Happy 80th birthday to The Beano!

Happy 80th birthday to The Beano! I loved it as a kid & was extremely honoured to add my own contribution in the form of the 6 Diary of Dennis The Menace books written by Steven Butler for Puffin Books. Huge fun to add my own spin to some of these iconic characters!

Diary of Dennis The Menace - The Great Escape published TODAY!

It's publication day for the 6th Diary of Dennis the Menace book - The Great Escape written by Steven Butler with illustrations by me.

In this story, Dennis the Menace - Prankmaster General and feared enemy of softies everywhere - has been sent to Posh Street, an elite boarding school run by the terrifying Mrs Snoot. Help! Dennis is surrounded by bookish boffins, can't hang out with the Bash Street Kids and is nearly starving as the school dining room only serves super-healthy food. What he needs is a plan. With a little help from his menacing buddies on the outside, some fart pellets and Gran on a Charley Davison bike, it's time for Dennis to make his great escape . . .

Very sadly I recently found out that this is going to be the last Dennis the Menace book I'll be drawing. It's been a huge amount of fun & I've absolutely loved the chance to be able to reinterpret a childhood hero of mine in the books. I've also thoroughly enjoyed working with the lovely Steven Butler (any author who can make me laugh out loud with the manuscript is ALWAYS a good sign!) & lots of thanks to all the people at Puffin & The Beano.

Doctor Menace!

As it's Doctor Who's 52nd birthday today. I sometimes like to sneak the odd extraneous detail into book illustrations for the eagle eyed... (& slightly geeky) This is from The Diary of Dennis the Menace - Canine Carnage

Then there were six!

I've illustrated six Diary of Dennis the Menace so far - nice to see them all lined up together!

The Diary Of Dennis The Menace: The Great Escape! - cover!

Pssst! Here's a sneak preview of the cover for the new Diary of Dennis the Menace - The Great Escape - written by Steven Butler with illustrations by me - afraid you're going to have to wait for 4th February 2016 until you can get your grubby paws on it!

May Festival!

No, not the (Steve) May festival, but lovely to see my Dennis the Menace illustrations on the posters for the Shrewsbury Bookfest !

Diary of Dennis the Menace - Canine Carnage cover

Sneak preview of the cover for 'Canine Carnage' the fifth in the very funny Diary of Dennis the Menace series written by Steven Butler & illustrated by me.
Publication date 2nd July 2015

(Wondering if I can swing a free Flying V or Explorer guitar from Gibson for my product placement...hmmm...)

World Menace (Book) Day 2015

I've been pleased to illustrate a special edition of Diary of Dennis the Menace written by the very funny Steven Butler especially for World Book Day (or World Menace Day as Dennis has decided to rebrand it!) 

A few weeks ago I also took part in a Puffin Virtually Live event where the audience got two Stevens for the price of one, (myself & Mr Butler!) tips on dressing up as Dennis for school on World Book Day itself & I explain how to draw your very own Gnasher! Lots of fun! 

Here's a sneak preview of Dennis' Blobzilla costume I drew for World Book (I mean Menace) Day...

(design by Mandy Norman)

Bash Street Bandits - Puffin Virtually Live

Had great fun this afternoon drawing for the Puffin Virtually Live event for the publication of the new Diary of Dennis the Menace book at Sadlers Wells with charming Dennis the Menace author Steven Butler & former Blur Peter presenter the lovely Helen Skelton. (ok, it's very childish of me but that's BLUE PETER! So cool!)

I got to demonstrate to the audience the fine art of drawing Dennis' best friend, the one and only Gnasher with some great audience results too! (might be out of a job if I'm not careful!) Here's a couple I managed to get photos of.

Dennis the Menace - Bash Street Bandit!

Somebody out there is OUT-MENACING THE PRANKMASTER GENERAL! Dennis the Menace has to use all his super secret agent detective skills to find this Bash Street Bandit & prove to everybody that he's the most menacing menace of all Beanotown!

The 4th book in the Diary of Dennis the Menace series 'Bash Street Bandit!' written by Steven Butler & illustrated by me is out today (Thursday 5th February)
There's some detective work...

...& a healthy dose of burping & farting

Bash Street Bandits!

I'm currently in the middle of drawing the inside illustrations for this for this but here's a sneak peek at the cover for the next Diary of Dennis the Menace book 'Bash Street Bandit!' written by Steven Butler & published by Puffin Books & will be in the shops in February 2015!

Dennis the Menace - Rollercoaster Riot!

 Diary of Dennis the Menace 3 - Rollercoaster Riot written by Steven Butler & scribbled all over by me is published today by Puffin books!

All aboard THE VOMIT COMET! Guess what fellow menaces - The World's Biggest Rollercoaster is opening in Beanoland this summer! I just need to win an easy-peasy competition to be the first Bash Street School student to ride it - and I might have to trick a few Softies as well . . .

As usual this has been a riot to draw (see what I did there?) & am looking forward to the next book immensely - KEEP MENACING KIDS!

How to draw Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

Me pulling some stupid faces & demonstrating some drawing stuff & nonsense

PS...this is my REAL drawing face

Diary of Dennis the Menace - available now!

Some time in early May last year I was contacted by my agent to say that Puffin were looking for someone to give a 'new illustrative approach' to Dennis the Menace for a series of books written by award winning children's author of 'The Wrong Pong' Steven Butler.
I paused from sipping a large gold flecked martini on my yacht, waved away a palm frond bearing serving girl & thought '...hmmm, draw one of my childhood heroes...HELL YEAH!'

*montage of furious scribbling, various life events, getting an invite to the Beano 75th birthday party, uplifting music etc.*

...& so, the first book, The Diary Of Dennis The Menace is published today, it's very funny, keeping the right level of mischief & chaos (you bumfaces you!) nicely designed by Mandy Norman, & the pictures ain't too shabby either.
Has been an extremely enjoyable job, I dearly wish my mum was still around so I could proudly present her with a copy.
Here's a few of the pictures (I got to draw a few other old favourites too! : )

(Puffin Books, TM © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.)

I've just received my copies of Diary Of Dennis the Menace!

Very excited to have just received my copies of The Diary of Dennis The Menace written by the very funny Steven Butler , drawn by me & published by Puffin books. They look superb, congrats to Mandy Norman for a lovely design job - it's published on 6th February so I shouldn't really give you a peek but I'm very excited...this is how I feel... DING! DONG!* : )

*If you're a fan club member you'll KNOW what this means!

Diary of Dennis the Menace...coming very soon!

The Diary of Dennis the Menace is out on the 6th February published by Puffin books - the very clever Steven Butler (@sbutlerbooks) done the writing stuff & I done all the pictures - save up your pocket money kids!

The Diary of Dennis the Menace

Very excited to say that I've been let loose & allowed to get messy with one of my favourite comic characters! I've been extremely thrilled to be illustrating the covers & insides of this new series of Dennis the Menace books written by the very charming Steven Butler - here's the first cover.
Very pleased to announce that Dennis is at his menacing softy-baiting best!

You can pre-order a copy here or else go & buy it from a PROPER bookshop which is a far more edifying & enjoyable experience, you might meet somebody nice or find another book that you'd have never seen otherwise!