Bones in the spotlight

With Pup Parade only being a mini-strip of 3 or 4 panels, there's not room to give every one of the Bash Street Dogs equal time, so instead I tend to focus on one or two different characters each week. In next week's Beano the spotlight falls on Bones, the leader of the pups. 

See what happens next in the Beano No.4010, on sale Wednesday 6th November!

Tom Thug will return!

I'm going to make sure that Tom Thug turns up in next year's Cor!! Buster Easter Special. In fact, John Freeman has written him into the script. It's only a cameo part, but he'll be part of a crowd scene in a few panels. (He also appeared briefly in this year's special, if you recall.)

Hopefully it'll eventually lead to Tom coming back in his own strip one day. After all, he was one of the most popular strips in Oink! and Buster from the late 1980s to the final Buster in 1999 and even took over the cover position on several occasions.  When I did the last one I counted up how many Tom Thug strips I'd drawn, and it was well over 400. 

People still ask me for a sketch of him at conventions, so the brainless bully is still fondly remembered. He was never a character to emulate of course. More of a catharsis for readers to see the bully get his just desserts every issue. Readers laughed with the other Buster characters, but Tom was designed to be laughed at. 

If you'd like to know how Tom Thug came to be, I wrote a blog post about it five years ago. Click on this link to read it...
https://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-origin-of-tom-thug.html

Fireworks!

Comics tend to avoid stories featuring fireworks these days. Maybe because it's not easy to feature them in a story without characters acting irresponsibly with them, - but years ago we knew it was wrong to be foolish with fireworks. Even if the comics showed characters holding onto a rocket or being surprised by a banger, we knew it shouldn't be imitated. 

Anyway, I didn't want the opportunity to pass if I could help it so in this week's Pup Parade I came up with a story where I could show a firework display (at a distance) and do a plot about keeping pets safe. See how it turns out in the Beano No.4009, on sale Wednesday 30th October! 

BUSTER is coming back in 2020

As you may have read on my other blog, 2020 will see Rebellion publish twelve specials across the year, most of which will revive classic comics of the past with brand new material. 

One of the first to be released will be the Cor!! Buster Easter Special. A second outing for the successful humour special published last year. It'll be packed with old favourites given a new spin, and I'm very pleased to say that I'll be drawing a three page Buster and Delbert strip written by John Freeman

The three pager involves an Easter egg hunt, and will feature a lot of familiar comic faces, - not just from Buster, but from other comics of the past too. (A few going wayyy back.) 

I was one of the original artists in Buster comic (on Tom Thug) throughout the late 1980s until it's end in 1999 so it's a thrill to draw the title character. I'm excited to be following in the footsteps of such great artists as Bill Titcombe (the first artist of Buster in 1960), Angel Nadal, Reg Parlett, Tom Paterson, Jimmy Hansen and many more! My version will try to capture the essence of all the previous styles but will essentially be my own. A few preliminary sketches accompany this article. 

The Cor!! Buster Easter Special will go on sale in early April 2020. I'll post more news about it in the future! 

Below: the cover by Neil Googe and Jim Boswell...

Combat Colin nominated for an award. VOTE NOW!

I'm pleased to see that my Combat Colin comics are amongst the nominations in the Best Indie/Small Press category of the new Comic Scene Awards. If you enjoy my comics please consider voting and perhaps I'll win an award for the first time in my life! 
https://comicsflix.org/2019/10/23/comicscene-awards-2019-the-final-nominations-its-time-to-vote-for-your-favourite/

Here's how Comic Scene explain how to vote...

"E mail your preferred winner in each category by giving the category number and letter of your choice to comicsflix@gmail.com – you don’t have to vote in all categories if you do not wish to do so.  There will be daily polls on our ComicScene Facebook and twitter feeds for extra votes!" 

Thanks to those of you who nominated me, and thanks in advance if you're going to vote for Combat Colin in these final nominations. 

More comics dispatched

Another batch of orders sent off today for people who have bought my Combat Colin comics. My thanks for your ongoing support of my self-publishing ventures! 

If any more of you are interested you can order the comics exclusively from my online shop at this link:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

Another sneak peek at the latest Daft Dimension

There won't be a Pup Parade strip in next week's Beano unfortunately, but Doctor Who Magazine No.544 will still be on sale featuring a full page Daft Dimension strip from me. Here's a preview of one panel. To see the rest, pick up the mag from WH Smiths, supermarkets, or comic shops!