Tom Thug original art for sale

The "original art" category on eBay is a strange beast. For some unfathomable reason a lot of sellers don't understand what it means and they'll list comics and prints there. The clue is really in the description isn't it? Original. Art. NOT "comics I bought from a shop" or "limited print". 

Rest assured that when I put my pages up for auction they ARE my original artworks; the actual unique hand drawn pen and ink drawings that were used to do the printed version you see in the comics. 

I currently have one of my pieces on eBay. It's the original Tom Thug artwork, in ink and water colour, that was used to print a free postcard given with Oink! comic in 1987. The first (but not last) time my artwork was used for a free gift. It's hand lettered too, as it's from the days before computer fonts were created.

You can find out more about it, and see more photos of the piece, here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOM-THUG-ORIGINAL-ARTWORK-FROM-OINK-COMIC-by-Lew-Stringer/202702794669

My thanks in advance if you're going to bid on the piece, and good luck! The auction ends on Sunday 16th June. 

Original art sale!

I'm selling off some of my original artwork from Oink! comic and this week there are two Tom Thug half-pagers up for auction on eBay. These are the original strips I drew back in 1987 and are still in very nice condition. Black ink on Bristol board. 

You can find out more about them, and see more photos of the pages, at my eBay store here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/graphite47/m.html

All bids appreciated! Good luck! 

Meanwhile, on my OTHER blog...

If you're new to the Blimey! blog you may not know that I have another blog I regularly update too. That's lewstringercomics, which is focused on my own comics work, covering all the news about my current strips as well as showing material I've done over the 34 years of my career (and sometimes even material older than that from my fanzine days). 

If you're interested, hop over there and have a rummage around to see the various stuff I've posted over the years! Thanks for your time.
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.co.uk 

OINK! 30 piggin' years!

I've been so busy recently I'd forgotten it was the 30th anniversary of Oink! comic last Tuesday! I'm still busy, so I'm afraid this tribute will be brief but I felt I had to celebrate it somehow as not only is Oink! fondly remembered by so many readers but it was such an important comic for my comics career. 

Oink! arrived in newsagents on Saturday 26th April 1986 in the form of a full size 32 page preview issue bagged with that week's issues of Whizzer and Chips, Buster, and Eagle and Tiger. The comic had been in the planning stages for two years and most of the content of the preview issue was from the dummy issue. 

Whizzer and Chips cover by Tom Paterson.

Here's a few pages from the Oink! Preview Issue. I haven't time to scan them so I've just taken photos for now. I'll replace them with scans at a later date. Click on images to see them at full size.

Page 2 by Ian Jackson.

Cowpat County by Davy Francis.

BURP! by Banx.

Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins by Tony Husband.

The Revenge Squad by Tom Paterson.

Street Hogs by Malcolm Douglas.

Back page of the OINK! preview issue, by Tony Husband.

Oink! was unique. A wilder comic by mostly new creators that broke away from the rigid formula of other IPC titles. The contents were never set in stone; although it retained a few regular characters it also featured loads of one-off strips and short run strips. The remit was to keep it fresh, and most importantly, funny! Readers who were kids back then have confirmed that it certainly succeeded on that score. (There's even an Oink! Blog dedicated to the comic. An essential read for every pig-pal: http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.co.uk/)

Oink! ran for 68 issues over two and a half years before merging into Buster. Maybe it would have lasted longer if WH Smith hadn't meddled by shifting it away from other comics because they felt it was unsuitable for children. (Bear in mind this was before there was an older-readers comics section in Smiths, so Oink! was shoved into different places every week, beside magazines devoted to nursing, caravans, or whatever.) 

Oink! was a joy to work for. We had so much freedom on the comic (within reason of course) and for those of us who were relatively new to the industry then it gave us the opportunity to develop and experiment. A couple of years ago, on my other blog, I explained my involvement with the comic so I'm cutting and pasting that here....

One day in 1984, while visiting Bob Paynter, the Group Editor of the IPC humour comics, up at Kings Reach Tower on London's South Bank, he told me of a new comic that was in development. This was to be something different, more anarchic and unpredictable than Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee, and the rest. It was the brainchild of cartoonists and writers based in Manchester and although they'd already presented Bob with a rough dummy issue, Bob wanted to bring in more artists for variety. 

The comic was then called Rrassp! as I recall, although it would soon evolve into Oink! as the project got under way. Bob Paynter told me he saw the venture as an ideal opportunity for people who were either stylistically different to IPC's usual look, or were keen to become comic artists and not yet ready for the company's other publications. IPC were going to invest in a dummy issue of the new comic, and would be putting a lot of money into a launch if it went ahead. Therefore Bob didn't want any time wasters, and was only inviting people who were genuinely interested in drawing for them. I was already producing cartoons for Marvel UK and had 'ghosted' a lot of children's books for Mike Higgs, so this was a great opportunity to do something for IPC, who were the main British comics publisher at the time.

Bob asked me if I had any ideas that might be suitable. I mentioned a "dim skinhead bully character" I'd been developing, which he seemed to like. (Bullies are always useful in slapstick strips.) "Perhaps his dad could be pushing him to be a bully to follow the family tradition, to inherit his boots" suggested Bob. I liked that twist to it, and, filled with enthusiasm, went home to develop it further.

The name 'Tom Thug - What a Mug' came to my mind because I knew IPC liked puns on existing concepts and it sounded a bit like Tom Thumb. Here's my initial rough sketches of the character from 30 years ago that no one has seen before. Brand new characters often take a while to get right and Tom looked more like Frankenstein's monster in this concept than a school bully!

Anyway, after a few more sketches, I eventually gave Tom a rounder look and something I felt comfortable submitting. The routine was that Bob only wanted to see the strip in a pencil stage at this point, and if it was good enough he'd ask for it to be completed. Here's the actual artwork I sent him... 

Bob liked the idea but sent me a rewritten script for a new version. Initially I was a little disappointed that some of the energy seemed to have been taken out of it, but in retrospect Bob's rewrite was a much tighter script and was a better build-up to the punchline. Here's the new version, scanned from my original art...

That's the version which appeared in the 'dummy' issue and was printed in the Oink! Preview issue that was bagged with several IPC titles. Yes, it took about 18 months or more for IPC to do their market research, tweak the comic, and finally give it the green light!

Tom Thug became one of Oink's regulars from the outset, with me on scripts and art every issue (with some rewritten by the editor, the late Mark Rogers). When Oink! merged into Buster in late 1988, Tom Thug had proved popular enough to transfer over, and then became one of Buster's most popular strips.

I will always remember Oink! with fondness, not only for the opportunities it gave me, but because it was such a great comic! I used to look forward to seeing what everyone else had done that week and we were all having such a good time on it. The editors Tony Husband, Patrick Gallagher, and the late Mark Rodgers were great to work for and creative people in their own right. Happy 30th anniversary Oink! You were piggin' brilliant!

OINK! No.1, published May 3rd 1986.

Viz and Buster pages on eBay

Now that Christmas is well and truly over, postal deliveries are back to normal and people have hopefully had time to put aside some disposable income I'm starting to list some original artwork on eBay again. This week I've listed a Tom Thug page from Buster and a Suicidal Syd page from Viz. 

Bidding ends on Sunday 8th Feb, so if you're interested in these pages all bids are very welcome. You'll find my eBay page by clicking here. Good luck!

Original Thugs!

A last minute mention that my auction of original Tom Thug pages from Oink! and Buster ends this evening. If you're interested, please visit my eBay page here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/graphite47/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

All bids are appreciated. Thanks in advance, and good luck! 

OINK! No.33 cover up for auction

This was the first cover I drew for a professional mainstream comic. Tom Thug leading the charge for the School's Out themed issue of Oink! No.33, way back in 1987. I've had it filed away for years but now I've put it up for auction on eBay, along with several other items from past comics. 

Mark Rodgers, one of Oink's editors, suggested the idea of Tom and a gang of rough kids crashing through the gates. As a relative newcomer at the time, and with a style that was still quite raw, I felt honoured to be asked to draw a cover (especially one featuring a character I'd created) so I enjoyed going to town illustrating it. 

As you can see, the Oink! cover has a plastic overlay which carries the masthead, date, and topline, so the artwork underneath is free of any titles (apart from the 'School's Out' logo and all the graffiti which I lettered onto the artwork itself).

This will be the last set of pages I'll be putting on eBay this year, so all bids are welcome if any of them take your fancy. Bidding ends tomorrow evening (Sunday 16th). Good luck!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/graphite47/m.html?item=200861934016&pt=UK_Books_comics_Magazines_UK_Comics_ET&hash=item2ec44de1c0&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

The day Tom Thug met Thundercap

Crossovers in British comics aren't that common so, back in 1989, I thought I'd have a go at one. Buster editor Allen Cummings was always open to new ideas (as well as being a good bloke and one of the best editors that Fleetway/IPC/Egmont ever had) so I pitched to him the possibility of my Tom Thug strip crossing over with Mike Higgs' Thundercap within the pages of the same issue.

I'd known Mike Higgs for several years, having worked for a short time as his assistant on numerous children's books in 1983/84. Mike was also a hero of mine when I was a kid reading his fantastic Cloak strip in Pow! in the 1960s so I always considered it a privilege to work with him. Although we'd "jammed" on various Moonbird books I thought it'd be really good to combine our styles in a comic, and as we were both freelancing for Buster in 1989 this seemed the perfect time to do it.

Allen Cummings liked the idea and I set to work on the script. I always wrote my own Tom Thug scripts, but Thundercap was usually written by another Buster contributor (Roy Davis I think). Allen graciously allowed me to write both strips for the crossover. The scripts were approved (with a change to the punchline), and Mike and I set to work. I roughed out the pages in pencil, lightly indicating where Mike's characters might be, and inked in my characters (Tom Thug, teacher, classmates). If memory serves me correctly I then delivered the pages to Mike's studio in Birmingham where he added and inked his contributions. After posting off the pages to Fleetway, lettering was added by Mike Peters. 

We were quite pleased with the results. Having been Mike Higgs' assistant in the past, "ghosting" his work, our styles had a certain similarity in places so the jam session turned out very smoothly. If you're interested in who did what, basically Mike drew all the Thundercap page but I drew the figures of Tom Thug and the bike, and I drew all of the Tom Thug's Skooldayz page with Mike adding Thundercap, the mouse, and the TV crew.

If you ever want to seek out a copy of the comic it appears in, it's the issue of Buster dated 15th July 1989. 

Cover by Tom Paterson

Original artwork auction

Once again I've put a few of my old pages up for bidding on eBay. Sales went well on previous artwork (thanks to all of you who bid/bought pages) so I hope some of you will also be interested in the three pieces currently for sale. 

These are my original pages, which were returned to me by the publisher after they were printed in the comics. This week there's a Robo-Capers strip from Transformers from the late 1980s, a full colour Tom Thug page (complete with Jack Potter's lettering on an overlay) from Buster, and a Sucidal Syd page from Viz. 

Bidding ends on Sunday afternoon. Click HERE to go to my eBay page. Good luck! 

Tom Thug! Pete's Pimple! Batman! and more on eBay

I'm selling a few more of my original art pages on eBay this week. There's a Tom Thug page from Oink!, a pre-Christmas full colour Tom Thug from Buster (see image above), a Pete and his Pimple page from Oink!, and a Norman the Doorman page from Viz No.100! All signed by me, and I'll add a dedication to the buyer if requested, at no extra charge obviously. 

There's also a genuine original Batman page from a 1975 issue of Detective Comics. Not by me of course, but by Ernie Chan and Mike Royer. I bought it many years ago and it's been carefully stored away until now.

Bidding ends this coming Sunday, 12th August. All bids appreciated. Click here to be taken to my eBay page.

Buster, Viz, and Transformers: More artwork on eBay

Just time for a quick blog post to mention that I'm currently offering more pages of my old original artwork for sale on eBay. This week there are two pages of Tom Thug from Buster (including a special Easter theme story), a Robo Capers strip from Marvel UK's Transformers comic, and a Suicidal Syd page from Viz. 

The auction ends tomorrow (Sunday 28th July) so be sure to make your bids soon if you're interested in owning any of those original pages. Good luck! 

To visit my eBay page to see the artwork, click HERE.

Tom Thug in pencil stage

  
The sale of some of my original artwork on eBay went well last weekend so I've put a few more pages up for auction this week if any of you are interested. You'll find them by clicking this link.

This time it's something more unusual, - three of my pages from Buster in the initial pencil stage, uninked, uncoloured, so you can see the basic construction of the strips.

These pages date from the late 1980s/early 1990s when I used to use a lightbox to ink the finished artwork on separate sheets of paper/board by tracing over these pencils.

The three pages are up for auction as one lot, containing two Tom Thug strips plus a Vampire Brats page. Bidding ends next Sunday, July 8th.

 

This week in 1989: BUSTER

Here's a few pages from the issue of Buster that was on sale this very week in 1989, kicking off with a cover by Tom Paterson. Note the '32 pages' blurb. This was Fleetway's advantage over DC Thomson at the time, when Beano and Dandy still only had 24 pages. 

The Buster strip continued on the back page...

Inside, something a bit different than my two regular pages. Instead of Tom Thug's Skooldayz and Pete and his Pimple being separate strips both characters co-starred in a two page story. Incidentally, the villa shown in panel 7 is based on a tatty dive I stayed at in Kavos the previous year. As for the little character shown coming out of the door, that's one of The Vampire Brats, - a strip I drew that would replace Pete's Pimple a few weeks later.

Jack Oliver was one of the best writer/artists to have graced British comics and he produced a lot of material for Buster over the years. Curiously, when he did Vid Kid it was under his pseudonym as, er, Sue Denim! Nice work. Not so sure about the garish limited colour overlays Fleetway were using back then!

Mike Higgs was a hero of mine when he was writing/drawing The Cloak in Pow! back in 1967 and it was a privilege to work as his assistant for a while in the mid 1980s. By 1989 he'd returned to weekly comics to draw Thundercap and it was great to be in the same comic as him. That was something I could never have imagined happening when I was eight years old reading The Cloak!

That same week saw the publication of the Buster Holiday Special. Here's the cover by Mark Bennigton...

The special had 64 pages, many of which were sadly filled with reprint due to budget cutbacks. To compensate for this, editor Allen Cummings had some characters team up to fit in all the favourites. Being aware of this is why I'd had Tom & Pete in one strip in the weekly and now their holiday adventure continued in the special...

Other team-ups in the Holiday Special included Ricky Rainbow and Chalky drawn by Bob Hill...

Melvyn's Mirror and Nipper drawn by Vic Neill...

...and Mighty Mouth and Weedy Willy drawn by Terry Bave...

(Have to say, it's a shame the other artists didn't design a special team-up logo for their pages but the strips are still great and I bet readers must have been pleasantly surprised by various characters meeting each other.) 

I hope you've enjoyed this trip back to 1989. I must admit the 1980s still seem very recent to me, which is one reason I don't cover that decade very often, but if you'd like to see more from that time let me know.