Coming Soon: Combat Colin #5, by Lew Stringer

By John Freeman on July 4, 2024 • ( 0 )

Combat Colin #5 by Lew Stringer - Montage

Comic fans lucky enough to be at London Comic Festival (London Film and Comic Con) this weekend may also be fortunate enough to grab themselves an early copy of the latest issue of Combat Colin by Lew Stringer – direct from Lew himself.

Copies of #5 will be on general release early next week from Lew’s eBay store, but Lew will have a very limited stock of the new issue on sale, on a first come, first served. (He’ll also have copies of Issues Three and Four, and other stuff).

This issue reprints all the “Combat Colin” strips from Marvel UK’s Transformers comic Nos. 284 to 31, published back in 1990 and 1991, and includes Megabrain invading the Earth, “The Secret Origin of Combat Colin”, RoboCol, “The Bobble Hat of Doom”, and more!

Lew Stringer began his career in comics in 1983, creating humour strips for Marvel UK titles such as The Daredevils, Spider-Man and The Transformers. He swiftly expanded his portfolio to freelance for IPC and other companies on Oink!, Buster, VIZ and many other publications for a range of age groups.

Combat Colin #1 - 3 Covers by Lew Stringer

Combat Colin, probably Lew’s most popular character, has most recently featured in Lew’s collections of the original strips published by Marvel UK, #4 published back in 2019, and within the e-pages of David Lloyd’s digital anthology, Aces Weekly.

When Paul Neary took over as Editorial Director at Marvel UK, together with John Freeman, Lew benefitted from a written confirmation of creator ownership, widened from creators who had seen characters and strips published in the company’s STRIP magazine.

Over the last three decades, Lew has created strips both as a writer and artist for numerous mainstream publications in the UK such as Beano, TOXIC and The Dandy as well as self-publishing his own “Lewniverse” comics. In addition to Combat Colin, he also created Brickman, Pedantic Stan, Pete and his Pimple, Tom Thug, Robo-Capers and more.

His three panel strip for Doctor Who Magazine‘s letters pager regularly pokes affectionate fun at all things Time Lord… and monsters!

Internationally, Lew produced a series of “Brickman: strips for Image Comics’ Elephantmen, back up comic-horror pages for Dark Horse’s Grindhouse, and created The Suburban Satanists for the Scandinavian comic Herman Hedning.

• Combat Colin #5 will be on general release early next week from Lew’s eBay store

• Read our review of Combat Colin #1

• Read our review of Combat Colin #2

• Read our review of Combat Colin #3

• Read our review of Combat Colin #4

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.