Beach Bovver!

©Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd.

Thanks to Richard Langford on Facebook for reminding me of this page I did for the Buster / Monster Fun Holiday Special way back in 1994! 

Script and art by me. Lettering by David Gould (apart from the logo and sound effects which I also did). Click the art to see it much larger.

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Comics update

As things stand at present, with the COVID-19 lockdown expected to continue for six months or more, and as I don't have a lot of work on right now, I've sadly decided to put Combat Colin No.5 on hold.

It will be published eventually, at some point, assuming I survive the next few months of course (who expected that to be a disclaimer we'd all start using?). At present the printers I use are still in business, but I don't really want to be risking my life several times a week taking comics to the post office to mail out. The instruction is to stay at home so I'll only be leaving when necessary. I hope you understand.

For those of you who have suggested I do issue 5 as a digital edition; it's not something I want to do. I'd prefer to stick with the print format for the whole series for consistency. Besides, digital comics only get pirated and put onto dodgy download sites right away. 

That said, I may release something in the digital format soon, but it won't be Combat Colin No.5. Watch this space.

All being well I'll publish Combat Colin No.5 in late summer or Autumn, but we'll see how life pans out. 

Take care all. 

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In print (and digital) this week...

Hello everyone. How are you doing? I hope you and your families and friends are all bearing up in these worrying times. I thought I'd let you know what I have in print this week. Firstly, on Wednesday (1st April, no foolin') there's another one of Ellis's Great Escapes in the Beano No.4029.... then, the next day, on Thursday 2nd April we journey to The Daft Dimension again in Doctor Who Magazine No.550! 

Now that comic shops and many branches of WH Smith are closed you might find it difficult to get the comics but for individual print issues of the Beano you could try Newsstand at this link...
https://www.newsstand.co.uk/106-General-Magazines/60-Subscribe-to-BEANO-Magazine-Subscription.aspx

...or take out a subscription for future issues in print or digital at this link:
https://www.beano.com/subscribe

For Doctor Who Magazine you can buy individual issues, subscribe, or buy the digital version all at this link:
https://doctorwhomagazine.com

Stay at home and stay safe... and escape into comics, books, music, films, or whatever helps you through this. 

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Masters of British Comic Art

Thanks to artist/writer David Roach for the brief unexpected mention in his new book Masters of British Comic Art, a huge near-400 page hardback that's available now. Nice to see Oink! included in the text.

Masters of British Comic Art is published by Rebellion and is essential for fans of UK comics (and of comic art in general). About a third of the book covers the history of British comic art, with profusely illustrated chapters on comics for humour, nursery, adventure, girls comics, newspaper strips, undergrounds, and more. The rest is an art book, showing beautifully reproduced pages mostly shot from the original artwork!

Bookshops and comic shops now closed for the duration of the pandemic, but you can still order it directly from the publisher (which is what I did). You'll find the details at this link along with other books currently available from Rebellion:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/

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NEW! Liverpool Heartbeat Magazine!

There's a brand new children's magazine available now featuring strips and features. Edited by Tim Quinn (who has long experience in comics as an editor and writer), Liverpool Heartbeat Magazine is a full colour 48 page A4 publication primarily aimed at instilling a love of reading and writing in the young people of Merseyside. 

Contributors to the mag include Nigel Parkinson, Russ Leach, Holly Bushnell, and me! Plus stories, drawings, and news reports by the schoolchildren of Liverpool... and a special previously unpublished message from the late great Stan Lee! Plus an interview with Eddie Izzard! All in all it's a very positive magazine and we all need that right now!

From a script by Tim Quinn, I've drawn a full page strip called Bird's Eye View, featuring Askey and Dodd, the famous Liver Birds that look out over Liverpool from the top of the Liver building. Who knew that while they're up there, Dodd is regailing Askey with some tall tales? The first of which takes us back to the height of Beatlemania, Daleks, and screaming teenagers! 

The plan is to do three issues this year. Liverpool Heartbeat Magazine isn't confined to Merseyside though. While the postal service is still operating you can order it by mail wherever you live for just £3 at www.liverpoolheartbeat.com.

Finally, a note from Tim Quinn:
"Also be sure to hop on board our new LIVERPOOL HEARTBEAT COMIC MAGAZINE Facebook page where we will be uploading fun features for parents and children at home during this international crisis." All details over at:
https://www.facebook.com/Liverpool-Heartbeat-Comic-Magazine-111694190472653

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Working methods

While we're waiting for the Cor!! Buster Easter Special to be published (on 8th April) I thought you might like to see how a bit of last year's special looked like in its early stages. 

The Who's In Charge? there pager I drew was written by John Freeman and asked for a busy big panel on page one featuring The Swots and the Blots, The Bumpkin Billionaires, and anyone else I wanted to add. The Swots and Blots were favourites of mine back in the 1960s when they were in Smash! so of course I jumped at the chance to draw them.

Shown here are a couple of photos I took when the pencils were partly completed. You'll notice from the left hand side of the panel that I lightly rough out shapes first to indicate where characters will be. In this case I'd chosen to start doing more detailed pencils of the kids in the playground first, before I'd pencilled Weary Willie and Tired Tim properly on the left there. 

Yep, I know my pencil roughs look very messy. It's just the way I've always worked to channel the energy of the characters from my mind onto paper. I know which lines I'll ink even if no one else does. I'm glad we don't have to work the American method by having other people ink our pencils. It'd take me twice as long to do neat enough pencils for the inker to follow! 

Some of you may be wondering why I use a blue pencil. It's a certain shade of blue that the scanner doesn't pick up after I've inked the pages. It saves me erasing the usual grey pencils. Besides, the ink from the fibre-tip pens and brush pens I use now would fade to grey if I tried to erase pencil lines. (Yes, I still ink traditionally, then scan the art into Photoshop.)

I usually draw my strips "twice up", which is twice the width and twice the height of the published piece. Obviously that would mean a huge A2 original page, but I draw each page in two A3 halves, then assemble them in Photoshop after I've scanned them in.

Speaking of Photoshop, that's the software I use to colour the pages. As I've said before, I prefer doing computer colouring than the old method of using a brush and colour inks that I used throughout the 1990s. Anyway, here's the finished result of the half page show above. (Click on images to see them larger.) The dialogue balloons and captions would be added later after the editor passed it onto the letterer. 

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Wednesday

I hope everyone's doing ok? I've just had my government-sanctioned once-a-day walk to Sainsbury's and back to get some fresh fruit and veg (and ok, I bought a pizza as well). Plenty of food in stock, which made me appreciate the efforts of farmers, suppliers, and the distribution chain more than I used to.

It wasn't very busy in there at mid-day. Everyone was respecting the distance and giving way to each other with a calm smile and a nod. At the moment everyone seems subdued and extra polite, like we're shy children on our first week at a new school.

Several buses passed by on my journey. This is the main route to and from Coventry and every bus was empty except for one that had a solitary passenger. I took the route through the park on my way there. Again, we all adopted a good distance between us. The quietness of everyone's shared understanding coupled with the glorious weather gave a deceptive impression that we were living in a Utopia. If only we were. It's early days of course but if people can maintain such dignity it gives me some hope for humanity. Look after yourselves and each other.

(Do I have any comics news to tell you? Well, I had a message en route telling me my regular Beano work was ending immediately, so I'm afraid that's all I can report for today. The comic itself is continuing though so readers will still have their weekly Beano and as I've worked weeks ahead I'll still be in there until late May.)

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