Lew Stringer’s Brickman is Back!

Brickman Returns

Lew Stringer‘s seriously-stupid superhero Brickman is back after an equally stupidly-long absence from comics – and his creator has finally realised a long-held ambition to bring the character’s many fans a new comic packed with his wacky adventures.

Brickman Returns!, a new colour collection of wonderfully bonkers strip we first mentioned here, is available now direct from dedicated comics creator Lew Stringer, whose credits include VIZ, The Beano, Doctor Who MagazineTOXIC and many other titles over the past 35-plus years, as both writer and artist.

The new title is, hopefully, just the first of several new independently-published comics from Lew, who also created (and owns) Combat Colin, a staple feature of many an issue of Marvel UK’s Action Force and, later, Transformers comic in the 1980s and ’90s.

Pedantic Stan, Comics Fan, as he appeared in the UKCAC convention booklet in 1990. Read the whole strip here on Lew's Blimey! blog.© John Freeman & Lew Stringer

Pedantic Stan, Comics Fan, as he appeared in the UKCAC convention booklet in 1990. Read the whole strip here on Lew’s Blimey! blog.© John Freeman & Lew Stringer

(Personally, I’m holding out for a revival of “Pedantic Stan, Comics Fan” which I write and Lew drew and featured in the comics magazine Speakeasy – if ever there was a need to poke fun at some comics fans in this age when commentary is often based on supposition, rumour and the totally made up, it’s surely now…)

And just who is Brickman? He’s zillionaire Loose Brayne, who was stuck for something to do one night when suddenly a brick was lobbed through his window! Naturally, as it’s a comic strip it instantly inspired him to become… the Brickman!

Yes, it’s a Batman parody, but the daftest parody you’ll ever see, who last appeared, regularly in Image Comics’ Elephantmen, reaching its conclusion with Issue 24.

The character originally appeared in Lew’s own fanzine, After Image Issue Three, way back in November 1979. Initially his name was “Brick-Person” for the first few strips, but Lew settled on the snappier “Brickman” after a while.

“The character was originally conceived as a short term Batman spoof, and never envisioned with longevity in mind, but his popularity has brought him back time and time again over the decades,” says Lew.

Over the last thirty years Brickman has appeared in fanzines, small press comics, a one-off 1986 comic, the graphic novel collection Brickman Begins!, published by Active Images, and became a recurring full colour strip in most issues of Image Comics’ Elephantmen with Issue Two in 2006 – the collection and his US appearance thanks to former Marvel UK editor Richard Starkings, founder of the lettering company Comicraft and creator of  Hip Flask and Elephantmen.

The sequel to Brickman Begins!, Brickman Returns! features the 20-page full colour Brickman saga collecting the strips that ran in Image Comics’ Elephantmen monthly between 2006 and 2009. Brickman is back in Guffon City, but so are The Poker, The Ostrich, the Mad Cobbler and more mad menaces! Co-starring Tina Trowel, Super-Bloke, Combat Colin–  and the mystery girl from Brickman’s past!

A page from the new Brickman Returns! collection. Art © Lew Stringer

A page from the new Brickman Returns! collection. Art © Lew Stringer

This new Brickman comic also includes a classic Combat Colin story from 1989, where he first encounters his nemesis The Brain; and Lew’s scurrilous  Suburban Satanists, an absolutely hilarious strip never before seen in English, finally arrives in a British comic, presenting a selection of their strips from the 1997 Norwegian comic GEEK. Plus, there’s an article on the story behind Brickman and his comic co-stars that Pedantic Stan just loves. (Yes, I made Stan say that).

Brickman Returns! 32 pages, full colour, US comic format, quality paper. Suitable for teens and older is available from Lew at conventions (his convention appearances are listed here on his Blimey! blog) and direct from him, along with Brickman Begins! if you don’t have it, here on his official web site.

• It’s also on sale at Nostalgia and Comics,  14-16 Smallbrook, Queensway, Birmingham B5 4EN | Find them on Facebook

• More about Lew Stinger’s current work and career here: www.lewstringer.com; read his comics blog, Blimey! It’s Another Blog About Comics at http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk | Find him on Facebook | Follow him on Twitter with a (virtual) sketch pad @lewstringer



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