Comics UK

Just wanting to compile a list of some current British comic artists, and maybe the strips they do, was hoping for some help.

Nigel Parkinson

Steve Bright

Duncan Scott

Jamie Smart

Wayne Thompson

Gary Northfield

Tom Paterson
Dave Eastbury

Nick Brennan

Barry Glennard

Barrie Appleby

Mike Pearce

Hunt Emerson

Laura Howell

Lew Stringer

Kev F. Sutherland

Ken Harrison

Karl Dixon

Nigel Dobbyn

It's probably best if those from your list who post here reply for themselves and others can fill in the blanks.

My current work load:

Art on Super School for The Beano. (D.C. Thomson)
Script/art/colouring on Team Toxic for Toxic. (Egmont UK)
Script/art/colouring Brickman for Elephantmen. (Image Comics)

Occasional work:
Script/art/colouring Mini-Marvels for Spectacular Spider-Man. (Panini UK)
Script/art on various alternating strips for Viz (Suicidal Syd. Pathetic Sharks, Felix and His Amazing Underpants). (Viz/Felix Dennis)

More info on my website:
http://www.lewstringer.com


Lew

Six weeks and only one reply, so I thought I'd bump this up. Have you tried Googling the artists names, Relaunch_Man? Some of them might have their own websites.

Kev F Sutherland - confirmed on this board that he's no longer working for The Beano - Reservour Dodge, a multi-character strip in The Beano Annual 2009, turned out to be his swansong for Thomson's. I'll let him tell you what he's up to instead himself. (user name kevf)

Ken Harrison - currently Minnie the Minx for Beano and the front cover for Classics From The Comics. Formerly artist for Desperate Dan, The Broons, oor Wullie, Snookum Skool, Spookum Skool, Robbie Rebel, Lord Snooty, Big Brad Wolf, The Hoot Squad.

Hunt Emerson - currently doing Fred's Bed for Beano. He needs to update his website, which doesn't mention that. In fact, it says he's the Ratz artist instead, but Laura Howell has taken over that now.

Barrie Appleby - only works for The Beano. Draws Roger the Dodger and Billy the Cat, used to do Cuddles and Dimples for The Dandy. Also drew most of the Beano Superstars comics. Doesn't have a website, I've checked.

Barry Glennard - these days only draws The Numskulls, another Beano strip. Also drew Gnasher and Gnipper until that stopped last year. Used to work for Fleetway. Another one without their own website, so you'll be relying on sites like Toonhound.

C. McGhie - The current Bananaman artist, also drew The Baarf Brothers, both in Dandy Xtreme. I'm afraid I don't even know his first name.

That should get you started. The list you already have seems to include most of the Beano and Dandy artists of recent times.

Relaunch_Man wrote:Just wanting to compile a list of some current British comic artists, and maybe the strips they do, was hoping for some help.


Nigel Dobbyn

Nigel Dobbyn has been drawing Spider-Man and Friends since issue 1; a pre-school comic published by Panini UK.

A Google search will turn up some of his previous work (Sonic, 2000AD, etc).

Lew

I thought I hadn't seen any of Kev's stuff for a while. Anyone know what his last strip in the weekly Beano was? Shame, because he really improved over time - I wasn't convinced by the artwork at first, but later he started to get it, and some of his scripts were very funny. I remember laughing at the Hod Rot Cow story, at a time when I was still somewhat cynical about his work.

I may be able to help with some, but definitely not all, of the artists. I've only ever read the Beano regularly (though I have a few Classics from the Comics).

Nowadays I think Tom Paterson draws Dennis the Menace and Bash Street Kids Singled Out for the Beano. He drew some strips for Buster and IPC comics years ago, and he drew Calamity James and Minnie the Minx until quite recently. He's drawn a lot of other stuff in the past too.

Gary Northfield only draws Derek the Sheep as far as I know - he had a strip in The DFC before it closed. His strip is unique as it is creator-owned; he released a book with some of the earliest Derek strips last autumn.

In the Beano, Laura Howell now draws Johnny Bean and Ratz. She started out inking in Hunt's drawings for Ratz but now draws the strip permanently since Hunt started to draw Fred's Bed. She has also drawn one Minnie the Minx and one Les Pretend strip. I think she draws for other comics as well - Robin Hoodie if I'm correct.

That's just a few, hopefully that will help.

Wasn't Kev F's last work the Beano Zombies? His scripts have a very cinematic quality packed full of adventure and fun, im not a massive fan of his artwork as I prefer others before him but you have to admire him pushing comics to kids up and down the country with his school tours, wish someone would have come to my school when I was a nipper to show everyone comics!

Didn't Barry Appleby do 'the Gambols' for years and years in the Daily Express

Muffy wrote:Didn't Barry Appleby do 'the Gambols' for years and years in the Daily Express

Different person, different style. Barry Appleby drew The Gambols. Barrie Appleby draws for Thomsons.

Lew

Steve Henderson wrote:Wasn't Kev F's last work the Beano Zombies?

The last kevf artwork published was actually the annual. But Zombies was probably drawn after Reservoir Dodge, even though it was published earlier.

Jonny Whizz wrote:I remember laughing at the Hod Rot Cow story, at a time when I was still somewhat cynical about his work.

Toxic's loss was Beano's gain, Hot Rod Cow was originally supposed to have his own strip in Toxic, but Egmont rejected it.

Nowadays I think Tom Paterson draws Dennis the Menace and Bash Street Kids Singled Out for the Beano. He drew some strips for Buster and IPC comics years ago, and he drew Calamity James and Minnie the Minx until quite recently. He's drawn a lot of other stuff in the past too.

Yep, such as Hyde and Shriek and Sweeny Toddler.

Gary Northfield only draws Derek the Sheep as far as I know - he had a strip in The DFC before it closed. His strip is unique as it is creator-owned; he released a book with some of the earliest Derek strips last autumn.

He also did some Pinky's Crackpot Circus strips for Dandy Xtreme last year: http://www.garynorthfield.co.uk/page19.htm

In the Beano, Laura Howell now draws Johnny Bean and Ratz. She started out inking in Hunt's drawings for Ratz but now draws the strip permanently since Hunt started to draw Fred's Bed. She has also drawn one Minnie the Minx and one Les Pretend strip. I think she draws for other comics as well - Robin Hoodie if I'm correct.

For Toxic, yes. She's also won awards for drawing Manga. Check out her website: http://www.laurahowell.co.uk/

Nice to read flattering things about my work, glad you were 'getting' it. Euan used to send me the results of the beanotown poll when my strips were in, I usually came second only to Dennis and once came top (blows immodestly on fingernails).

You're right that the last strip I drew (that saw print) was Bash St Zombies, although Alan Digby still has a two page Rocket Pants strip that he paid for but has yet to publish (drawn twice as large as usual, as I was trying to move my artwork up a step). I'm hoping it'll crop up in an annual.

Reservoir Dodge was written and drawn for the weekly Beano (months before Zombies), but thankfully Alan moved it into the annual, meaning I remained on the shelves for longer. Being in annuals is the best thing, for me, because they remain in kids collections forever, whereas the comics disappear into the ether. (Res Dodge was written before Invasion of The Beanosnatchers but published after it so, in the internal continuity that, believe it or not, actually exists in my stories, they're meant to be read in a different order.)

I'd be happy to see my stuff from the weeklies collected into book form, even though I'll get no royalties. But I won't hold my breath.

My only comic work at the moment is the self-published Socks comic (one issue available at my live gigs, selling quite well but hardly up there with the Beano), and I'm concentrating on my comedy work (Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre) and my Comic Art Masterclasses.

I'd love to return to comics, especially The Beano which was my favourite of the work I've ever done (Bash St Werewolves and Billy The Cat vs Billy The Cat are the sort of thing I'll always be proud of), and who knows. To be honest, since I got the elbow I haven't gone back and begged. Yet.

kevf wrote:
I'd love to return to comics, especially The Beano which was my favourite of the work I've ever done (Bash St Werewolves and Billy The Cat vs Billy The Cat are the sort of thing I'll always be proud of), and who knows. To be honest, since I got the elbow I haven't gone back and begged. Yet.

If you were so high in the polls, it's extraordinary that you stopped getting commissioned, isn't it? Were you ever given a reason why? You'd think that even if someone high up in Editorial wasn't keen, they'd go by the kids' responses above all.

Yes, if I'm not mistaken wasn't Korky the Cat axed from the Dandy due to not being listed as either favourite or least favourite in their reader polls? They ended up beinging him back, and he was in the most recent annual (drawn by Dave Windett, his last artist before the aforementioned axing). You'd think they'd drop the least popular, not those higher up the poll list.

Saying that though, The Beano merged Ivy the Terrible into the Bea strip - yet wasn't Ivy a more popular strip than most outside the big four: Dennis, Minnie, Bash Street, Roger? And The Topper's Tricky Dicky was always popular - yet it didn't survive the Beezer and Topper's demise, and when Beano revived it, it was unlucky enough to lose a Comic Idol poll (I've always thought they should've done what they did with Splodge, another Topper strip, and simply run it for 6 months to a year, long enough to put it in a proper reader poll).

Sometimes the comic editors have no common sense! The reader should be king in these matters.

I thought the reason why Bea merged with Ivy was because at the time Ivy was Bob Nixon reprints. By putting those two together, that allowed the Beano to reprint John Sherwood's Les Pretends. However, I think Ivy did appear in a solo strip (as a reprint) in the Christmas Beano, and Bea has appeared on her own at least twice. I think this was a good arrangement, because it means that Les is in the comic again, and he's always been one of the most popular strips.

Again though, this is another example where, if you look through the Beanos of the past five or so years, just when thought Les had been dropped for good, he'd come back. When Sherwood died in late 2003, he briefly disappeared, before first Steve Bright and then Trevor Metcalfe drew new ones. The latter stopped drawing it when he returned to Billy Whizz, and Les wasn't seen again until they reprinted Sherwood strips in early 2007. Then when the Beano was revamped (the time when Fred's Bed first appeared), he disappeared again, until Laura's one-off in October that year. After that, the strip wasn't seen again before last summer, when the Sherwood reprints restarted, since when he has been in the majority of issues.

Of course, Laura's only Les Pretend strip saw the arrival of the recurring 'No effort kid' in the Dalek competition, who reappeared in this week's Beano!

No, Les Pretend was already running. As you've rightly said, they started last summer, but Bea and Ivy didn't merge until autumn.

Good spot with the no effort kid - he was a Dalek in the Les Pretend strip, then a pea and now a tramp in Johnny Bean. Laura's created a running gag there.

Ball Boy is now reprints remember, but it didn't replace anything (Rasher already replaced the Fred's Bed reprint). Anyone know whether the Gnasher and Gnipper strips which occassionally appear in place of Tom Paterson's version of Dennis on page 30 are reprinted or stockpiled? (the solo Bea's were certainly stockpiled, as these were used just after Ivy joined her)

Here's a list of reprinted Beano strips in the last two years:
Les Pretend
Fred's Bed (until two months ago)
Olaff the Madlander (no longer running, never in same issue as Fred's Bed)
Dennis the Menace (Xmas only, a David Parkins story was used instead of Tom's)
Rasher
Ball Boy
Roger the Dodger (occasional RT Nixon reprints)
Billy Whizz
Ivy the Terrible (until last autumn)

There's actually no limit to the number of reprints they use anyhow, there was a lot more than usual in the Christmas and New Year issues since they switched to 51 issues a year. Not all strips appear in every issue, Ball Boy has missed two issues this month, with no extra reprint used instead, and Billy Whizz's page count varies, as some strips (like the recent lighthouse one where he tried to run down it to catch a spilled ice cream - which landed on his face because he was too dizzy!) have an extra half page. Feature length strips usually KO new and reprint material in proportionately equal measure (this was to blame for one of Ball Boy's absences).