D C Thomson day again

Today, as every Wednesday, I'll be buying The Beano and The Dandy-  honestly, it's what Wednesday is for! The Dandy this week commemorates the natal anniversary of everybody's favourite funnyman, as you can see in Nika's imaginatively coloured birthday cake pic, left. So much heat- so many candles!

Did You Know

a subscription to The Dandy works out at only £1 per issue?!

To the Max!

 

Let us not forget the monthly BeanoMAX- here's a taster for the next issue- looks like a good 'un!

Hooray! Dandy Day Today!!

At last, it's Wednesday, or Dandy day as it's known in some enlightened quarters. And I've done a nice Harry Hill strip which is guaranteed funny. Here's a bit of a preview, but the whole thing, with plenty of other funny stuff too, of course, is on sale now, only £1.50 - or, if you take out a subscription, only £1. Bargain!

And don't forget The Beano! That's out today, too, and believe it or not, that's only £1.50 too! Splendid.

3D Dennis

I'd forgotten about this!
Apart from the weekly comics, there's a lot to be done- in 2008 I designed this vinyl Dennis the Menace doll.  The final product looked quite nice, I thought. And the catapult and peashooter - neat.

Internet Comments

 You know how sometimes comments on Internet forums can have a life of their own, bringing forth absurd, angry rants? The (very) few forums I look at with any regularity are generally pleasant, informative, thoughtful places, but occasionally tempers flare, sometimes for clear reasons.
However, this seemingly innocuous video on YouTube descends pretty quickly into farce, the heat generated is so intense:

 "Titanic Video"
There are over 100 pages of comments. Most seem to take umbrage at the word 'video' ("there was no video in those days"), some believe the Titanic was in 1812 (before "colour video, that's why it's black and white!") quite a lot believe the Titanic is just a movie made in the 90s about a fictional ship, some seem to think there's a conspiracy in there somewhere (well, it IS the internet, after all) and these are just some of the more rational comments.
Lovely.

It's just six months till the anniversary of this awful disaster, and the Mersey Maritime Museum are having a big exhibition. Go and see the new Museum of Liverpool while you're there.

Dngerous Dan- what's his story?

See the Beano Website here

The Beano's secret agent, Dangerous Dan has been running for six weeks now and the Beano website have put up a little article about how it was created. The name I coined and hoped they'd use, Danger Dan, was in homage to Patrick McGoohan's TV show of the 1960s, Danger Man, but the Beano went for their original title, Dangerous Dan.

The Way We Were

Presented for historical perspective only.
Yes, this sort of thing WAS considered acceptable in 1968.

Back after these adverts

Over the years I seem to have done quite a few advertising strips that appeared in various comics- here's a handful of them from The Beano. What I found interesting about them was the different styles and approaches needed, and also how to solve the problem of making a static item have a bit of movement or personality. Sad to say, contrary to poular belief, the advertising industry doesn't dish out freebies, so I won't be getting a free ticket to the Olympics- nor did I get a free bottle of 'Nesquik', nor even a free 'Milky way'. It's a hard life.
These were all hand-coloured by me, except for the new Olympics one which was done inhouse by publisher DC Thomson.

In the Beaginning...

First of all, I started Bea as a 1/3rd of a page strip in the Beano, but within a couple of months, by early 1999, she was a full page star. This is one of the earliest ones, and I felt we'd really got a good distinct personality here- the firth frame, where Bea is critiquing another childs' daub with the words "'at's rubbish!" came out just right.