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DEREK THE TROLL launches this Saturday!

September 8, 2016, 5:07 am
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Here's my new comic that I've been hinting at for weeks. Hot off the presses, Derek the Troll will launch at the ICE 2016 comics convention this Saturday, 10th September, in Birmingham. 

Derek the Troll is a 32 page one-shot collecting every Derek the Troll strip I did for Warlock and White Dwarf magazine from 1985 to 1987. Derek is the affable but stinky denizen of a time before history, encountering angry villagers, mad barbarians, and sneaky warlocks.

The second half of the comic features Rock Solid, Space Hero, a serial I did for Harrier Comics' Swiftsure way back in 1985 and never reprinted before. Rock thinks he's the greatest hero in the galaxy, but in fact he's nothing but a space-faring psychopath. But when Earth is invaded, he's the best hope we have! Will humanity survive? The complete 15 page saga is collected in this comic.

Derek the Troll and Rock Solid are some of the earliest strips I had published, right back in the early years of my career and you can see my style develop with each episode. I'm still pleased with how they hold up and anyone who enjoyed my Combat Colin and Oink! strips will hopefully get a kick out of them. 

Speaking of Combat Colin, I've also included a couple of half-pagers from the late 1980s as a bonus back-up feature. 

Derek the Troll is a 32 page comic including 28 interior pages in their original black and white. If you can't make it to ICE 2016 for the launch, you can order a copy from my online shop and I'll post it out next week.
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ICE was cool!

September 13, 2016, 10:34 am
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Super Team!

September 13, 2016, 10:37 am
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Team Toxic become superheroes in the current issue of Toxic magazine! How? Why? Buy the mag and find out in Hero Hour in Toxic No.277, out now!
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End of the Parade

September 17, 2016, 8:53 am
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Here's a preview panel from this week's Pup Parade... although it won't actually be called Pup Parade! You'll find out why in The Beano when it goes on sale on Wednesday (or before, if you're a subscriber). Although I usually write the strip, this one was written by someone else as it ties in with a theme running through the comic.

Sadly, this will be my last page for The Beano for the forseeable future. This issue will also be a "big news" edition, which will lead into a relaunch for the comic the following week. As I'm not part of that revamp I have no idea what it entails but I'm sure all the core characters will remain and there'll be new ones too! I've heard it's going to be great, so Never Be Without A Beano!

There are a couple of unpublished Pup Parades that might appear in 2017 or in the 2018 annual. I've also illustrated a four page story (not Pup Parade though) for The Beano Christmas Special, so that will be out later this year. Other than that, I don't know when I'll be back in The Beano. Such is the roller-coaster life of a freelancer. I should be used to it by now.

In the meantime you'll still find me doing Team Toxic in the top selling Toxic and The Daft Dimension in Doctor Who Magazine, and hopefully more stuff for other comics / mags in the months to come. (No idea what as yet though, so that's not a clue.)

My thanks to all of you who have said at conventions and on social media how much you enjoyed my Pup Parade pages. It's been a pleasure to work on a strip I used to enjoy so much as a kid. (I'm so old I remember when they first appeared in The Beano back in the 1960s!) Your warm comments have been much appreciated.

Onwards and upwards!
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Daft Cybermen!

September 19, 2016, 4:34 pm
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In this month's Daft Dimension strip I was given the opportunity to feature the Cybermen as it ties in with the main focus of the issue, which is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the characters. You'll see the full strip in Doctor Who Magazine No.504, on sale Thursday 22nd September. That issue comes with a choice of four covers. Which one will you get?
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Cover story

September 19, 2016, 4:51 pm
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Here's a photo I thought you might like to see that I took a few weeks ago when I was inking the cover to Derek the Troll. As you can see, it was only partially completed at that stage. When the inks were finished I scanned the art into Photoshop to colour it and add the logo etc. (I designed the logo using a Comicraft font called KillZone. http://www.comicbookfonts.com/ )

Here's how the published comic looks...

Sales are going well on Derek the Troll so far. If you'd like a copy you can order a signed copy directly from me at my online shop and I'll post it out to you:
http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm 

Remember, you won't find independent comics like these in newsagents. The UK comics industry these days often uses other ways to survive, such as comic shop sales, conventions, and mail order. If you're a fan of British comics, please show your support. Thanks.
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New banner artwork

September 24, 2016, 12:01 pm
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I designed a new banner for myself recently for use at conventions. My previous one just used a blow up of the Brickman Returns! cover but I thought it'd be better to show a selection of my characters. Combat Colin is the most prominent as that's the one most people seem to remember best. I thought I'd include Tom Thug and Pete and his Pimple too as a lot of people I meet remember those as well.

Most comic creators have their own banners now as they help attendees recognize the guests across a crowded convention hall. They also add colour to the event and give the show a more professional look I think.

The next event I'll be at will be Nottingham Comic Con on Saturday 29th October so if you're attending look out for my banner! 
http://www.nottinghamcomiccon.co.uk/
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BUTT-FACE is back again!

October 1, 2016, 7:44 am
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One of Team Toxic's oldest foes is back again with another villainous plan! Yes, Butt-Face returns in the latest issue of Toxic in a story entitled Day of the Bottoms! 

The cheeky chappie tricks people into having their bums enlarged, and they become too bottom-heavy to stop him going on a crime wave! Can Team Toxic stop him? Find out in Toxic No.278, out now!

I'm pleased to see from the latest sales figures (http://downthetubes.net/?p=33120) that Toxic is still the top-selling boys' magazine with a circulation of 58,000 and outsells most American comics. Basically, more people read Toxic in the UK than those who read Invincible Iron Man in the USA! (Source: http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2016/2016-07.html)

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The rovers return

October 6, 2016, 1:22 pm
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When The Beano was revamped as Beano last week there were a few changes, including the absence of Pup Parade from its pages. However, I'm very pleased to announce that the strip will be returning in the New Year! 

The new series will still be written and drawn by me, although it'll be a half pager, not a full page strip. I'm fine with that, and will be thinking up the scripts  this weekend, (along with drawing a page for another mag, - but news on that soon). 

My thanks to all of you who expressed your support on social media. I'm very much looking forward to being a part of Beano again, starting in 2017!

http://www.beano.com
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Something new

October 10, 2016, 3:03 pm
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I've just sent off the artwork to a kids magazine I haven't worked for before. The strips will be published later in November so I'll reveal more info then! You can try and guess what it is if you like, but, as the politicians say, I can neither confirm nor deny at this point. :)
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ROBO-CAPERS!

October 12, 2016, 7:23 pm
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Here's a scan of an original piece of Robo-Capers artwork that was sold on eBay recently. I sold this art years ago, and now someone has sold it on to someone else. Not that I mind of course, as it's gone to a good home. If people appreciate my work enough that they want to collect the original art then I'm honoured.

As most of you probably know, Robo-Capers was a strip I created which appeared in over 100 issues of Marvel UK's The Transformers comic in the mid-1980s. I really enjoyed working on that strip, and I think it went down well as people always mention it to me at conventions even now. 

This particular strip appeared in The Transformers No.118, dated 20th June 1987.
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Bash Street!

October 15, 2016, 5:03 am
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I'm very proud to have drawn the four page Bash Street Kids story for the Beano Christmas Special that's on sale now. The script was written by Andy Fanton, and it was coloured by a D.C. Thomson colourist. All in all I think it turned out well and I'm very pleased with the result. 

Here's a couple of panels of my original art before it was lettered and coloured...


As there was some confusion last year I should explain that the Beano Christmas Special is a one-off special. There'll also be a Beano Christmas issue as part of the weekly run nearer to Christmas but this is an extra production, with 68 pages, on lavish paper, with card covers and free stickers inside. (There's also a Beano Annual of course, in the usual hardback format.)

The Beano Christmas Special makes an ideal stocking-stuffer for kids, so pick a copy up from WH Smith today. £4.99
Cover art by Nigel Parkinson.
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In print this week...

October 16, 2016, 11:01 am
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There's a new issue of Toxic magazine out on Wednesday 19th October and it features another two page Team Toxic story from me entitled Game On! This time, the Team encounter an innocent-looking games machine in the shopping mall only to find that it mysteriously draws them into another dimension. 

The following day, on Thursday 20th October, Doctor Who Magazine No.505 is published, featuring 84 pages of features and strips including another Daft Dimension by me. As you can see from this close up of part of one panel, the Daft Daleks are the stars this month.

Here's the cover to look out for...

Also, as mentioned yesterday, the Beano Christmas Special is in the shops now; 68 full colour pages including a four page Bash Street Kids story written by Andy Fanton that I illustrated. Collect 'em all!
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MONSTER MASH! (1986)

October 18, 2016, 11:25 am
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Click on the pages to see them larger.

As it's been 30 years this week since this strip appeared I thought it'd be good to post an updated version of an article I wrote about it for my Blimey! blog five years ago...

One of the enjoyable things about working for Oink! comic back in the 1980s was the opportunity to do numerous one-off or short run strips as well as regular characters. Monster Mash appeared in Oink! No.13, the Halloween issue for 1986, and was a collaboration between editor Mark Rogers and myself.

Mark had originally sent me an idea for a story called The School Dinner Monster and asked if I had any ideas to add to it. I added a few bits and bobs to the plot and dialogue, and thought the title Monster Mash was catchier. I gave the name 'Pigzilla' to the giant robot pig, although Mark changed that to the much more inspired Pigswilla.

As Oink! was printed on quality paper (as opposed to the newsprint of its companion comics Buster, Whizzer & Chips etc) I knew we could be a bit more adventurous with the rendering of the artwork so I thought a grey wash would give it more depth. I was really pleased with how the strip turned out and it remains one of my favourite pieces 30 years later. The artwork is a bit rough in places but I'm still happy with it.

I felt that with Monster Mash and some of the other material that myself and other contributors did for Oink! that we were stepping outside the usual conventions of British humour comics and moving away from the standard schoolkid-with-gimmick that had dominated IPC's comics since 1969. And we were all having great fun doing it. This comedy-adventure, comic horror stuff was what comics should have been doing more of in my opinion.

As it turned out, perhaps most readers still preferred the more traditional schoolkid strips, and Oink! folded after just two and a half years. Then again, Whizzer and Chips folded a few years later, and that was the most traditional "safe" comic in IPC's stable. Perhaps it was just a sign that readers were being distracted by video games?

What's heartening is that, three decades later, the kids who grew up reading Oink! still remember it with so much affection. I meet many of those readers (now in their 30s and 40s) at conventions and online and they still speak of the comic with enthusiasm. (One such fan, Phil Boyce, even set up The Oink! Blog and did stirling work in reviewing every issue: 

The comic really made an impact with readers and I'm proud to have been associated with every issue.

Pigswilla returned for a few more complete stories during the run of Oink! and I'll show them here at some point in the future.
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One week to go...

October 21, 2016, 2:45 pm
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Next Saturday, on 29th October, I'll be one of the guests at the Nottingham Comic Convention at the Nottingham Conference Centre (above). Other guests from the current British comics scene include Laura Howell, Dan Berry, Rachael Smith, Abby Bulmer, The Etherington Brothers, Roger Langridge, Marc Laming and more! 

This will be my first time at the Nottingham con so I'm looking forward to it. I'll be available for sketching on request, and I'll be bringing along my self-published comics Derek the Troll and Brickman Returns, and a few other things. I understand I'm on a panel at some point in the day too. I've no other conventions scheduled for this year after this one so I hope to see some of you there!

For full details of tickets etc, see the official convention website:
http://www.nottinghamcomiccon.co.uk/
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Nottingham Comic Con announcement

October 28, 2016, 3:12 pm
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I'm very sorry to say that I won't be at the Nottingham Comic Con tomorrow. I've had a virus the last few days and was hoping it would pass but no sign of that yet. I was looking forward to the con and really hate letting people down. I can only apologise to the organisers who have been great, and to those of you who were hoping to see me there. 

I hope all of you attending have a great day. There's a brilliant line up of guests including Laura Howell, Rachael Smith, Abigail Bulmer, The Etherington Brothers, Dan Berry, Roger Langridge and more. 
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Coming up in TOXIC No.280

November 4, 2016, 2:46 pm
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The villainous Hallie Tosis lives up to her name in the next Team Toxic story, Breath of Doom! After eating a concoction of garlic curry, pickled onions, and more, Hallie uses her breath to defeat Team Toxic. What happens next? Find out in Toxic No.280, on sale in newsagents and supermarkets from Wednesday 9th November!
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This week....

November 6, 2016, 5:55 am
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This week I'll be writing scripts for the pages I'll be drawing for The Dandy Annual 2018. Yes, the book that kids will be having for next Christmas! We work well in advance in Dandytown.

I'll also be drawing the first in the new series of Pup Parade (and another strip) that return to Beano in the New Year issue. Plus I also have stuff to do for other titles. Busy week!
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Something new

November 7, 2016, 5:43 pm
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Today I had editorial approval on the character designs for a new series I'm drawing. The strip will start in the New Year for an existing kids' magazine and I'll reveal more about it on publication. 

Also in the New Year, a new series of Pup Parade starts in Beano. I'm writing and drawing that. And... I'm also doing a new mini-strip that starts in the same issue. More news on that later this year.

Plus my regular Team Toxic strip for Toxic, and The Daft Dimension for Doctor Who Magazine.

And this week I'm writing scripts for The Dandy Annual 2018 (which goes on sale next July or August). I also have some private commissions to draw. So... lots to do! And sometime soon I want to start work on my next self-published comic, Combat Colin! 

As always, my thanks to all of you who follow this blog. It means a lot! 
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New convention for 2017

November 8, 2016, 3:53 pm
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I've been invited to a few conventions for 2017 but I won't list them until they're officially announced. One show I can reveal though is InternationalComic Expo Brighton which will take place on June 10th 2017. There'll be more info in the months to come but for now, here's the website...
https://brightoncomicexpo.wordpress.com/

Comics by the seaside! What's not to like? Hope to see you there! 
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