There's a new issue of D.C. Thomson's Epic magazine in newsagents this coming Wednesday, 7th February. Thanks to them sending me an advance copy, here's a sneak peek at some of the contents...
The 48 page magazine comes bagged with five free gifts including a Sticky Frog, Rocket Launcher, and edible Jelly Beans. The mag itself has five pages f comic strips including...
Over Reaction Man by Alex Collier and Steve Bright...
Hygiene High written by Niall Murray and drawn by me...
Sneaky Dave (uncredited)...
There are also fun features on Minions, Lego, football skills, movies, games, and more. £4.25 from newsagents and supermarkets all across the UK.
On sale a week earlier than advertised, the Christmas issue of Epic magazine is in the shops now. No, not the Marvel adult comic of the 1980s, this Epic is published by D.C. Thomson and aimed at boys. It's mainly feature-based, but does include two comic strips of two pages each.
Overreaction Man is written by Alex Collier and drawn by Steve Bright...
...and Hygiene High is written by Niall Murray and drawn by me...
The rest of the mag is packed with lighthearted features...
Epic comes bagged with several gifts, including a Space Warrior action figure. Which one will you get?
Epic No.140 is out now, priced £4.99. Here's the bag to look for...
It's self-promotion time. (Hey, I promote other people's work so why not my own?) Freelancing for various comics and magazines that have different frequencies means that sometimes new issues all come out in the same week. This week being an example, where I have eight different strips in print across four titles.
Toxic No.284 sees the return of Frankendrac in the two-page Team Toxic story. (That's Frankendrac above.) Published by Egmont UK.
The Valentines Day themed issue of the Beano is also in the shops, for which I did Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible...
There's also Epic No.128, which features four strips drawn by me (written by Niall Murray). Two pages of Hygiene High, plus mini-strips featuring Zombie Sports, Eric Fail, and Terrible Movies...
...and Doctor Who Magazine No.508 includes The Daft Dimension...
Toxic, Beano, Epic, and Doctor Who Magazine are all available from newsagents and supermarkets across the UK.
This is Nigel Parkinson's cover to the latest issue of The Beano (or simply 'Beano' as it was rebranded recently). Available from all good newsagents and supermarkets right now for £2.50.
I haven't had chance to get out and pick up a copy myself yet, but, if my strips are being printed in the order I drew them, this week's Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible should look like this...
Find out more about this issue at the official Beano website!
https://www.beano.com
A reminder also that the Beano's stablemate, Epic magazine, is also out today, which includes three pages written by Niall Murray and drawn by me; a series of mini-strips and the first two-page episode of new series Hygiene High. On sale now for £2.99.
My first new strip for 2017 starts next week in Epic magazine, published by D.C. Thomson. Hygiene High features the grottiest, grimiest kids since the days of The Swots and the Blots, and they're enrolled into a school that aims to smarten them up. It's a daunting task for their head teacher Auntie Bacteria!
Written by Niall Murray and drawn by me, Hygiene High is a two page strip featuring six stinky kids; Pee-Yew Jimmy, Bean Jean, Snotty Scotty, the Bin Twins, and Pooey Louis. The sort of gross humour about farts and bogeys that adults sometimes disapprove of but kids enjoy, and Epic is aimed at kids so hopefully it'll go down well. (I really like the flies the designers have added to the page borders!)
The magazine also includes a page of mini-strips drawn by me; Eric Fail, Terrible Movies, and Zombie Sports...
...and there's also another chapter of Overreaction Man by Alex Collier and Steve Bright.
That's all in Epic No.127, on sale from newsagents and supermarkets from Wednesday 11th January!
Previously known as Dennis and Gnasher's Epic Magazine, publishers D.C. Thomson rebranded the title several months ago as Epic! and this month it welcomes four new comic strips including three drawn by me.
Now edited by Thomson's boys' magazine group, along with Danger Mouse and Thunderbirds Are Go magazines, Epic! no longer has any Beano-related content. The new strips are…
Zombie Sports! The walking dead of the sporting world…
Eric Fail! Things always go wrong for him!
Terrible Movies! Spoofs of popular films. This month: Harry Snotter!
Those three strips are all mini-strips and appear on one page. I don't know who wrote them but I drew them all.
The other new strip is Overreaction Man, a funny superhero spoof written by Viz's Alex Collier and drawn by Steve Bright, running across three pages in the magazine.
...and there's a reprint of My Dad's A Doofus by Jamie Smart, that had previously appeared in The Dandy.
I can reveal that I'm also drawing another new strip that should start in Epic! sometime early next year. It's very interesting and encouraging that D.C. Thomson are investing in new comic strip material for their magazine line. Danger Mouse and Thunderbirds Are Go also feature new strip content. Let's hope this direction continues!
Epic! No.125 is out now in newsagents and supermarkets, bagged with free gifts, with 48 pages for £2.99. Check out the web page which features a handy search engine to find your nearest stockist:
https://www.dcthomson.co.uk/brands/epic-magazine/
In a surprise move, after just eight issues, DC Thomson have changed the Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine into Epic! Magazine. The previous title's average sales of 20,500 are presumably one reason, although on the Beano Facebook page the company cites reader feedback as the cause. Considering Thomsons do market research, it's quite likely that the kids wanted something closer to the popular Toxic and Mega magazines.
With Toxic selling 53,000, and newcomer Mega making an impressive debut at over 30,000, it's understandable that DC Thomson would want to launch a magazine in that style. After all, such competition between Thomsons and their rivals has been going on for decades, - Beano/Radio Fun, Warlord/Battle, Bullet/Action and so on.
Naturally comic fans will be disappointed that Epic! has less comic content than its forerunner (and its even earlier incarnation of BeanoMax). Just nine out of 48 pages are comic strip, and all feature Dennis the Menace. However, judging Epic! on what it is, rather than what it isn't, it is a worthy competitor to its rivals. There are game secrets, breezy movie previews, puzzles, posters... the usual stuff that kids seem to expect from a magazine today. The new mag promotes itself quite relentlessly throughout, with the Epic! logo appearing at least 22 times.
It also has a pretty good free gift in the form of Menace Fighter Jets; foam model kits, complete with a brush, stickers, and paints.
It seems to me that one drawback may be that at £3.99 Epic! costs a pound more than its rivals (although Toxic is occasionally that price too). Also, being bagged, it's possible it may just be obscured by all the other bagged mags on the shelves, but that's a risk publishers have to take now. As a comic-mag/gift package it's a strong debut. Let's wish it all the best for an Epic future.
