Meet the NEW Dinah Mo in The Dandy Summer Special!

The forthcoming Dandy Summer Special will feature some new characters alongside selected classic reprints and one of the newbies is an all-new version of Dinah Mo!

The original Dinah Mo (initially called Dinah Mite in her early strips in the 1970s) was a boisterous girl who always landed in trouble but the new version is an inventive eco warrior who tries to put things right. Her name is Dinah Modose and she was created by the D.C. Thomson staff who then assigned me to write and draw the stories. 

Obviously the key is to be entertaining rather than preachy about environmental issues so the usual Dandy fun will still be to the forefront!

The new Dinah Mo makes her debut in a two page story in The Dandy Summer Special 2024, published next month, and she'll also appear in four new stories in The Dandy Annual 2025, out in August. I'm currently plotting three Dinah Mo stories for The Dandy Annual 2026 to be published in Autumn 2025!

The Dandy Summer Special 2024 should be available in WH Smiths in mid-May. You can see a preview of page one of the first Dinah Mo story at the D.C. Thomson online shop, where you can pre-order the upcoming special, at this link...

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/dandy-summer-special-comic 

Cover art by NIGEL PARKINSON.

 

DWM 603 - Out this week!

Just a quick sneak preview of my Daft Dimension comic strip that you'll find in Doctor Who Magazine No.603. (Dialogue removed to avoid spoilers.) 

On sale from Thursday 25th April!  

https://doctorwhomagazine.com/doctor-who-magazine/doctor-who-magazine-603/

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Coming soon...

Another sneak preview of a bit of my page for The Dunfermline Story. More info:

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/24226425.comic-book-writer-prepares-tell-dunfermlines-story/

Thanks again!

A big thank you again for all of you who placed bids on my art auction that just ended. It really is appreciated in these times. 

I'll be sending the pages out this week to those who purchased them.  

Art Auction ends this Sunday!

Just a reminder that my latest art auction ends this Sunday (21st April). Here's your chance to own original artwork from Viz, Buster, Sonic the Comic, and Doctor Who Magazine! 

Here's the link. Good luck!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

The LONDON COMIC FESTIVAL is coming this July!

I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be returning to Olympia again this summer as a guest at the London Comic Festival, part of the London Film and Comic Con! It's a three day event stretching from Friday 5th July to Sunday 7th July! 

There'll be more guests announced soon but so far there's Emma Vieceli, Rachael Smith, Mark Laming, Mike Collins, Nigel Parkinson, Paul Cornell, Simon Williams and many more! Plus loads of actors too of course including Marina Sirtis, David Boreanaz, Sophie Aldred, Colin Baker and numerous others!

I always enjoy this show and its energy, meeting readers and hanging out with my comics pals. Hope to see you there! 

More info:

https://londonfilmandcomiccon.com/guests-main/guests-comic-creators/

More news about SALE COMIC CON

More info has just been revealed about Sale Comic Con, the event I'll be attending in Greater Manchester along with other guests on Saturday 8th June. Here's the press release...

Sale Comic Con is coming to Stanley Square.

This June, Wow Comics, is bringing us Sale's first-ever Comic Con event.

This is your chance to come together with other superhero fans and get involved with cosplay, and superhero memorabilia as well as to get the opportunity to meet some of your favourite stars of TV series and films which include:

 

- BBCs Phil Fletcher and Hacker T. Dog

- Actor Clem So

- Star Wars actor Willie Coppen and his film star son George Coppen

- British Comics Legend Lew Stringer

- Beano artist Laura Howell

- Writer and artist Barry Renshaw

- Writer Dan Whitehead

- Cartoonist Marc Jackson

- Award-winning artist Rachael Smith.

AND SO MANY MORE!

 

It's going to be an epic day of FREE family fun and obviously, we'd love to see you in your fave superhero costumes.

We will be announcing MORE details over the next few weeks so keep your eyes on our socials

And if you'd like to have a trader's table at Sale Comic Con please email Wow Comics at contactus@wowenterprises.co.uk

 

Sale Comic Con

Saturday, 8th June

Stanley Square

FREE

 

VIZ, SONIC THE COMIC and more original art for sale

I've put some original artwork on eBay this week that some of you have been asking for. For several years in the 1990s I was a writer on Sonic the Comic and one of my creations was the evil Commander Brutus. His initial appearance was drawn by Richard Elson (Amazing Spider-Man, 2000AD) and I've put one of those pages we worked on from Sonic the Comic No.65 in 1995 up for sale. 

You'll find it here: 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204743480653?itmmeta=01HVHCADPZFCQPARYXYDR1FMSB&hash=item2faba9954d:g:WvcAAOSwV6BmHBzO 

 

Next up, another request was a page from Viz. I freelanced for Viz for many years but I don't have many pages of original art left now. Here's one I found. A Suicidal Syd page from 2008. Mature readers only!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204743488911?itmmeta=01HVHCADPZZP6ZYHAN42GET2Q2&hash=item2faba9b58f:g:2JQAAOSwIWxmHCAy 

Next, one of the old favourites. Tom Thug from Buster comic in 1993. It's one of the Tom Thug On 'Oliday episodes and takes place in Blackpool...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204743443411?itmmeta=01HVHCADPZ4DZTTNETHDV5GR2B&hash=item2faba903d3:g:Qq0AAOSwN4dmHBpP

 

Finally, the original art of the first 13th Doctor's appearance when I put her in my Daft Dimension strip in Doctor Who Magazine No.516 in 2017...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204743447795?itmmeta=01HVHCADPZ3RWCF8GNYD3MAQ8P&hash=item2faba914f3:g:ToYAAOSwu3BmHBuL

Auctions end on Sunday 21st April. All bids appreciated! Good luck!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

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Dead Famous

Dead Famous is the title of a page I drew recently for for THE DUNFERMLINE STORY, a new book written by Colin Maxwell telling the story of the city in comics form. Colin commissioned me to draw three cartoons for the book and you can see a snippet of part of one of them above. The Dunfermline Story will be published on 25th May and I'll post more info nearer the time.
https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/24226425.comic-book-writer-prepares-tell-dunfermlines-story

 

The GOOF SUMMER SPECIAL is coming!

Cover by MARC JACKSON.

 

How's about a brand new Summer Special this year? Marc Jackson, cartoonist and organiser of the Macc-Pow! comic art festival is editing the Goof Summer Special to launch at the event on Saturday June 22nd, and it will also be available to buy via mail order for those who can't attend. 

I'm happy to say that I've been chosen as one of the contributors, where I'll be creating a one off page: School of the Future! I've written the script. Now I need to draw it as soon as I've completed this week's commitments. 

Marc has gathered together a host of modern day humourists including Tor Freeman, David Leach, Rachael Smith and many more.

You can find out more, and pre-order the comic, at this link:

https://ko-fi.com/s/d7475af5fd 

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Pigswilla and The Snowman of Doom!

 

I recently sold the original artwork of this story but as it was one of my favourite strips I thought I'd scan the pages before I posted them so I could show them here.

The pages were huge so as I only have an A4 scanner I had to do several scans and stitch them together in Photoshop. Subsequently there are shadows evident between panels, which are not of the original art. Nevertheless, this is as close as I could get to showing what the original art looked like. 

Pigswilla and The Snowman of Doom was published in The Oink! Book 1988. As I said, it's one of my favourites; a mixture of comedy adventure and daft humour. The sort of stuff I enjoy doing most. Script, art, lettering by me. The grey effect was done using diluted ink and, in a few places, Caran D'Ache pencil.

So why am I selling pages that mean a lot to me? Well, needs must, but also I'd rather they went to collectors who appreciate them rather than remaining stored in my archives. I'll be putting more pages up for sale soon.

As always, click on the images to englarge them to full size. As with all images on this blog, they're intended to be seen on a desktop rather than a tiny phone screen, although I know that these days more people are relying on smartphones than computers. (Change doesn't always benefit the user.)

A short update

Firstly a big thank you to those of you who placed bids on my art auctions, and congratulations to those who won the pages. It really is a big help these days. I've posted some today and will post the others in the morning.

I'll put some more pages up soon, so if you missed out, good luck next time!

Workwise, I have a few things to get on with right now. Mostly bits and bobs of various lengths rather than ongoing stories. None of which I can really talk about yet apart from the next Daft Dimension which I need to finish by tomorrow's deadline. (All of us work very close to deadline on Doctor Who Magazine to try and keep the material topical or relevant to other items in the issue.)

After that I'll be cracking on with the rest of the private commissions I need to post. Thanks for your patience.

Health wise: I have another appointment in a few weeks regarding my CLL. I'm still not feeling too bad, although my white blood cell count is rising. For those of you who asked about the condition the most reliable sources are sites like this one:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-lymphocytic-leukaemia/

In addition to that I have tendonitis again so I'm limping around at present and not going long walks like I enjoy. Aagh!

However... I'm looking forward to doing more conventions this year. I'm still waiting for the July one to be announced and I'll update my listings then. 

Conventions lined up so far for 2024:

 

TFUKcon

11th May

Cobden Hotal, Birmingham.

https://www.primetimetoyz.co.uk/tfukcon

 

SALE COMIC CON

8th June

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100024049312263

 

MACC-POW!

June 22nd

Macclesfield Town Hall.

https://www.facebook.com/maccpow

 

Then a big one in early July to be announced.

Happy Easter!

From 33 years ago, Tom Thug's Easter Adventure from Buster (1991).