Here's a couple of comics I've contributed to that are on sale now from newsagents and supermarkets. First up, Toxic No.192 from Egmont has 40 pages of strips and features plus a few free gifts including a 300 page Jack Christie novel, Day of the Assasins, by Johnny O'Brien. Great value for £2.75!
There are six all-new strips in this issue: Busted Bieber, Captain Gross, Bro vs Bro, Luke's Spooks, my Team Toxic strip and the debut of Quiff & Rooney by Stik. (Unfortunately my punchline "It looks like Hallie is going to meet the stars after all" as a starstruck Hallie Tosis blasts off into space is missing. Perhaps it was too corny even for comics!)
I was also commissioned to design an X-Factor Bonkers Maze for this issue which was great fun. I was pleased to see it spread across pages 10 and 11. The published version has a few tweaks, with artwork rearranged and blown up, so I thought you might like to see the original version here. (Captions would have filled the white areas.) Start from the centre and avoid Jedward's Dressing Room, Simon Cowell in the shower, and the Zombie Judges! Your goal is fame, fortune, a castle, a pool and a robot butler...
Elsewhere on the stands today you'll find The Dandy No.3554 from DC Thomson at a mere £1.50, assuming your newsagent is one of the ones still stocking it. (Distribution seems patchy in some towns these days sadly.) Including the eye-catching Nigel Parkinson cover there's 22 pages of new material including the start of a new series, Rocky's Horror Show by Wilbur Dawbarn.
Usually, David Mason provides the scripts for Postman Prat (and a great job he does) but I was asked to write the one that appears this week. As well as drawing and colouring it I was also asked to letter it, (previously this was done in-house by DC Thomson staff) and I will be lettering it every week from now on.
There you go, two ongoing titles proving that the mainstream UK humour scene is still in there fighting. Chortle!
3 comments:
hi lew,
interesting what you wrote about postman pratt, that you were in volved in all parts of the creation of the strip, i hope it means u get paid more too!
my question is about the lettering, why does the dandy use upper/lower case letters now and not just CAPS? if u answered this in another part of the blog, please direct me to it.
with thanks,
george
Must get the Toxic this time! It's £2.75! :D
Also the Dandy was brilliant today! Very funny and a lot of new stuff! One of the best issues ever!
@George, Apparently modern research shows that children respond better to a mixture of upper and lower case lettering as that's what they're accustomed to seeing in books, online, etc.
Personally I find it strange that, after more than 100 years of upper-case lettering in comics that today's generation are struggling with it, but that seems to be the case. I suppose that anything that makes reading more comfortable should be tried though so I can't see any harm in it.
Years ago, some friends of mine asked "Why are all the characters shouting?" in reference to the lettering being in capitals, so perhaps lower case makes sense.
Yes, we are paid for each aspect of the work; script, art, colouring, and lettering.
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