Burnt Custard

This article originally appeared in Strangehaven issue #2, September 1995.

Negative Burn, the award-winning anthology from Caliber Comics published a self-contained and previously unpublished Strangehaven eight-page strip, “Custard Creams” in issue #24, which came out at the end of June.

Unfortunately I did not have any advance knowledge of this, so it was a bigger surprise to me than it was to anyone else.

Even stranger, the “Custard Creams” strip was actually solicited as being included in Negative Burn#26, due out in August. That in itself was news to me, so I hurriedly sent out advance news releases, which ultimately turned out to be false. Sorry if you were misled by information in any news magazines or distributor catalogues, but that’s all I had to go on as well.

Nonetheless, my thanks go out to Malcolm Bourne and Joe Pruett for including the Strangehaven strip in NegativeBurn#24, which is as usual an excellent package. Every exposure that Strangehaven receives is a welcome bonus, and Negative Burn is one of the very best showcases around. #24 also contains strips by Brian Bolland, Paul Pope and Doug Wheeler among others.

“Custard Creams” is a short story featuring Sergeant Clarke’s investigation into a missing amulet from Mrs McCreadie’s kitchen. You also gets glimpses of many of your other favourite characters from the pages of Strangehaven. Art and story by yours truly, Gary Spencer Millidge.

I do have tentative plans to reprint “Custard Creams” myself at some distant point in the future, possibly in some kind of special issue. But for now, Negative Burn should be available wherever you purchased this copy of Strangehaven.