Lewis Collins 1946-2013

I was saddened yesterday to hear of the passing of the actor Lewis Collins, after a long fight with cancer. Like many British males of my generation I was addicted to the show 'The Professionals', in which Lewis played hard-man secret service agent 'Bodie'. As a 13-14 year old, he & co-star Martin Shaw portrayed characters who (to our teenage minds) represented all we could ever want to be. Hard-drinking, fast-car-driving, quick with their fists & even quicker with a one-liner. They would tear into action with a squeal of Ford Capri tyres, foil the bad guys (who, ironically, were generally the type of enemy that the western world really is facing today) with a good old fashioned right hook or a kick to the bollocks (non of that 'chop-socky' kung fu/ninjitsu business that every action hero seems to know these days)on a weekly basis, then retire to the pub to 'pull birds' over a pint or a whiskey. Yes it was the 70's, yes it was a different time, & yes, no doubt to modern eyes it would all look a bit twee, but we loved it, & the fact that Lewis Collins is now no more will be a genuine sadness for the show's fans.

Of course he went on to play other roles, though not as many as his Martin Shaw who managed to shrug off the tough guy typcasting, but he missed out on the one role for which he was surely born, James Bond. I understand he was considered for the part, but the producers in the early 80's felt he was too brutal, ironic considering the brutality of the current Daniel Craig movies.

He starred in the 1982 SAS action flick 'Who Dares Wins', & subsequently tried out for the real SAS reserve, but despite passing the entrance tests he was considered too well known for the regiments somewhat clandestine nature.

For those too young to know who Lewis Collins was, or to remember the Professionals, take a look on YouTube or one of the many TV channels that re-run old 70's cop shows, cos you're in for a treat.

Lewis Collins: 26 May 1946 – 27 November 2013

Lawgiver!!

One of my recent gigs was to provide the artwork on a back-up strip to feature in an upcoming issue of IDW's Judge Dredd comic. It has been a few years since I've drawn anything from the Dredd-verse (in a professional capacity at least), & it was fun to revisit those characters & environments. It would be bad form to show any more than this little teaser (actually the very first panel of the strip) prior to publication, but if this peaks your interest, look out for the issue in question (#14) released some time in December, I believe.

Meltdown Man sketch.

It's been a while since I posted on here, sorry. Mostly that is because the material I have been working on is either 'hush-hush' or not particularly interesting.

Anyway, here's a thing I did fairly recently. Done in a sketchbook that a guy is passing round to as many 2000AD artists past & present as he can. I was totally free to draw whoever I pleased from the 2000AD stable, which for me would normally mean Rogue Trooper, however, since there was already two scarily fantastic Rogue contributions from both Dave Gibbons & Colin Wilson (yes, really... sheesh) in there, I decided to spread my net wider. Dredd was considered, as was Johnny Alpha, Matt Tallon (from the original Mean Arena), Slaine & various others. But in the end I came down to this guy, Nick Stone, 'The Meltdown Man'. I'll not go into the details of the original story, but I remember enjoying it, it involved Nick Stone (an ex SAS trooper) in a kind of a 'man out of time, Planet Of The Apes' thing, with beautiful artwork by Bellardineli. I suspect that when he drew the strip he was given an early still of Kurt Russell in Escape From New York (which was more or less contemporary with the strip), since as you can see, the resemblance is striking. What occurred to me only recently is that many years after this strip, Bravo Two Zero veteran, Andy McNab,  took to writing novels about an ex SAS trooper called Nick Stone. Coincidence or homage, who knows.

Any way, here's the sketch, done with a fineliner pen, & a brush pen. Also, a still of Kurt Russell in the aforementioned flick, for those unfamiliar with it.

Clash Of The Dark Serpent

On august 1, Quest Of The Gods: Clash Of The Dark Serpent is published by Usborne Publishing. I contributed the cover colour artwork & the interior greyscale illustrations.

Like the previous volumes (mentioned earlier in this blog) it tells of the ongoing adventures of a young boy in ancient Egypt, as he rises from poverty to become Pharaoh. Set in a world where gods aren't just mythical beings sitting on clouds in the sky, but are real... & often very VERY big!! Aimed at approximately 8-14 year olds, they are rip roaring adventures where the hero & his friends career from one cliffhanger to the next. Ideal reading material for bored kids when the British summer serves up it's usual menu of rain followed by more rain.

Here's the cover, & some of the interior artwork.

Miss America: Better Late Than Never

I wanted to do this for American Independence Day, but pressures of actual work meant it got put on the back burner, so not only am I posting this (on this side of the big pond at least) on the 5th of July, but I had to down size from my original plans for this image to this quick pencil sketch tarted up a bit in Photoshop. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

So to all you colonials out there, a belated Happy 4th of July.

Quest Of The Gods

July 1st sees the relaease of two books I worked on for Usborne publishing. Both are part of a series called 'Quest Of The Gods', & the individual tiles are 'Flight Of The Falcon God' & 'Rise Of The Horned Warrior'. They are adventure stories primarily aimed at (I imagine) pre-teen & early-teen boys. They tell the stories of a young boy in Ancient Egypt, who rises from obscurity to be Pharaoh, & both are written by Dan Hunter. On 'Falcon God I provided the cover image only, while on 'Horned Warrior I did both the cover art & the interior greyscale illustrations. If they seem like your cup of tea, they are available via Amazon : Rise Of The Horned Warrior, Flight Of The Falcon God.

All artwork is copyright Usborne Publishing.

Conan

This is an old Sharpie sketch, so it's NOT an indicator of what my next project is going to be or anything, it's just that I stuck it on my DeviantArt page recently, so I figured I may as well stick it on here too. Having said all that,  if Dark Horse are asking, I'm available...:-)

Another sneak peek & colouring test.

Here's another panel from my creator owned project, with a different approach to the colouring. What does anyone think? This, or the old vintage (do-screen, flat, more muted & simpler colour etc) look?

Unknown Soldier 4

Here's some of the thumbnails, pencils & finished inked pages from the fourth & final part of my brief run on the Unknown Soldier strip which ran as a backup in DC Comics G.I.Combat prior to the books cancellation.
I think that due to the afore mentioned cancellation, the writers (Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Grey) were forced to wrap up the story sooner than they might have liked. I think it also meant that they weren't allowed to explore some of the more intriguing elements which had been hinted at in previous episodes (talking to crows, anyone?). But I think all things considered, the strip holds up well & is well worth a read if you feel like shelling out for the G.I.Combat trade paperback.

Negotiations on the jetty.

All Star Western #21

June 26 sees the release of All Star Western #21. Behind Howard Porter's superb cover (see below) are two tales of the DCU in the old west both written By Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Grey. The first, drawn by Moritat, features Jonah Hex, Booster Gold & Batwing, when Jonah somehow manages to find himself in modern day Gotham. The second is the final part of a story which pits the Nineteenth Century version of Stormwatch against a hoard of Apache vampires in a city of gold inside a hollow mountain.... now if that lot isn't worth a couple of quid, I don't know what is!! I drew the Stormwatch story.

A second sneak peak.

As with the piece I posted yesterday, I've been experimenting with approaches to both the inking & colouring on something which I hope happen fairly soon. As you can probably tell from the couple of images I've posted so far, this is a period set piece & as such I am so very tempted to use the dot-screen effect on the colouring (though I don't think I would use the faux aged paper effect, that might be a step too far). However, I wonder if that is something that a modern day audience wouldn't accept. So time for a little audience participation (if for no other reason than to see if anyone actually reads this stuff), of the two colouring styles here, which do YOU prefere? The vintage-look dot screen effect, or the regularly coloured image? YOU decide... as they say on Big Brother, apparantly.. Feel free to either leave a message in the comments, or email me via the link in the right hand margin.

A sneak peak

Playing around with inking & colouring approaches for a creator owned project of mine that will hopefully come to fruition in the not too distant future.

Iron Man

Done as a gift for a friend who's Grandson just luuurrves those Iron Man movies.

Unknown Soldier 3

Here's more of the art from my short run on The Unknown Soldier which ran in DC's G.I.Combat last year. These pages are from the third episode. Pencils & the final inks as per the previous posts, but in addition here, is an example of the other stage in the process, the initial 'thumbnail' layouts. I'm afraid I couldn't find a copy of the 'thumb's for the previous Unknown Soldier posts, so was unable to show them. This stage was done to pin down the storytelling. It's not a I had ever done prior to working on this strip (previously, my thumbnails were just done on the actual script & were for my eyes only before I got stuck into the actual pencil), but was done at the request of editorial for approval. It was something I found to be a big help & I can see myself doing this on every project from now on. After the thumbs were approved, I printed them out as bluelines & used them as a guide when I drew the pencils.