Nigel Dobbyn 1963 - 2019

Many of us in the UK comics community were shocked and saddened to hear this morning that the comic artist Nigel Dobbyn has passed away. He suffered a sudden and unexpected heart attack last Saturday. He was just 56 years old.

The sad news was announced on the 2000AD website:
https://2000ad.com/post/5774?fbclid=IwAR0nIFUXhBev_n4YlS-OdxHws0SsFglw-EKN99ULk77YNIwJlQ50mhBCQuQ

I'd known Nigel for over 20 years as we'd met when freelancing for Sonic the Comic in the 1990s. A softly spoken and gentle man, Nigel was one of the nice guys in the industry and an incredibly talented artist. I was a writer on Sonic the Comic and Nigel illustrated several of my stories. He always did a fantastic job and I loved his art style and rich colour work. 

Here's one of the stories we worked on. Trapped in the Vortex was published in Sonic the Poster Mag No.9 in 1994. Script by Lew Stringer, Art/colours by Nigel Dobbyn, Letters by Elita Fell...

Trapped in the Vortex was one of my favourite stories that we did together.

Nigel also worked for many other comics throughout his career of course, including 2000AD, The Beano, Spider-Man and Friends and more. He had a great versatility to his work, able to adapt his style to suit the job. Down the Tubes has a fuller account of his career, which you can read here:
https://downthetubes.net/?p=110547

I'd occasionally see Nigel at various comics conventions and we last chatted at the Oldham Comic Con in May. Myself and his other friends and colleagues in the industry are stunned by this tragic news and tributes are pouring in on social media from creators and fans alike. 

A few years ago, Nigel drew this fabulous birthday card for me featuring my Brickman character. A fantastic surprise.

My deepest condolences to Nigel's wife Sue and the family for this awful loss, and to his many friends who always regarded him as a decent man and top talent. He will be sadly missed. 

Above: At the Birmingham International Comic Art Show in 2007. The Sonic the Comic team reunited. Left to right: Lew Stringer, Nigel Kitching, Richard Elson, Nigel Dobbyn. 

Sonic the Comic crew at Sheffield

Cover by Nigel Dobbyn.

Next weekend there'll be a mini-reunion of contributors who worked on Sonic the Comic as three of us are guests at the Sheffield Film and Comic Con on August 15th/16th.

Artist Nigel Dobbyn, the comic's original editor Richard Burton, and myself (a scriptwriter on the comic for most of its run) will be there to meet those of you who read Sonic the Comic back in the 1990s.

Sonic the Comic was a big success for Egmont Fleetway, running from 1993 to 2002 and featuring top quality work from people such as Richard Elson, Roberto Corona, Nigel Kitching, Mick McMahon and many more.

I may only be at the event on Saturday (not sure yet, update to follow) so come along and it'd be great to meet you. There are loads of other guests too of course. Check out the website for full details of the show:
http://www.sheffieldfilmandcomiccon.com/

Sonic Unseen ...until now!

  
Back in 1993 when Fleetway Editions launched Sonic the Comic I thought I'd send them some art samples to see if I could be assigned a job drawing the strip. Editor Richard Burton turned me down on the basis that my style wasn't quite what they were looking for. He was right of course, as the approach they were taking was closer to an adventure comic style. Although I'd tried to move away from the traditional humour comics elements with my sample pages the Buster influence was still evident. 

Initially I was a little disappointed that my pages were rejected but it turned out fine as Richard offered me work as a scriptwriter on the comic instead. I was used to writing my own material and had written scripts for Oink! but adventure comics were a new challenge. Nothing too heavy was required though. The required tone was for light adventure with elements of humour so it certainly sounded like it'd be a fun gig. My first script appeared in Sonic the Comic No.30 and I became a regular writer on the comic not long after that for the rest of the title's run. (Or until reprints shoved me aside anyway.) I really enjoyed writing scripts for such brilliant artists as Richard Elson, Roberto Corona, and the great Mick McMahon.

Sorting through some artwork the other day I came across photocopies of the two Sonic sample pages I did 19 years ago, so here they are. The second one was done in full colour but I'm afraid I only have a black and white copy to show here. As you can see, my version of Sonic isn't quite "on model" so I think the editor made the right decision. Also, rather than use Doctor Robotnik or his Badniks, I created my own villains. I'm still quite pleased with the design of them although they're not really in keeping with the Sonic universe so, again, it's understandable that the pages were rejected.

Anyway, I hope you get a kick out of seeing these never-before-published pages!

More info on my Sonic the Comic work on this website:
http://www.tesp.co.uk/TESP/Interviews/LewStringer/LewStringer.htm

Just to give you an idea of the villain in colour

Christmas Comics: SONIC THE COMIC (1996)

When Egmont Fleetway acquired the license to publish a Sonic the Hedgehog comic in 1993 I don't think they expected it have quite the longevity it had. As it turned out Sonic the Comic ran from 1993 to 2002 and has since spawned an online fan version.

I was invited to join the writing team in the early issues and gradually became one of the regular scriptwriters. By the Christmas 1996 issue of Sonic the Comic, (No.96, cover by Carl Flint, above) it had settled into the format of four long strips. Two of the stories were written by Nigel Kitching which contained no Christmas references as they were episodes of longer serials, so I was asked to provide two complete Christmas stories.

The first story I wrote for this particular issue featured Sonic in A Christmas Wish; a tale about a youngster who learns that you don't have to be a superhero to do something heroic. Roberto Corona was the artist (with Steve White on colouring) and they both did a fantastic job...


One thing that shocked me a little when I saw the published story was the addition of a huge caption warning readers not to imitate the kid who jumps out of a window thinking he has super-powers. This wasn't in my script and I didn't feel it necessary at the time. My worry upon seeing the caption was that it draws even more attention to the leap than if the reader had just read the scene and turned the page. My feeling was that the visual of the kid falling would act as enough prevention. However I appreciated that the editor Debbie Tate had to consider that STC had some very young readers and that we had to take responsibility for the stories we presented to them in case they thought Charmy Bee would be there to save them. In retrospect I should have made the same point with a less controversial scene.


Further on in the comic was the Sonic's World story, Season of Goodwill. I was very pleased with how this strip turned out, so I'm presenting it here in full for you to read. As well as Sega characters it also includes Tekno the Canary and Shortfuse the Cybernik, two characters I created for the Sonic universe. The great thing about Sonic the Comic was that we were able to weave sub-plots and character development into the stories, and this was one of the reasons for its longevity I think. In this story, although self-contained, you'll notice references to past episodes, plus Robotnik receiving a warning of things to come. Andy Pritchett and Steve White did a wonderful job on the artwork for this. Note the design of Father Christmas, harking back to the older version of the character before the jolly red-suited Santa we're familiar with today. I'd suggested this in the script and Andy got it spot on...






Another classic Christmas comic is scheduled to come down your cyber chimney soon!