Halloween or Not Halloween? That is the question!

 

As you know, these days Toxic magazine reprints my old Team Toxic strips that originally appeared in its pages years ago. All randomly chosen by whoever's in charge now, and without reprint payment as is unfortunately the norm with some UK publishers. I really should have more sense than to buy it but as the latest issue is bagged I was curious to see which one they'd reprinted this time. 

The story is The Haunted House of Horrible Horrors that originally saw print in Toxic No.262 exactly ten years ago in 2015. That was the Halloween issue so I'd decided to do a suitably spooky story. The punchline being that the villain (Frankendrac) is caught because some spooks scare him, but they turn out to be kids doing Trick or Treat. 

However... in the reprint in the latest issue (Toxic No.409) the dialogue has been changed into "This house looks so haunted they THINK it's Halloween!". Huh? That doesn't make sense, and why bother changing it when the reprint is on sale during this year's Halloween?  

Also, again for some unknown reason, they've changed the title box. I'd designed a hand drawn Team Toxic logo that I thought looked effective but they've replaced it with a font for the reprint. I can appreciate that the sight of bat-winged bum-creatures flying around the logo might offend 2025 fragile sensibilities but they could have easily been deleted without redesigning the logo and story title.  

Anyway, I've reproduced the full strip at the top of this post so you can have a read if you've never seen my Team Toxic stories before. 

If you feel like spending a staggering £7.99 on the latest issue, it comes bagged with a few gifts; an actual small size Rubik cube (pretty good), 15 Glow Sticks (good gift), and a plastic gun. These days they call them "Blasters" because they don't want to use the word "toy gun" on a comic, but it has a trigger and it shoots plastic discs. It's a toy gun. So if you want a toy gun, there you go. Just don't call it a toy gun. (But that's what it is.)

The Glow Sticks are quite impressive but perhaps I'm easily pleased.

 

Here's the whole package so you know what bag to look out for amongst the shelves full of plastic bagged kids' mags. Looks like some sort of Lego Boris Johnson on the front but it probably isn't. That'd just be too scary for Halloween.

Happy Halloween, Readers!

 

Flashback to 15 Years Ago and Dandy day 2010

Life certainly passes by more quickly as you get older. I'm surprised to find that it's been 15 years today since The Dandy had its revamp, returning it to a comic format after the controversial Dandy Xtreme magazine era. 

That new look Dandy, published on Wednesday 27th October 2010, saw it drop all the magazine features from 'Xtreme' and return to being a comic from cover to cover, with all brand new material and a bunch of new characters.

I had the privilege of being invited onboard to do two of those new strips; Postman Prat (written by Craig Graham, Ally Bernard, and David Mason and drawn by me) and Kid Cops (written and drawn by me). The character concepts had been created by The Dandy staff and I designed them. Here's my first roughs for Postman Prat from back then that I doodled in my notebook before finalising the design...

After a while I also scripted Postman Prat. He was a good character to work on, and the concept of a halfwitted postman presented lots of scope. Kid Cops was a bit more of a challenge; two brothers who are convinced they're policemen, patrolling their neighbourhood (or sometimes just their own house) to clamp down on any crimes they find, real or imaginary. All good daft fun. 

The revamped Dandy put Harry Hill as the star of the comic, with barmy strips by Nigel Parkinson. The comic also saw the debut of Andy Fanton on George and the Dragon and had Jamie Smart doing Desperate Dan. It was a Dandy of the like never seen before, modern and experimental but still with lots of laffs. 

Sadly it was a revitalisation that came too late. Sales of The Dandy had been dwindling for decades, and the previous revamps had only given it a temporary reprieve. Sales on the 2010 revamp were good at the start, thanks to lots of publicity in the press and on TV, but afterwards sales fell again, shops cut down their orders, and the comic published its final issue in December 2012 on its 75th anniversary. 

Adult critics, who hadn't supported the comic in years anyway, blamed the content, but comics in general had suffered poor sales for a long time. The Dandy was one of the only two surviving "traditional" comics (the other being Beano) so we should celebrate its longevity rather than cast blame for its inevitable demise. Today, readers look back fondly on those final two years of the comic. Ironically, the last ever issue, a bumper size edition, sold so well it had to be reprinted! If only those extra readers had supported every issue.

The Dandy lives on of course in the form of a summer special and an all-new annual every year. It's been 13 years since the weekly ended so today's youngsters will only know of The Dandy as a special and annual. Let's hope they continue for a good while yet. 

I've been a contributor to The Dandy Annual since the 2012 dated edition, but I'm not in the latest (2026) one. I will be back in it next year though in The Dandy Annual 2027 with three Dinah Mo stories (and Postman Prat has a short guest appearance in one). The pages were completed a while ago so expect to see them when the book goes on sale in September next year.

 

Ron Tiner 1940 - 2025

I'm saddened to learn of the recent death of artist Ron Tiner, who had freelanced for many comics over the years including Hotspur, Misty, Battle, and many more. He was also an illustrator on numerous fiction books and had also produced various "how to" books on drawing. A self-taught artist, he had worked hard to accomplish his aims and was truly respected by his peers.

I knew Ron because of our associaton with Oink! comic nearly 40 years ago where he illustrated a short series I wrote called Sherlock Hams and The Hog of the Baskervilles. (Oink! Nos.45 to 49, back in 1988.) The first chapter is shown above. (Click / tap on the image to enlarge it to readable size.)

Over the years I'd bump into Ron at comic cons and he was always friendly company. Even when he wasn't a guest he'd sometimes drop in just to catch up with his friends and colleagues. The last time I saw him was only a few years ago.

An amazingly talented and respected artist who will be missed. Rest In Peace, Ron.

Daftness in the latest Doctor Who Magazine

 

The Daft Daleks are back in my Daft Dimension strip in the latest Doctor Who Magazine that goes on sale this week. I never plan too far ahead on what I'll be covering in this strip as I usually base it on a topic that the magazine is covering that month. It helps to keep things fresh and unpredictable. At present I have no idea what the next Daft Dimension will spotlight as I don't know what'll be in the next ish yet. 

Anyway, for this issue, there's a Dalek themed article so I thought I'd do a Dalek themed strip! See the full version in Doctor Who Magazine No.622, on sale Thursday 9th October!

This issue comes bagged with extras so I think this will be the outer sleeve to look for in shops...

...whilst this is the actual cover of the magazine inside...

Update

I'm not doing a lot at the moment. I needed a break last week so I went to Blackpool for a few days. All was well until I was about to set off home and tripped and fell on the hotel steps, badly bruising my leg and elbow. Big thanks to Barbara the landlady who looked after me and gave me a lift to the station. It could have been a lot worse frankly.

Still feeling a bit shook up from the fall I foolishly forgot to wear my mask on the journey home and have caught some chesty bug that's laid me low ever since. 

Subsequently I haven't done any work this past week but I did manage to package up and post the artwork today from my eBay sales. Those of you who won the items should receive them tomorrow (Friday) as I always use Special Delivery for sales of over £50. 

So, with feeling achey from the fall and groggy from the virus I've mostly slept this week but hopefully will be back at the drawing board next week. Meanwhile (above) here's a photo I took from the top of Blackpool Tower on Monday 22nd September. At least I didn't fall off that!