This week's issue of The Dandy features the return of Alf and Sadie from Health and Safety in my Kid Cops strip, - and this time they're out for revenge! Have Sergeant Nick and Officer Bobby finally met their match?
Perhaps, - as this issue features my final Kid Cops page for the time being! I'll be taking a break for a few weeks and then there's the start of my brand new strip, - an all-new character I've created for The Dandy. I'm drawing the first episode today. It'll run for six weeks and will probably begin in June. I'll reveal more at a later date. Stay tuned!
The Dandy No.3579 goes on sale Wednesday April 25th priced £1.99.
The Dandy returns from its Easter break this week and amongst its 36 pages of fun there's the second chapter of Jamie Smart's new series Mega-Lo Maniacs, a new character Chronic the Hedgehog, and my penultimate Kid Cops page! Here's a preview of the latter above.
The Dandy. On sale Wednesday 18th April. £1.99. Go on, treat yourself!
Here's a sneak preview of this week's Kid Cops strip which will be in The Dandy on Wednesday. Once again it's a case of Health and Safety gone mad in a crime against common sense. Can Kid Cops crack it?
It's another hectic week here at Stringer Manor with another Kid Cops strip to do plus finishing off my pages for The Dandy Annual 2013 which will be out in late summer. As you may have read elsewhere, in celebration of The Dandy's 75 anniversary this year the Annual will be featuring the return of many old characters drawn by today's artists. You'll see delights such as Monkey Bizness by Mike D, Keyhole Kate by Laura Howell, and Winker Watson by Wilbur Dawburn plus much more.
I'm doing two characters for the annual. I'd like to keep quiet about which ones they are for now, as it's nice to leave some surprises until closer to publication date I think. However I will say that one is from the 1940s and the other made his debut in the 1950s. It's great fun to be working on them and I hope I do them justice.
Anyway, back to the drawing board. I will resurface later in the week...
This week's issue of The Dandy sees Kid Cops return for a third series. The title and concept was created by the Dandy editorial for the 2010 relaunch and I developed it further, designing the characters and writing and drawing the strip.
Kid Cops are Sgt.Nick and Officer Bobby who bring their own brand of law and justice to the streets of Dandytown, usually to thwart crazy extremes of Health and Safety.
Kid Cops replaces Postman Prat which has just ended its second series. The Dandy is on sale Wednesdays, 36 full colour pages for £1.99.
Difficulty finding it in your area? Subscribe to The Dandy here:
http://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/Group-Dandy.aspx
Update 1/2/2012: I notice a certain critic (the usual one) has been indulging in at least three posts of lengthy Dandy-bashing over on his blog the past few days. That is his right of course, and no one could or should deny him his opinions, repetitive as they are. (Although to say that today's artists attained their position through luck or bad editorship is either sour grapes or ignorance.) I do however wish he'd realize that his views are clouded by his nostalgia of an era long gone. And by nostalgia I don't just mean a preference for the particular issues of comics one once read, but for a rose-tinted ideal of the past, including comics from before one's time.
It's only natural that one would prefer the comics of one's childhood, but consider the fate of Classics from the Comics. 64 packed pages of some of the best strips DC Thomson ever published from the 1950s to 1980s in a cheap, affordable format, but sadly it couldn't sustain enough of a modern audience to make it viable any more.
When you're older there's a reason why the modern world may not be appealing as that of bygone days. It's simply the generation gap. Time moves on, and the style of comics changes as it always has. My Grandad thought Whizzer and Chips of 1969 "wasn't as good" as Illustrated Chips that he read in 1900. Back in the 1980s I remember thinking that some comics of the Eighties were not as good as those of the past. But I wasn't viewing them through a child's eyes. Hopefully I know better now. These days I meet 30-somethings who grew up on those comics in the 1980s and they think they were wonderful. Likewise, today's young readers will no doubt have the same affection in 20 or 30 years time for the comics they grew up with, such as The Dandy of 2012.
The critic can quite comfortably predict that The Dandy will eventually fail of course. Every British comic launched in the 20th Century has folded, with a handful of exceptions. It's like predicting someone will eventually die. Nothing lasts forever, so whenever The Dandy, Beano, 2000AD, etc finally fade away the critic can crow "I told you so. They should have listened to me! Yes, me! Over here! Notice me dammit!", whilst ignoring the fact that all the comics of his past that he holds up as templates for success have long since perished, despite many of them being undeniably brilliant.
The Dandy and other such comics are, as they've always been, aimed at children. If adults get some fun out of them too then that's a bonus. But those few adults who resent modern comics for not being like they used to be? They really need to move on and just enjoy the comics they do like.
Just a quick post to plug a few comics I'm in this week. First up, the latest edition of Toxic is the Toxic Wicked Holiday Special and it comes bagged with seven, count 'em, seven "Awesome Gifts" for £3.99. It'll be on sale for three weeks instead of the usual fortnight.
Inside, Team Toxic encounter a brand new baddie, - Mister Nostril, who can telepathically control his own snot. There's also a reprint of an old Team Toxic strip in the back, Fists of Fury, wherein the Team meet Andy Wivisfists.
Other strips in this issue are Gorilla Kid by Jason Loborik and Anthony Williams, Robin Hoodie by Luke Paton and Laura Howell, and Laura's also done a nicely drawn two page spread of Holiday Pranks.
Out the same day, this week's issue of The Dandy is also a special issue, featuring 12 extra pages, a Snapping Teeth cover mount, and a bound-in "Make Your Own Desperate Dan and Korky" models for £2.50. The issue is jam-packed with strips, not a single reprint, and includes a four page Bananaman story by Wayne Thomson, new strip Bone-O, lots of good stuff from Jamie Smart, Nigel Parkinson, The Ethrington Brothers, Nigel Auchterlounie, Andy Fanton and all your other fun chums.
As for Kid Cops, what on Earth are they up to this week? Buy The Dandy and find out!
TOXIC website: http://www.toxicmag.co.uk/DANDY website: http://www.dandy.com/
UPDATE:
SUPER SCHOOL RETURNS!
Another comic which came out this week, BeanoMAX No.51, features Super School in its pages for the first time (and their first appearance in any comic this year). I originally drew this for The Beano last year but it wasn't published so perhaps the stock they have will now be appearing in the monthly instead.
I usually colour my own work these days but Super School is coloured in-house by the Beano colourists, - and they've done a great job on this one.
Other strips in the 44 page BeanoMAX include a nice long 10 page story featuring Dennis the Menace and The Bash Street Kids, a Kick-Ass Koalas 3 pager, and a 5 page Billy Whizz reprint, plus a bunch of features and activity pages. Not to mention a giant peashooter gift with rubber darts. £3.50 from newsagents and supermarkets.
PLUS if you're over 18 (or one of those kids who reads it behind the bikesheds) the current issue of Viz features the return of Suicidal Syd that I did the script & artwork for. The issue also features numerous other strips including Finbarr Saunders and His Double Entendres, Tinribs, Buster Gonad, Lazy Disinterested 16-Year Old Supermarket Check-Out Girl, and Laura Howell making her Viz debut with Sir Benjamin Britten and His Embittered Bittern. Viz No.204 £3.20 off the top shelf, or, if your shop's like my local mini-market, in between Match Weekly and some pre-school comic with a fairy princess on the cover.
It's the first time in months that I've been in four different comics in one week, so I'm pleased with that, and proud to be in the top comics on the market.
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As I'm still ill with this virus/bronchitis or whatever it is, I'm putting the blog on hold for the time being until I can catch up with paying work and I recover. (No sick pay for freelancers.) Sorry for that. Please check out blogs such as John Freeman's superb Down the Tubes site for news on UK comics. (He does the news material far better than me anyway. :))
This week's issue of The Dandy sees the return of my Kid Cops strip. This is their first appearance this year since their original eight issue run ended with the Christmas edition.
Also in this issue is your last chance to vote for your favourite new character in the Strictly Come Laughing contest. Which strip will win? We'll find out soon! Another new strip makes its debut this issue as cartoonist Stu Munro arrives with Justin Beaver!
This issue is the usual 32 pages for £1.50 but next week will see 12 extra pages plus a cover mounted Gnashing Teeth toy in a special 44 page bumper issue priced £2.50.
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My apologies for the lack of any recent ventures into the archives. I've been ill with a chest infection/bronchitis for three weeks so rummaging through musty old comics is the last thing I need. Priority has to be given to catching up with work so normal service will resume as soon as possible. Cough. Wheeze. etc.
This week's issue of The Dandy (No.3521, out today) features a two page survey for readers to fill in and post to determine what will appear in future issues of Britain's longest running comic.
As well as asking readers to vote for their five favourite strips there are also sections to cover other aspects such as what they'd change about the comic.
The form can also be filled in online at http://www.completeasurvey.co.uk/Dandy
Postman Prat takes a break in a few weeks but I'd really appreciate your votes for the strip, and for Kid Cops, which should return soon.
This issue of The Dandy also features the debut of The Etherington Brothers' Yore (yes, they get a credit in the title, - a far cry from the Dandy of old), plus lots of other funny stuff including Desperate Dan versus Dennis the Menace in The Arena of Awesome by Jamie Smart.
The Dandy. Out now. £1.50
