Doctor Who “Daft Dimension” and “Robo-Capers” art offered on eBay

By John Freeman on November 30, 2021

Comic artist and writer Lew Stringer is offering more of his comic art for sale on eBay, including a smashing Zarbi-filled “The Daft Dimension” strip from Doctor Who Magazine.

Alongside copies of his ace independently-published comics such as Combat Colin and Derek the Troll, two “Robo-Capers” artworks are on offer, a strip that made its debut in Marvel UK’s Transformers comic from No. 15, cover dated 6th to 19th April 1985, through to Issue 152, to be replaced by “Combat Colin”, who transferred into the title from Action Force.

“Robo-Capers” largely focused on the attempts of an alien King and his chief inventor to invade the Earth using a series of frequently ridiculous robots, although the Transformers themselves did feature in some strips.

*Robo-Capers, from Transformers Issue 134 featuring Morg the Malicious*

“Back in 1985, after a few successes with selling strips to Marvel UK, I pitched a new one to Sheila Cranna, the editor of The Transformers fortnightly comic,” Lew himself explained back in 2019. “I’d previously worked for Sheila when she was editor of the Spider-Man Comic, where I’d created ‘Captain Wally’ and ‘Snail-Man’ strips.

“I had no interest in drawing the Autobots of the Transformers franchise but I thought a comedy strip about robots might be a good fit. Thankfully, Sheila thought so too.”

The characters made one final appearance in Issue 200, in a special joint “Combat Colin and Robo-Capers” strip, in which the King was defeated by Combat Colin and decided to give up attempting to conquer Earth forever. Lew later revived the concept of incompetent mechanicals with “Rubbish Robots” for BEANO, back in 2013.

*One of the final regular “Robo-Capers” stories, from Transformers comic, by Lew Stringer*

On offer is the original art for the hugely-popular strip first published in Transformers Issue 134 featuring “Morg the Malicious” versus “Tankface”, “Earth’s Mightiest Robot”; and the strip from Issue 149, one of the final regular “Robo-Capers” stories, in which the King encounters a race of peace-loving robots, who get very annoyed when not left in peace!

Fans of Doctor Who may also be interested in a funny episode of “The Daft Dimension”, a strip by Lew that’s been running in Doctor Who Magazine since Issue 477. Featured in DWM Issue 554, published last year, it features the 1960s monsters the Zarbi, in a daft invasion of Earth.

The Zarbi invade Earth in “The Daft Dimension" by Lew Stringer — *The Zarbi invade Earth in “The Daft Dimension”*

If you’re a VIZ fan, there’s also the opportunity to grab the art for Lew’s one-off rendition of “School Spanner”, published in VIZ No. 115, way back in June 2002. Lew believes it to be the character’s only appearance.

You can check out all the items of art and back issue copies of his comics, and more, Lew is offering for sale here on eBay

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. His most popular characters and strips include Combat Colin, Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, “Robo-Capers”, and many more.

Robo-Capers by Lew Stringer — *An episode of “Robo-Capers” featuring Transformers that didn’t make the grade*

Over the last three decades, he’s created strips both as a writer and artist for numerous mainstream publications in the UK, drawing strips for BEANO, The Dandy, Doctor Who Magazine. TOXIC, and more.

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, a strip simply crying out for English reprint.

(“There’s a lot of work to do on them,” says Lew, “as I need to dig out my old scripts and re-letter every strip into English, plus colour them all. Maybe next year! The strip was popular but it received some complaints from Christians for being blasphemous and also from Satanists for not being an accurate portrayal of Satanism! Ya can’t please everyone!”).

Still busy writing and drawing today, one of his most recently-created characters is “Sgt. Shouty” for the independent British anthology, The77, and various strips for BEANO. He’s also been busy creating many a “custom comic” to help organisations deliver their organisation’s messages in a fun, informative way, as well as occasionally generating his own self-published comics, the latter hopefully resuming in 2022.

• You can check out all the items of art and back issue copies of his comics, and more, Lew is offering for sale here on eBay

• Lew’s Official Blog is online at lewstringercomics.blogspot.com

• Lew writes about the origins of “Robo-Capers” here on his blog

• “Robo-Capers” on the Obscure Transformers site

• Doctor Who – The Daft Dimension Checklist on the TARDIS Wiki

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.