45 Year Flashback: AFTER IMAGE No.1

It's been 45 years this month since my first self-published comic was launched. Back in 1978 I had started to contribute a few articles and spot illustrations to fanzines and decided to publish my own. The result was After Image, which I have to admit was very crudely drawn as you can see. This was in the days before desktop publishing of course, so I drew the logo by hand and the typography was added a letter at a time with Letraset rub-down letters. No room for error! At the time I didn't know anyone in comics apart from a few penfriends so I wrote and drew the entire issue myself. Published in November 1978 with a January 1979 cover date.

Back then I still hadn't decided which direction to pursue with my artwork; whether to try and aim towards adventure comics or humour titles. Clearly, I wasn't much cop at drawing the human figure or possessing the skills required to draw realistically, and I felt more comfortable drawing humour strips, so that's the path I soon embarked on. 

I'd been creating my own little comics since I was seven years old, but they had just been mini comics drawn in biro and never actually printed or distributed, so the only people who ever saw them were my immediate family. After Image was the first time I'd had multiple copies printed for a public audience. (Even then, I only had 100 or so printed.)

Reactions were fairly kind as I recall, but obviously my work wasn't anywhere near professional standard back then. It'd be another five years before I sold my first work to Marvel UK in 1983.

After Image only ran for three issues, over 12 months, adding a few more contributors such as Graham Bleathman and Martin Forrest as I went along. I created other fanzines and stripzines afterwards such as Metamorph / Fantasy Express and my Brickman mini-comics. These days, although mainstream comics work is my priority, I still enjoy publishing my own comics when I can, with Fanzine Funnies being the most recent.

Anyway, without further ado, here's a few sample bits from that first issue of After Image of 45 years ago. Read it while I cringe with embarrassment....

All artwork Copyright © 1978, 2023, Lew Stringer

There are some "jokes" in the Arthur Average strip I definitely wouldn't use now. (The '70s were another time, and I was only 19, - but should have known better.) If you want to read the entire issue, it's available as a free PDF as part of David Hathaway-Price's online archive of old fanzines here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz-VsUjOG2SiUXZBVmJOcGpLTVE/view

This article is a revised version of a blog post I did for the 'zines 40th anniversary.

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