Never Be Without A...

Beano! The latest issue is on sale now and features an extra-length Minnie the Minx story, Monsters Minc. by Nigels Aucterlounie and Parkinson.

It's another packed issue full of your favourites, and there's a new artist on board, Rianne Rowlands, drawing Rubi's Screwtop Science. The second female artist to work for the Beano in its 79 year history! (Laura Howell being the first, who is still busy on the comic every week drawing Tricky Dicky.) 

There's a couple of strips in there by me too; Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible. 

Don't miss Beano No.3876. Only £2.50.

Night-Raven collected

Before V for Vendetta, artist David Lloyd was illustrating another masked vigilante; Night-Raven. The short, three-page episodes ran in Marvel UK's Hulk Comic and attracted a lot of interest. Next week, those stories (and appearances in other comics) are to be collected in a bumper trade paperback published by Marvel Comics. Here's the PR...

Who is Night Raven? Find out in this complete collection of classic tales from the Marvel UK archives! Join the mysterious masked vigilante in his pulp-era war on crime as this lone man of justice stealthily stalks his villainous prey on the streets of New York City - and brands criminals with the mark of the deadly Night Raven! Follow this dark avenger into battle with mob bosses, murderers and miscreants like the Taxman, the Assassin, Dragonfire and more - in rarely seen stories by some of Marvel UK's finest talents, including David Lloyd (V for Vendetta)! Where brooding darkness spreads its evil wings, the Night Raven stings!
Parental Advisory

Hang on... Parental Advisory?!? For stories that originally appeared in a children's weekly in 1979? How times change. 

Night-Raven was created by Dez Skinn and Richard Burton and originally written by Steve Parkhouse and drawn by David Lloyd (although John Bolton replaced David later). The character was very much in the vein of the old pulp heroes such as The Shadow. (The strips were even set in the 1930s.) He later returned in a series of text stories written by Alan McKenzie, Alan Moore, and Jamie Delano, and illustrated by Alan Davis. 

A slim trade paperback of reprints appeared in 1990, published by Marvel UK, but it's expected that the new collection will run to 280 pages and collect all of his appearances from over the years. 

Night-Raven will be on sale in comic speciality shops on Wednesday 22nd March in the USA and UK. 

Too 'orrible for Odhams!

Over on his Kazoop! blog, Irmantas has shown Ken Reid's page of Dare-A-Day Davy that even the editors of Pow! considered too repulsive to print back in 1968. For the full story of this banned episode, visit this link now...
http://kazoop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/banned-dare-day-davy-episode.html

VWORP VWORP! Volume 3 is here!

Although humbly calling itself a fanzine, Vworp Vworp! is easily on a par with any professional magazine. I'd go as far to say that the editorial and design talent is actually of a higher standard than some High Street magazines. Volume 3 has just been published and it's the best yet!

What I wasn't expecting was how chunky this issue would be. There are 208 pages here! That's not a typo. Two hundred and eight pages! Quality paper, full colour throughout, and packed with information and interviews.

If you're unfamiliar with Vworp Vworp! it's a publication dedicated to the history of Doctor Who comic strips. The amount of research is amazing. These guys do their homework and the fascinating features are accompanied with artwork and rare photographs from over the decades.

It'd take a blog post almost as lengthy as the magazine itself to do justice to all of its contents but here's a selected few:

• New interview with Alan Moore discussing his scripts for Doctor Who Weekly.

• Interviews with comic artists John Stokes, David Lloyd, Lee Sullivan, John M. Burns, Barrie Mitchell and more.

• A new Robot Agent 2K strip written by Tim Quinn.

• Features on veteran Doctor Who / Dalek illustrators such as Gerry Haylock, Richard Jennings and Ron Turner.

• Interviews with editors of Doctor Who Magazine past and present.

• Ron Turner's unfinished Daleks strip, with brand new episodes drawn by Lee Sullivan to complete the saga.

Plus much, much more and a free CD containing a new audio adaptation of the 1960s Dalek strip The Mechanical Planet with actors David Graham (as The Dalek Emperor) and Sasha Mitchell. 

The TV21 style cover variant comes withy the free CD plus a 7 inch vinyl version too (with retro style sleeve)! 

Vworp Vworp! isn't published very often, (this is the first one for nearly six years!) so you can take your time reading this 208 page giant and savour its contents. How can you resist? To order your copy, set your coordinates for this website now:
http://www.vworpvworp.co.uk

Convention news

A few updates for events I'm attending later this year. As it's been announced on their Facebook page I can now tell you that it's my pleasure to be added to the guest list of Reading Comic-Con, taking place over the weekend of 25th/26th November at the Rivermead Leisure Complex. You can find out more here:
https://www.facebook.com/readingcomiccon/

...and order tickets from here:
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Reading/Rivermead-Leisure-Complex/Reading-Comic-Con/12899506/


A month prior to that I'll be a guest at the Loughborough Comic Con on 22nd October, and you can find out more about that one here:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/loughboroughcomiccon2017/


Earlier that month I'll be at Coventry Comic Con on 1st October, at Sports Connexion, Ryton. They've just added a Guest Spotlight on me at their website that you can read here:
http://www.coventrycomiccon.uk/2017/03/14/guest-spotlight-lew-stringer/

I'm also doing lots of other events up and down the country this year and I'll post an updated list soon! First one will be Robot: Illustration and Creative Arts Convention on 25th March at The Millenium Gallery, Sheffield, and you can find out more info here:
http://www.robotcon.co.uk