Cover preview: COMBAT COLIN No.4

It's 2a.m. and I've just finished uploading the pages to the printers for Combat Colin No.4. Hopefully it'll be out in time for the London Film and Comic Con on July 26th to 28th... and from my website store on July 29th.

Time for bed I think! I'll leave you with this advance preview of the cover...

Rough!

I'm just roughing out the cover for Combat Colin No.4. Here's a small section of it. 

ROBO CAPERS! The Early Strips

As it's unlikely Marvel will ever reprint my Robo-Capers strips I thought I'd show a few here. 

Back in early 1985, after a few successes with selling cartoons and one off strips to Marvel UK I pitched a new one to Sheila Cranna, the editor of The Transformers fortnightly comic. I had no interest in drawing the Autobots of The Transformers franchise but I thought a comedy strip about robots might be a good fit. Thankfully, Sheila thought so too, and Robo Capers began in Transformers No.15, cover dated 6th to 19th April 1985. It would run until issue 152. 

Here are the first 10 strips from Transformers No.15 to issue 24 (10th/23rd August 1985). Click on each strip to see it larger.

Where ROBO CAPERS began. TRANSFORMERS No.15. Cover by Mike Collins.

Pup Parade will return to the BEANO!

First script for the new series. Parts redacted to avoid spoilers!

I'm pleased to say I've been commissioned to write and draw a new series of Pup Parade for the Beano, beginning in September.

The new series will be a mini-strip of 3 or 4 panels per episode. Not a lot of space in which to feature nine characters, so the spotlight will be on different pups each week. 

I've already written the first three scripts. The first one has been approved, so I'll be drawing that next week. 

I've enjoyed drawing the strip in the past when it was a full pager and a half pager in its previous two series, so I'm looking forward to taking those Bash Street Dogs for walkies again! 

The strip was a favourite of mine when it began in The Beano in 1967, drawn by Gordon Bell, so it's an honour to be the current artist on the strip. 

Maurice the Cat!

Something new! I recently did a page for the independent comic TechnoFreak published by Sunday Lunch Comics. As it featured their character Maurice the Cat I thought I'd design the page like a spoof of an old Dandy cover and called it The Catnip. It appears on the back cover of TecnoFreak No.2.

The comic is out now and John Freeman has a review of it over on his blog:
https://downthetubes.net/?p=108868

Cover art by Tom Newell and John Charles.

Postman Prat will return!

Dandy Annual 2018

One of the characters I really enjoyed working on for the late lamented Dandy comic was Postman Prat. Originally I was only the artist on the strip, working from scripts by others, but later I wrote my own material. (I've written by own strips for about 90% of my career so I was happy to take on Prat too.) I also do the colouring and lettering because I see the whole thing as part of the job, rather than the "conveyer belt" system of having various people do each stage of the strip.

He hasn't been around for a few years but I'm pleased to say that I'm currently writing/drawing brand new Postman Prat strips for The Dandy Annual 2021, to be published in about 12 month's time. I always enjoy doing gormless characters and there's still plenty of mileage in Prat! 

In the meantime, here's one of the Postman Prat strips I did that appeared in The Dandy Annual 2018. Hope you like it! 

Sometimes it doesn't work out

One thing that's important to remember in this business is that sometimes projects are cancelled before they see print. You may remember I mentioned in a previous post that I was drawing something new that'd appear this week? Sadly it didn't work out and the client changed their mind, so it will never see the light of day now.

So it goes. There's no hard feelings and I'll be paid for what I did so that's a relief at least. Out of professional courtesy I won't go into detail about what it would have been but it was an interesting thing to work on, and for a publication I'd never worked for before, and with a writer I'd never worked with before... but I hope I'll work with them again one day. 

So if you're new to the business, don't lose heart if something you've worked on is axed before publication. It can happen to anyone. Just make sure you get paid, and press on with the next job! A glass half full attitude is the only way to keep sane in this industry!