19 Oct
2011

Posted in: Blog, Pictures, Words
By Fanton    3 Comments

Cover Stars!

IT’S HAPPENED! Almost a year after their first appearance in The Dandy, George and Dragon manage to sneak their way onto the front cover of this week’s issue (see above). HURRAH!

Meanwhile, inside the comic, George vs Dragon follows George’s latest hair-brained scheme to catch his fire-breathing foe, which involves setting up a (not so) cunning trap….

PLUS! I’ve also done an X Factor-based Madvert for this issue (featuring a cameo for The Doctor), and this week also sees the last in the current run for Dave the Squirrel! Awwwwwww! Bye-bye, Dave!

But don’t fret, he’ll still pop up in numerous cameos in my other strips, I’m sure. He always manages to sneak in somehow. But if you want to see him return in his own strip, then let The Dandy know – it’s your comic, chums!

Elsewhere in this issue we have more My Own Genie by Jamie Smart, Postman Prat by Lew Stringer, Bananaman by Wayne Thompson and another Turtle Wipeout by Stu Munro. PLUS! Some spooky-wooky Halloween themed gifts! WoooooOOOOOooooooh! All for just £2.50! BARG.

Talking of Halloween, next issue sees the return of stupid spook Boo!, in a one-off, two-page Halloween special. So be sure to pick that issue up as well…..IF YOU DARE! Mwaaaaahaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa! (Seriously though, please do pick it up, it’s great).

- Fanton.

14 Aug
2011

Posted in: Pictures, Vault, Words
By Fanton    6 Comments

From Ye Fanton Vaults, Part Two

AH, who can forget their later teenage years? Learning to drive and getting your own car, then taking your girl to Make Out Point where you knock back cans of beer you got from the local off-licence using your fake ID, before enjoying an awkward fumble in the back seat…happy, crazy times, eh?

Unless you were me, in which case you were a terribly awkward, shy and nerdy teen, who sat in his room drawing for hours upon end, and sending them into The Beano hoping to win their star prize. Oh, me!

Happily, in The Beano no. 2873, published on the 9th August, 1997 (six weeks or so from my eighteenth birthday), my dream came true, and the above joke snagged me that much desired star prize. Woo-hoo!

I sent it in as a drawing originally, hoping they’d print it as some fan-art, but in the end it was re-drawn by one of their own artists (and very well, too, of course!)  However, the main thing was that I’d made it into The Beano, AND won the star-prize (a striped Dennis the Menace jersey – which still fits me!, a Dennis t-shirt AND a poster!) Ha! In your FACES, ten-year-olds! VICTORY WAS MINE!

And since then, I’ve had my own actual artwork appear in the comic, as episodes of both Boo and Harry and his Hippo have been reprinted in The Beano to promote The Dandy. But, alas, I didn’t get another t-shirt or poster on either occasion. BAH!

- Fanton.

3 Jun
2011

Posted in: Blog, Pictures, Words
By Fanton    1 Comment

Harry and his Beano

AS WELL as having no less than three pages of work gracing the current issue of The Dandy, I’m also dead pleased to say that  I’ve got a strip appearing in The Beano this week as well! HOORAY!

Yes, this week’s Beano (issue 3588), is carrying a reprint of my first Harry and his Hippo strip, as a sort of advert for the comic’s sister title. I know it’s not PROPER work for The Beano, but it’s still exciting to be able to say I’m in both The Dandy AND The Beano this week – especially as I find myself in an issue carrying work by my comic hero Tom Paterson, the very awesome Laura Howell and comics LEGEND Leo Baxendale! What a thrill for a comics nerd like myself!

Hippo being sick with excitement at the thought of being in this week's Beano.

Both titles filled my young head with ideas and the desire to draw when I was a kid, so it’s really doubly exciting to be appearing in both comics! May I squee a bit? Too late: SQUEEEEEEEE!

Why not pick up both comics this week, for twice the Hippo-based hilarity?

- Fanton.