, plus I'll be doing A4 character sketches on request for £20 each. Hope to see you there!

Here's the website:

https://comicsassemble.net 

 

It's CLOAK time! Available to pre-order now.

If it wasn't for Mike Higgs' creation The Cloak, there'd be no Brickman, no Combat Colin, and possibly no comics career for me. Simple as that. The Cloak was the most influential comic strip of my childhood, where I learned that humour comics didn't need to be formularised stories about naughty schoolkids, but that they could contain action adventure plots including monsters, aliens, mad robots and even demons, all with a good dollop of daftness!

Now, The Collected Cloak is to be published, a large size hardback including all of Mike Higgs' Cloak serials from Pow! and Smash! from 1967 to 1969, plus those he did that followed for other publications such as the 1986 Brickman special and Crikey magazine. Running to over 230 pages, the book also includes a new introduction written by Alan Moore, enthusing over his genuine affection for the character and its creator. There's also an interview with Mike Higgs about his career, conducted by the book's publisher Nat Karmichael, showing how The Cloak developed from the character's original incarnation as The Shudder in early 1960s fanzines. 

Although The Cloak wasn't the first humourous spy strip serial (preceded by Leo Baxendale's Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy and others for example) there was something fresh and modern, and very much in tune with Sixties pop culture about the mysterious black garbed bulgy-eyed hero. I think it also helped that The Cloak and his co-stars (including the unforgettable Lady Shady) were adult characters, not kids plunged into the situations like Eagle-Eye. Readers didn't need to "relate" to the character; we wanted to look up to The Cloak because he was so cool.  

Anyway, the main point of this rambling but affectionate post is to say that The Collected Cloak is now available to order from your nearest comic speciality shop. Give them the order code AUG262180 as it's being solicited by Diamond UK. You'll need to order it this month (August) so that the shops can place their orders with the distributors. (I think it'll be published in October / November but you need to order it in advance because comic shops are less likely to stock humour books unless they know there's demand for them.) I believe the price is £29.95 which is very reasonable for a book like this. I ordered mine yesterday with no problems.

This isn't a book that you'll find in TG Jones or Asda. It's a limited print run for a niché audience, so comic shops are the place to order it from. 

The Collected Cloak is published by Australian publisher Comic OZ, via an official licence with Rebellion. I know some of you have chosen to order it directly from Australia, although that will be very expensive due to postage. However, here's the link should you wish to do that:

https://www.comicoz.com/store/p61/The_Collected_Cloak.html

Once again, to order The Collected Cloak from a comic shop, give them the code AUG262180 which will now be on their system. 

The Dandy Annual 2027 is here!

Available from online sellers today (and hopefully in shops soon) The Dandy Annual 2027 has arrived! With fantastic covers by The Sharp Bros, the 112 page hardback is packed with all new comic strips featuring favourites from past and present; Corporal Clott, Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat, Keyhole Kate and many more. 

My contributions are three new double page Dinah Mo stories (script, art, and colouring) with the environmental inventor dealing with polluters, a mad robot, and her accident prone dad.  

As I've mentioned before, these stories are my last work for DC Thomson (and mainstream kids' comics in general) so I dunno if that adds to the book's collectability or not. 

Just to clarify; this does not mean I've given up drawing yet! I'm focusing my energies on my Doctor Who Magazine strip and working on my self-published comics. I still have lots of ideas for my own comics but whether or not health and finances will allow me to reach those goals remains to be seen.

Anyway, The Dandy Annual 2027 is a smashing book that I'm privileged to be part of. In fact I felt privileged to work for all the comics I've been in over the years.

Other creators involved in the annual include Laura Howell, Wayne Thompson, Nigel Parkinson, Andy Fanton, Steve Bright, Iain McLaughlin, Mychalio Kazybrid, Nigel Auchterlounie and more!

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-dandy-annual-2027

COVER ART BY THE SHARP BROS.

 

The Prisoner discussed

One for fans of the classic enigmatic 1960s TV series The Prisoner. A brand new 320 page book has just been published entitled Half A Dozen of the Other: It Means What It Says that contains numerous in depth essays about the series. 

This is Volume Three of a series (and the final volume) that was begun by the late Ed Fordham, and has been concluded by Prisoner expert Rick Davy. It contains submissions by many writers, giving their observations, theories and knowledge about the show, and is an intriguing and entertaining read. The book also includes many new black and white photographs of Portmeirion, the village that served for location filming of The Prisoner. 

Why am I plugging this book on my business blog? Well, because I'm pleased to say there's a cartoon by me in the back, that I drew in 2007. This one didn't appear in my Fanzine Funnies Prisoner cartoon collection ('cos I forgot to include it) so it's the first time it's been in print since the PM2007 convention booklet way back when.  

If you enjoyed The Prisoner, Half A Dozen of the Other: It Means What It Says is a great read. Profits from the book will go to the charities MIND and Ty Gobaith Children's Hospice so it's all in a good cause. You can buy the book at this link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Half-Dozen-Other-Means-Three/dp/B0HCGNVBGS/