Christmas is coming

I sent off my pages for the Christmas Team Toxic story in the early hours of this morning. I'll show more nearer to when it's published in Toxic No.264 on December 2nd but for now here's a close up of part of a panel.  

Satanist Scares

I was at the MCM London Comic Con on Saturday (read my review on my other blog by clicking here) and I was very pleased to see that Time Bomb Comics had launched their new 92 page book, Bomb Scares 2015. Not only is it a packed anthology of all-new horror comic stories by some great talent, it also features three pages of The Suburban Satanists by me. This is a different set of strips to those that appear in my new Brickman Returns comic, and these strips won't be appearing in next year's Suburban Satanists comic either, so to see them treat yourself to Bomb Scares! Here's the link for more info:
http://timebombcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/bomb-scares.html   

Cover by Richard Elson and Dave Kendall.

See you this Saturday?

I know this is late notice but I'll be at the MCM London Comic Con this Saturday, 24th October, at the Excell, London. You'll find me either at the Doctor Who Magazine table or the Panini/Marvel tables, so drop by for a chat and a sketch. I'll also have copies of Brickman Returns on me so if you haven't bought one yet, now's your chance. 

I'll only be there on the Saturday, but the event runs across the whole weekend. Here's the official website:
http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/london/

Comic horrors!

There's a new issue of Toxic out tomorrow (21st October) and my Team Toxic strip has a suitably spooky theme. The Team investigate a haunted house and encounter one of their oldest foes; Frankendrac! 

It's been a long time since I've used Frankendrac as a villain in the strip so I'm sure some readers will be seeing him for the first time. Dare you enter the Haunted House of Horrible Horrors in Toxic No.262 this week? On sale Wednesday 21st October from newsagents and supermarkets.

Like most children's comics these days, Toxic comes bagged with gifts. In this case, a slingshot, stickers, and sweets. Here's the bag to look out for...

A date for your diaries

The Birmingham Comics Festival has just announced its first wave of guests for 2016 and I'm very pleased to be on the list. The one-day event will take place at the Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham on Saturday 23rd April.

The other first guests announced are Areil Olivetti, Luca Pizzari, and Leigh Gallagher, so I'm in fine company already. To find out more about this great event, check out the official website here:
http://www.thecomicfestival.com/

I will of course be posting more updates over the coming months, as well as news of other events I'll be attending in 2016.

Brickman at the Lakes

I won't be at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival this weekend but Brickman will! Thanks to my good Beano pal Nigel Parkinson, there'll be copies of Brickman Returns available to buy from the table he'll be at with his colourist Nika Narkova. Drop by and buy! - And have a chat with Nigel and Nika too of course! 

Here's what Nigel said about Brickman Returns on his blog:
http://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/dropped-brick-man.html

And here's the official website for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. I was there last year and I thoroughly recommend it!
http://www.comicartfestival.com/

If you can't make it to the event but you'd like a copy of my comic, you can buy it directly from me here:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

Davros or Daftros?

Here's a preview pic of The Daft Dimension strip I did for the latest Doctor Who Magazine, which will be in the shops on Thursday! Published by Panini UK it has 92 packed pages for £4.99. This is the cover to look out for.... 

He's the Butt of the joke

It's been a hectic couple of days getting the latest Team Toxic 2 pager drawn and coloured for Toxic No.263 which will be out towards the end of November. Toxic's unusual schedule of being published every three weeks often means that deadlines loom up faster than anticipated. Anyway, job done and I emailed the pages to the editor this afternoon. As you can see from the preview panel above it features the return of Butt-Face, who is always fun to draw and hopefully gives the readers a giggle.

Next up, I'll be drawing stuff for The Dandy Annual 2017 but I won't reveal which strip just yet. Then it'll be time to get ahead on the next issues of Toxic and Doctor Who Magazine and anything else I can fit in, if I stay fit enough that is! Caught another bloomin' cough and cold! (The downside of traveling by public transport is there's always someone coughing and sneezing on the buses.)

I'm hoping to drop into the Caption small press convention in Coventry this Saturday, just for a few hours. Depends how I'm fixed for time though as I'm a guest at Comic Con Leicester the next day (11th October). 

Caption website: 
https://captionfestival.wordpress.com/

ComicCon Leicester website:
http://www.comicconleicester.co.uk/

Developing Daft Davros

Here's a section of my next Daft Dimension strip. As you can see, it features Davros, creator of the Daleks. I thought you might like to see the development of the panel from my initial rough, to the finished inks, to the added colour.

You can see the complete strip in Doctor Who Magazine No.492 when it goes on sale on October 15th!  

Brickman Update

All the orders for Brickman Returns! that I received last week have now been dispatched. The orders I've received today will be posted on Monday. Thanks to all of you who have bought copies. It's much appreciated. 

It just goes to prove that there is still interest in independent comics. Admittedly, Brickman Returns! is only a modest effort with a small print run, but there has been a steady stream of sales since it was launched on September 5th. And that's with no advertising except plugging it online in a handful of places, and selling it directly. (Copies are also still available at Nostalgia and Comics, 14  - 16 Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham). 

Curiously there was some resistance from a few Christians concerned about the "Satanic content", ie: my Suburban Satanists strip which runs as a back-up in the comic. Subsequently some people have refused to buy it on those grounds without actually seeing the strip. I was quite staggered that a humour strip tacking the mickey out of an incompetent bunch of devil-worshippers would upset anyone, although there was a similar response in the 1990s when it appeared in Sweden and Norway. Personally I think the humour in Suburban Satanists is very mild, and I suspect the objectors may be imagining it to be more explicit than it is, but if that's their decision so be it. To be fair, no one has yet said it should be censored, they've just explained why they won't buy it, so I'm glad that at least they've offered their reasons and obviously they're not going to enjoy my daft comic if it makes them uncomfortable or fearful. It's not for me to argue against it as it's their choice and obviously they're entitled to that. However, I am continuing with my intention to publish the Suburban Satanists in their own comic early next year. 

Next Sunday, 11th October, I'll be a guest at Comic Con Leicester and will be bringing along a few copies of Brickman Returns! (and the previous collection, Brickman Begins!). Due to Sunday rail service I won't be arriving until about 11am but I hope to see you there!  
http://www.comicconleicester.co.uk/

If you haven't bought a copy of Brickman Returns! yet and you want to order one by post, you can do so from my online shop here:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

New review

My thanks to John Short of Kult Creations for giving a glowing review of my Brickman comics! "If these two publications don't have you laughing out loud multiple times you must be a DC lawyer or something." You can read the full review here:
http://kultcreations.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/brickman-review.html

While you're there, check out the rest of the Kult Creatons blog for John's own wonderful publications. His latest book, Octobriana: The Undergound History is a must-have item for anyone interested in comics history (and that's all of you, right?) I'll be posting a full review of it on my Blimey! blog soon.

If you're one of the people who hasn't got around to buying a copy of Brickman Returns! yet, you can order a signed copy directly from me from my online shop:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm