There's only one thing certain in life and that's by accident or design nothing lasts forever. This is my final blog post here and Blimey! will no longer be updated after today. I'll still maintain the blog to publish your comments but there won't be any new posts. I was going to title this 'The Last Post', but I'd already used that the last time I stopped blogging in 2012, only to return months later. This time though it'll be permanent. Why am I bringing Blimey! to a halt? Well, a number of reasons really. Firstly, after 13 years, I feel I've covered all the comics and strips that I want ..read more

I've mentioned before that the very first comic strips I saw were a few Noddy's Tall Books editions (see here) and one issue of Yogi Bear's Own (see here). However the first "proper" comic I read, and the one that stirred my enthusiasm to read it every week, was The Dandy No.1155, dated January 11th 1964. This issue would have arrived in the shops on Monday 6th January 1964... which I've since discovered was the day I started school! Coincidence? I doubt it. I think it's highly likely my mum bought me this comic as a reward for my first day at school and also to encourage me to read. It cer ..read more

The last in my occasional series of Comic Oddities brings us to the weirdest one ever. It's hard to believe that the company that gave us the greatest comic of the 1960s in TV Century 21 also gave us the weirdest in Candy in 1967. Like TV21, Candy was a co-production between City Magazines and Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Publishing company. The concept was that as Anderson's puppet series had proved to be so incredibly popular then perhaps a comic featuring life-size mannequin children would also work. Er... maybe not. Gerry Anderson's puppet series worked because they operated within thei ..read more

On my other blog, a look back at what 2019 meant to me: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2019/12/reflecting-on-2019.html ..read more

Here's the cover to look out for of Beano No.4016 which will be in the shops on Tuesday 31st December. Yes, a day earlier than usual because of the holidays.  As you can see, it's the New Year issue and it's celebrated inside with a four page Tricky Dicky story written by Nigel Auchterlounie and drawn by Rianne Rowlands... There are also 20 pranks from Tricky Dicky on following pages for readers to try out. (All harmless fun of course.) All the regular characters are here too, including Minnie the Minx, Dennis and Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids and more. The mini-strips are back this week ..read more

This year has once again seen a load of books reprinting classic British comic strips of the past. Frankly, they've all been great, and this is just my personal top five although I enjoyed more books than that. It hasn't been easy to minimise it to just five titles though, and really I consider all of these to be of equal merit... In fifth place... Misty Presents the Jordi Badia Romero Collection. A nice idea to see the Misty collections change their direction from small soft backs reprinting serials to a big hardback focusing on one artist. Jordi Badia Romero deserves this quality treatme ..read more

  The next collection from the Treasury of British Comics will be Third World War, the series that ran in Crisis comic in the 1990s. Ahead of its time perhaps, but certainly relevant now, and it should appeal to a more politically engaged public than ever before.  The book will be published on 9th January. Here's the PR and a preview of the first four pages... • CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills (w) Carlos Ezquerra, D'Israeli, Angela Kincaid (a)  • RELEASE DATE: 9 January 2020 • PAPERBACK, 208 pages • PRICE: £19.99 (UK) $24.99 (US) • ISBN: 9781781087510 • DIAMOND: NOV191852 Using brand new ..read more

This has been a great year for Commando comics under the editorship of Georgia Battle. The surprise revivals of classic D.C. Thomson characters such as Code Name: Warlord and Braddock in new stories, and other great issues such as Commandos vs Zombies. This week, new characters A-Force return in another story. Here's the info on all four issues that are out now! 5291: Home of Heroes: A-Force: Aftershock A-Force returns in part two of the raucous romp written by Ferg Handley! In Aftershock, Jack Ramsey — grandson of the infamous Ramsey Raider, has just gotten back from his first mission a ..read more

A New Year is coming so what better than a new comic? Rejected is a compilation of stories written by Baden James Mellonie and illustrated by a variety of great artists. Why call it Rejected? Well, all the strips "ended up in development hell or I gave up on" says Baden, but now you have a chance to see them. A far better fate for them than languishing in some drawer.  It's a Kickstarter project and here's Baden with all the details... Rejected.  Pre-orders available now.  So what is it? It's a compilation or worst of. Or its a book of stuff that hasn't worked out yet. Frame it how you wi ..read more

Cover art by James Crighton. One of the books I treated myself to for Christmas was this facsimile of The Beano Book 1956 (originally published in 1955). As the original was published four years before I was born I'd never read it before so it was all new to me. As most of you already know, you can order a facsimile of any Beano annual from 1940 to 2013 from D.C. Thomson and they're printed on demand: https://shop.beano.com/awesome-gifts/classic-beano-gifts/personalised-beano-annual-from-your-year I've bought a few of them before but this one intrigued me because it contains work by all the ..read more