this blog is 1 years old today post 261

where does the time go ,can't believe I've been blogging for a year.
I've enjoyed seeing other blogs and sharing my work with you ,the behind the scenes stuff the process and the finished work ,I've always wanted to do a art book or diary but i guess i have with this blog

so happy birthday blog! and thanks for looking

ALL HAIL MACBETH THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

Well Macbeth now has been out there in the graphic novel world for 2 years!

It's won a couple of awards received great reviews, been reprinted in the U.K, U.S.A and Turkey, and has been published in loads more countries including some south American ones.

It has had the thumbs up by top actors of stage and screen Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Derek Jacobi.

never thought all this would happen when in October 2006 Clive Bryant met me at the Birmingham Comic con and asked me if i would be interested in drawing Macbeth as a graphic novel,

i guess at the time i was very nervous of the job but once the character designs flowed i knew it could work , i was very lucky to have a great team on the book it was a pleasure working for Clive and Jo and Karen .

Nigel Dobbyn really pulled off some magic with his colouring of the book , Nigel is a fantastic artist just check out his website, also very lucky Gary Erskine came on board to help on inks so i could meet the deadline.

Macbeth took me 54 weeks to draw so it was a long job for a single project but i didn't want to do a slap dash product and after 2 years I'm still still very proud of it .

Classical Comics will be at the
20th EDUCATION SHOW NEC BIRMINGHAM U.K
4-6 MARCH
STAND C74

with offers, products and sneak peaks of books coming out in the next few years if your a Teacher or Librarian or fan of the books
please pop down to see Clive and co

MUTANT CHRONICLES: PATHFINDER 1997

This guy was a fun painting a punk with big attitude and big guns again painted in gouache and water colours on art board

ARTWORK COYRIGHT TARGET GAMES 1997

2000ad JUDGE DREDD ''LUST IN THE DUST'' PART 2

Out this week part two of Judge Dredd ''lust in the dust'' story written by Robbie Morrison and drawn by me ,here's the first page of part 2 coloured by the very talented Chris Blythe

2000ad cover art by Neil Roberts

JUDGE DREDD ART COPYRIGHT REBELLION/AS 2010

MACBETH AND FRANKENSTEIN IN FLAVOUR WIRE TOP TEN LIST

Just saw this and was really pleased to see Macbeth and Frankenstein where both in the top 10 on Flavour wire great news for everyone who worked on the books i have a big fat smile as i was lucky enough to work on both books

http://flavorwire.com/70830/graphic-content-10-literary-classics-made-better-as-comic-books

LIONEL JEFFRIES R.I.P

Sadly another of my childhood favourite character actors has died ,the brilliant Lionel Jeffries

who i enjoyed in films like FIRST MEN ON THE MOON as the prof Joseph Cavor

and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG as Grandpa Potts.

he leaves wonderful films and i will always have fond memories watching him on British TV and film as a child growing up in the late 60's -70's.

god bless Lionel and thanks for the entertainment.

DAN DARE MONTAGE 2002

Drew this for Steve Pugh
a collection tpb of his amazing Hotwire series should be out any time soon from Radical Publishing worth checking out


DAN DARE COPYRIGHT DAN DARE CORP

WORK IN PROGRESS FOR JUDGE DREDD LUST IN THE DUST

Here are three pages that where scanned as i was working on them ,as you can see i don't fully tight pencil the page if I'm inking the work

2000ad PROG 1672

OUT NOW!!!

COVER BY RICHARD ELSON
I'm in good company this issue a rock solid buy with cracking stories and art all for two Earth pounds from your local U.K newsagent

Feels great to be back in the house of Tharg after 7yrs

2000AD JUDGE DREDD : LUST IN THE DUST

Out this Wednesday issue 1672

my first printed Judge Dredd work in the galaxies greatest comic since 1993 written by Robbie Morrison the story is called ''LUST IN THE DUST''

this was a hard story to draw due to at the time i was under a lot of stress with a family member being very ill ,i wish i could have drawn it with no problems but that's life i guess ,hopefully the hardcore Dredd fans will like it ,i think part 2 is a stronger episode anyway Tharg has allowed me to show this page the title page.

JUDGE DREDD ART COPYRIGHT REBELLION A/S 2010

MUTANT CHRONICLES: MOURNING WOLF 1997

She's a bad ass character!

loved painting this one, again i was asked to have her in Alice Cooper type make up but with tears coming down her eyes i remember having a tight deadline drawing this stuff and with some of the characters i sometimes redrew them up to 6 times the guys at Target where very picky about getting things right

so here's her pencil drawing and the finished art

MOURNING WOLF COPYRIGHT TARGET GAMES 1997

MUTANT CHRONICLES: HEADHUNTER 1997

Way back in 1997 i was approached by a Swedish company Target Games to draw characters for their MUTANT CHRONICLES WARZONE CASULTIES OF WAR book

the guys i worked for where great

one in particular Micheal Morsare was a huge Kiss fan he wanted Headhunter to have make -up and a bloody axe like the Demon Gene Simmons which i agreed to draw , Michael would phone up and play Kiss tapes from shows like Kiss live at the cobo hall '75 we had lots of Wayne's world moments in those days everything was via fax machine and the post this was way before i started to use the computer .

the art was coloured by gouache and water colours on board here's my character sketch and finished art

artwork copyright Target Games 1997

STEFAN LJUNGQVIST and MICHAEL MORSARE please get in touch would love to know what you guys are up to today.

tomorrow Mourning Wolf

JIM STERANKO MASTER ARTIST

I first saw Steranko's work in a U.K comic called Captain Britain in the mid 70's the title reprinted his Nick Fury agent of Shield work which he had written and drawn in the swinging 60's, for a young boy of 10 looking at his work he blew me away with his dynamic figure drawing and his great flare for graphics and use of light to set up scenes i remember i used to copy some of his panels to try to learn how he did it .

in the 80's i saw his work in Heavy Metal they where printing his film adaption of Sean Connery's Outland movie where he played a sheriff in space his art on two page spreads where brilliant I've wanted to see this work again for years and now you can on this fantastic new website http://www.thedrawingsofsteranko.com/

there is tons more of the great mans work on view from his whole career
yesterday i spotted this new cover by Steranko for Jonathan Ross's new comic for Image as you can see a great use of graphic having the bat across the cover and great use of shadow.

Steranko always inspires

young artists who want to draw comics or paint covers or learn storytelling should always check out Jim Steranko he's a one off and a genius

MUM

miss you love you always ,
shine a star beam on your son tonight

HAMLET EXCLUSIVE ON COMICBITSONLINE.COM

http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2010/02/12/exclusive-classical-comics-behind-the-scenes/

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES COVER ISSUE 89 FROM 2002

Blast from the past Spectacular Spiderman adventures cover for issue 89 published by Panini from 2002 colours by Alan Craddock line art by me , editorial at the time told me to draw in a animated style with less detail as the title was aimed at young children.

This was a dream job drawing this issue as i am a huge Steve Ditko fan since i was a young boy in the 70's reading British black and white reprints of his work published by Marvel UK

i drew a 32 issue run of Spec Spidey from 2001-2006 for Panini UK Ltd

even after 8yrs I'm still pleased with the image

like every one else looking forward to 'Fever' by Brendan McCarthy to see his take on Spidey and Doc Strange for Marvel U.S

artwork copyright PANINI UK LTD / MARVEL CHARACTERS INC 2002

WASTED ISSUE 3 OUT NOW TO BUY!!

for today's youth gone wild
WASTED adult humour comic magazine issue 3
featuring TALES OF THE BUDDHA before he got enlightened
cover by SUPER STAR ARTIST SIMON BISLEY

three rib tickling adventures of the mighty chubby one are featured
ENTER THE DISCIPLE
THE LAPP OF THE GODS
THE LAST DAYS OF SODOM all written by Alan Grant and drawn by me

other great strips included
THE DOPRANOS
THE DIRTY DOG
LUSI SULFURA
SPLIFFY THE STONER CHICK
WACCY BACCY RACES
WAR ON DRUGS FEATURING JOHNNY K##T
plus loads more

all for £3.25 from your local Menzies paper shop or previews or from the Bad press website http://www.badpressltd.com

THE AGE OF HAWROKK: TIRAN BREWSTROM DWARF OF MOUNT TRITONIUS

So here's my last mug design for THE AGE OF HAWROKK mug and plate collection
the Dwarf Tiran Brewstrom ,
this project was alot of fun to design and draw and was a nice change from drawing comics it was just a shame they never made it to the shops due to lack of funds and marketing and for promotion but i'm glad they now have been shown via my blog .


ALL CHARACTERS AND ART FOR AGE OF HAWROKK COPYRIGHT JON HAWARD 2006 NOT TO BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR MEDIA UNLESS LICENSED FROM JON HAWARD

THE AGE OF HAWROKK: CIRA SORCERESS OF THE FARNIA CLAN

So the next mug design a Sorceress called Cira ,she has abit of a Manga feel to her i enjoyed drawing her but i think she's the weakest image of the set.

so only one more character to go ...yes you've guest it a Dwarf for the complete Hawrokk line up , shame i never got to draw the bad guys of this world maybe one day i might draw them .



ALL CHARACTERS AND ART FOR AGE OF HAWROKK COPYRIGHT JON HAWARD 2006 NOT TO BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR MEDIA UNLESS LICENSED FROM JON HAWARD

THE AGE OF HAWROKK: PRINCE RUNE FRANAXION LORD OF HAWROKK KEEP

Yay I'm back online thanks to my friend and web guru Paul sad to say my computer had major drive melt down glad to be back in cyberland.
well hope you enjoy this next mug design for THE AGE OF HAWROKK in every fantasy based product you have to have a brooding muscle bound hero with a big sword so here's Rune.


ALL CHARACTERS AND ART FOR AGE OF HAWROKK COPYRIGHT JON HAWARD 2006 NOT TO BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR MEDIA UNLESS LICENSED FROM JON HAWARD