This week’s Prog, Henry Flint on the art. Beyond excited to read this, hurry up Mr Postman!…
Comics
Leviathan first appeared some years ago in the pages of 2000ad comic. It’s a dark tale, set within a city on a ship, adrift for 20 years after its maiden voyage (very well timed). A series of murders lead Detective Sgt. Lament into the depths of the ship where dark secrets lurk. Written by Ian Edington and illustrated by D’Israeli, this is well worth a look, in fact you can read the first 5 pages over on CBR now.
I just spent the weekend gigging in France and found this in one of the record shops in Montpelier – from 1977, a gatefold LP cover by Moebius. According to those who I showed it to, Guy Beart was a very cheesy singer who played guitar and was the kind of un-hip singer your parents’ liked (if they were very un-hip) and they were surprised such a record existed.
Well he must have had a late flowering moment of inspiration for this release with what looks and sounds like a concept album based on a future civilisation, no doubt cashing in on the craze for all things sci-fi in 1977 once Star Wars opened. The music has its moments, there’s plenty of synth and space noises in there amongst the whimsical songs but the gem here is the cover, click for a larger version.
Detail from a forthcoming post and the origin of one of the track titles from ‘The Search Engine’. I seem to be one of the few people I know who actually likes Mondays, the week sprawls ahead with all the promise of untold creations emerging before the weekend is upon us.
Steve Cook over at Secret Oranges has had something put in his coffee I think, several blinding psychedelic posts today alone…
Starting this week in 2000ad, the first in a new series by Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing – The Zaucer of Zilk – the first episode is very intriguing and reads like Alice In Wonderland in rainy run down Britain. Brendan’s art is on great form too and other good news is that Henry Flint is back on the current Judge Dredd epic which is one of the best in years.
UPDATE: You can preview the first episode for free online at the CBR website now.
Jean Giraud aka Moebius has died, he was a massive inspiration, especially on the recent artwork for my album with Henry Flint.
Moebius contributed to the European anthology ‘Métal Hurlant’ in the 70’s, a lot of which was reprinted in the American version, ‘Heavy Metal’, which helped to bring him to worldwide attention. He also drew the cowboy books ‘Blueberry’, collaborated on comics with Alejandro Jodorowsky and contributed designs to many classic films such as Alien, Tron and The 5th Element.
What with Ralph McQuarrie dying last week, it’s the end of an era for some of the most original designers of the sci-fi I grew up with.
Sad news about Davy Jones today, time for a few Monkees-related posts from the past:
http://www.djfood.org/heads-up
(fictional ‘Head’ comic cover)
http://www.djfood.org/head-shots
(ultra nerdy dissection of a trailer for ‘Head’)
http://www.djfood.org/discography/mixes/head-dj-food-re-score
(something I did around a decade ago)
image adapted from the Big Glee website – Jack Davis draws Davy Jones for a book of fan letters written to the Monkees. He also posted a great Japanese tour brochure from 1968 only yesterday – spooky timing!
Courtesy of Henry Flint, a 4-page ad for a certain forthcoming comic, from the pages of Buster back in 1977.
I’ll be pootling along to this on Thursday evening at Orbital Comics in the west end of London (8 Newport St, WC2H 7JA to be precise) for the opening of an exhibition curated by Jason Atomic to celebrate the comic medium.
Frustrated by the price of the 3A toys’ 1/6th replica of the ABC Warriors’ Mongrel last year (see above left) Jason McFee aka System decided to build his own set of robots, well, starting with the heads at least. His first choice was General Blackblood, notorious traitor turned good guy (later to turn traitor again – keep up) in the on-going saga of the meknificant seven in 2000ad. Still with me? Well if you aren’t it’s far too complicated to explain but I’ll let some of the images from Jason’s site do the talking. Very impressive version of a difficult design – looking forward to the other six.
Just 3 of the 48 pages painted by Jim Murray for a comic to promote DOTA 2 (some sort of game, not quite sure). You can read the full thing here and download wallpapers of select images at the end.
Dropped through the letterbox this morning, a bit of a time warp going on, two special ‘What If?’ stories with Colin Wilson back on Rogue Trooper in classic fashion and Henry Flint (him again) on The Visible Man. This issue comes with two cover variants, one by Chris Weston and one by Mike McMahon – I got the Weston one and a giant poster of it sans cover copy too.
That’s right, it’s all coming down, Monday 13th Wednesday 15th * extended for 2 more days* so if you want to see original Henry Flint artwork for my album, original 2000ad comic art for Judge Dredd, Nemesis, Deadlock and the like, original drawings from Henry’s book ‘Broadcast’ (on sale as a cheap price too), buy limited signed prints or just marvel at some nice pics of me in a spacesuit – best get along there before it closes on Sunday night. It’s at The Pure Evil Gallery, 108 Leonard St. London, open 10-6 Friday /Saturday, 11-6 Sunday – free entry.
If you can’t make it, here’s an audio tour and some pictures, courtesy of Strongroom Alive.
This stunning commission piece is by Brendan McCarthy (my track ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ is a nod to one of his first published strips from the 70’s). This was done for a friend of mine, David Rees, and features some of the McCarthy-created characters from the Strange Days comic which appeared for 3 issues back in the 80’s. See the initial pencil prelim below and note that Martin Atchitson from the book ‘Skin’ has made an appearance in the final version.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFVq7vPtWno&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Furthermore to the flurry of February posts to mark 2000ad‘s 35th birthday I’d like to highlight the current sale they have on in their online store. Some of the graphic novels on sale are minor classics and the prices are bordering on scandalous some are so low. Below is a personal guide to a few favourites should you feel like dipping your toe into the deep pool of the comic’s past.
The Complete Nemesis vols. 1 & 2. One of the very best characters ever (and one of the best villains too) with Kevin O’Neill‘s amazing art on the first few books and Pat Mills keeping you on your toes with the plot. Only £8 each.
Two books in the Alan Moore canon usually overlooked by the media when writing about him: D.R. & Quinch is madcap space comedy at its best with beautiful artwork by Alan Davis. Skizz riffs off the E.T. phenomenon but brings it into Birmingham and does away with the cuteness. £6 and £4 respectively.
Robo Hunter – Verdus, the first of many series’ starring Sam Slade, a Philip Marlowe-esque private investigator on a planet full of crazed robots with Ian Gibson‘s incredible artwork rendering every rivet. Only £4. The V.C.s is future war with a cast of great characters told through the eyes of a rookie addition to the squad. Only £6.
Jamie Hewlett and Pete Milligan’s bizarro tale, Hewligan’s Haircut in graphic novel form and robot-loving, torturer for hire Lobster Random are both great if you like your comedy left of field. £8.99 for Hewligan and only £4 for Lobster.
It wouldn’t be a post about 2000ad without mentioning Henry Flint would it? Shakara is one of THE best stories in recent years, the first 3 books are collected in The Avenger with another 2 yet to be compiled – amazing art and a plot that keeps you guessing from Robbie Morrison. Only £7.
Zombo is Al Ewing and Henry’s dark outer space zombie comedy with each series upping the weird factor. Sadly not in the sale at £10.99
Also not in the sale but well worth your time and money: Easily one of the best spin offs from Judge Dredd‘s world in recent memory, the Insurrection series’ deals with a breakaway team of Judges who declare independence for the worlds they’ve colonised with the aid of robots and apes, and have to deal with the full force of Mega City 1’s SJS squad as a result. More future war with a battle of the wits by Dan Abnett and Colin MacNeil. £13.99
Back in print again: The Complete Nemesis vol.3 – This is the final few books in the 10 book series with the amazing John Hicklenton on 2, Clint Langley and that man Flint on 1 each and the final episode by Kevin O’Neill himself. Not cheap at £19.99 but worth it.
And finally if you want to know more about the history of the comic, including all the highs AND lows, there’s no better book than Thrill Power Overload by ex-editor Dave Bishop, and at £12 it’s a steal. You might also be needing something to sip your tea out of while you get down to reading all of this – how about a mug with a classic wraparound Dredd cover by Mike McMahon?
Eleven years ago, upon the release of our album, ‘Kaleidoscope’, PC and I did an interview for Flipside magazine (now long lost in the ether). Illustrating the piece was this image by Jonathan Edwards.
11 years later and the new album is out, he tweets it and, on inspection of his I Heart Pencils blog, I notice that he’s supplied a version of Strontium Dog Jonny Alpha for the 2000ad tributes at Down The Tubes. Weird synchronicity, or, as the name of another blog suggests: Everything Comes Back To 2000ad.
