Fresh underpants!

I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be back in Viz next issue, for the first time in a few years, drawing Felix and his Amazing Underpants once again!

The full pager has Felix in a Brexit-related escapade and was scripted by Graham Dury and Simon Thorp (from my plot) and is drawn by me. 22 panels on the page, so who says comics aren't value for money these days? 

I was a regular contributor to Viz for many years throughout the 1990s and the early part of this century so I'm very happy to be back. There's no guarantee I'll be in future issues of course, as contributions to Viz are on a case by case basis, but I'm hoping to do more for them this year (which is the 40th anniversary year for the comic). 

See the full page strip in Viz No.284, on sale 14th March!

The strip on my lightbox before completion.

This week's art auctions...

My thanks to those of you who have bid on my auctions so far. It's good to know there's an interest out there for my original art. Someone said I was getting rid of my "family heritage"! Well, as I don't have kids the art would only be thrown away when I'm gone, or sold as a job lot to a dealer, so I'd much rather it was acquired by collectors while I'm alive! 

I've put a couple of new items on eBay this week. One is the original art for a Pete and his Pimple page I drew 30 years ago! It appeared in the Easter issue of Buster dated 25th March 1989. 

The other piece is a new Tom Thug drawing, featuring the brainless bully who started out in Oink! and later proved to be one of Buster's most popular characters.

You can follow the auctions here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/graphite47?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Good luck if you're bidding! It's much appreciated. 

Team Toxic Star Wars parody

My final Team Toxic strip is in the current issue of Toxic, out now, but I thought you might like to see one I drew years ago. This episode appeared in Toxic No.42, way back in 2006. As you can guess, it was a parody in part of Star Wars. 

Team Toxic gave me lots pf opportunities to put the Team into various situations, either on Earth, in space, back or forwards in time, or weird dimensions. Anything was possible! I hope I'm commissioned for more new stories one day. 

Back in 2006, when this strip was published, Lorna Miller was the colourist and she always did a fantastic job! Therefore I only have the black and white files on my discs etc but I thought you might be interested in seeing how it looked pre-colour. I'm afraid my script is long gone so you'll have to imagine the dialogue! I have all the comics though so I might dig this issue out and post the published version one day.

Return to Stoke-Con-Trent

My first convention for 2019 will be Stoke-Con-Trent 10 at Staffordshire University (above) on Sunday 14th April.

I'm pleased to be invited again, having been a guest at several previous events. I'll be bringing along my comics including Combat Colin, Pedantic Stan, and Derek the Troll and drawing sketches on request. 

Other guests will include my old comics pals David Leach and Lee Sullivan amongst others. More to be announced soon!

For more details, check out the website here:
http://stokecontrent.co.uk/cartoon-and-comic-arts/ 

Combat Colin cover vignette

Every issue of Combat Colin shows a little figure of him beside the masthead. The idea was inspired by Marvel comics of the 1960s and 1970s, which I always felt was a nice touch to enable new readers to quickly identify the hero. 

Here's my original artwork for the figure next to a recent cover. (The solid blacks and colour were added to the art in Photoshop after I'd scanned it.) The original is A4 size so you can see the considerable reduction it needed for the cover icon. It reduced well though, as I made sure the inking was strong enough to work at any size. 

The art also appeared as a postcard (see below) but they're almost gone now.

If you haven't ordered copies of Combat Colin yet you can do so from my online shop here:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

I'll be starting work on Combat Colin No.4 soon, to be published sometime in April. 

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.  

Robo-Capers for sale. Original artwork!

I don't have many of my original pieces of Robo-Capers artwork left but I've put a couple on eBay for auction this week. The strips appeared in Marvel UK's The Transformers comic in the late 1980s. These are my original pieces; black ink on Bristol Board, still in great condition after more than 30 years.

If you're interested, hop over to my eBay page here. Bidding ends next Sunday (24th Feb.):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/graphite47?_trksid=p2047675.l2559