PEDANTIC STAN returns in THE MOST IMPORTANT COMIC BOOK ON EARTH!

I feel very proud and privileged to be part of this book, The Most Important Comic Book on Earth. A mighty 350 page softback out now, to raise awareness of environmental issues. Over 300 contributors including Chris Packham, Dame Judi Dench, Lucy Lawless, Alan Moore, Ricky Gervais, Sir Lenny Henry, Doug Braithwaite, Robert Kirkman, Aneke, Dani, Davey Jones, and many many more contributing their time for free for this worthy cause, including The Return of Pedantic Stan the Comics Fan written by John Freeman and drawn by me. 

Pedantic Stan was a strip that John Freeman and I created for Speakeasy fanzine in the 1990s. I published a collection of his stories in 2018, but this is the first new Pedantic Stan strip in 30 years!

Rewriting Extinction is a global campaign to raise funds and awareness to support projects devoted to saving the one million species in danger of extinction.

Rewriting Extinction is founded by Paul Goodenough, who invited people from the arts and sciences to contribute, and it wouldn't have been easy keeping this on track with so many diverse contributors, so well done Paul! See the Rewriting Extinction Facebook page for more info...
https://www.facebook.com/RewritingExtinction

Published by DK/Penguin Random House, The Most Important Comic Book on Earth is available now at just £20. You can read more about it at John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog here... 

https://downthetubes.net/?p=131861

 

Reach for Monster Fun!

A reminder that the Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular is still on sale and would be perfect reading material this weekend. You might need to search for it in WH Smiths though because some branches have inexplicably put it on the top shelf alongside 2000AD and Viz! 

To clarify, although it can be enjoyed by young and old, the target audience for Monster Fun is children, and it should be alongside Beano, Toxic, Horrible Histories and the other children's comics and magazines. 

This isn't the first time that Smiths have taken it upon themselves to decide comics aren't suitable for young children. It dates back to 1986 when they moved Oink! away from the children's section. 

Bearing in mind that publishers pay a lot of money for shelf positioning it's a problem that needs addressing, but it's impossible for publishers to check every branch to see if Smiths are honouring their agreement. 

Anyway, grab a copy of Monster Fun and you'll see it is indeed packed with fun. 52 pages of it in fact, including the two page Wiz War strip that Kek-W and I did. 

Monster Fun becomes a bimonthly comic next April and although I unfortunately haven't been invited back next year I wish it well and hope it succeeds.

https://monsterfun.co.uk/

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Prat to the future

It's been 11 years this week since Postman Prat made his debut in The Dandy as part of the big revamp of 2010. Sadly that attempt to turn back declining sales (which had been falling for many years) only gave it a short reprieve and the weekly Dandy was cancelled at the end of 2012 after 75 years. Even so, a 75 year run is a phenominal feat considering many comics never even reached 12 months. The Dandy was the longest running comic, until The Beano took that crown a few years back.

BUT The Dandy Annual has continued, and Postman Prat has appeared there from time to time. There'll be several all new Postman Prat mini-strips in The Dandy Annual 2023, out next August! 

 

 

Drawing for 60 years

I've told this story before but as it's now been 60 years since this photo was taken I'll tell it again. I've been drawing for as long as I could hold a pencil, - or crayon originally. I used to draw on the kitchen cupboard door until my mum bought me that blackboard and easel to use instead. Gotta get those ideas drawn somehow!

Drawing for 60 years. No wonder I feel tired! :)

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New! Beanotown Search and Find book

One job I was commissioned to do a while back was drawing a busy two page spread for a new Beano project, and the book is available to order now.

Beanotown: Search and Find is a 32 page hardback book that you can have personalised with your own name as a character throughout. You (or your child) becomes the hero of the adventure. As each book is obviously printed to order and every edition will carry a different name/character, the price reflects that at £24.99 but it's a unique item ideal for Christmas.

The spread I drew includes The Bash Street Kids charging out of school and, as with the other spreads, there are characters and items the reader has to find in the picture. But wait, you might be thinking, there are only 11 Bash Street Kids so how can that comprise a busy picture? Well, remember that in the early days of the strip in the 1950s there were many more kids featured in the scenes, and this reflects that. The comic strip only focuses on one class. There are loads of kids attending Bash Street School, and here they are. 

Captions and text will fill the empty areas.

The other spreads are set in various areas of Beanotown and are by artists such as Laura Howell, Nigel Parkinson, Hugh Raine, and more, plus a strip drawn by Nigel. Interested? Here's the link where you can order your copy. Because of each book being unique, they won't be available in any shops and are only available from the publisher...

https://shop.beano.com/build-a-beano-personalised-search-and-find-book 

Busy month

We all have regrets in life and there are times in this business even after 40 years when we lose out, but you just have to climb back on that metaphorical horse and ride on elsewhere. 

This whole pandemic, and life in general, has been getting on top of me recently (as it has with many of us) but it's time to appreciate what I do have and focus on that. I'm going to be very busy over the next few weeks catching up with deadlines and getting work finished off for the 2023 annuals and other things. 

Now, it's at this point where people usually say "Glad you're busy!" and assume I'm doing great. Well, not so great these days. I'm very busy at the moment, but by December I don't know what I'll be doing. Freelancing isn't like being on a regular salary, and a lot of us aren't even earning minimum wage these days. Everything I'm earning right now will be quickly spent on bills and basics, so I'm hoping something else will come along by the end of the year. It'd be nice to have more regular work to survive through 2022 but every year gets harder so time will tell.

The comics industry in general is doing well these days but there are a lot of new creators around now and this is their time in the spotlight. So it goes and that's only right.

People have asked if I do commissions, and, yes, I hope to fit some in if I can, but not this month as I need to catch up on current work. I'll let you know when I'm free to do a few. 

Do I do workshops? No. Seems that more creators are expected to be confident performers and teachers these days but that's not me I'm afraid. I'm a comics creator not a showman.

Anyway, this is just to let you know that I might not be blogging much this month as I'll be too busy at the drawing board. I've probably been more open than I should in this post but I always like to go for straight talking instead of being phoney.

I'll do some posts about anything new I have published when it's out. I hope you're all doing OK in these increasingly difficult times and I appreciate you giving up some of your time to follow this blog.

Secrets of the Lewniverse!

From The77 Annual (2021).

Here's an exclusive reveal for you. In the upcoming The77 Annual, I've done a new two page Sgt.Shouty story, The Origin of Dr.Plank, which I hope today's readers will enjoy...

...and as a special in-joke for those of you who have followed my work for years, it ties into one of my old strips from the 1980s! 

Without giving away any spoliers as to how or why it happens, the destruction of Earth took place in my Rock Solid, Space Hero series in Swiftsure comic back in 1985, - and now we'll see it from another perspective in Sgt.Shouty for The77 Annual here in 2021.

From SWIFTSURE No.4 (1985)

I've always liked to connect my strips into one universe, or Lewniverse, whenever I can. Not in a major way that requires people to buy every comic, but just in subtle ways such as the fictional town of Skegpool cropping up in various strips, or when Combat Colin appeared in my Brickman series in Image Comics' Elephantmen. Obviously I can't do it with strips I don't own so you'll never see any Beano characters I've worked on turn up in Derek the Troll! 

This Rock Solid / Sgt.Shouty connection is only a minor crossover, and Rock Solid himself won't appear in Sgt.Shouty because of what happened to him back in his own series, but as I was doing another series set in the far future it occurred to me to keep in in the same universe. 

(and if you DID want to read those old Rock Solid stories they're all reprinted in the Derek the Troll comic I've published. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/graphite47/m.html?item=203554298786 ) 

As for The77 Annual, the Kickstarter campaign ends tomorrow (Sunday 17th October) so get in quick if you want to order the exclusive hardback version of the book. Details at this link...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the77comic/the77-comic-annual-number-1 

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