Today in 1991...

Here's the Tom Thug page that was published on this day (28th September) in 1991. It appeared in Buster cover dated 5th October 1991. Script, art, and colours by me.

In order to keep the storylines fresh I'd decided to have Tom's overly-fussy mother get a job as a teacher at Tom's school. This helped to deflate Tom's arrogance and bullying schemes even more. As I've mentioned before, the whole point of Tom Thug was that he was the villain of the story, never an anti-hero like Dennis the Menace. The intention was for the reader to laugh AT Tom, not with him as they would other comic characters. 

I think this page still holds up ok 29 years later. I was pleased with the drawing of Tom in the final panel; so mortified by homework that he's retreating into the chair itself. I'm not too happy with the colours though. My choice of background colours was far too garish in those days. A sickly lime green classroom and a pure magenta brick wall dominate the panels too much. Hopefully my colour choices are more restrained now.  

The lettering is by Jack Potter. His style was great, but it always annoyed me when he had the tail of the balloon touching the edge of the character. No need for it, and I was surprised Jack did that with his many years of experience. 

As always, click on the image to see it at its full size.