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.

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.

Dangerous Dan- That's all for now

Rolling off the presses as I type this is the final (sixth) episode of The Beano's summer strip, Dangerous Dan - or is it? Reader response, as always, will determine whether he shall return one day-  and there's a Readers Poll in next week's issue.
Anyway, looks like he wasn't just daydreaming after all!

There's a Ghost in My House

I'd been ghosting for The Dandy for a while when I finally got the chance to ghost for The Beano in 1997 thanks to the late Ken Cummings , a young scriptwriter who gave me a try out on those Pocket Size libraries.

A Ghost artist is someone who draws in the style of another cartoonist, and the comics used to be full of us! Here are some of my 'Ghost Jobs' from my early days at The Beano.
1. ROGER THE DODGER
This was my first published work in The Beano! Not too bad, a fair representation of  Bob Nixon.

2. TIM TRAVELLER
An obscure strip, and I only ever did one, which I liked doing a lot.

3.MINNIE the MINX
I've ghosted Ken Harrison and Tam Paterson's versions of Minnie, but this one is a fair mimicking of Jim Petrie




4. EVEN STEVEN
An even MORE obscure strip, and again the only time I ever drew it.

5. BASH STREET KIDS
I first drew The Bash Street Kids by mistake in 1984 (long story!) But from 1988 I drew them occasionaly. This one, from April 3rd 1999, was the first one I felt totally happy with, feeling that I'd got a good handle on the late Leo Baxendale/early David
Sutherland feel. As with most of these ghost jobs, the colouring was done in-house at DC Thomson.
6. LES PRETEND
Hand coloured by me,  I must have done a dozen 'Fun Size's but only one weekly. It's not a very close match for John Sherwood, but I was busy drawing other strips, most in my own style.

7. THE GERMS with ILL WILL
Again, coloured by me, by hand. I did three of these, and there was going to be a fourth, but somehow wasn't! Again, the style was supposed to be David Sutherland or Vic Neill, but ended up more like me. Not surprising!

Beano, I've got it covered.

Three more Beano covers from 1999, 2003 and 2004, all hand-coloured by me.

The first one, with the Vampire Dennis image, was, I think my second or third Beano cover, and, as I sometimes did, I had drawn it and coloured it and was just about to cram it into a postal tube when I decided I could improve it. This is that 'improved' cover, but The Beano were sent both and chose one.

The second cover, above, of Dennis and Gnasher snowboarding was a favourite of mine at the time, it was one of those that comes out fast and right and I didn't change anything. Took about an hour (partly because the hand-colouring was made easier as it was set in the snow!)

The third cover, left, is one of the last 'full page' images. I was quite pleased with it as it was again a very fast cover.

Beano Covers

Ten years ago, I drew a lot of these- Beano covers, featuring Dennis the Menace. This one in particular posed a few problems for me as I tried to plan how to draw it -until I remembered Will Eisner's 'Spirit'- and suddenly, there it was. Nice and simple, bold and graphic.

Hand-coloured by me.

He's New

Beginning this week The Beano has a new character DANGEROUS DAN, SECRET AGENT, drawn by me. Here he is.

Who's this?

Any ideas?















I know.
And all is revealed!

Bad Publicity?

Last Year (on my birthday, thanks!) my latest Beano strip came in for a bit of Press attention from the late, unlamentable News of the World and others. When I initially heard the proposed name of the strip, I did have misgivings . . . but I felt we did a good job on it, Alan Digby, who wrote it, me, who drew it and Nika who coloured it, including all those crimson faces and steam the strip required.

Of course, it was all over-hyped and contradictory. How often do the press accuse The Beano and Dandy of being 'too Politically Correct', and here they are lambasting us for being 'defiantly un-politically correct'! Still, never let facts get in the way of a good story.

I appreciated, however, their highlighting the picture of 'Calm Uncle Clive', obviously in paroxsyms of rage, as it was the only 'sight gag' I contributed ( I think) during the brief run of only four strips.

Uh Oh

A year ago The Beano ran 3 episodes of a strip I drew called 'Uh Oh, Si Co'.
Yeah, not my choice of title.
It got a lot of (negative) attention, and one or two people liked it. Although 3 were published, I had drawn four - and as it's not remotely likely this last one will ever be printed, I thought it would be nice (is that the right word?) to present it here, without word balloons, but the story is fairly clear.

Coloured by Nika.

B.S.K. spells Summer

As it's summer (supposedly) here are the Bashers on the beach, from a Bash Street Kids Summer Special, back in the hand-coloured-by-me days. So you have to find 6 things beginning with 'K'? I can only see the four I drew, so good luck with that!

Dennis Through the years

In March, about 12 hours before Dennis the Menace celebrated 60 Years of Menacing, I was asked to provide a special strip to be seen only on TV. Here's part of it, and a nice sampling of the evolution of the character from his earliest appearances without the striped jersey, to the 1980s/90s version.