Look who's back!

Now here's a character no one expected to see again. At least not in the pages of Battle!

Rebellion's revival of Battle comic as a 100 page special will be in the shops this September but it's ready for pre-order now! New strips from top class talent including Garth Ennis, Alex De Campi, Glenn Fabry, Alan Hebden, Staz Johnson, and many more!

There's even a small contribution from me, as Specky Hector, the Comics Collector returns for a new audience! The character originally appeared in Oink! in 1986, and then ocassionally in Buster in the early 1990s.

You can order your copy of Battle (of Britain) Special at this link:

https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/RCS2063

It's July and here are the 2021 Annuals!

Yes, it's that time of the year again when the annuals are published and my order for The Dandy Annual 2021 and The Beano Annual 2021 arrived this morning.

I've been looking forward to these ever since I drew the strips last year! (We work well in advance on annuals.) Here's the content I have in these books...

For The Dandy Annual 2021:

Script, art, colouring, lettering on 4 double page Postman Prat stories.

Script, art, colouring, lettering on 8 Keyhole Kate mini-strips.

Art / colouring / design on two activity pages (Prat and Kate).

For The Beano Annual 2021:

Script, art, colouring on 4 Lord Snooty mini-strips.

Each book is hardback, full colour throughout, with 112 pages of all new material. Other artists include Nigel Parkinson, Jamie Smart, Laura Howell, Mike Collins, and more. Available now from the D.C. Thomson Shop:

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/annuals

As I said earlier, we work well ahead on the annuals and I'm currently drawing a Keyhole Kate page for The Dandy Annual 2022!

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Back at the drawing board. A personal update.

This is a tough year isn't it? I must admit I've been struggling. Not out of fear as such, but more of despondency that things won't get better. It's hard to be positive or to "think funny" when coronavirus and all its relevant news is dominating the mind and you haven't had any human contact for months. With other concerns as well I've found this year to be a very dark time in my life.

Don't get me wrong; I'm fully aware that there are thousands who are far worse off than me. I'm one of the very lucky ones. This post is just a personal update because some have asked how I am.

Having my Beano work put on hold as soon as lockdown began was another blow to my morale but I'm happy to say that it looks like Ellis's Great Escapes will be coming back to the comic starting in September. I've been commissioned to do new episodes ready for its return.

Thankfully Doctor Who Magazine has continued to commission me for The Daft Dimension throughout these dark days so that's helped. I also have a few Keyhole Kate pages to do for The Dandy Annual 2022 (out next year) and another project that I need to complete. There's also Sgt.Shouty of the Moon Force and episode two of that will be in The77 in August.

 

Yes, lockdown has been lifted and life is returning to normal (or rather an illusion of normal)... but personally I think it's far too soon and putting the economy over people's health is a huge mistake that the history books will not record favourably. I'm fortunate that I work from home anyway, and will continue to avoid people as much as possible, but that's not an option for those forced back into the workplace.

I'll be keeping in touch with close friends of course, either in person or online. The irony is I was invited to dinner today with friends I haven't seen for ages but it'd be an hour's walk to get there and I have a deadline for tomorrow so declined. Hopefully we'll meet up soon.

As for my Combat Colin comics; I still have them on hold but hope to publish issue No.5 later this year. I'll also be posting out the remaining orders for back issues soon. Thanks for your patience.

Anyway, thart's the update so far. I'm feeling a little more motivated than I was  and I hope you're all doing OK in these stressful times. There's a long way to go yet with more hardships to come but let's hope we can all survive them and move forward to brighter years ahead.

SMASH! recollections

I was contacted a while ago by writer Stephen Jewell for an extensive interview to help with research for his article on Smash! comic for Judge Dredd Megazine. Stephen fired over a load of questions regarding the comic's history, format, characters and creators... plus asking about my childhood memories of Smash! - a favourite comic of mine in the sixties.

Stephen also quizzed historian Steve Holland and blogger / publisher Irmantas Pavilaika and some images to illustrate the article were taken from the scans I'd done for my old Blimey! blog. You can read the completed five page feature/interview in Judge Dredd Megazine No.422, in the shops now!

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A glimpse of Sgt.SHOUTY episode two

Trying to get back into a regular routine despite this crisis that dominates our lives these days... I've completed episode two of my new strip, Sgt.Shouty of the Moon Force, and sent the page to the editors last night. It'll appear in The77 No.2 next month.

If you haven't heard of The77 before, it's a brand new independent anthology comic aiming to recapture a "retro" feel of bygone comics. Contributors range from people new to comics to old fossils like me. You can find out more on their Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/The77Comic/

The Zarbi return!

There's a new issue of Doctor Who Magazine out this coming Thursday! It'll be packed with features, news, reviews, and interviews PLUS another Daft Dimension strip from me. This time, the Zarbi return!

Don't miss Doctor Who Magazine No.554, on sale Thursday 23rd July from WH Smiths, supermarkets, and comic shops!

Website: https://doctorwhomagazine.com/

There's still time to go Barmy!

Just a reminder that if you haven't seen it yet, BARMY COMIX No.1 is still available. A 32 page digital-exclusive comic ready to download and read immediately! Free, but you can donate £2 if you wish. More info at this link:

http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2020/04/new-download-your-barmy-comix.html

Creating Covers (2015 and 2016)

I found some old photos on a zip drive so I thought you might be interested. I sometimes take photos of my work during production and this is the cover to Brickman Returns in the pencil stage on 5th August 2015 (above)...

...and during inking on 10th August 2015...

It wouldn't have taken me five days to draw the cover so I must have put it aside while I got on with a more pressing deadline. Here's how the published version looked...

A year later, and here's the cover to Derek the Troll during the inking stage on 22nd August 2016...

...and here's how it looked when it was published...

Both Brickman Returns and Derek the Troll are out of print now, and my online shop no longer exists due to MrSite closing down, but I will find a new way of selling my comics later this year. (Possibly using Comicsy.) Combat Colin will take priority though when my self-publishing business is back up running so I've no idea if or when I'll do new printings of Brickman or Derek the Troll. I'll let you know on this blog when the Combat Colin comics will be available again. At the moment I need to prioritise the bit of mainstream work I have as that's what pays the bills so I hope you understand.

Flashback to 2010 with SUPER SCHOOL!

Super School was a regular full page strip I drew in The Beano for a while, beginning in 2008. It featured a handful of kids being trained to use their super powers and was great fun to draw! (Iain McLoughlin wrote most of the scripts.) You can read more about the genesis of the strip on my old blog at this link:

https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/10/super-school-genesis-of-new-beano-strip.html

Looking on an old disc today I found a few photos that I thought you might be interested in seeing. At the top of this post is part of the published Super School story that appeared in The Beano Annual 2012, and here are some images of it when I was pencilling it...

...and after inking...

This strip would have been drawn ten years ago, in 2010, as we work well in advance for the annuals. The book was published in July 2011, well in time for the Christmas gift market.

Back then I was inking with a dip-nib for a while. A very old and traditional way! I switched to using Japanese brush pens a little later.

As I said, we work well in advance on annuals, and I'm currently drawing new Keyhole Kate pages for The Dandy Annual 2022 to be published next year.

Website no more

A few weeks ago those of us who'd created our sites through MrSite were told it was closing down. With little time to find an affordable alternative, I'm afraid that lewstringer.com is no longer active.

For the forseeable future I'll be using this blog as my main presence on the Internet. I'll set up a new website with a new provider when I can afford it. In these uncertain times I can't predict when that will be, but this blog will continue to serve as a source of my work past and present.

This means that my webshop is also no more, but my Combat Colin comics are on hold at present anyway so that's not an immediate inconvenience. I hope to publish Combat Colin No.5 later this year and will look into alternatives to provide an online ordering platform. 

In the meantime you can still buy the digital-exclusive Barmy Comix No.1. More info here:

http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2020/06/go-barmy.html

Are you on Instagram?

I don't publicize my Instagram account as often as perhaps I should, so consider this a plug for it today. I post various stuff over there, comics related as well as day to day photos and videos, so if you're interested give me a follow. You'll find it at this link:

https://www.instagram.com/lew.stringer/

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Have you bought The77?

A reminder that my new character, Sgt.SHOUTY is one of many strips making their debut in the brand new indie comic, The77. Issue 1 is out now and the Kickstarter for issue 2 is now active at this link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the77comic/the77-the-summer-special