Lew Stringer

Lew Stringer (born 22 March, 1959, England) is a freelance comic artist and scriptwriter. He began his career from the late 1970s with a series of fanzines, many featuring his popular "Brickman" character; these were read by several pro creators (including Kevin O'Neill, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) who encouraged Stringer to try comics as a profession. [http://www.comicworldnews.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?column=crumpets&page=4 - Lew Stringer interview] He sold his first professional cartoon to Marvel UK (the British branch of Marvel Comics) in 1983 where it appeared in "The Daredevils" comic, after which he worked for a short time as art assistant to the cartoonist Mike Higgs (creator of "Moonbird" and "The Cloak"). Since then Stringer has freelanced for numerous British comics for various companies and audiences; he has stated "I write and draw strips for all ages... and my criteria issic always the same; keep to the storiessic own internal logic, and above all, make it entertaining." [ [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sonicthecomic/message/13696 Yahoo! Groups ] ]

His best remembered creations are "Tom Thug" and "Pete and His Pimple" for "Oink!" comic (1986), which outlasted that comic and continued into "Buster" comic, and "Combat Colin" the halfwit hero who featured in "Action Force" and "The Transformers" comics. Prior to Colin joining Transformers, Stringer had written another, similarly slapstick, strip "Robo-Capers" for that title. Robo-Capers was replaced by "Combat Colin" when the reprints of American G.I. Joe strips were added to the Transformers comic. Robo-Capers returned for a single story, which featured Colin and his sidekick, in Issue #200. After a change of editorial direction in 1991 Marvel UK handed the rights of Combat Colin to Lew Stringer and he has used him in small-press titles, such as the Combat Colin Special and "Yampy Tales". (A scan of the Special is on scans_daily - Lew stated "risking copyright infringement, but I'll let him off ;-)" [http://lewcomix.tripod.com/id1.html] .

Stringer has also worked as a writer on "CiTV Tellytots"; was one of the main writers on "Sonic the Comic", where he created several fan-favourite characters and stories; and has been a long time artist/writer for Viz comic and many other publications. He has written Toxic!'s "Team TOXIC!" strip since the first issue (and drawn it since issue 15); this proved popular enough with the readers to gain two pages an issue and lead to other comic strips being brought in. [ [http://www.downthetubes.net/news_archive/2005/08toxic_turns50.html Down the Tubes.net: Comics Writers and Artists Resources ] ]

He broke into the international market in 1997 creating the "Suburban Satanists" for the Norwegian comic "Geek". Since 1999 those characters have appeared in the Swedish–Norwegian comic Herman Hedning.

In April 2005, Active Images published a collection - "Brickman Begins" - of all of Stringer's "Brickman" strips since 1979. In 2006 a brand new Brickman series began in the American comic book "Elephantmen", published by Image Comics, and in 2007 Combat Colin became a guest star in the strip. Brickman seems to be Stringer's most enduring character.

He occasionally works for The Beano, drawing a Fred's Bed story for the Christmas 2007 issue and a one-off Ivy the Terrible strip for an issue in 2008. He is currently drawing a brand new series for The Beano, scheduled to begin in October 2008.

References

External links

* [http://lewcomix.tripod.com Home page]
* [http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/2474931.html Combat Colin Special scans]