Reflecting on 2022

This hasn't been a good year and I've been very low and demoralised at times but I'm grateful to the editors and various people who did commission me for work. From Pup Parade in the Beano, to Sgt.Shouty in The77, from one-offs such as the Liverpool Heartbeat comics, to the Stingray special, to The Kirknewton Story, and of course my monthly Daft Dimension strip in Doctor Who Magazine, and other jobs such as the occasional Bad Pets in Animal Planet magazine, I enjoyed drawing them all. Recently I was asked to draw three activity pages for the Beano and they'll appear in January and February of 2023. 

I'm also very grateful to those of you sent a donation, or who bought my comics and some of my original art pages. Last but certainly not least my thanks to the convention organisers who invited me to their events in 2022, and to the numerous people who I met there and did sketches for.

Looking ahead, I have bits and bobs to complete over the next month or so but beyond that I don't know what the future holds. Whatever happens next, you'll read about it here or on my other social media pages, all being well. 

In the summer of 2023 it'll be 40 years since my career in comics began, so I hope I can reach that milestone and keep busy in this precarious business. 

At the end of the day all we can do is give life our best shot. I've made some lifestyle changes this year to improve my health and I'm determined to continue in that direction for the future. For today though, thank you for following this blog and for your support over the years. Wishing you a Happy New Year for 2023!

Another BAD PETS strip this month

I'm happy to say that there's another Bad Pets strip I've drawn in the latest issue of Animal Planet Kids magazine (No.25). Written by Nigel Aucterlounie and illustrated by me, the strip only appears now and then as it alternates with other strips but it's always fun to do. 

The magazine itself is a great educational publication for children, teaching them about animals of the world and their environment in a fun way. One of the best kids' mags on the market.

Animal Planet Kids No.25 is out now from newsagents and supermarkets.

https://www.animalplanetmagazine.com/

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Annual fun

Although both the Dandy and Beano Annuals were published in August I know a lot of you save them until Christmas, or give them to your kids at presents, so I hope you've received them by now. For The Dandy Annual 2023 I wrote and drew Keyhole Kate and Postman Prat, and for Beano Annual 2023 I wrote/drew Biffo the Bear.

I thought you might like to see part of one of the Biffo strips comparing my rough pencil sketches to my finished artwork (above). I usually draw "traditionally" (pencil and ink on paper) but I did this one digitally with Clip Studio Paint and then coloured it in Photoshop. I still prefer the traditional method though so will continue using paper and ink for the forseeable future (but coloured in Photoshop as per my usual practice). 

For next year's annuals (the ones cover dated 2024) I wasn't asked to do anything for the Beano one unfortunately but for The Dandy Annual 2024 I was commissioned to script and draw four full page strips bringing back a couple of old characters. Kid Cops are returning! Dandytown's infant police officers Nick and Bobby first appeared in The Dandy in 2010 and have popped up a few times in the annual since but it's been a few years. The pages were drawn months ago but it's a bit too early to show any previews just yet. Here's the logo for one of the pages though (yes, it'll be a snow-themed story)...

It made a nice change to revisit these two characters. The style I was using at the time I created their look in 2010 was slightly different to my usual style so I had to adjust a little but I was pleased with how they turned out. The Dandy Annual 2024 will be out in August 2023 so you'll have a long wait yet, but I thought you might appreciate this snippet of advance news. 

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Christmas at SUPER SCHOOL (Beano, 2008)

Back in 2008 I was drawing a regular full page for The Beano about a classroom of junior superheroes. Super School was the title, and most scripts were written by Iain McLaughlin as I recall. 

Here's the Christmas one that appeared in The Beano No.3462, dated December 13th 2008. Apologies for not posting it here before Christmas Day but I couldn't find this issue amongst my stuff until now!  

I designed a special seasonal logo for this one in the traditional Christmas comic style. The colouring for the page was done in-house by the Beano staff. (These days almost all the strips in Beano are coloured by the artists themselves, or in Nigel Parkinson's case, by his own superb colourist Nika Nartova.) 

Super School was a fun strip to work on and I enjoyed it very much. Nothing last forever in this business unfortunately and the characters are long gone now, but I hope you like seeing this festive episode. 

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Lawless Comic Con for Bristol in May

I noticed the other day that some blogger had claimed Bristol hasn't had any comics events for a few years so to help put the record straight I thought I should give Lawless Comic Con another plug. 

I was a guest at Lawless 2022 back in May and really enjoyed it. A very busy and upbeat event totally dedicated to comics which was well organised by Su Haddrell and her team. I've been invited to the next one too, which will take place on 27th and 28th May 2023 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, just a short walk from Bristol Temple Meads Station. 

If you look at the impressive guest list above you'll see that it'll be a comic con well worth attending!

Tickets for the event will go on sale soon so keep an eye on the Lawless website at this link:

https://lawlesscomiccon.co.uk/ 

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TOUGH GUY No.1 Reviewed

My thanks to Richard Bruton of the website Comicon.Com for reviewing my digital comic Tough Guy and Scruffy. Here's one quote from him:

"It’s packed with silly villains, ridiculous situations, stupid moments, and most importantly lots of laughs for you – and jelly. There’s a fair bit of jelly."

You can read the full review at this link:

https://www.comicon.com/2022/12/21/webcomic-weekly-lew-stringers-tough-guy-and-scruffy/ 

Thanks also to John Freeman for giving the comic a good plug on his excellent Down the Tubes website here:

https://downthetubes.net/lew-stringers-tough-guy-and-scruffy-return/

I hope those of you who have downloaded the comic have enjoyed it, and that a few more of you will buy it. All the info is at this link:

http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2022/12/theyre-back-tough-guy-and-scruffy.html 

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The77 issue 9 is coming soon!

Sgt.Shouty of the Moon Force will return in The77 Issue 9, which will be out soon. The Kickstarter campaign for the anthology comic was launched last night and is already on the road to success thanks to early backers.

My Sgt.Shouty strip had a break in issue 8 due to me being laid low with Covid last July, but the series continues this time with another two page chapter in which Shouty finds out more regarding the mystery of the Moon! Lots of comedy-action, daft situations, and shouting will be involved of course. 

There'll be loads of strips by other creators in the issue too from creators such as Steve Bull, Andrew Sawyers, Jo Heeley, Paul Goodenough, Ian Stopforth, Bambos Georgiou and more! 

You can support this popular independent UK comic by heading over to The77 Kickstarter page and pledging today. Here's the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the77comic/the77-0 

Cover by STEVE KANE.

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