Created in 1979 and having appeared irregularly over the last 31 years in various publications, the final Brickman strip appears today! Above is the page from the final episode, with most of it blacked out to avoid spoilers.
The two-page conclusion to Brickman's adventures appears as a back-up strip in the much-delayed issue 24 of Elephantmen, out now from Image Comics. Regular readers will know that I've been drawing an all-new Brickman Returns strip for most issues of Elephantmen for the past few years. The strip appears in full colour and occasionally co-starred Combat Colin, my character from the 1980s Marvel UK Transformers comics.
And now, the series is coming to and end, but although it's being dropped the Elephantmen comic itself will continue.
I'm grateful to Elephantmen creator/editor Richard Starkings for giving Brickman some exposure in the USA. He also put his money into publishing the Brickman Begins book in 2005 (a compilation of all Brickman strips up to that date). Unfortunately U.S. comics fandom is notoriously indifferent to humour comics, especially anything too "cartoony", despite the style being popular with the general public in the UK, with comics such as Viz and The Beano outselling most U.S. comics by a wide margin.
Elephantmen No.24, featuring the all-new FINAL episode of Brickman (And an excellent Elephantmen strip too of course) is available today from comics specialist stores in the USA and UK (and other countries too no doubt).
http://www.hipflask.com/issues/elephantmen24/
What will be the final fate of Brickman? Will the Gormless Guardian of Guffon City ever return? Will there even be a Guffon City for him to return to after this finalé? And didn't Brickman die several issues ago anyway? Buy the comic and find out!
I've revived Brickman several times over the past three decades but perhaps now it's time to finally conclude the strip. After 30 years, I have no plans to produce any more new Brickman stories but my intention is to collect all 20 pages of the Brickman strips from Elephantmen into a comic I hope to self-publish sometime this year. Stay tuned for more info on the one-shot compilation comic Brickman Returns in the months to come.
Meanwhile, if you're interested in the earlier adventures of Brickman, copies of the 152 page digest softback Brickman Begins can be bought from my website here: http://www.lewstringer.com/page8.htm
God, Lew! So sorry to hear you've lost the Image gig. I hope that you find work picks up soon. Put me down for a Brickman returns when its published. Terry
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ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to that collection, Lew.
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely pick up the collection - I'm missing some of the Elephantman issues.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the almost inevitable Brickman "reboot" in about ten years time... ;)
Hi Lew,
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love the Prologue page here, had me in stitches...so true to life - great observations...chuckle...
I will be getting a copy of the collection off you...so don't sell them all just yet, mate.
Best,
Tim...
(''j)
I picked the comic up on Friday at my local comic shop here in Sydney.
ReplyDeleteIts a far cry from the days when it would take months for British comics to arrive in newsagents down under.
Brickman was funny as ever. Cheers.
No worries Terry. The income from Brickman was very low and UK comics pay better. I'm still busy on Toxic, Viz, and Beano!
ReplyDeleteI've just bought the wonderful Elephantmen #25 with lots of guest artists doing pages.It's too bad you didn't contribute a Brickman versus Elephantmen page Lew!!
ReplyDeleteSo, did this Brickman Returns comic ever happen and if it did where can I get a copy?
ReplyDeleteD.
I haven't found time to collate and publish it yet, but it will happen eventually hopefully.
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