Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Bash Street from the board to the page

I thought you might like to compare a Bash Street Kids puzzle page I drew from the roughs to the published version. The photo of the version at the pencilled stage on my drawing board was taken on 10th August 2018. After inking and colouring it I emailed the art to the Beano offices on 13th August 2018. 

The published version (below) appeared on 26th September 2018 in Beano No.3954.
A six week gap between deadline and publication is the norm. Sometimes, in the case of specials and annuals, the gap is many months! For example I'll soon be drawing a Keyhole Kate page for The Dandy Annual 2022, which will be published in July 2021! 

Weekly comics pages are drawn 6 to 8 weeks in advance. Annual pages between 9 and 12 months in advance! Obviously we have no way of knowing if any calamity will be affecting society by the time the material is published (as is currently happening with COVID-19) but I like to think that the Dandy/Beano universe exists separately from ours in an escapist world where the worst things never happen.  

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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 May 2020 at 09:19

    Look forward to seeing the keyhole kate

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  2. Lew Stringer21 May 2020 at 12:39

    She'll also be in the 2021 annual, on sale this July.

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  3. Manic Man22 May 2020 at 16:10

    nice to see early drafts and final work. Always love to see how artists work. I have huge problems with shading, for example.. working out the position of light and stuff.. and I really need to get around to doing one drawing I wanted to do... .

    anyway.. quick question for you or anyone.. and this isn't a comment against anyones work or anything but.. Anyone noticed how Plug went from more.. 'normal ugly' to 'over the top ugly' and has then become more .. back to less ugly like the original? not quite back to his original form but.. at first he appeared not much different in height then other kids, then as he got his 'ugly' form on, he got taller and taller till he was about twice the height of the other kids, then quite often now, it appears about the same size, or only a tiny bit higher, like the earlier version. A lot of characters do change, and you can really see how the style went from more... 'realistic' style to overly cartoony and characters became stronger defined, just seams to be working it's way back, but only really with Plug..

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  4. Lew Stringer22 May 2020 at 18:06

    Yes, character designs change and evolve and it's often not a conscious thing but a gradual development. I think every character goes through these changes. Sometimes it's deliberate, like Dennis being modified to suit a cartoon version, but usually it's a natural progression.

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