These are the original hand drawn artworks I did for Pup Parade (Beano), Postman Prat (Dandy Annual) and The Daft Dimension (Doctor Who Magazine).
Here's the link for the auctions (where each listing shows close up photos of the art). All bids appreciated!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47
Click on each image to see it enlarged.
If you're celebrating Bonfire Night have a safe one, and I hope your pets will be OK.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Sadly it'll be the last Pup Parade for the forseeable future as the strip is taking a rest after its 20 week run. I've no idea when it'll return.
I've enjoyed being back in the Beano again this year and I hope I'm commissioned for more work in the future. At the moment though there's nothing in store (apart from a full page one-off about another character that will appear in a few weeks time).
As regards other work, The Daft Dimension will continue in Doctor Who Magazine as far as I know.
Regarding private commissions, Covid still has a grip on me and it's exhausted me. I hope to be well enough soon to get back to drawing.
In Beano No.4144, out now.
*****************
Geddit?
Don't worry, that's not the punchline! :)
See what happens next in Beano No.4141, on sale Wednesday 22nd June!
•••••••••••••••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Here's a preview of part of my next Pup Parade strip. One of the things I like about doing this strip, apart from enjoying drawing the Pups, is that I get a chance to include some of the iconic Bash Street Kids sometimes too. Danny in this one for example.
See the full story in Beano No.4139, on sale Wednesday 8th June!
I had a fantastic weekend at the Lawless Comic Con and I'll blog about that tomorrow when I've more time. Deadlines beckon now so after this quick post it's back to the drawing board.
Here's a preview of this week's Pup Parade, which appears in Beano No.4138, out on Wednesday 1st June (cover dated 4th June).
As you can see from the cover by Nigel Parkinson, it's the special Jubilee issue! A collector's item to be sure.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
•••••••••••••••••••••••
I don't know how many issues of the Beano I've contributed to now but I've done various strips for the comic since 2008 or so including Super School, Rasher, Ivy the Terrible, Joe King, Lord Snooty, and a revival of The Beano's original cover star from 1938, Big Eggo.
I've certainly not been a contributor as long as David Sutherland though, who's been drawing The Bash Street Kids since 1962! However, I enjoy writing/drawing their canine equivalents in Pup Parade! This is the fourth series with the Bash Street Dogs that I've worked on. They're always fun to do and I'm currently working on the strips for early July.
Here's a sneak preview of a bit of next week's Pup Parade strip. You can see the full version in Beano No.4133 when it goes on sale on Wednesday 27th April. (Or if you're a subscriber you may already have it!)
Want to hear a little bit of background information on this strip? When I was drawing it, I wasn't happy with the second panel. For one thing Bones' face wasn't quite right, but mainly I felt that the composition looked too similar to panel 1. A comic strip should have variety, using different angles and close ups once the setting is established, so I stopped part way through inking it...
...and drew a different panel on another sheet of paper. I felt this one worked much better, focusing on the character who was speaking (Blotty) and the close up brought the readers more into the action. It also provided the much-needed variety for the strip's layout as a whole.
Happy with that, I scanned the panels into Photoshop and assembled them to replace the unfinished panel. (The ball was also a separate illustration that I added afterwards.) Solid blacks and colouring were done with Photoshop too. (Speech balloons would be added by the Beano designers, based on my script.)
Changing panels isn't something I do that often but it does happen from time to time. As comics creators we're our own biggest critics, and these are the sort of changes we make before we send the job to the editors. Usually no one in the world sees these amendments but I thought I'd share this one with you. One of the key elements of comics is to keep them lively and entertaining (and funny if they're humour strips) so tweaking bits here and there is all part of the job.
As it's Easter weekend, subsription copies of Beano have been sent out early and mine arrived today. I thought I'd take the opportunity to show you a snippet of my Pup Parade strip for that issue. This time the spotlight falls on Tubby.
You can see the full version and of course a stack of other brand new strips in Beano No.4132 when it arrives in shops next wednesday, 20th April! There's the cover below, with its main image by Nigel Parkinson...
| Cover by Nigel Parkinson. |
You can subscribe to the Beano and save money off the cover price. Full details at this link...
https://shop.beano.com/beano-comic-subscription
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Look who drops into my Pup Parade strip next week! It's Calamity James making a cameo appearance in one panel. I drew a Calamity James story 20 years ago for one of the Fun-Size Beano comics and enjoyed that so I thought I'd put him into my Pup Parade strip for a brief guest appearance.
This will appear in Beano No.4131, on sale on Wednesday 13th April. as you can see from the cover below it's the Easter issue and there's a four page Roger the Dodger strory inside that has an Easter Egg theme, written by Nigel Auchterlounie and drawn by Barrie Appleby.
Still Britain's longest-running comic! Never Be Without A Beano! Only £2.99 a week, or even cheaper if you subscribe like I do! Here's the link to click on for more info...
https://shop.beano.com/beano-comic-subscription
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Here's a glimpse at the first panel of this week's Pup Parade strip that appears in Beano No.4128. It'll be in the shops on Wednesday 23rd March.
As you can see, Pug is the main character this week. I thought you might also like to see the size difference between my original art and the published strip. I draw my Beano strips "twice up" as was the tradition of drawing back in the early days of comics. It's just a more comfortable way of working than drawing same size or half up.
Here's a glimpse at the next Pup Parade which will be in Beano No.4127, on sale Wednesday 16th March.
As the format is a three panel mini-strip it's a bit restrictive to find something for all nine Pups to do every week so I'll be focusing on one Pup each week, although others will appear too. This week the spotlight falls on Peeps, out for a walk in the sunny weather. What could possibly go wrong?
See the full version in Beano No.4127 on Wednesday!