The Really Heavy Greatcoat by myself and Lancaster-based artist Nick Miller was published fairly regularly for about 20 years in alternative Lancaster print titles such as On The Beat and Off the Beat and online on virtual-lancaster.net.
The strip’s last regular appearance in print was in the now defunct Comics International, but Nick has recently published a number of RHG-inspired strips on the web platform Tapastic alongside his The Worry Man pocket cartoon. Sadly, both Skid Avenue and The RHG are on hiatus, as is Worry Man – he’s a busy man doing stuff that pays (but always open to approaches for work).
When last seen in a regular strip, Kevin, the current owner of the Greatcoat – a talking garment with transcendentally dimensional pockets – was a student. He was clearly not postgraduate material so Nick and I reckon he’s in a bedsit in Skerton, Lancaster somewhere, eking out a life on benefits…
If anyone ever offered to pay us to write it, it might still be running today – but Nick still creates an annual Review of the Year, bless him!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
• More by Nick Miller at: http://teamsputnikblog.blogspot.com
• Greatcoat Review of the Year 2013
• Greatcoat Review of the Year 2012
• Greatcoat Review of the Year 2011
• Greatcoat Review of the Year 2010
• Greatcoat Review of the Year 2009
• Greatcoat Review of the Year 2008
• The Really Heavy Greatcoat Archives
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, Digital Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Links
In Review: A Corner of Some Foreign Field (a free web comic) 
Creating Comics: British web comic “The Putto” gets print publication – in Czech! 
Striker dropped from The Sun’s print edition, goes online only 
Exploring Tapastic: The Weird and the Fantastic