Eric fails again

©D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

Here's a scene from the latest Eric Fail strip in the new issue of Epic magazine, out now. Eric always tries to help but disaster is just around the corner. Script by Niall Murray, art by me. 

Wiggy's Quest

Here's a quick preview of the strips I did for this week's Beano. Bash Street Pup Wiggy tells the rest of the gang about his strange quest to an ancient pyramid in Pup Parade...

...while in Ivy the Terrible, dad suggests that Ivy finds something else to do than play video games all day...

That's in the latest Beano, which also features lots of other strips of course and this week is bagged with a bunch of pranks! £3.50

Return to MACC-POW!

I'll be returning to Macclesfield this summer as it's my pleasure to be one of the guests again at Macc-Pow!, a one-day comics event on Saturday 1st July. Hope to see you there! Here's the PR....

Join LEW STRINGER, PAUL GRIST, LEAH MOORE, JOHN REPPION, DAVID LEACH, OLIVER EAST, EMMA CHINNERY, MARC JACKSON, JAMES KOCHALKA, DICK VINCENT, RICK EADES, LYNDON WHITE, JESSICA ON PAPER, PIGDOG PRESS, KEN MCFARLANE, LAURA CROW, TILLIE WALDEN, WOW COMIX, CLAIRE SMITH, NATALIE BURGHER, MISSED DEADLINE MAGAZINE and more, for an amazing day of comics, comics and EVEN MORE COMICS!!!

Today we officially announce this year’s MACC-POW! the one day comic-art festival in#Macclesfield This year, we are working once again in partnership with the mighty Barnaby Festival and will be bringing comics and cartoon art to the town on Saturday 1st of July. This time, we will be situated in the historic Town Hall building, slap-bang in the centre of town and will be welcoming guests from last year, as well as newcomers to our festival. We can promise it will be bigger, brighter and even better than last year!

Spread the word and thanks to our additional sponsors The Monocle Deli Flour Water Salt Roe 11 Hairdressing Vinyl Planet Sugacane & Sugacane Toys Spanish Caravan Deja vu AMP used guitars amps & effects The Phoenix comic Wow Comix N Carter & Co you have all been incredibly generous!

Check out our website www.maccpow.co.uk for more details and the full line-up of those attending! Plus, look out for the posters around town and see how the businesses supporting will be getting involved, closer to the time! #MaccPow

New in EPIC this month

The latest issue of D.C. Thomson's Epic magazine is out today so here's a quick preview of some of the strips I drew for it. Written by Niall Murray and illustrated by me, Hygiene High try their hand at acting. As you might guess, their acting stinks, as do they! 

There's also three mini-strips written by Niall Murray and drawn by me, including a new one, Bin Man! 

Don't miss Epic No.130, out now!

Combat Colin: 30 Yampy Years!

It's been 30 years today since my first Combat Colin strip appeared in print! I've written a retrospective on my Blimey! blog here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/combat-colins-30th-anniversary-week.html

Updated Convention Listings

Here's an updated list of the comics conventions I'll be at this year. Hopefully there's one near where you live, or that you'll feel like travelling to. Come along and meet the guests!

ROBOT: ILLUSTRATION AND CREATIVE ARTS CONVENTION

25th March 2017

The Millenium Gallery,

Sheffield

http://www.robotcon.co.uk



STOKE-CON-TRENT

9th April 2017

Staffordshire University,

Leek Road,

Stoke On Trent,

Staffordshire

http://stokecontrent.co.uk


ENNISKILLEN COMIC FEST

5th and 6th May 2017

Enniskillen,

N. Ireland

https://www.facebook.com/Enniskillen-Comic-Fest-1030761763641321/



INTERNATIONAL COMIC EXPO (ICE) - BRIGHTON

10th June 2017

Hilton Metropole,

Brighton

https://brightoncomicexpo.wordpress.com



BIRMINGHAM COMICS FESTIVAL

24th/25th June 2017

Birmingham City University

https://birminghamcomicsfestival.com



T.B.A.:

1st July 2017

More info soon.

T.B.A.:

5th/6th August 2017

More info soon.



INTERNATIONAL COMIC EXPO (ICE) - BIRMINGHAM

9th September 2017

Holiday Inn,

Birmingham

https://internationlcomicexpo.wordpress.com



T.B.A.

23rd September 2017

More info soon.



COVENTRY COMIC CON

1st October 2017

Sports Connexion,

Leamington Road,

Ryton On Dunsmore,

Coventry

CV8 3FL.

http://www.coventrycomiccon.uk



LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL

13th to 15th October 2017

Kendal,

Cumbria

https://www.comicartfestival.com



LOUGHBOROUGH COMIC-CON

22nd October 2017

Venue to be announced soon.

https://en-gb.facebook.com/loughboroughcomiccon2017/

READING COMIC CON

25th/26th November 2017

Rivermead Leisure Complex

https://www.facebook.com/readingcomiccon/

Nightmare!

In the latest Beano, Ivy the Terrible has a nightmare. What could possibly have caused that? Find out in the issue on sale now!

...and there's also a Pup Parade by me in there too!

100 years in comics!

I saw my old pals David Leach and Bambos Georgiou at the Robot: Illustration and Creative Arts Convention in Sheffield yesterday and it occurred to me that the three of us have a combined experience of nearly 100 years working in comics! I've known Bambos and David since we started out in the business over thirty years ago and it's not often these days that our three paths meet at events so it was great to catch up with them again. Nice to finally meet Bambos' wife Jane too (who took this photo). 

In case you didn't know, David Leach is the creator of Psyhco Gran and is an editor at Titan Comics, and Bambos has recently worked on The Bash Street Kids for Beano with Mychailo Kazybrid (another artist who started out 30 plus years ago). They've all done much more than that over the past three decades of course!

You can read my report of yesterday's convention on my other blog here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/a-sunny-day-in-sheffield.html

...and there's a video news item on the event at the Sheffield Live! site here:
http://web.sheffieldlive.org/millennium-gallery-hosts-robot-con-return/

©Sheffield Live!

The next convention I'll be at will be Stoke-Con-Trent on 9th April.
http://stokecontrent.co.uk

TOXIC 286

There's a new issue of Toxic out now, bagged with a bunch of gifts. I've contributed another Team Toxic two-pager, which sees the Team set off into space. That's Toxic No.286, yours for £4.99 in shops now.

See you at Sheffield!

This coming Saturday, 25th March, I'll be at Robot: Illustration and Creative Arts Convention at the Millenium Gallery in Sheffield. I'll have a table selling my Brickman Returns and Derek the Troll comics, plus various prints such as The 7 Ages of Fan. I'll also be doing sketches, so come along. It'll be good to see you. There's my banner (above) to look out for. 

More info on the event at the convention website:
http://www.robotcon.co.uk

Combat memories

Thirty years ago I was embarking on a new strip for Marvel UK that would run for four years and is still my favourite work. Combat Colin started in Action Force No.5 in late March 1987. Today, I've been sorting through the original artwork. I was pleased to find that I still have most of the pages.

As Marvel gave me the rights back long ago, I'll be reprinting all those early strips in Combat Colin No.1. I'll be scanning from my original artwork and from the comics to fill in the gaps of the originals I don't have.

My original plan was to bring it out on the 30th Anniversary week, but I've been too busy to even start on it until now, so expect to see it either in May or (more likely) June.

I'll be posting more info as it develops, and I hope some of you will be interested in buying a copy. I plan to publish two or three issues a year until all the stories have been reprinted. Issue No.1 should have 40 pages, which will cover all of the Action Force episodes, then issue 2 will commence reprinting the strips that were in The Transformers.

More news on availability and ordering info at a later date.

A new convention announcement

I'm very pleased to be able to add another event to my "road trip" this year as I'll be one of the guests at the Birmingham Comics Festival on June 24th and 25th 2017. 

The convention takes place at Birmingham City University and other guests will include David Lloyd, Hunt Emerson, Phil Winslade and more!

There'll also be an exhibition of comic art at the university from June 1st, and other events related to the show taking place in June. Keep an eye on the festival website for more details...
https://birminghamcomicsfestival.com

ComiXology Colin!

Volume 16 of the award-winning digital comic Aces Weekly is now available to buy and download from ComiXology. For just £6.99 you'll get loads of strips by people such as Emma Chinnery, David Leach, Mychalio Kazybrid, Jok, Ryan Taylor and more plus an all-new Combat Colin three pager. 

Grab your copy from ComiXology today!
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Aces-Weekly-Vol-16/digital-comic/492954?ref=c2VyaWVzL3ZpZXcvZGVza3RvcC9ncmlkTGlzdC9BbnRob2xvZ2llcw


+++++++++++++++++++

As regards an update on the Combat Colin comic, I haven't had time to make a start on it yet but I'm hoping to launch it at a convention in May or June. Readers of this blog and those who follow me on social media will be the first to know of course! More news soon! (And yes, Combat Colin will be a printed paper comic, not digital. Similar format to the Derek the Troll comic I did last year.)

It's BEANO day!

Here's a quick preview of my strips from this week's Beano. Ivy the Terrible lives up to her name again, and Pup Parade encounter Snarler, a new dog in town!

Plus loads of other strips by the top humour artists in the UK. Don't miss Beano No.3876, on sale now!

For more info on this issue, check out the Beano website:
https://www.beano.com/posts/inside-beano-no-3876-the-one-where-minnies-a-monster

My first self-published comic (1978)

Here's the cover to After Image No.1, which was my first self-published comic waaay back in late 1978 (cover dated January 1979). I wasn't the first to self-publish a comic/ fanzine of course, not by a long chalk. UK comics fandom had started in the early to mid-1960s so I was a latecomer by 1978. 

Looking at it now, After Image was very raw, very crude in style, and certainly not professional standard, but it was a start. It helped get my work out there by selling the 'zine mail order (by advertising it in other fanzines) and to receive feedback. All good experience that gave me enough confidence to quit my dead-end job a year or so later and start looking for work in comics. (That took quite a while, but that's another story.) 

Quitting my old job was the best thing I ever did. The moral being; pursue your dreams! 

If you want to read the whole issue of After Image No.1 for free you'll find it archived on the excellent Classic U.K. Comics Zines website here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz-VsUjOG2SiUXZBVmJOcGpLTVE/view

New con date added!

I'm very pleased to be able to reveal that I'll be at Reading Comic Con on 25th and 26th November 2017 at the Rivermead Leisure Complex. This is a new event for me (I've never even been to Reading) so I'm really looking forward to it. Hope to see some of you there!

You can keep up with the latest news about the event at the Reading Comic Con Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/readingcomiccon/

Tickets are available to buy now from this link:

https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Reading/Rivermead-Leisure-Complex/Reading-Comic-Con/12899506/

A Terrible idea....

...to invite Ivy the Terrible to a wedding! It'll end in tears. Or even tiers? Who knows? Readers of the Beano, that's who! Find out what happens in the latest issue, out now!

They're out now!

My strips in print today:
Beano No.3875 featuring Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible. 
Doctor Who Magazine No.510 featuring The Daft Dimension. 
Plus loads of good stuff by others in both mags of course! 
On sale now from newsagents and supermarkets.

Latest Daft preview

Here's a preview of one panel from my next Daft Dimension strip that you'll find in Doctor Who Magazine No.510, on sale this Thursday, 9th March. 

This time it's about a group of fans, rather than being about the TV characters. Yes, we all know someone like this guy don't we? 

It's a privilege to be a contributor to the official Doctor Who Magazine but I've no idea yet if the new Doctor for the 2018 series will be male or female. (And I'd be sworn to secrecy even if I did know.) My guess is they'll stick with tradition and cast a male actor, but with a new showrunner taking over next year it's quite possible he'll want to completely shake up the show and cast a female lead. 

Personally, I don't think it matters what gender or ethnicity the new Doctor will be as long as we get good stories. 

I have a theory who the new Doctor might be, and I think there'll be a brilliant twist in the next Christmas episode that will reveal it, but I'll keep that speculation to myself for now. (I suspect I'll be completely proven wrong before then, and if so I'll reveal my theory and you can scoff at how daft it was.)

Anyway, until then, we have a whole series still to come with Peter Capaldi, who has been great in the role. The Cyberman are coming back later too. The original, cloth-faced 1966 Cybermen! It all begins on April 15th. As for The Daft Dimension, I need to get cracking on the next one, so it's back to the drawing board for me...

Here's the cover to look out for on Thursday...

Website refresh

I've given my website a bit of a refresh. It's hosted through MrSite which gives you templates to use. That can be restrictive but I think it looks a bit better than it did. 

If you've looked at it recently you might need to reload the page (or clear your cache) to see the new design properly. Let me know what you think.
http://lewstringer.com

In print this week...

I've quite a few strips in print this week so if you're interested they're....

Epic No.129: 
Artwork on Hygiene High (2 pages) and Zombie Sports, Eric Fail, Terrible Movies (mini strips). Script by Niall Murray.


Toxic No.285:
Script/artwork on Team Toxic: Day of the Trolls (2 pages).

Beano No.3874: 
Script/ artwork on Pup Parade (half page). 

All on sale now from newsagents and supermarkets.