Work in progress: Combat Colin

Here's a sneak peek at a section of the cover to Combat Colin No.1. As you can see, it's far from finished so the comic will be ready when it's ready, hopefully to launch at Macc-Pow! on 1st July. 

Most of my time is taken up with mainstream comics work but I'm fitting in work on the Combat Colin comic when I can. As previously mentioned, issue one will have 40 pages, containing all the Combat Colin strips from Action Force from 30 years ago. (Issue No.2 onwards will then reprint the Combat Colin strips from The Transformers.)

I'll keep you all notified of the first issue's progress so make sure to bookmark this blog for all the latest news.  

It's Daft Dimension week!

My complimentary copy of the latest Doctor Who Magazine arrived today! It's another great issue packed with previews of episodes 8 to 11 of the current series, interviews, features, and of course comic strips including another Daft Dimension from me.

Doctor Who Magazine No.513 arrives in shops this Thursday, 1st June, and you'll have a choice of two covers. Which one will you go for?

Now I need to crack on with ideas for the next Daft Dimension. Back to the drawing board!

Farewell to Ivy and the Pups

Here's a preview of my strips coming up in next week's Beano. Unfortunately these will be my last contributions to the comic for the time being as Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible are both being dropped to make way for new strips, new artists. Such is the life of a freelancer and nothing lasts forever. 

I still have work on Toxic, Epic, and Doctor Who Magazine though, and hopefully perhaps I'll be back in the Beano later in the year. It also gives me more time to focus on my own projects and private commissions. My thanks to those of you who followed and supported my Beano strips. Don't miss the last episodes this coming Wednesday, 31st May!

Working on the classics

I've just sent off my first page for The Dandy Annual 2019, which features Keyhole Kate. (Yes, we work way in advance.) It's always a privilege to script and draw such a long-established character that dates right back to The Dandy No.1 in 1937. It's kind of a strange feeling too, illustrating a strip with such a legacy that millions of kids from over the past 80 years have been aware of.

On a personal level, I get a kick out of it because Keyhole Kate was my maternal grandmother's favourite comic strip. I never knew my grandma, who died years before I was born, but my mum often mentioned it. I don't know how grandma would have been aware of Keyhole Kate, but she was a regular reader of Thomson's text-story weekly Red Letter so perhaps she bought a Dandy occasionally too. 

Anyway, back to the present. I won't show you anything of the 2019 annual for a long time yet, but at the top of this post is a panel from one of the Keyhole Kate pages I did for The Dandy Annual 2018, to be published this July/August. 80 years on and still peeking through keyholes! Other strips I've done for this annual are Postman Prat and Kid Cops. You can pre-order the book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dandy-Annual-2018-Annuals/dp/1845356446

Ivy the Terrible - superhero!

No, that doesn't mean Ivy's a terrible superhero. It means Ivy the Terrible becomes a superhero in the latest Beano! Then again, maybe she's not really cut out for it after all. See what happens in Beano No.3886, on sale Wednesday 24th May!

That issue also features another Pup Parade by me too. What's gotten into Sniffy? The only way to find out is to buy the Beano! 

Who would vote for Butt-Face?

Sometimes comic strips work out with strange synchronicity. Before Theresa May announced her snap election, I'd already written a two-part Team Toxic story where the people inexplicably vote for Butt-Face as their leader. Part one will appear in Toxic No.289 this coming Wednesday, 24th May, with part two out on June 14th. As the general election is on June 8th I couldn't have timed it better if I'd tried!

These characters stink!

The Bin Twins are two of the stinkiest, filthiest characters of Hygiene High, one of the strips I draw for D.C. Thomson's Epic every month. Imagine the Swots and Blots without the Swots and you'll get an idea of what the series is like. Written by Niall Murray and drawn by me, the latest episode of Hygiene High can be seen in Epic No.132, on sale this coming Wednesday, 24th May!