TRIBUTE TO PAT MILLS

This pin-up will appear in issue 7 of ZARJAZ a fanzine devoted to 2000a.d ,the issue is a special Pat Mills issue.

i've loved pat mills stories since i was a young boy ,i especially love Slaine and Nemesis the warlock, abc warriors.

i drew this pin-up in a scratch style i nicked from the great Mike McMahon ,i use this style on my Sideburns gumshoe strip i draw with writer Jim Alexander that has appeared in NEGATIVE BURN and BULLETPROOF anthology mags.

ALL CHARACTERS ON PIN-UP COPYRIGHT REBELLION A/S 2009

SYCORAX THE SEA WITCH

Another Tempest page featuring Ariel being inprisioned in a tree by a spell by Sycorax the sea witch ,mother of caliban.

had fun penciling this one and i think Gary and Nigel have finished off the page really well with the inks and colour.

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2009

TEMPEST page 22

This is one of my fav pages of Prospero and Ariel walking through a enchanted wood land which has large amber crystals and creatures in it ,i also had fun drawing faces in the trunks of the trees ,i think Gary Erskine did a great inking job on my pencils and Nigel Dobbyn has done a wonderful colour job on this page .
i won't be showing many more pages of this book as i really would like you out there to buy it ,but the pages i have been showing hopefully show that we have put alot of effort into the book to make it as magical as the play deserves.

so here are the pencils, then the inks then the finished colour page.

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD

COMICS INTERNATIONAL F.A.B

I see in the latest Comics International i'm mentioned in the coverage about THUNDERBIRDS which i had the pleasure to work on in the 90's ,Here's one of my covers for a Thunderbirds collection featuring the amazing art of Frank Bellamy.

HARPIE FURY!!!!

Not a good idea to cheese off a harpie....another bombastic page from The Tempest graphic novel coming soon from Classical Comics ltd again i really enjoyed drawing this one ,i've always loved fantasy and monsters since i was a wee boy ,so it gives me great joy to think kids at schools across the world will enjoy this work and understand Shakespeare.

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD SHOWN JUST TO PROMOTE THE BOOK .

''I WANT TO BREAK FREE''

Page 25 of Tempest ,Prospero lets Ariel free from his prison, i really enjoyed penciling this page the layout worked a treat and here's the finished coloured page ,both Gary and Nigel did a great job on the inks and colour.

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD

ON THE BEACH...

Here's another Tempest page which shows how beautiful this book is looking ,i think Nigel did a great colour job on this page

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD

MACBETH QUICK TEXT COVER

Here's my pencils for the Macbeth quick text cover, as i was inking this cover my pencils where more rough than usual so i added little details as i inked the job ,also the finished published cover ,coloured by Nigel Dobbyn.

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2008

BEHIND THE MACBETH PLAIN TEXT COVER

Here's my character sheet design of Macbeth , i drew the style to have a clean line but also roughness to it to go with the subject matter, my editor / publisher Clive Bryant like it all straight away .

After a few weeks once we all got into production of the book Clive reckoned my original figure design for Macbeth would make a great cover, so the art was sent to Nigel Dobbyn to colour , Nigel finished Macbeth's sword tip and did a wonderful colour job on the art , i remember telling him to think Frazetta when colouring it and for there to be a blood red sky.

Nigel also designed the great logo for Macbeth.

the art was used for promo ads for the books and also as a poster and used for the plain text cover, it's funny how a quick sketch ends up being a great cover , here it is...

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2008

MACBETH PAGE FEATURED IN ''COMIC ART NOW'' BY DEZ SKINN

This Macbeth page was featured in COMIC ART NOW book published by ILEX publishing the book was compiled and written by Dez Skinn .
(Macbeth page pencils and inks by me ,colouring by Nigel Dobbyn)

the book has a fab selection of art styles i feel very honoured to be in the book

artwork copyright CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2008

HELL CREW PROMO PIN-UP

Here's a promo pin-up of THE HELL CREW drawn in a kind of Joe Mad style drawn 10yrs ago.

HELL COMES TO ELF TOWN!!!!

Here's another blast from the past over 10yrs ago i had the honour to work for
FRANK FRAZETTA FANTASY ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE, i asked my friend Alan Grant if he would be interested in writing the story ,he agreed,
i painted this picture to show how cool and funny the characters would be ,the story that they appeared in was called ''hell comes to elf town'',there's more details ,sketches and pages of ''the hell crew'' on my website www.jonhawardart.com
i would love to draw these guys again one day

HELLBOY

Drew this pic for my friend Cliff's 50th birthday in 2006 in the style of Mike Mignola.

one of the best books i have in my collection of art books is
THE ART OF HELLBOY BY MIKE MIGNOLA published by Dark Horse,
it's a wonderful collection of images and behind the scenes character sketches.

TEMPEST ''HARPIE''

This was fun to draw and its the first appearence of Ariel as a Harpie in The Tempest play.

inks on this page by Gary Erskine and wonderful colouring by Nigel Dobbyn

Also a homage to RAY HARRYHAUSEN ,as a kid his movies inspired me and made me fall in love with fantasy and wonder ,my all time fav film is Jason and the Argonauts

art work copyright CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2009

THE SILVER SURFER MARVEL POCKET BOOK COVER

I was asked to draw a cover of the Silver Surfer in 2007 for Panini's Marvel pocket book collections ,i was thrilled as the work inside was by the late great John Buscema and writer Stan (the man) Lee, i read these stories as a kid in the 70's reprints in black and white comics published by Marvel u.k.

John Buscema has always been in my top ten of comic greats and his run on the Silver Surfer has never been bettered ,my fav issue is issue 4 when the Surfer vs Thor .

the cover is a homage to John Buscema and i drew it in his style ,i was lucky to get David Roach to ink it and it was coloured by Junior Tomlin.

so here's my cover pencils and the printed cover.

THE SILVER SURFER ORIGINS ,MARVEL POCKET BOOK PUBLISHED BY PANINI UK LTD
ISBN 978-1-84653-051-7
THE SILVER SURFER COPYRIGHT MARVEL CHARACTERS INC /PANINI 2007

JOSE ''PEPE'' GONZALEZ R.I.P

Just read the sad news that the great Jose Gonzalez famed Vampirella artist has passed away aged 70 via bearalley blog, very sad news but what wonderful art he leaves behind.

this image of Vampirella has always impressed me since i first saw it as a young boy one of the iconic comic book images

oh Danny boy!

Drew this for my friend Steve Pugh in 2002 ,by the way have you seen his amazing work on SHARKMAN and HOTWIRE? worth checking out at your local comic shop.

Dan Dare copyright DAN DARE CORP.

MORE CHARACTER DESIGNS FOR THE TEMPEST

Here's some more character designs drawn quite rough just for my ref really ...

BEHIND A COVER SPEC SPIDEY ISSUE 124 PART 3

Here's the finished printed cover for
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES ISSUE 124 published in 2005 my pencils were inked by James Hodgkins colours by Dylan Teague.

This story was re-printed in the u.k in a Marvel pocket book collection in 2007 in
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES ''RIOT AT RYKER'S ISLAND!''
Book code ISBN 978-1-84653-020-3

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

BEHIND A COVER SPEC SPIDEY ISSUE 124 PART 2

So my Editor picked rough number 2 ,when i started to pencil it i didn't think the spidey pose was as interesting as i thought so i changed it ,here's the finished pencil...

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

BEHIND A COVER SPEC SPIDEY ISSUE 124 PART 1

When i draw a cover for a publisher i usually draw three cover rough designs ,the editor will pick his fav and i'll pencil up the chosen image .

Here's the cover roughs i drew for Spectacular Spider-man Adventures issue 124 in 2005 this issue would be out for halloween so the title was trick or treat featuring Spidey against the Green Goblin and the Hobgoblin.

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

LUNCH TIME PROSPERO STYLE...

A two panel page drawn for the Tempest graphic novel for Classical Comics ltd ,as you can see lots of wee details and funny critters on this page ,im so lucky to have Gary Erskine ink my work on this project. this will be coloured by Nigel Dobbyn ,very pleased with this page .

GREAT EXPECTATIONS GRAPHIC NOVEL

My publisher/Editor Clive Bryant has kindly sent me comp copies of Classical Comics Great Expectations graphic novel by Charles Dickens .the art work is by my good friend John Stokes with Digikore studios ltd and Jason Cardy on colouring ,script adaption by Jen Green ,lettering by Jim Campbell design and layout by Jo Wheeler and Jenny Placentino.

this book is just beautiful and lush with detail ,this will go down as a true classic adaption and will be a great edition to any library or home ,i highly recommend it .see the page samples to see how wonderful it looks .

congrats to every one another cracking book from Classical Comics ltd.

JOE GRAVITY AND THE GRAVITY CATS

new comic strip for young kids now online created by Andie Lines and me...MEOW-ZA!!

http://gravityquest.blogspot.com/

METAL GHOST PIN UP

This was for CITY OF SILENCE graphic novel by WARREN ELLIS and GARY ERSKINE published by IMAGE COMICS ,i loved the look of this character and
if you have never read CITY OF SILENCE check it out it's a fantastic piece of work
i was really honoured to be asked to draw the pin -up for the collection .

the image is METAL GHOST and the 101 visions from HELL i remember playing judus priest and kiss music when i was drawing it to help with the energy on the page .

FANTASTIC FOUR PIN -UP

This was drawn for my brother for his 40th birthday some years back ,it was inked by all rounder Tim Perkins (artist,inker,colourist,writer mini genius all round wonderful human being now publisher with his WORLDS END graphic novel projects) i asked Tim if he'd like to ink this pin -up as he's like me a great fan of JACK (THE KING) KIRBY and JOE SINNOTT.

i'm still really pleased with this piece of work ,later down the road i had the pleasure to draw some Fantastic Four covers for marvel pocket book covers reprinting the classic Lee/Kirby ff run by Panini you can see those covers on my website gallery www.jonhawardart.com

FANTASTIC FOUR COPYRIGHT MARVEL CHARACTERS INC

SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN 118 FAV PAGE

Here's my fav page i drew from that issue ,the story venom strike was written by Jim Alexander a very clever writer who should be doing more main stream comic work ,John Stokes did a brilliant job inking me on this story also the colouring was great also by the very talented James Offredi,

this story has been re-printed in a Marvel pocket book format by Panini the collection is called SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES ''NIGHT OF THE GOBLIN'' ISBN1-846530-05-9

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

BEHIND A COVER SPEC SPIDEY 118 part 3

and here's the published finished cover !...

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

BEHIND A COVER SPEC SPIDEY 118 part 2

the next stage is the tight pencils for the inker to ink ,i asked my editor Ed Hammond if i could have John Stokes ink the cover and issue ,John agreed and here's the cover pencils and cover inks ...

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

BEHIND A COVER SPEC SPIDEY 118 part 1

Thought i'd share with you the workings of drawing a cover for issue 118 of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES comic for PANINI /MARVEL U.K which was published in the u.k in 2005.

i first had to create the look of the bad guy this being VENOM and LADY DEATHSTRIKE joined and i also need to draw WOLVERINE as well to see how he would look like in the strip and cover ,my next stage was to draw a cover rough for my editor to approve so here's my cover rough (as you can see my roughs are rough)

image copyright Marvel Characters inc /Panini uk ltd 2005

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON PROG ART 2000

In 2000 i was asked if i would like to draw a pin up for the San Diego Comic Con book /prog ,here it is drawn in a Joe Mad style ,at the time i was a big fan of his BATTLE CHASERS Image comic book ...shame he never finished the story.
any way i chose to draw the Flash and Green Lantern.

BLAST FROM THE PAST ...CHOPPER!

Im a big fan of Colin Macneil's Chopper work for 2000a.d
also i have a soft spot for the character Marlon ''Chopper'' Shakespeare. i painted this pin -up in 1994 just after i finished my Sonic the comic work to try and get back into 2000a.d ,this never got published but i still think its a nice piece of work ,it's water colour and a white pencil on highlights and wizz effects (couldn't afford a airbrush)

GRAVITY QUEST featuring Joe Gravity

The cats out of the bag ,my pet project with Andie Lines has gone on line as a regular comic strip blog here's a link to the blog

http://gravityquest.blogspot.com/

TEMPEST QUICK TEXT COVER PENCILS

here's my cover pencils for Classical comics The Tempest quick text edition graphic novel.

WHO'S WATCHING THE WATCHMEN?....ME

Watchmen the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is my all time fav book ,when it first came out as a 12 issue series in '86 i was 21yrs old and i was working in a marketing and advertising agency as a in house illustrator/ dogs body and coffee boy dreaming of being a pro comic artist ,every mouth my brother let me read his comics and i got hooked by the story and amazing craftmanship by both Moore and Gibbons .

watchmen is a very special masterpiece of comic strip art, its never been bettered.
Dave Gibbons has always been one of my all time fav artists since i first saw his work in issue 1 of 2000a.d, Dave has also kept me going over the years with his encouragement about my work.

i saw the Watchmen movie last night by Zack Snyder and i loved it and im looking forward to buying the special edition dvd when it comes out ,i think he's done a great job with the movie, the cast where great. also im glad the film was not watered down .
i feel it was a great homage to the graphic novel.
i hope it does well at the box office and that it encourages people who have never read a graphic novel to pick up a copy of the watchmen and enjoy it .