Saturday 31 October 2009

SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE


At long last one of our greatest movie stars has been knighted congratulations to Sir Christopher Lee, my favorite Dracula

Thursday 29 October 2009

HAPPY HALLOWEEN


HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM HECATE THE QUEEN WITCH

ART FROM MACBETH THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PUBLISHED BY CLASSICAL COMICS LTD COPYRIGHT 2009

Tuesday 27 October 2009

clobberin time Dredd style !


here's a close up of Joe givin some sweet justice from a 2 part Judge Dredd story i'll finish thursday ,it's been alot of fun but alot of work ,i've had old school vibes drawing it ,so i hope the die hard Dredd fans like the work.

artwork copyright Rebellion A/S 2009

Monday 26 October 2009

MIKE CAREY LIKES CLASSICAL COMICS!


Mike Carey famed writer of comics ,novels and film writes
''I've loved the Classical Comics Shakespeare graphic novel adaptions that I've read - Macbeth, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. I never would have guessed it, but in a way, comics - with their parallel verbal and visual narratives - are perfectly placed to realise the complexity and tonal diversity of a play. It's capturing the lightning in a different-shaped bottle. Amazing stuff!''

Sunday 25 October 2009

THE TEMPEST MAGICAL SCENES







When i was designing the Tempest visual look i wanted it to first look beautiful to the reader more detailed than Macbeth and also i had the brief that the costumes had to look 15th Century in look , so all this was a major factor why the book took me 57 weeks to draw i had to design the trees ,rocks, creatures, costumes, characters,draw ships, goddess's, monsters it was a lot of hard work but a lot of fun too.

this book looks amazing thanks to Nigel Dobbyn's use of colour and effects with the wonderful skies and light through the trees ,the dramatic lighting he does over my art really adds to the drama it was a real pleasure working with Nigel on Macbeth and the Tempest these pages show his colouring talents really well ,also Gary Erskine's fine crisp inking over my pencils really added to the book also.
i was very lucky to work with these great talents.

one thing i liked reading fairy tales as a young child was the artist's used to draw faces in rocks and in trees so I've done the same with the Tempest if you buy the book see how many faces you can see in the landscape, i also like the fact you can look at the book over and over again and still see new things in the backgrounds and details you didn't notice before.

ALL ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2009

Thursday 22 October 2009

COMIC SHOP VOICE TEMPEST REVIEW


The Tempest - Jon Haward & Gary Erskine

Reviewer: Sam


So far all of Classical's range of adaptations have been a joy to read and review. As I am fairly new to comics and a novice with graphic novels the pleasure for me has been finding a range of titles that both entertain and help me with my studies.

I LOVE Jon Haward and Gary Erskine's artwork on The Tempest which really brings the play to life. Characters are beautifully realised and the story moves along at a wonderful pace. Classical have got the tempo just right without have to change the format of the story to manga, or science-fiction, they haven't felt the need to modernise the settings in any way.

John McDonald's adaptations of Shakespeare's work is so good that in my opinion any educator that doesn't see just how powerful an aid this range of books can be to students of every age and gender is very short-sighted.

THANKS SAM


http://www.comicshopvoice.co.uk/reviews/comics/romeo_juliet_tempest.htm

FRANK BELLAMY BLOG FEATURE


I was asked by Norman Boyd to write my thoughts on why i like the late great Frank Bellamy for Norman's excellent blog, thanks Norman for helping to keep Frank's name out there and for doing such a great job.
http://frankbellamy.blogspot.com/

here's a fab cover drawn by Frank for a Garth annual published in 1975 by the Daily Mirror
ART FRANK BELLAMY GARTH COPYRIGHT MIRROR GROUP NEWSPAPERS 2009

Tuesday 20 October 2009

SIR DEREK JACOBI LIKES CLASSICAL COMICS !


Clive Bryant Publisher/Editor in Chief of Classical Comics Ltd had a great letter from Sir Derek Jacobi today: "The concept of Classical Comics is truly inspirational... Highly recommended!" ,he also said some kind words about my work too which was a wonderful surprise, THANK YOU Sir Derek

Sunday 18 October 2009

ANOTHER MARVEL GREAT PASSES AWAY GEORGE TUSKA


Very sad to hear another golden great of Marvel has passed away George Tuska at the grand age of 93.
last year i had the pleasure to draw a cover of The Invincible Iron man ''unmasked'' Marvel pocket book cover for Panini U.K that featured the wonderful art of Mr Tuska , in my mind he's up there with the best of the golden age of Marvel and for me it was a great thrill to draw this cover.

Thanks for all the great art and entertainment Mr Tuska

Wednesday 14 October 2009

THE TEMPEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OUT NOW TO BUY!!




Another shameless plug for The Tempest graphic novel published by Classical Comics ltd ,three versions, original text, plain text and quick text of the full play by William Shakespeare out now to buy from your friendly book store or online !

first review for the original text version by
Tim Perkins / Wizards-keep.com
http://wizards-keep.blogspot.com/2009/10/tempest.html

Sunday 11 October 2009

MYSTICAL TREE DESIGNS




These where for a company based in the U.K
MYSTICAL TREES YOU GOTTA LOVE THEM

Wednesday 7 October 2009

THE NIGHT GWEN STACY DIED COVER FOR MARVEL POCKET BOOKS






A while back i showed some roughs of a cover for

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
THE NIGHT GWEN STACY DIED
MARVEL POCKET BOOK PUBLISHED BY PANINI UK LTD


so here are the roughs again as you can see the Editor picked rough number 5 then asked me to pencil the cover so Spidey is being hit by the Green Goblin and not strangled as this was a special story cover i asked the Editor if i could ink the cover as well , the cover was coloured by my friend and ace artist John Charles.
I think he did a brilliant job on the colouring for this cover.

the book is now out for sale

PENCILS AND INKS : JON HAWARD ,COLOURING JOHN CHARLES

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT MARVEL CHARACTERS INC /COVER PANINI UK LTD 2009

Tuesday 6 October 2009

KISS SONIC BOOM


Kiss Sonic Boom cd is a return to the 70's sound it's big it has balls and it rocks! stand out tracks for me modern day delilah, stand, i'm a animal and say yeah!it's as good as the hype and i'll be playing it while drawing Judge Dredd this week.

Friday 2 October 2009

DREDD MUTIES



Here's a couple of close up's of some muties i'm drawing in a Robbie Morrison scripted Judge Dredd story, I'm working all weekend to catch up with my deadline

FIRST TEMPEST REVIEW


http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2009/09/30/the-tempest-latest-classical-comics-hit/

Thursday 1 October 2009

ACE GALLERY SKETCHES PART 3




And here's the last few ,i also drew 2 spidey's a wolverine and a venom but forgot to get copies ,i drew for six and a half hours on the Saturday at the gallery you could say my bum when numb :-) good to please the public though.