Like most of us who followed our passion, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. Just random drawings at first, but then in late 1966 I felt inspired to fold the paper in half to make a four page comic. The first one was simply called 'The News' and I threw that away long ago but then I started doing a comic called WUFF! in early 1967.
Initially it featured short strips about family pets, neighbours pets, or my grandad (who was my hero), then later I'd create my own characters. Over the years it grew from 4 to 12 pages as I worked my way through dozens of Silvine drawing pads. VERY crudely drawn as you can see, because it was stream of consciousness stuff rather than having any forethought or study behind it. I had a *lot* to learn!
I did 111 issues of Wuff! and a few other comics from 1967 to 1974 then gave up for a few years, discouraged by thinking it was an impossible goal to ever become a real cartoonist. Then, discovering fanzines in 1976 reignited my ambitions and it was a long slog before selling my first cartoon in 1983 but it turned out OK I suppose. Follow your dreams, folks!
When I was doing my comics as a kid I only showed them to my parents (mostly to my mum) but here's a sampling of some covers from 1967 to 1973 done between the ages of 7 to 14. Yep, I know many others did far better and more accomplished drawings when they were that age but here we go anyway...
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WUFF! No.1 Early 1967.
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WUFF! No.40 (1969).
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WUFF! No.71 (late 1970).
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WUFF! No.82 (1971).
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WUFF! No.93 (1972).
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Back page of WUFF! No.93. Yes, Rockman was based on Darkseid!
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SUPER-HERO ACTION No.3 (1973). Such hyperbole! :D
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For more of my scribbles, er, early work, see this post:
https://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2013/08/rarities-my-very-early-work.html
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And having read your blogs for years, I take it you still have the free gift "wuff" gun?!!
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a copy of the free gun from Fantastic No.52 that I made out of the back of a Ready Brek box. :)
ReplyDeleteNice post Lew, great to see your developing style. 'Wuff' was quite a long lasting comic! I particularly liked 'Pup's Pockets'.
ReplyDeleteI had a bash at drawing my own comics around that era, though I've never been a good drawer (one reason why I admire anyone who can!). One of my biggest pitfalls was overuse of action lines.
It's good to see evidence of your childhood dream turning into reality!
That's brilliant Lew and amazing you kept these.Luke many kids I also did a couple of comics as a kid of about 9 or 10 years old with my pal the main one was called "The Rocket" but we only managed 3 four pages issues before getting distracted, wish I had kept them. 111 issues of WUFF is quite something at any age - did you ever use any of these characters in your older work even as background characters?
ReplyDeleteWhat I haven't showed here is that Captain Thunder had a villain called The Brain... and I used him as Combat Colin's main foe, albeit modified a bit. I'd forgotten I'd done that until your comment made me think about it so thanks Paul. I'll do a post soon comparing the two.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian. Glad you liked it. As for you not being able to draw, my scrawl is evidence that I wasn't too hot back as a kid either. It's just down to practice and imagination really.
That's an incredible achievement at that age, Lew! My friend Roger and I would create comics for each other, usually based on real comics we were reading. The longest-running one was his The Wally, which he did for 50 weekly issues. A 4-page comic much like The Beano, he would blu-tac it to his wardrobe and it would cost 1p to borrow and you'd get your penny back after reading it. Lots of happy memories, so thanks for sharing, it's brought them flooding back.
ReplyDeleteHa! The Wally is a great name for a comic! A mate of mine used to do comics too when we were 8 years old. We did a crossover with our superheroes once but I don't have that issue now sadly. Don't know why I didn't keep it.
ReplyDeleteDidn't really draw comics, but would fill my exercise books with epic, sprawling stickmen battles - at the expense of any actual schoolwork.
ReplyDeleteThe only reasonable explanation for the amount of detentions and lines I endured is that my teachers were bloody philistines with no appreciation for graphic arts as a narrative device.
Blank pages of exercise books were always a temptation to draw on!
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