AFTER a lifetime as an artist, 75-year-old Trevor Duncan has no intention of hanging up his pencils and paintbrushes.

Trevor, who has lived in Stroud since his family moved here when he was a baby, has been busy producing a new comic strip for the Stroud News & Journal aimed at our younger readers.

He said: “My dad was a plane fitter at Aston Down and we moved here from Kent when I was a baby.

“I was always top in art when I was at school and actually started work as a cathedral mason, working at Catbrain Quarry, near Painswick.

“When the quarry closed down, I started as a freelance artist.”

Trevor’s work has included landscapes, caricatures and hand-painted posters, and he has also produced cartoons for several Christian children’s magazines.

Now retired, Trevor, of Reservoir Close, Stroud, is a carer for his wife, Joy, who is disabled, but he keeps the cartooning going.

He said: “I like to keep my hand in and it gives me a distraction on the days when I can’t get outside.”

The new strip features an active pensioner called Fred and his adventures with his grandson Sid and dog Roger.

Here is the first of the series.

Meet Fred

FRED is an active pensioner.

He lives on his own with his dog Roger.

He is untidy and wears a stretched cardigan and spectacles.

He is independent but forgetful.

He will take any job that comes his way but it usually ends in disaster for him and his dog.

Sid, Fred’s grandson, loves to visit him to delve into his old shed, which his full of junk, or play Fred’s wind up gramophone.

Fred lives next door to Lord and Lady Smith, who think he lowers the tone of the village.

This, as you can imagine, gets Fred into a lot of hot water with them.