Saturday, 29 February 2020

New! ELLIS'S GREAT ESCAPES begins in the BEANO next week!

As subscribers should be receiving their latest Beano comics today I think it's safe to reveal that my new series for the comic is Ellis's Great Escapes! 

 Ellis is an elephant in Beanotown Zoo, but no zoo can contain Ellis for long and his favourite thing is finding ways to escape! Every week Ellis will try to outsmart the zookeeper Terry Tuff and make a bid for freedom, using whatever means necessary... the funnier the better! 

 Ellis the escaping elephant is a relatively new character who's only been around for a few years. I believe he may have originated from the Dennis and Gnasher cartoon, but he's popped up in the comic a few times as part of the Dennis and Gnasher story. As far as I know he's never had his own series before so I'm honoured to be the first writer/artist to bring his adventures to the Beano! 
The series of half page stories of Ellis's Great Escapes begins in the Beano No.4025, on sale Wednesday 4th March from all good newsagents and supermarkets, and will appear in most issues for a while thereafter. 

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9 comments:

  1. Mr.Smith29 February 2020 at 06:50

    Yesss!!!!! The beano should do a version of the beano where the side characters get the spotlight. (A bit like the annual 2002). Amazing news. Can't wait to get my subscription copy!

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  2. Manic Man29 February 2020 at 09:11

    he's appeared in the Dennis strip I believe but this is the first solo.

    But a new plus to add to your career ^_^

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  3. Lew Stringer29 February 2020 at 10:37

    He's an enjoyable character to draw too. Working on one this weekend for an April issue.

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  4. Mr.Smith29 February 2020 at 18:31

    And We're getting lord snooty for the annual.

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  5. Lew Stringer29 February 2020 at 23:34

    Yes, just four mini strips with him though. I've done a lot more stuff for the Dandy Annual.

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  6. James Spiring1 March 2020 at 15:35

    Reusing the villain from your Big Eggo run, I see.

    A quick look at the episode guide for Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed shows no mention of the zoo, Ellis, or an elephant.

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  7. Lew Stringer1 March 2020 at 16:40

    Ellis and the zoo must have appeared somewhere before because they sent me style guides and an image of the zoo entrance. He certainly appeared in the Beano two years ago... on the cover no less:
    https://www.beano.com/posts/inside-beano-no-3948

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  8. Mike Hobart3 March 2020 at 00:41

    This sounds great. The running gag about the elephant escaping from the zoo (" What - AGAIN?")has been going for quite a while, so what could be more natural than for him to get his own strip. Best wishes from Down Under.

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  9. Lew Stringer3 March 2020 at 01:46

    Thanks Mike. I must admit that when I was commissioned to do it I didn't realise it was a running gag right away. I'm pleased to be doing something new though.

    James, regarding using Terry Tuff, that was in the brief, so I had to go along with it. It's all part of building a cohesive Beanotown, so it made sense to have Terry as the zookeeper in both strips. The postman who'll appear in some of the episodes is also an established character who's appeared in other Beano strips.

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