Cartoonist Lew Stringer is offering more of his original comic art on eBay this week including some rare “Ronald McDonald” art for a British McDonalds custom comic, Ronald McDonald & Friends, commissioned by the fast food chain in the UK, back in 2003 and 2004.

Not to be confused with the incredibly disturbing looking American custom comic McDonaldland Fun Times, published in the United States between 1979 and 1990, Ronald McDonald & Friends was a much more child-friendly creation, featuring art by Lew, and other creators such as Whizzer and Chips artist Trevor Metcalfe.

“I was commissioned to illustrate a few pages for a Ronald McDonald comic,” Lew recalls. “The published comic was part of the McDonalds Happy Meal package, I believe.”

Over on his blog, Lew explained back in 2013 that, as with any licensed property, the client want the characters to be as ‘on model’ as possible and McDonald’s were no exception.

“They really wanted Ronald and his pals to be exactly as seen in the style guide, even down to the colours. It took a couple of attempts to get the strip exactly as they wanted it.

“I was also asked to provide a Funny Find It puzzle spread, based on the sort of thing I had done for Egmont’s Know How magazine. There was more flexibility with this, and I was able to draw it in my own style.”

On offer from Lew on eBay, alongside some of a “Combat Colin” strip for Transformers 194, a Dalek “Daft Dimension” strip for Doctor Who Magazine No.557 and a “Pete and his Pimple” strip for Buster and Oink! No. 3, on offer is original art for these now rare comics; the front cover commission, plus four pages of comic strip, being sold as one lot.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information about Ronald McDonald & Friends online, but it appears to have run for at least six issues, published between 2003 and 2004, some copies currently available on eBay, all from the same seller.

Those on offer all seem to have been packaged for McDonalds by London-based Creata Promotion, who have been involved in promotions for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Kellogg’s and Nestle for over 40 years.

Although Lew was paid to provide the cover for one issue, a different image was used on the published, un-numbered edition. We don’t know if Lew’s cover art was used inside.

Lew’s art is created in black ink on Bristol Board, each page of Ronald McDonald art is A4 size (210mm x 297mm). The cover is signed by Lew buthe will also be happy to add a signature in the border of each page if you wish. (No extra charge)

Bidding is open to overseas bidders and will be sold via eBay’s Global Shipping Program which means there’ll be extra postage costs to winners outside of the UK.

Lew Stringer is a writer and artist of humour comics and has been freelancing in the UK comics industry for almost 40 years. His credits involve work for a range of age groups including “Combat Colin” for Marvel UK, “Tom Thug” for Fleetway, “The Pathetic Sharks” for VIZ, “Team Toxic” for Toxic Magazine and many more. He’s been published in The Dandy, Oink!, Buster, Sonic the Comic, and numerous other titles. He’s also had a lifelong interest in the history of British comics and has written articles for the BBC website, Comics World magazine and others.

Lew currently draws “Pup Parade” for BEANO, “The Daft Dimension” for Doctor Who Magazine, and “Sgt Shouty” for The77.

• Check out all Lew’s artworks and comics for sale on eBay here

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.

Categories: Art and Illustration, Auctions, British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

Tags: Auction News, Creata Promotion, Custom Comics, downthetubes News, Humour Comics, Lew Stringer, McDonalds, Ronald McDonald