Detail from a forthcoming post and the origin of one of the track titles from ‘The Search Engine’. I seem to be one of the few people I know who actually likes Mondays, the week sprawls ahead with all the promise of untold creations emerging before the weekend is upon us.
Comics
Steve Cook over at Secret Oranges has had something put in his coffee I think, several blinding psychedelic posts today alone…
Starting this week in 2000ad, the first in a new series by Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing – The Zaucer of Zilk – the first episode is very intriguing and reads like Alice In Wonderland in rainy run down Britain. Brendan’s art is on great form too and other good news is that Henry Flint is back on the current Judge Dredd epic which is one of the best in years.
UPDATE: You can preview the first episode for free online at the CBR website now.
Jean Giraud aka Moebius has died, he was a massive inspiration, especially on the recent artwork for my album with Henry Flint.
Moebius contributed to the European anthology ‘Métal Hurlant’ in the 70’s, a lot of which was reprinted in the American version, ‘Heavy Metal’, which helped to bring him to worldwide attention. He also drew the cowboy books ‘Blueberry’, collaborated on comics with Alejandro Jodorowsky and contributed designs to many classic films such as Alien, Tron and The 5th Element.
What with Ralph McQuarrie dying last week, it’s the end of an era for some of the most original designers of the sci-fi I grew up with.
Sad news about Davy Jones today, time for a few Monkees-related posts from the past:
http://www.djfood.org/heads-up
(fictional ‘Head’ comic cover)
http://www.djfood.org/head-shots
(ultra nerdy dissection of a trailer for ‘Head’)
http://www.djfood.org/discography/mixes/head-dj-food-re-score
(something I did around a decade ago)
image adapted from the Big Glee website – Jack Davis draws Davy Jones for a book of fan letters written to the Monkees. He also posted a great Japanese tour brochure from 1968 only yesterday – spooky timing!
Courtesy of Henry Flint, a 4-page ad for a certain forthcoming comic, from the pages of Buster back in 1977.
I’ll be pootling along to this on Thursday evening at Orbital Comics in the west end of London (8 Newport St, WC2H 7JA to be precise) for the opening of an exhibition curated by Jason Atomic to celebrate the comic medium.
Frustrated by the price of the 3A toys’ 1/6th replica of the ABC Warriors’ Mongrel last year (see above left) Jason McFee aka System decided to build his own set of robots, well, starting with the heads at least. His first choice was General Blackblood, notorious traitor turned good guy (later to turn traitor again – keep up) in the on-going saga of the meknificant seven in 2000ad. Still with me? Well if you aren’t it’s far too complicated to explain but I’ll let some of the images from Jason’s site do the talking. Very impressive version of a difficult design – looking forward to the other six.
Just 3 of the 48 pages painted by Jim Murray for a comic to promote DOTA 2 (some sort of game, not quite sure). You can read the full thing here and download wallpapers of select images at the end.
Dropped through the letterbox this morning, a bit of a time warp going on, two special ‘What If?’ stories with Colin Wilson back on Rogue Trooper in classic fashion and Henry Flint (him again) on The Visible Man. This issue comes with two cover variants, one by Chris Weston and one by Mike McMahon – I got the Weston one and a giant poster of it sans cover copy too.
That’s right, it’s all coming down, Monday 13th Wednesday 15th * extended for 2 more days* so if you want to see original Henry Flint artwork for my album, original 2000ad comic art for Judge Dredd, Nemesis, Deadlock and the like, original drawings from Henry’s book ‘Broadcast’ (on sale as a cheap price too), buy limited signed prints or just marvel at some nice pics of me in a spacesuit – best get along there before it closes on Sunday night. It’s at The Pure Evil Gallery, 108 Leonard St. London, open 10-6 Friday /Saturday, 11-6 Sunday – free entry.
If you can’t make it, here’s an audio tour and some pictures, courtesy of Strongroom Alive.
This stunning commission piece is by Brendan McCarthy (my track ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ is a nod to one of his first published strips from the 70’s). This was done for a friend of mine, David Rees, and features some of the McCarthy-created characters from the Strange Days comic which appeared for 3 issues back in the 80’s. See the initial pencil prelim below and note that Martin Atchitson from the book ‘Skin’ has made an appearance in the final version.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFVq7vPtWno&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Furthermore to the flurry of February posts to mark 2000ad‘s 35th birthday I’d like to highlight the current sale they have on in their online store. Some of the graphic novels on sale are minor classics and the prices are bordering on scandalous some are so low. Below is a personal guide to a few favourites should you feel like dipping your toe into the deep pool of the comic’s past.
The Complete Nemesis vols. 1 & 2. One of the very best characters ever (and one of the best villains too) with Kevin O’Neill‘s amazing art on the first few books and Pat Mills keeping you on your toes with the plot. Only £8 each.
Two books in the Alan Moore canon usually overlooked by the media when writing about him: D.R. & Quinch is madcap space comedy at its best with beautiful artwork by Alan Davis. Skizz riffs off the E.T. phenomenon but brings it into Birmingham and does away with the cuteness. £6 and £4 respectively.
Robo Hunter – Verdus, the first of many series’ starring Sam Slade, a Philip Marlowe-esque private investigator on a planet full of crazed robots with Ian Gibson‘s incredible artwork rendering every rivet. Only £4. The V.C.s is future war with a cast of great characters told through the eyes of a rookie addition to the squad. Only £6.
Jamie Hewlett and Pete Milligan’s bizarro tale, Hewligan’s Haircut in graphic novel form and robot-loving, torturer for hire Lobster Random are both great if you like your comedy left of field. £8.99 for Hewligan and only £4 for Lobster.
It wouldn’t be a post about 2000ad without mentioning Henry Flint would it? Shakara is one of THE best stories in recent years, the first 3 books are collected in The Avenger with another 2 yet to be compiled – amazing art and a plot that keeps you guessing from Robbie Morrison. Only £7.
Zombo is Al Ewing and Henry’s dark outer space zombie comedy with each series upping the weird factor. Sadly not in the sale at £10.99
Also not in the sale but well worth your time and money: Easily one of the best spin offs from Judge Dredd‘s world in recent memory, the Insurrection series’ deals with a breakaway team of Judges who declare independence for the worlds they’ve colonised with the aid of robots and apes, and have to deal with the full force of Mega City 1’s SJS squad as a result. More future war with a battle of the wits by Dan Abnett and Colin MacNeil. £13.99
Back in print again: The Complete Nemesis vol.3 – This is the final few books in the 10 book series with the amazing John Hicklenton on 2, Clint Langley and that man Flint on 1 each and the final episode by Kevin O’Neill himself. Not cheap at £19.99 but worth it.
And finally if you want to know more about the history of the comic, including all the highs AND lows, there’s no better book than Thrill Power Overload by ex-editor Dave Bishop, and at £12 it’s a steal. You might also be needing something to sip your tea out of while you get down to reading all of this – how about a mug with a classic wraparound Dredd cover by Mike McMahon?
Eleven years ago, upon the release of our album, ‘Kaleidoscope’, PC and I did an interview for Flipside magazine (now long lost in the ether). Illustrating the piece was this image by Jonathan Edwards.
11 years later and the new album is out, he tweets it and, on inspection of his I Heart Pencils blog, I notice that he’s supplied a version of Strontium Dog Jonny Alpha for the 2000ad tributes at Down The Tubes. Weird synchronicity, or, as the name of another blog suggests: Everything Comes Back To 2000ad.
[singlepic id=3645 w=640 h=480 float=left]
Yesterday I finally had time to go back to the Pure Evil Gallery to take some photos of the work in situ, I didn’t have time on the night as there were too many people and we didn’t finish setting up until the last minute. There are a few reviews online of the show by Contemporary Talks, Scraffer and Inkymole with one promised by Art Review too.
Further to the 2000ad-related posts this week to mark the comic’s 35th birthday here’s a nicely timed gem that turned up recently on Pete Fowler‘s blog. In 2005 I took part in an exhibition in London curated by Playlounge called ‘Zarjaz’, the brief being for artists who were fans of the comic to reinterpret any character in their own way. I chose to do a fantasy cover that never was featuring Torquemada, a Terminator and the many tunnels of Termight, a homage to Kevin O’Neill and very influenced by this cover, which I later managed to acquire from him. In hindsight it’s a bit overworked but I included it as an oddity in the current exhibition at the Pure Evil Gallery as the timing seemed good.
Anyway, another artist in the ‘Zarjaz’ exhibition was Pete Fowler, who did a gorgeous T-shirt design featuring Nemesis as one of his wood sprites, which I love and still wear to this day. Amazingly he’s just unveiled a toy version of the same design (maybe as a tie-in to the anniversary?) that he’s done with Togetherplus. I’ll be wanting one of them then.
I was 8 when I saw my first issue of 2000ad – Prog 61 to be exact, the start of the Cursed Earth saga, what a point of entry. Since then I’ve collected the missing 60 before it and read every issue including annuals, specials, the Megazine and even acquired about hundred pages of original art.
I’ve seen pretenders come and go (Starlord, Tornado, Crisis, Blast, Revolver, Toxic) and endured a mid to late 80’s slump as the graphic novel boom led writers and artists to other pastures. I’ve been lucky enough to work with artists like Henry Flint and Jason Brashill on record sleeves and meet others like Ian Gibson, Rufus Dayglo, Steve Cook and Rian Hughes.
The Judge Dredd film featuring Stallone might have been a turkey but the new one starring Karl Urban lined up for the autumn shows good signs. I love it, I read it ever week and it’s like a soap opera to me. Happy Birthday 2000ad!
There’s a month-long feature on downthetubes.net from contributors past and present answering questions on their time with the galaxy’s greatest and the birthday issue arrives in 2 weeks with one of two covers (one is featured above).