COLOURED MOEBIUS TRIBUTE

Jamie Grant has kindly coloured my tribute art pin up to the late great Moebius ,
thank you Jamie .

1995 MARVEL SAMPLE DR STRANGE, SPIDEY & CAPTAIN BRITAIN

Just found another bit of unseen history a page from a 3 page sample i sent to Marvel U.S in 1995 , never got any feedback from it at all which suprised me ,i sent pencils and inked pages .
I inked this page with a brush i think my brother has the original page in his collection.

1986 MY FAN ART HOMAGE TO ALAN MOORE COMIC STRIP

Another retro blog going back to 1986 when i was a fresh faced fanboy aged 21, still learning the craft of drawing and writing comic strips.
It's no secret to those who know me i'm a huge Alan Moore fan have been since his work for Warrior and 2000AD.
These scans are from colour photocopies that are 26 years old so the colour has faded and Alan's skin has turned yellow!

I can't remember what happened to the original art i do remember posting this story to Warrior in the hope Alan would see the pages , again it's funny to see my work looking raw in places and the figure work abit stiff again , at the time i remember reading HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY by Stan Lee and John Buscema to help me with my drawing i was also getting advice via letters from David Lloyd about my work , Dave became my guru for around 6 months , I was still working for a Marketing and Advertising agency in Norwich but my dream was to draw comics.

So here is the work never before seen by the public as you'll see i was really into Alan Davis's art (still am he's a genius) if Mr Moore does get to see this i hope it makes him smile , I'll just like to end by saying THANKS Alan for all the entertainment over the last 30 yrs.

drawn in 1986 when i was dreaming to work in the world of comics

DEMAN MY FIRST PUBLISHED COMIC STRIP FROM 1987

As this is my 25th Anniversary in comics this year , I thought I would show my very first published comic strip, it appeared in a magazine called Preview edited by Terry Hooper way back in 1987.
The story was written by my friend Steve Branson and as you can see i used a lot of mechanical tint on the art plus photocopied photographs for backgrounds.
Looking back at these pages now i can see certain things looking wrong characters looking stiff but the story telling is there i showed promise.
Deman's look was very Gene Simmons meets Daredevil meets the Punisher , amazing to think this is 25 yrs old but I'm glad i still had a copy to scan
This work now would not be classed a pro job in fact it was for small indie press but it did get me work with Harrier comics on Avalon Anthology comic inking and lettering Diana is the Power and later drawing her as well.
so here is where it all begain ....

  DEMAN COPYRIGHT STEVE BRANSON /JON HAWARD 1987/2012

JOHN CARTER DISNEY MOVIE GO SEE IT !!!

I see in the media in the U.S that they are calling John Carter a flop after only three days , rubbish
IF you love good storytelling with heart, good acting, fantasy, sci-fi, action and amazing effects GO SEE THIS FILM,
I LOVED IT.
It made me escape the doom and gloom of recession and every day life and gave me a fun time at the flicks
I plan to see it again tomorrow in 2D cinema .
the one thing i will say is the pre posters and first movie trailer where not strong to grab the audience having a background in marketing and advertising they should have had amazing images with punch from the beginning not large red letters saying JCM with a moody shot of the main actor , they should have gone the Frazetta way with a bombastic image , the trailer on Pirates of the Caribbean 4 dvd wasn't strong which was a missed major opportunity .
Still the critics are wrong it's a great movie to escape with,  go see it .

JEAN GIRAUD AKA MOEBIUS AKA GIR R.I.P

Yesterday one of my all time icons sadly passed away Jean Giraud aka Moebius aka Gir, this has hit me hard like a thump to the heart, you see I have loved this man's work for almost all my life.

He showed me magical worlds beautiful people incredible creatures and inspired me on so many levels, one being you don't have to draw only in one style, Jean was successful at what ever he drew be it westerns, sci-fi, fantasy.
He designed for animation, movies, computer games and had such a huge impact on me growing up via his stories alot of fellow creatives over the next few weeks will say in better words than me how great he was , he was and is a culture icon , we have lost someone truly special and that makes me so sad the world needs more visionaries like Jean.
Thank you Jean for giving me such enjoyment and entertainment and for showing me how wonderful art and the imagination can be.
I will always love your work.
Jon

1998 TRYING TO BRING DAN DARE BACK INTO PRINT PITCH

In 1998 Writer Jim Alexander and I tried to pitch to Fleetway Egmont the return of Dan Dare my agent approached Gill Page of Fleetway with our pitch but Gill said there was no more life in Dan Dare , then two years later the Dan Dare corporation launched Dan Dare pilot of the future CGI animated tv show.

Jim and I had the idea of having Dan appealing to the Babylon 5 and Star Trek fans I redesigned the uniforms and the Mekon to have a darker edge all the art would have been fully painted like my pin up.