“Holly Wood” debuts in The Beano Today

By John Freeman on December 2, 2015

Holly Wood, the creation of Tommy Donbavand, for the The Beano, art by Steve Beckett. © DC Thomson

Today sees the debut of an all-new character in The Beano – wannabe star Holly Wood, the creation of Tommy Donbavand, with art by Steve Beckett.

Lancashire-based author and actor Tommy Donbavand is the man who wrote popular 13-book Scream Street series for seven to 10 year olds, published by Walker Books in the UK and Candlewick Press in the US. His other books include Zombie!, Wolf and Uniform (winner of the Hackney Short Novel Award) for Barrington Stoke, Boredom Busters and Quick Fixes For Kids’ Parties (How To Books), and Making A Drama Out Of A Crisis (Network Continuum).

In theatre, Tommy’s plays, which include include Hey Diddle Diddle, Rumplestiltskin and Jack & Jill In The Forgotten Nursery have been performed to thousands of children on national tours to venues such as The Hackney Empire, Leeds City Varieties, and Nottingham Playhouse. He’s also responsible for five episodes of the CBBC TV series, Planet Cook.

As an actor, pantomime veteran Tommy played the Clearlake MC in the West End musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story for over eight years, in addition to roles in the movies Zombie Love Stories (where he battled hordes of Scottish undead) and Going Off Big Time (where he was beaten up on a bouncy castle).

Steve Beckett is a highly respected artist and designer in his field with a vast range of clients, whose work we’ve covered several times in the past on downthetubes (and also had the pleasure of working with, although, sadly, none of the work has been published). His work for high profile clients such as The Beano, TOXIC magazine Titan Comics HOME comic and the Book of Hope reveals the expertise he has in his field. He also has many years experience of design for print and has worked with national, international and local businesses and charities.

This week’s Beano also features all your regular favourites – Dennis the Menace, Billy Whizz, Minnie the Minx and more – and is on sale in all good newsagents today.

• The Beano is at www.beano.com

• Check out Tommy’s work here: www.tommydonbavand.com or follow him on Twitter @tommydonbavand

• Check out Steve Beckett’s work here: https://beetoons.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter @stevebeetoons

The Beano © DC Thomson

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.