Out now! The Dandy Annual 2020

I've just received The Dandy Annual 2020 that I ordered from D.C. Thomson. 112 pages of all-new material including three Keyhole Kate pages from me. Order early for Christmas! 
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/annuals/dandy-annual-2020

Cover by Ken Harrison.

The annuals are coming!

Yep, it's only May, but D.C. Thomson have revealed the covers for the annuals we usually associate with Christmas (even though they're published around August time). You can see them on my Blimey! blog here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2019/05/cover-reveal-dandy-and-beano-annuals.html

I thought I'd take this opportunity to give you a sneak peek at one of the Keyhole Kate strips I've drawn for The Dandy Annual 2020, so there's a panel from one of the pages above. See what happens next by buying the book!

Advance peek: Keyhole Kate (Dandy Annual 2020)

Here's an advance look at a panel from one of the Keyhole Kate strips I've drawn for The Dandy Annual 2020. 

I've written and drawn three full page strips featuring Kate for the book, which will be published around July/August of this year. I've been drawing the adventures of Keyhole Kate for the annual for seven years now, and I still consider it a privilege to work on one of The Dandy's original characters! (In case you didn't know, Keyhole Kate debuted in The Dandy No.1 back in 1937!) I also coloured and lettered the strip, and I designed the logo, so it's all me!

How can a character who's main attribute is snooping through old-style keyholes be relevant in the 21st Century? Well, it's not always easy to find a way, but that's the fun of it, and I think it still works. Kate's more manic, more obsessed than ever, and you'll see what she's up to next when The Dandy Annual 2020 is published later this year!

New KEYHOLE KATE logo

I thought you might like an advance look at the new logo I designed for the Keyhole Kate strip. This title banner will appear on all three of the Keyhole Kate pages I've written/drawn for The Dandy Annual 2020, on sale later this year (sometime between July and September).

As Kate originally appeared in the late 1930s I wanted to design something that looked like a classic comic header but also modern (or at least timeless). It took a while for me to decide on the right colour scheme but I felt blue on gold worked well.

The logo and the strips were all drawn last summer (we work way in advance on the annuals!) and I'll post some preview panels from my Keyhole Kate strips later in the year.