It's the Daft 1970s!

The next issue of Doctor Who Magazine has something of a 1970s theme so I thought I'd join in with a Daft Dimension featuring the Third Doctor! 

You can read the strip, and plenty of other content too of course, in Doctor Who Magazine No.555, on sale Thursday 20th August! Here's the cover to look out for...

 

 

New badges!

 

As you know, I have a Redbubble store that sells my merchandise designs including T-shirts, stickers, and much more. Well, now there's an option to produce pin badges so I've added a bunch of them to my store. Designs include Combat Colin, Brickman, Derek the Troll and others. I hope you'll find some that appeal! 

Here's the link:
https://www.redbubble.com/people/lewstringer/shop?artistUserName=lewstringer&iaCode=u-pin-button&sortOrder=recent 

In Space No One Can Hear You SHOUT!

Issue 2 of the brand new British comic The77 is out now and it contains the second episode of my new series Sgt.Shouty of the Moon Force!

Shouty on trial! That's not going to end well is it? 

See what happens in The77 No.2 by ordering your copy from this link:
https://getmycomics.com/The77

The77 is a 68 page comic featuring 15 all new stories from a variety of comics creators including Steve MacManus, Dan Whitehead, Kek-W, Bambos Georgiou, PJ Holden, Neil Sims and many more! Financed by successful Kickstarter campaigns that exceeded their targets, The77 is the breakout title of 2020!

 

****************************

RASHER returns for a guest spot!

 

This was a pleasant surprise today. Back in February I was commissioned to write/draw a one-off Rasher strip for the Beano. In the end it wasn't used due to lack of space, but it's turned up in the latest issue! 

As you know, I've drawn three (or is it four) series of Rasher over the years and he's one of my favourite Beano characters to script and illustrate. I've no idea if he'll ever be back on a regular basis but you'll get to see one new Rasher strip in the Beano No.4048, in the shops this Wednesday 12th August. Here's the cover to look out for...

Cover art by Nigel Parkinson and the Beano design team.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Roll up for the Circus!

I was recently commissioned to do a drawing of a clown for the forthcoming book Circus DeNiro (written by Michael Powell and illustrated by Phil Elliott). I thought I'd make him a sleazy looking weirdo, because those sort of characters are more fun to draw. 

I submitted my black and white version (above) and Phil coloured it. I usually colour my own work so it was interesting to see another artist interpret it. In this case Phil felt there was something "Homer Simpson" about it so gave him yellow skin....

Circus DeNiro sounds like it'll be a great book and I'm honoured to have a small part in it. I think Phil's done the best artwork of his career on this book (and he's always been good). You can check out some samples, and back the Kickstarter, at this link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1715620850/circus-deniro-a-gothic-adventure

***********************************************
 

Don't miss out on the fun!

 

With unpredictable bad timing The Cor!! Buster Easter Special was available in WH Smiths... during the lockdown, so as most branches of Smiths were closed it meant that some readers missed it! 

However, the good news is you don't have to miss out because the comic is still available to buy by post, directly from the publisher!  

The Easter theme is only present in a few of the strips so you can look at it as a Summer Special if you wish, although hopefully you'll still find the Easter stories egg-selent too! (Couldn't resist. Don't worry. The humour in the special is funnier than that!)

I'm very pleased with how the special turned out and it was a pleasure to contribute, so I hope you enjoy it too! Hop over to the Treasury of British Comics website to order it now!
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/humour/RCS2052 

...and if you missed last year's special, that's still available too! 
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/humour/RCS1951 
 

This week in 1991 in BUSTER...

It was a very busy time for me this week 29 years ago! I had three pages in the issue of Buster dated 10th August 1991, (which was published 3rd August.... remember that back then comics were dated for the following weekend after publication).

First up, Tom Thug on 'Oliday was the strip on page three. Every year during the school holidays I'd do a six-week story with Tom on his holidays. (Usually Blackpool as I recall, as is the case here.) Note the old sea wall, which has since been replaced by a smarter looking seafront.

Next, The Vampire Brats was my other regular Buster strip. Initially written by Mark Rogers, then by me, but by this period the scripts were by Roy Davis with me on art. Roy's method of writing was to rough everything out on an A3 sheet in biro (as he was an artist himself). It was then up to the artist, such as myself, to interpret it as they wished. I chose to give the Lion Tamer a wildly exaggerated reaction in panel 7.

Writers never had a credit in Buster but on some strips I added Roy's initials next to my signature because I felt that all contribitors should be credited! If I'd known who'd be lettering it I'd have added that too. In this case it was Jack Potter (who also lettered the Tom Thug strip shown here).

Finally, Specky Hector's History of Comics reached its 10th and final part. I did everything on this; script, art (apart from the Turtles panels), lettering, colouring, layout. Specky Hector was a character I'd created for Oink! and used a couple of times there, so I thought he'd be an ideal character to host this series of articles for Buster. Editor Allen Cummings agreed and these History features appeared about once a month. A reprint of Specky's first strip will appear in the forthcoming Battle Special, newly digitally remastered and coloured by me. 

So... that was a glimpse at my work for Buster back in 1991. Great times and a very busy decade! Were you a Buster reader? Post your memories about those days below!

Remember also that Buster is back, in the latest Cor!! Buster Easter Special, still available to order by post from Rebellion's website at this link:

https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/humour/RCS2052