Back in the days of the British comics fandom of the 1980s, when our community was very different and far less diverse than it thankfully is today, Lew Stringer and I created Pedantic Stan, The Comics Fan – and Lew has collected all the strips into a new collection on sale this weekend at London Film and Comic Con.

If I recall correctly the strip, published in the comics magazine Speakeasy, sprang from a story of Alan (“You Don’t Have to Vote for me Every Year”) Moore literally being followed everywhere by fans at conventions, even into the toilet at one UK Comic Art Convention, for his autograph. (It was this kind of behaviour that led him to stop attending them).

I wrote a some of the early strips but Lew continued it after I had to focus my time on my work at Marvel UK, and contact between us wasn’t as easy as it is today when it comes to “script conferences”!

Lew’s collection of Pedantic Stan, The Comics Fan comes ahead of his planned third collection of Combat Colin, but he wanted to get something new out for London Film and Comic Con. The new comic is an A5 sized 16 page landscape mini-comic that reprints all the “Pedantic Stan” strips that we did for Speakeasy magazine back in 1990.

LFCC tales place over three full days; Friday 27th July until Sunday 29th July, at the huge Olympia venue. You’ll find Lew at table 29 on the first floor in the comics section. as well as Pedantic Stan, he’ll also be bringing along his other comics, Combat Colin, Derek the Troll and Brickman, as well as drawing sketches, so nip along and see him say hello, and check out his blog for details of his panel appearances, which includes “Celebrating 80 years of The Beano” with Nigel Parkinson, Emily McGorman-Bruce and Danny Pearson.

• Pedantic Stan, The Comics Fan will be available to buy exclusively from Lew’s table at LFCC, then from his online shop next week after the convention

• London Film and Comic Con official site: www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com

Pedantic Stan, The Comics Fan © John Freeman and Lew Stringer

Readers’ note: An earlier version of this story was written so badly I went back into it before any more pedants knocked on my door armed with red pens and Tippex

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. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek 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, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News

Tags: downthetubes News, Humour Comics, John Freeman, Lew Stringer, London Film and Comic Con, My Comics Projects, Pedantic Stan, Speakeasy