Find out in Doctor Who Magazine No.587 when it goes on sale this Thursday, 2nd February!
Available from all good newsagents, WH Smith, some supermarkets and comic shops... or directly from the publisher at this link:
https://www.panini.co.uk/shp_gbr_en/doctor-who-magazine-587-gbdrw587-uk02.html
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This week I'm selling more of my original artwork. There's a full page Tom Thug strip, Tom Thug in Majorca, that was published in the Oink! Summer Special 1988, plus two early Daft Dimension strips from Doctor Who Magazine.
The auctions run until Sunday 5th February. See the following link for close up photos of each item:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47
Good luck with your bids!
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https://lawlesscomiccon.co.uk/
Hope to see some of you there!
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Charlie was the youngest contributor to Oink! and only 15 or 16 at the time but he was delivering the laughs even then. He also drew strips himself for the comic and had a nice cartooning style.
Charlie later moved on to work in television of course, being responsible for shows such as Screen Wipe and Black Mirror. I wish he'd done more comic strips, but the comic industry's loss was television's gain.
Thanks to Oink! Blogger Phil Boyce for reminding me of the time that Charlie Brooker and I collaborated on a page. You can read more about this issue of Oink! over on Phil's blog at this link:
https://oink.blog/2023/01/21/oink-47-its-whats-on-the-inside-that-counts/
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In real life bullies often get away with it unfortunately, but I wanted to create a strip where the villain got his just deserts every week. My hope was that it'd provide some catharsis for readers who were victims of bullying; a chance to laugh at the morons who commit such cowardly deeds. Tom Thug proved to be very popular in Oink! and in Buster so maybe it worked. The strip ran for ten years and another four years as a reprint.
Would the strip work today? I dunno. Schools clamp down on bullying quicker now so there'd be less potential to tell such stories. Publishers also get a bit nervous now of showing characters being too aggressive, or the consequences of the violence backfiring on kids. Strips would often end with Tom looking bruised and battered, purple lumps protruding from his head (a visual exaggeration I'd taken from Ken Reid's work) but it might not be acceptable in a kids' comic today.
Who knows? As far as I know there's no sign of Tom Thug ever returning. If Rebellion did bring him back I hope I'd be given first refusal to write and draw new stories considering I created him. Perhaps we could do it for older readers, with Tom aged up, as was the scenario in the last few issues of Oink! before it merged into Buster and Tom reverted to a schoolboy again. Time will tell, but at the moment it's all speculation.
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The Bash Street Kids are such great creations. Originally visualised by Leo Baxendale in 1954 and then followed by the late David Sutherland OBE who drew the strip for an amazing 60 years from 1962 until recently.
David's final Bash Street strip will be published this week. I don't know who will be taking it over and it's inappropriate to speculate at the moment but I'm sure they'll do an excellent job in maintaining the iconic look and humour of these brilliant characters.
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| A memorable crossover drawn by David Sutherland. |
Another comics great has left us. I'm very saddened to hear that Beano artist David Sutherland OBE passed away last night at the age of 89. (He'd have been 90 in March.)
The versatility of David Sutherland’s talent was remarkable. He smoothly adopted the Bash Street style when he took over the strip from Leo Baxendale and made it his own, producing genuinely funny pages filled with hilarious endearing characters and little sight gags. He was able to master any style and bring it to life in his own way, as he did when he replaced Dudley Watkins on Biffo the Bear, and when he followed Davey Law on Dennis the Menace, defining the characters for a new generation of readers.
Not many comic artists can switch between cartoony and straight adventure styles convincingly but Mr. Sutherland made it look effortless, drawing gripping adventure strips such as The Great Flood of London, Danny on a Dolphin, and of course the very popular Billy the Cat.
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| Advert for the new Billy the Cat strip in 1967, drawn by David. |
It’s hard to believe that an artist who has been a significant part of the industry all our lives has passed away but David leaves us with such a legacy of joyful, entertaining strips that have brought happiness to millions over the past 60 plus years. David’s style defined the Beano. His recent OBE was well deserved and his work will always be remembered and respected. My condolences to David’s family and to all those who knew him.
More tributes:
https://www.beano.com/posts/thanks-for-all-the-lols-david
https://downthetubes.net/in-memoriam-beano-bash-street-kids-artist-david-sutherland-obe/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64339747
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/breaking-beano-illustrator-david-sutherland-29002351
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