Garth in Sub Mission

Today's Daily Mirror begins reprinting the 1995 Garth story Sub Mission, written and drawn by Martin Asbury, with new colours by Martin Baines. 

The serial originally ran in the Mirror from 8th June to 16th August 1995. As the paper reprints two strips a day it means Sub Mission will only run for about a month before the next story starts. For reasons best known to the Daily Mirror, they're not reprinting each serial in sequence so it's anyone's guess which story will follow it. Not that it really matters of course as the serials are self-contained stories. 

I'd still like to see some Steve Dowling Garth strips reprinted, but the Mirror only focuses on Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury reprints. 

You can follow the Daily Mirror comic strips every day in the newspaper or online at the website:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/cartoons/

THOR: RAGNAROK first look

America's top media mag Entertainment Weekly has some exclusive photos from the set of Thor: Ragnorok, the third Thor movie. 
http://ew.com/movies/thor-ragnarok-exclusive-first-look-photos/super-double-issue

There's a new look for Thor as he's forced to fight in a space arena against the Hulk (not shown) - and minus his hammer with the looks of things. The one thing that stood out for me though was the use of colour! I've noticed that the Phase Three Marvel movies are brighter and more colourful than their earlier films, and even the movie logos are using primary colours now. Is this an underlying nod to the building subplot about the infinity gems, or just a deliberate refreshing alternative to DC's drab-looking movies? Either way, it's certainly eye-catching. 

Thor: Ragnarok opens in the UK on 29th October.

BEANO No.3875

The preview of this week's Beano is already on the Beano.com website so here's a glimpse of it. Cover by Nigel Parkinson.

All the regular favourites are included, and you can have a taste of it over at this link:
https://www.beano.com/posts/inside-beano-no-3875-the-one-where-no-ones-afraid-of-no-ghosts

Here's a quick look at the Pup Parade strip I did for this one...

Beano No.3875, on sale Wednesday 8th March. Only £2.50 for 36 pages.

Revamped website

Just a quick plug for my website. If you haven't seen it for a while, I've given it a little makeover to make it a bit brighter and more attractive. (I felt that the previous white background made it look too static and dull.) I've also updated some pages. Have a look and see what you think of it now:
http://lewstringer.com

Leo Baxendale's SWOTS AND BLOTS (Smash! 1969)

Bad Penny joined the class when her strip ended.

Some people think that Leo Baxendale drew The Swots and the Blots from the very beginning in Smash!, but that's not so. The series that ran in the comic from the first issue in 1966 to the last Odhams issue in early 1969 were mainly drawn by Ron Spencer and Mike Lacey, two artists imitating Leo's style. (Nigel Parkinson reminded me that Leo did draw one episode before then. See the footnote in this post.) Leo took over the strip when Smash! was revamped by IPC in March 1969. In doing so, he completely re-energised the strip, making the characters more distinctive. It had always been an enjoyable strip but Leo made it even funnier!

Here's a handful of examples of Leo's Swots and Blots from Smash! in 1969.

Leo wrote and drew the majority of The Swots and the Blots strips in the IPC Smash! (although some were fill-ins by Les Barton and Terry Bave) and it proved popular enough to transfer to Valiant and Smash! in 1971 when the two comics merged. Even today, it's still one of the funniest strips to have appeared in a British comic!

UPDATE: As Nigel Parkinson reminded me, Leo did do one Swots and Blots before the comic was revamped. Here it is, from Smash! No.159, dated 15th Feb 1969...