The story behind the final TOM THUG strip; script and art (1996)

Here's something I found the other day; my script for the final Tom Thug story from 1996! I thought you might like to see it alongside the published strip.

Even though I usually write and draw my own strips I still have to do a full script to send to the editors for approval. I even do full scripts when an editor isn't involved (such as for a self-published comic) because that's how I like to work. 

Back in the '90s before I had a computer I'd do the scripts on a typewriter and post them to Allen Cummings, the editor of Buster. He'd check it over, make any changes if necessary, and post it back to me. What a long process, but that's how things were done in those days. However, by 1996 I'd invested in some new technology, - a fax machine! Woo! (I was never quick off the mark to buy new tech. I didn't own my first Mac until 1999.) 

Anyway; back to this particular script. To put things into context, "traditional" anthology comics were on the way out in the 1990s and Buster had remained the last man standing by cutting its budget to accommodate reprint. As my Tom Thug strip had become one of the most popular pages in Buster I was fortunate that I was one of the few still doing new pages for it. However, nothing lasts forever and more cuts were suddenly introduced to make Buster virtually an all-reprint comic. This meant that Tom Thug had to go reprint too. (As you may know, creators are not paid for reprints which is why Fleetway were so casual about using them.)

At the time I wrote this script I had no idea it would be the last one, as no doubt you'll see from my end notes to the editor where I'm asking about future holiday theme weeks. Allen Cummings and I spoke on the phone every week and he called me up after receiving this script to deliver the bad news that this would be the last one I'd do. Orders had come from management that Buster must go all-reprint. It was a very sad time and I must admit an emotional one. It was the sudden end of a character I'd created and a strip I'd been doing for ten years. It was also the end of working for Allen Cummings. I told him then that he was one of the best editors it had been my privilege to work for... and that remains the case to this day.

 

 

By the way, the "Jack" I mention in the end note is Jack Potter the letterer.

As this was going to be my last Tom Thug strip I decided to add a few personal touches to it that were not mentioned in the script. The juggler became Pete Throb of Pete and His Pimple fame, now finally cured of his acne and massive zit. The lady with the green mac and orange headscarf was based on my Mum, and that's me in profile (as I looked then) in the foreground of panel 3. The black dog in panel 7 is my much missed dog immortalised in print forever. The number 440 next to my signature is the number of Tom Thug strips I'd done over the years (including annuals and specials). Most alarmingly, Tom's dad is clutching his heart in the final panel, with Tom's idiocy finally killing him off! (I made it vague enough so that younger readers would just think he was in shock.) Tom's Dad was deliberately an unpleasant character, always pressurising Tom into being a bully, so I had no reservations about killing him off. Perhaps Tom would have a better chance at life with his overly-protective Mum bringing him up. That's my imagined ending for the character anyway.

This page appeared in Buster dated 9th July 1996 (see cover below). The following week, Tom Thug went reprint, re-using Buster strips that were only a few years old, so I'm sure some readers must have noticed. The comic itself was a shadow of its former self now with so much reprint material and it limped on for another three years before ending in the final week of 1999.

Will Tom Thug ever return? Well, I put him into the crowd scenes in the two recent Cor!! Buster specials but as I don't know if I'll ever be asked to freelance for Rebellion again I've no idea if he'll come back. Bully characters in comics aren't so popular these days, but then that was always the point of Tom Thug. You were never supposed to laugh with him. You laughed at him, and his regular downfalls were intended to be cathartic for the readers, because in real life bullies get away with it far too often. 

 

 

It was the end of a chapter of my career when Tom Thug finished but there were still other comics around of course. New style comics for the modern age. I was a regular contributor to Viz and also to their rivals such as Spit! and Sweet FA. I also found more work at Fleetway/Egmont as a scriptwriter on Sonic the Comic, Lego Adventures, and CiTV Tellytots as well as a writer/artist on Toxic. There's one certainty in comics and that is that nothing is certain!