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Lew Stringer Begins Annual Countdown to Christmas Celebration With 2000AD and More

By John Freeman on December 5, 2015

The first Christmas Prog of 2000AD

Over on his always brilliant Blimey! It’s Another Blog about Comics blog, focusing onBritish comics past and present, top cartoonist Lew Stringer is counting down to Christmas with a series of celebratory posts of past Christmas covers, including the first 2000AD festive issue, Prog 44, published back in 1977.

An issue offering a photo review of the first Star Wars film – already capturing many young minds’ imaginations forever back then – Lew notes the lack of extra pages the modern Christmas 2000AD features (this year with a wraparound Ian Kennedy cover) and, indeed, a lack of much Christmas cheer, although the Judge Dredd story of the issue, “Red Christmas”, bucks the rest of the issue.

This year’s Yuletide posts from Lew so far also promote modern-day Christmas issues, including Doctor Who Adventures (which we plugged here) and TOXIC – a 40-page extravaganza where, of course, Lew’s marvellous Team TOXIC apart – and of course they’re marking the festive season in their own inimitable way.

Stepping back in time, he’s plugged the 1966 Christmas Beano, an issue packed with Christmas stories – even the adventure strip, “Iron Fish”. Dennis the Menace even gets a Christmas slipper for his pranks – corporal punishment that is of course frowned on today.

Lew has of course already reported on this year’s Beano Christmas Special, which was released way back on October!

The Blimey! blog has a huge number of wonderful Christmas posts, posted over several years now, and scrolling back through them isa wonderful treat that more than make up for the builders who started work on a site right next to the hotel I’m staying in for Malta Comic Con at 6.30 am! Do head over and check them out and leave Lew a thank you for his wonderful work.

• Enjoy a wander through Lew’s Christmas posts Past and Present by following this link

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.