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Comic Creator Spotlight: BEANO’s Nigel Parkinson and Nika Nartova, appearing at Wow Comix next month

By John Freeman on October 28, 2021

Top BEANO artist Nigel Parkinson and fellow artist Nika Nartova will be making a personal appearance at Wow Comix in Stockport on Saturday 6th November 2021 from 11.00am.

Nigel, a regular guest at many comic conventions, should need no introduction to downthetubes readers. With a career spanning over four decades, but who began drawing at 16 months old, working with Nika as his colour artist since 2005, he currently draws Dennis and Gnasher, and most other BEANO characters at some time or other for the weekly comic, the annuals, summer and winters specials. He also provides the artwork for BEANO posters, T-shirts, keyrings… you name it, he’s probably drawn it!

If there’s any special BEANO project, such as the current “Breaking the Rules” exhibition at Somerset House, the V&A Dundee opening, Isle of Man Post Office Christmas Stamps, the National Television Awards, or regular media stories involving BEANO‐styled celebrities, you can pretty much guarantee it will all have been his work!

Comic art by Nigel Parkinson — *Just some of Nigel’s work over four decades in comics. Via Twitter*

*Nigel shared this encouraging letter he had from DC Thomson back in 1980 last year, received just days before his first official comics commission*

*Nigel Parkinson’s first work for The Beano back in 1996, ghosting Robert Nixon on “Roger the Dodger”*

*Nigel’s first cover story for the Beano, published in September 1999*

*The Bash Street Kids, drawn by Nigel Parkinson for the BEANO Christmas goodie box, back in 2018*

*When the BEANO needs an artist to draw something for a media item, Nigel is on speed dial. Not every item is used – as in the case with this Channel 4 News art – but he always delivers!*

*A fantastic alphabet poster drawn by Nigel for last year’s Christmas BEANO*

Down the years, his credits have included not only BEANO but The Dandy, too, entering the industry with work for Fleetway and BBC Magazines in the 1980s. You will have seen his work in titles such as Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Beezer, Bunty, Cor!!, Dreamer, Fast Forward, Football Galaxy, Joe 90, the Liverpool Echo, Nutty, Radio Times, Scouse Mouse Comic, Space Precinct, Stingray, Thunderbirds The Comic, Tracy, and Whizzer and Chips.

He’s also created art for Bonnier Books, Collins diaries, Count Arthur Strong, INTU, the Isle of Man Post Office, KaiserChiefs, Kew Gardens, Manchester University Press, the National Trust, Penguin Books, the Royal Mail, Somerset House, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Victoria & Albert Museum, and many more publishers and organisations.

As a child in the Soviet Union and then as a teeenager in Greece, Nika Nartova dreamed of drawing, colouring, comic books and comic strips.

*Nika Nartova. Photo via Nigel Parkinson*

“Quite by chance, she came to live in England when she was 21, and the city she chose was Liverpool,” Nigel noted on his blog last year, “Which is where I am.

“Nika has worked with me for over fifteen years, initially in my studio with marker pens, and since 2008 at her home (wherever that might be), via Photoshop.

“It was Nika who encouraged me to start attending comic cons and who either drove us to or accompanied me to dozens of them over the past five years where her super fast colouring skills have wowed all those watching her.”

Wow Comix, launched in 2014, initially selling at comic conventions, are based in Greater Manchester, where they have shops in Bury, Stretford (supporting Stretford Comic Fest there) and Stockport. The team, a group of folk with a keen interest in super heroes, Marvel and DC comics, Sci Fi and all things related, offer something a little different in their area, offering a wide range of material, primarily focused of course aroud lots of comic and film related goodness.

• Nigel Parkinson Signing, 11.00am Wow Comix Stockport, 9 Arden Walk Merseyway Shopping Centre, Stockport SK1 1PL | Tel: 0161 429 7220 Web: www.wowcomix.com

• Nigel Parkinson is online at nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot.com | Facebook | Twitter

BEANO characters copyright BEANO Studios/ DC Thomson Media

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.