Comic Scene columnist!

I've been invited to write a regular column for Comic Scene magazine, the monthly High Street publication dedicated to comics. My articles will focus on humour comics from the past and present (but mainly the past) and will begin in a near-future issue. (I'll let you know when.) 

I'm very pleased to become Comic Scene's latest contributor and proud to be part of a team that already includes Pat Mills, John Freeman, Colin Noble and many more. 

Comic Scene is available from WH Smith and various comic shops. You can find out more by visiting the website here:
https://comicsflix.org

...and subscribing here:
https://comicscene.tictail.com

The classic characters are back this April!

I'm pleased to finally be able to reveal that the secret project I've worked on is a contribution for the all-new Cor!! and Buster Special that's coming in April! 

I've drawn a three page introductory strip, from a script by John Freeman, that features loads of classic characters from IPC and Odhams comics that have recently been acquired by Rebellion Publishing Ltd. 

It was a pleasure to draw so many characters that I'd read in my childhood such as Bad Penny, Sid's Snake, Frankie Stein, and many more. 

I'm still not sure of the full line up of content, but it will feature work by some 2000AD contributors so expect to see modern spins on familiar characters! 

Cor!! and Buster Special is published on 17th April at £4.99, available from WH Smith and newsagents (and comic shops too). You can read more about it (and see Neil Googe's cover) here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2019/01/announcing-cor-and-buster-special-for.html

Have you visited my website?

This blog is where I post the latest news about my work but if you want to see some of my older pages there are free galleries to view on my website lewstringer.com

When you get there, click on the gallery images to see them larger...

My online shop is also there of course, where you can buy my comics directly from me, - and I'll even sign 'em at no extra charge. Current titles available are Combat Colin 1, 2, and 3, Derek the Troll, and Pedantic Stan. Plus a few remaining copies of the Brickman Begins book published by Active Images in 2005.

Thanks for your time. Hope you enjoy a browse though my site!  

Original art for sale!

I'm selling off a couple of my old Tom Thug pages from Oink! comic. They were both published in 1987 so these originals are over 30 years old! 

If you're interested, the link is here with more details and more images:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/graphite47/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Thanks in advance to those of you who will be bidding. Good luck! 

Busy Toxic panel from 2005

I enjoyed my 16 years doing Team Toxic for Toxic magazine and will certainly miss it. (The strip is ending in February.) Hopefully I'll be back at some point but it's very uncertain in this current climate of businesses making cutbacks. 

Here's a half-page panel from back in 2005 when Toxic celebrated its 50th issue! Matt Yeo was the editor then and asked me to fill the panel with every villain and supporting character that the Team Toxic strip had featured up to that point, along with characters from other strips in the magazine. It took a while to do, but it was very enjoyable! (Click / tap on the image to see it larger.)

Lorna Miller did the colours on my strip in those days, and she did a fantastic job. I'll dig out the comic when I have time and add a scan to this post so you can see the published version. 

Manchester Comic Fest is coming!

The first comic con I'll be a guest at this year will be Manchester Comic Fest at Wythenshawe Forum on Saturday 27th April. Other guests will include Nigel Parkinson, David Leach, Marc Jackson, and more! 
https://www.facebook.com/manchestercomicfest/

Tickets are now available! Buy them from this link:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/manchestercomicfest/events/

All being well, I'll have Combat Colin No.4 ready to sell on that day. More news soon!

Saturday Night Beano!

Last Saturday, a bunch of current and recent Beano freelancers met up for a slap-up feed in Birmingham, and the evening was full of chortles and guffaws. You can read more about it on Nigel Parkinson's blog at this link:
https://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot.com/2019/01/if-its-saturday-it-must-be-slap-up.html

Secret strip!

I'm currently drawing a three-page strip that's so secret I can't even show you a glimpse of it! It's something new for something different, and even I don't know anything about the title or who else is contributing. My deadline is tomorrow and I hear there might be an announcement this week... or not. We'll have to wait and see!

Exciting, innit? 

Brickman Returns - all gone!

I announced that Brickman Returns had sold out last September... then recently I found a few more and put them on eBay. I'm pleased to say they're now all sold! Thanks to those of you who bought them. 

I've no plans too reprint Brickman Returns yet, but may do later in the year for Brickman's 40th anniversary, with a slightly different cover dress and adjusted content. But for now, Brickman Returns is out of print! 

My other comics, such as Combat Colin and Derek the Troll are still available though, and you can buy them directly from me at my webshop:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

A year of change

It looks like 2019 is going to be a challenging year. Due to publishers making cutbacks, I've suddenly lost all my regular mainstream comic work except for The Daft Dimension in Doctor Who Magazine. It's quite a blow but it's time to forge ahead and hopefully find new work in other publications.

This week I'm busy working on a one-off strip for a comic I can't talk about yet. You'll be hearing more about it in the weeks to come! 

Next week I'll be drawing the final episode of Hygiene High, as Epic magazine is being cancelled. 

I've already drawn my final Team Toxic, as Toxic is dropping all comic strips. 

I've nothing coming up in The Beano for the foreseeable future. (The comic is doing well though.)

It's a bad time for publications, with most comics, magazines, and newspapers losing sales, and it's always the creatives who suffer. Keep following this blog for updates... good or bad.

Introducing Captain Doris!

There's a new issue of Goof! out today and that means a new Derek the Troll episode! In this chapter of his quest he encounters a new baddie... Captain Doris the pirate! What next? Well, Goof! is exclusively online so you can find out by subscribing for just £12 for 12 issues, and then you'll be able to read all the issues published so far on your desktop PC, phone, or tablet!

Here's the place to go...
https://www.goofcomic.co.uk

New episode of Derek the Troll this Saturday!

Issue 6 of the online comic Goof! goes live on Saturday 12th January and amongst its regular strips will be the next chapter of Derek the Troll's adventures.

In his quest to find the Magic Whatsit, Derek has become lost at sea! What next? See the full story in Goof! No.6. 

You can subscribe to Goof! at £12 for 12 monthly issues, and as back issues are always available you'll have access to all of those straight away too. 

Full details at the Goof! website:
https://www.goofcomic.co.uk

If you're interested in Derek the Troll's earlier adventures, the complete collection is available from me in print, directly from my website here. 32 pages on quality paper. Also includes the Complete Rock Solid, Space Hero in the second half of the comic.:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

New review of COMBAT COLIN No.3

My thanks to John Freeman for this great review of Combat Colin No.3 over on his Down The Tubes comics blog. He gets it! 

Read all about it:
https://downthetubes.net/?p=103518

Brickman on eBay

I thought I'd sold out of Brickman Returns but I've just found the last few! 32 pages, most in full colour, collecting the Brickman back-up strip that ran in Image Comics' Elephantmen several years ago.

Other strips in this issue include Combat Colin and The Suburban Satanists! 

Rated TEEN PLUS. 

I've put them on eBay so if you're interested in grabbing a copy, here's where to find them:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRICKMAN-RETURNS-by-Lew-Stringer-Last-few-left-Batman-spoof/202560021411 

Looks familiar!

There's a familiar face in the background of one panel in this week's Judge Dredd strip. You may recognise that red bobble-hat and gormless grin. It's all legit though. Artist Jeff Anderson asked me if he could draw a Combat Colin lookalike in the scene and I was happy to agree for him to do it. 

The story is Blocks Buds and appears in 2000AD Prog 2113, on sale Wednesday 9th January. Here's the cover to look out for...

Cover by Patrick Goddard / Jim Boswell.

This isn't the first time that 2000AD has referenced one of my characters. Back in 1987 this panel appeared in the Judge Dredd story in 2000AD Prog 550 written by John Wagner...

Art by Will Simpson.

You can read more about that issue here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2017/10/pile-up.html

All good fun, and harmless in-jokes for those in the know, - and if you're interested in checking out my Combat Colin comics, the first three issues are available to buy exclusively from me at my online store here....
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

See you at NOR-CON this September!

A new convention for me later this year will be Nor-Con, The Norfolk TV, Film, and Comic-Con, which takes place across the weekend of 28th and 29th September. Hope to see some of you there! 

More info at this link:
https://www.nor-con.co.uk/guests-nor-con/comic-book-guests/

Butt-Face is back... but not for long

There's a new issue of Toxic in the shops this coming Wednesday. Issue No.316, and I've made sure that Team Toxic is an appropriately wintery story with snow aplenty. The villainous Butt-Face is back, this time with an ice monster that freezes people's bums! Can Team Toxic stop his rear-end rampage? Find out by buying the mag!

Sadly, after 16 years, Team Toxic won't be around much longer. The strip ends in the following issue, but I'm hoping it'll return at some point this year, in some form! I'll keep you notified. 

Toxic is published every 3 or 4 weeks and available from newsagents and supermarkets across the UK. 

Classroom Calamity!

Those mucky kids of Hygiene High are up to their dirty tricks again in D.C. Thomson's Epic magazine No.155. Script by Niall Murray and artwork by me, it'll be in newsagents and supermarkets from Wednesday 9th January!

Have you met PEDANTIC STAN yet?

Last summer I published the complete collection of Pedantic Stan strips. Who's he, you may ask? He's that nit-picking obsessive we all know, and hope we'll never become. Pedantic Stan was an idea by writer/editor John Freeman that we both developed as a strip for Speakeasy fanzine in 1990. John wrote the first half dozen or so which I drew, and I wrote/drew the rest myself. 

It's a slim volume, at 16 pages, but it's professionally printed with a matt laminated cover, relatively cheap, and definitely cheerful. There are still copies left and you can buy one directly from me, which I'll be happy to sign at no extra charge of course. 


Order here:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

Advance preview: The next DAFT DIMENSION (DWM No.534)

Here's a sneak peek at my next Daft Dimension strip for Doctor Who Magazine. It'll appear in issue 534 which goes on sale on Thursday 10th January. 

Here's a preview of the cover to look out for...

Doctor Who Magazine No.534 is available from newsagents, supermarkets, and comic shops across the UK.

I'll have a couple of other strips in print next week too. Previews of those soon!

New Readers Start Here!

Firstly, a Happy New Year to all of you, and a big welcome to the new readers who have hopped over from my other blog, Blimey! which I'll be winding down this year. 

This blog features news and previews of my upcoming strips, and reflections on my work from over the years. If you're unfamiliar with my material, I've been freelancing professionally in comics full time now for 35 years, writing and drawing humour strips for comics such as Oink!, Buster, The Beano, The Dandy, Viz, Toxic, Marvel UK, and many others.

My current work includes...

The Daft Dimension for Doctor Who Magazine...

Team Toxic for Toxic magazine...

Derek the Troll for digital comic Goof!...

Hygiene High (from scripts by Niall Murray) for Epic magazine...

You'll find Doctor Who Magazine, Toxic, and Epic in newsagents and supermarkets across the UK. 

Goof! is exclusively online only and can be subscribed to here:
https://www.goofcomic.co.uk 


As well as keeping busy with mainstream comics I also self-publish my own comics occasionally, such as Derek the Troll, Pedantic Stan, and Combat Colin, reprinting stories of mine from long ago. You can order them directly from my website here:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

I've been fortunate to be a guest at many comics conventions over the years so if you're attending any this year please drop by for a chat, and/or commission a sketch, buy a comic, etc. Here's the list so far of dates for shows I'll be at in 2019. (More to be added later.) Those marked "To Be Announced" will be clarified as soon as the organisers make the official announcements...

MANCHESTER COMIC FEST
27th April 2019
Wythenshawe Forum
www.facebook.com/manchestercomicfest/

To Be Announced:
Saturday 11th May 2019

To Be Announced:
Saturday 18th May 2019

COMICS SALOPIA
1st and 2nd June 2019
Shrewsbury
https://comicssalopia.com

To Be Announced:
22nd June 2019

ICE 2019
Saturday 31st August 2019
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Birmingham
B5 7QU
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ice-birmingham-2019-tickets-52230273153

To Be Announced:
14th September 2019

To Be Announced:
28th and 29th September 2019

Thanks for visiting this blog and I hope you'll find it entertaining! If you have any comments or questions, please post a comment below or on any of my other posts. 

You can also follow me on Facebook here:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/lewstringercartoonist/