There’s still time to back The Bell on Kickstarter, the final collection of the critically acclaimed comic strip The Penned Guin created by Alan Henderson – an all-new collection of the daily cartoons that appeared online throughout 2023.
For those unfamiliar, The Penned Guin comic strip features the fun antics of a funny group of penguins, penned by writer/artist Alan Henderson. With family friendly humour for all, the daily webcomic has been running for eight and a half years and appears on a variety of social media. In all cases just search for @pennedguin.
The Bell is the new book, packed with 100 black and white pages of penguin laughs and giggles, pulling together over 170 of the daily comic strips, none of which have ever been in a printed edition before. Featuring all the puns, parodies, dad jokes and cringing gags you’ve come to expect from Alan’s penguin crew, jokes are old and new covering topics from diets to sculpture.
The Penned Guin has had several successful Kickstarter campaigns since 2017, launching eight books by this approach, all of which has enabled the penguins to ‘fly’ round the world, reaching all corners of the globe and even allowing the team to make the statement “we’re big in Finland”.
The Kickstarter for The Penned Guin – The Bell page is here.
The final The Penned Guin collection?
The Bell is the also the last collection of the strip, after Alan announced he was calling time on The Penned Guin, after 12 years created some 2500-plus daily strips, so don’t miss out.
“Why end it? I could tell you that I’ve become bitter and twisted by the algorithm as well as the splintering of social media,” says Alan, “all of which means reaching an audience is just more and more difficult. But the truth is I’m just tired and I’m not sure just how many (family friendly) jokes are left to put into the three panel form.
“I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved,” he continues, “we being me and the penguins… There really is something odd when you start referring to your characters as being in the room with you, it’s even weird when they start talking back…
“We’ve built a small and loyal following – you know who you are – who press the like/share/comment buttons and have stuck with us… We’ve even made it so two dots and a greater than sign can make the reader think of our work…
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So The Bell is an apt title for the collection, because when it tolls – it tolls for The Penned Guin, although as do many web comic strips, and newspaper strips, Alan will keep posting replays and repeats on the various socials and he’ll continue to sell the collections… and a comeback is always possible!
“Thank you for reading The Penned Guin, thank you for the support, thank you for putting up with my stupid humour and I just hope we put a smile on your face from time to time.”
Such a momentous ending in British independent comics hasn’t, of course, passed unnoticed, and Alan was recently ambushed by some of his small press comic friends, who presented him with a collection of very special goodbye and good luck strips, some posted to The Penned Guin Facebook Page.
• The Kickstarter for Penned Guin – The Bell page is here
• Find Penned Guin on Tumblr | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter (X)
Alan Henderson and The Penned Guin can also be found at a number of comic events across the UK
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.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, Comics, Creating Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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