It’s the latest in an ever-growing number of mini-strips I’ve been lucky enough to get commissioned by The Dandy, and I never cease to get a bit excited when I manage to get new ones picked up.

I really like doing these three-panel gag-strips, as they get you flexing a different part of your writing brain. You have three, short panels in which to set up and introduce a character and write a good gag based around them, so it’s always a challenge. I find a good starting point is to come up with a strong, simple (and funny) premise, which needs little explanation so you’re not wasting time setting everything up. For example, I’ve found success with ‘a geriatric vampire’, ‘a rude reindeer’, and a ‘Thor parody’. Simple, snappy ideas, but with enough room to sustain anything from four to twelve strips.

As well as Barrio Bros. starting next week, I’m also working on my tenth mini-strip, a six-strip series that was commissioned last month. To celebrate hitting double figures, I’ve decided to put up a small selection of my mini-strip so far, including this one from my first mini-strip series ‘Grampire’ :

Click here for more mini-strip mayhem!

Enjoy!

- Fanton.

The Dandy, issue 3570, is out now, and only £1.99!

When I’m not doodling dragons or sketching spooks,  I like to amuse myself (and a monthly audience of thousands) by writing The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely, a rather bawdy (and distinctly ADULT) series of Victorian-set tales, centred around the arrogant, upper-class aristocrat Lord Likely. Likely is a self-styled ‘aristocratic adventurer and gentle-man of action’, who embarks on peculiar mysteries with his put-upon man-servant, Botter. Together the pair investigate cases as varied as murderous harlots, to zombified Victorians and all sorts in between.

I started the site almost five years ago for my own amusement (and to get those writing muscles flexing) but soon found there was a loyal Likely fan-base out there, and gradually the adventures started drawing praise from sources as varied as The Guardian, a cast member of The Daily Show and even one of the country’s largest book publishers. Egad, as his lordship might say.

I’ve big plans for Likely this year, as he celebrates his fifth year of sleazing up the internet, but in the meantime I’m delighted and honoured to reveal that The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely has been selected as a finalist in a contest to find the UK’s Funniest Blog, by those lovely people at The Dog’s Doodahs, purveyors of fine personalised cards and gifts. Hooray!

Please take a couple of seconds to follow this link and vote for Lord Likely – you might even win a voucher for £10 worth of goodies from the Dog’s Doodah’s website! Yes, BRIBERY IN ACTION!

Thanks very much – and keep your eyes peeled for further Aristocratic Adventurer-based announcments SOON.

- Fanton.

George comes up against some Dragon-loving protesters…

George hires some help…

You’ll find more dragon-sized chuckles here, and of course in The Dandy every Wednesday! Yahoo!

Happy New Year!

- Fanton.

‘George vs Dragon’  strips are © DC Thomson and Co.

So yes, welcome to Andy Fanton Dot Com 3.0, which is much like version 2.0 was (above), but has a lighter colour scheme, a new header image, and looks less like a website run by Virgin Media. HOORAY!

You’ll find everything in its right place, including all the comic strips, I was just bored of the old design so decided to freshen it up a bit. I hope you all like it, do let me know in the comments below!

Meanwhile, in other news, 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year already. In The Dandy, I’ve got two new mini-strips coming up, as well as a brand-new full page strip starring an all-new character, which I’ve really enjoyed working on.

And of course, in the meantime, there’s still more George vs Dragon to enjoy! As a bonus, Revamp Day treat, here’s a sneaky preview of this week’s upcoming episode, where George has to face up against a rival! Egad!

As well as all that, I’ve got a couple of other projects buzzing away in the background here, which I’ll hopefully be able to share with you before too long. It’s all going on here, but then again while it’s nice to stand and just enjoy the view, sometimes you need to dash forth and forge ahead, or you’ll never get anywhere. So that’s the plan for this year!

But first I must change these pants…

- Fanton.

However, that strip was actually my SECOND attempt at a seasonal special this year, and now I can share with you the original strip I drew up for the Christmas issue, which was passed up on in favour of the strip which saw print, possibly because this one isn’t all that funny. But I’m still quite pleased with the artwork in it.

So yeah, here it is in all its rejected glory, for you to enjoy with all the other Christmas leftovers!

(Click to enlarge).

- Fanton.