2000AD forum Art Competition

Every month the 2000AD forums have an art competition with a new topic chosen by the winner of the last one. You know, for fun.

This month the topic was forthcoming thrills, and I took as inspiration this;

Massai Ferguson (an all-new strip about the adventures of a young man whose mother was an African princess and his father a lapsed Scottish missionary) by Pat Mills

Not a real strip, but one that board member Cosh wishes they would publish!

So this is my Coming Soon poster.

Sneaky peak - Julian Ruby

Here's another panel from a work in progress that is almost complete - the next episode of the Paul Grist inspired artwork for Julian Ruby. After this it's time to crack on with more Lego Ganesh!

REDEYE magazine out now!

There's a new issue of REDEYE out now to download as a PDF - essential reading for anyone interested in the British comic scene, now that Comics International is no longer a regular in the shops. It only costs a quid and can be found here

http://www.enginecomics.co.uk/redeye/reframeset.htm

I only mention it because there's a review of the latest PARAGON in there, saying

"...Prestwoods' art is the strongest in the magazine...

... Candlish's art on Undertow seems to be channelling Rian Hughes...

Battle Ganesh could be the next Bulldog... "

Well, I'd be pleased if it was - Bulldog kept Jason Cobley busy for nigh on twenty years in comics, and he's has since found work with DFC (now sadly defunct) and Classic Comics - so that can't be bad.
The reviewer also suggests putting a company or imprint logo on the cover - I did consider this, but apparently there's a little company in America that publishes the odd comic which already uses my initials, so I thought they might take umbrage if I used them!

In the beginning...

My favourite comic or magazine over the years has to be Dez Skinn's WARRIOR. It's something I go back to time and again and re-read. Nothing came to close to it for years until one day I was in Forbidden Planet and saw a copy of BAM!, a small press comic published by Jason Cobley. here was another black and white anthology with some great characters, including Winston Bulldog.

I thought Bulldog was a fantastic character and drew up a sample page, hoping to peak Jason's interest, and throw a script my way. Unfortunately, in a masterclass of timing, I had discovered BAM! just as Jason had decided to fold it and go in a different direction, so I never got the chance to draw a full story. But here's the first couple of pages I drew as a sample. I still like it.

Anyway, with BAM! gone, I decided to investigate other small press works, and found there are loads to choose from! And I thought, I could do that.

PARAGON is kinda based on WARRIOR with Julian Ruby starting out as a Mr Cream clone (the hitman who had a cameo role in Marvelman), Jikan - the time travelling demon-stalking japanese warrior replacing Shandor, short terror tales, comic strip film adaptations, and with issue 3, Emperor came up with Ganesh, a big-footed chap who thumps things. Sound a bit like Axel Pressbutton?

It ain't perfect yet, but it's improving. I hope you'll stick around for the journey