SMOSH!

This is the opening panel to Brickman Returns! What happens next? Complete daftness! The 32 page comic will be available soon and you'll hear about it here first! 

Enter the HELL HOLE!

Here's a preview of my newest strip. It's another one-off page for Dark Horse Comics, that appears on the back page of Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out No.8. As with all the 'Li'l House of Grind' pages I've done for the comic, Hell Hole was inspired by old style horror comics and The Twilight Zone TV series. I hope you like it...

...if you can find it! Grindhouse No.8 was published yesterday and is available in America but UK sellers don't appear to have received copies yet. The comic is banned in Canada due to its extreme sexual content (not in my strip though) so I hope there haven't been problems with UK customs. I will update this post with more info as soon as I know the situation.

However, the digital version is available on the Dark Horse app. You'll find the link here:

https://digital.darkhorse.com/profile/6063.grindhouse-drive-in-bleed-out-8/

As I said, my contribution is only the back up strip. The main story is part 2 of Nebulina by Alex de Campi and John Lucas. Definitely for broad-minded mature readers! The cover is by the fantastic Milo Manara! If someone had told me last year that I'd be in a comic with art by Manara on the front cover and art by me on the back cover I'd never have believed them. Definitely one of the highlights of my career.

Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out No.8. 

Dark Horse Comics.

$3.99. 

  

Pest preview

Just a reminder that copies of Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out No.6 may still be available at your local comic shop. I did the back up strip for the issue featuring a one-off character I called Sex Pest, the loathsome boss of a workforce of lice in a 'pubic forest'. Yep, the comic's for adults only. You can read more about it here:
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/my-newest-creation.html

If you prefer a digital version you'll find it on the Dark Horse Comics app. The strip will also be collected in the next Grindhouse: Doors Open At Midnight graphic novel, scheduled for December.

I've also done a strip for Grindhouse No.8, which should have been out today but I'm not sure if it's delayed or not. I'll reveal more about that when I'm positive that the comic is on its way. That will be the final issue of the mini-series. It's been a real pleasure working with Alex de Campi and the Dark Horse team and I hope there'll be other opportunities to work with them in the future.
http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/26-753/Grindhouse-Drive-In-Bleed-Out-8

Con Cancellation

I'm sorry to say that I won't be attending the Bournemouth Film and Comic Con this weekend (29th / 30th Aug). Caught a flu bug again or something and it's put me behind schedule so I need to get on with work. 

My apologies to those of you who were hoping to see me there. Hopefully I'll still be at the ICE (International Comics Expo) in Birmingham on September 5th, and hopefully BRICKMAN RETURNS! will be ready to launch then too.  

Keep a Dandy Handy!

Just a quick reminder that the 2016 annuals are out now! The Dandy Annual 2016 features 10 pages of my material, with several strips featuring The Smasher and Keyhole Kate! The weekly may be gone, but the annual survives, packed with all-new material with your old favourites! There's an extreme close up of one of my Smasher panels above. why is he out for revenge? Buy the book and find out!

A Pigswilla epic!

Back in 1988 I produced a nine page Perils of Pigswilla story for Oink! comic. Full of robot-on-robot violence and piggy puns, the action-comedy strip is now online in its entirety over on Phil Boyce's excellent Oink! Blog! 

By this time in Oink's history the comic was aimed at a slightly older reader and subsequently contained some darker humour and scenes that certainly wouldn't appear in a mainstream comic for kids today. It's still a story I'm pleased with so I hope you enjoy it:
http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/66-extra-crispy-pork-belly.html

Status update

Brickman Returns! is completed. A few hours ago I uploaded the pages to the printers so all being well the comic will be out in a week or two! Look out for more updates including ordering information soon!

A Brickman Bonus

As I've previously mentioned, I'm currently putting together Brickman Returns!, a full colour comic which collects all the Brickman strips that were published in Image's Elephantmen in the USA in 2006 to 2009. 

Well, all but one strip that is. The page shown above was an old unpublished one I did in 1996 that was eventually used as a filler in Elephantmen No.14 when I was running a little late. While it was nice to see it in print at last it didn't really fit into the continuity of the rest of the series, and it repeated a punchline from another episode, so... I've made the decision to leave it out of Brickman Returns! but instead feature it here as a free bonus. Hope you like it! 

I've now practically completed Brickman Returns! and will be sending it to the printers this week. Stay tuned for more news soon!

In print this week...

Here's another preview of my Team Toxic story in this week's Toxic magazine, which will be in newsagents and supermarkets across the UK on Wednesday 19th August. 

Team Toxic may be plunging to their doom in this panel but it's certainly not a reflection of Toxic's fortunes. The mag has seen a sales rise to 55,000 copies an issue, making it one of the most popular comics on the stands. Not bad for a publication that has been around for 13 years. 

You can read more about the latest UK comic/mag sales figures at the Down the Tubes blog:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=24692  

Also out this week is Doctor Who Magazine No.490, featuring another of my Daft Dimension strips! On sale Thursday 20th August. 

See you at SFCC this Saturday!

A quick last reminder that I'm one of the many guests at the Sheffield Film and Comic Con tomorrow, Saturday 15th August, at the Motorpoint Arena. The event runs for two days but I'll only be there on Saturday. 

If you're attending, look out for the Comics Zone, which may not be on the same level as the comic dealers, so ask one of the assistants in the blue or red shirts if you're not sure.

If you can, please drop by my table for a chat, or to commission me to draw a sketch for you, or buy a copy of Brickman Begins! I'll also be revealing the front cover to my new comic, Brickman Returns! which will be published in a few weeks.

Hope to see you there!

Full guest list and event details:
http://www.sheffieldfilmandcomiccon.com/   

Toxic 259: advance preview

Here's an exclusive sneak preview of my Team Toxic strip for the next issue of Toxic, on sale from August 19th. The Team go on a quest into the jungle in another two page adventure. I'll show another panel from this strip closer to the publication date.

Toxic has been published by Egmont since 2002 and is the leading boys comic magazine in the UK. A new issue is on sale every three weeks from newsagents and supermarkets. Support the British comics industry!

Upcoming events

I have a busy convention schedule over the next few weeks, so here's a reminder of the events I'll be at. I hope to see some of you there! 

August 15th:
Sheffield Film and Comic Con
http://www.sheffieldfilmandcomiccon.com/


August 29th/30th:
Bournemouth Film and Comic Con:
http://www.bournemouthfilmandcomiccon.com/


September 5th:
ICE (International Comic Expo), Birmingham:
https://internationlcomicexpo.wordpress.com/

A couple of other dates to be confirmed after that too, for October.

I'm hoping to have Brickman Returns! ready for Bournemouth but that may be unrealistic due to work commitments. If I miss that, it'll be out in September. More info soon!

Brick-a-BACK!

Here's some more information on the self-publishing project I said I was working on the other day. Yes, I'm bringing my oldest character Brickman back into print! Brickman Returns! will collect the pages I did from 2006 to 2009 which originally appeared in Image Comics' Elephantmen in the USA. This is effectively a sequel to Brickman Begins! that was published by Active Images in 2005. 

This 32 page full colour one-off comic will be out soon, and exclusively available to buy directly from me, either by mail order or at conventions.

Look out for more info on this blog over the next few weeks! 

   

Master of the Lewniverse

This week I will be mostly working on my own comic. Yes, I'm getting back into self-publishing. I'm not giving up the freelance comics work of course, as that's fun too and pays the mortgage, (so don't abandon me, editors!), but I own a number of characters, and strips long out of print, that I really need to get out there again. 

I'm only talking about small-press print runs of course. This isn't, in any shape or form, an announcement of a new comics company to compete with the mainstream. I'll post more info at a later date about the comic I'm working on first. Stay tuned!