Art

Judge Dredd original concept art by Ezquerra

These images recently came up in an old 1994 2000ad monthly my friend David Vallade got from his local library. Carlos Ezquerra‘s original designs for Dredd, his lawmaster bike and law giver gun.

The style of the 70’s is present in the chopper-esque bike proportions and flared gloves. Note the diagonal zip on Dredd’s uniform and lack of eagle shoulder pad.

“Dredd’s breast chain and badge actual predated punk fashion and with the black clad uniform, screened by a black helmet and his knee-length boots, he was the most exciting British comic book character that radiated menace” – Steve MacManus‘ ‘The Judge Dredd Story’ 1994.

Posted in Art, Comics, Design. | No Comments |

Obey Sound & Vision at Stolen Space Gallery, London

Looking forward to this record sleeve-themed exhibition by Shepard Fairey in October at the Stolen Space Gallery.

“The Sound and Vision art show includes mixed media works on canvas weaving my social commentary with inspiration from a range of musicians, including the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Gang of Four, the Clash, the Circle Jerks, Kraftwerk, Public Enemy, Neil Young, and Metallica. Sound and Vision will also include an installation of a record store environment, with customized vintage turntables and a portion of my own record collection for public listening. The record store space will also showcase over 80 12″x12″ images I’ve created as tributes to the 12″ LP sleeve. A comprehensive variety of other works will be featured, including screen prints on wood, metal, and paper; rubylith cuts; and retired stencils.” – Shepard

More info here – exhibition runs from 19th Oct – 4th Nov, 2012.

Posted in Art, Poster / flyer, Records. | No Comments |

2000ad week #7: Prog 1800 and the return of the Biz

Perfectly timed to coincide with the release of Dredd3D in the UK (US fans have to wait 2 more weeks – haha!) is Prog 1800 (prog, short for programme – keep up) – out this Wednesday.

This is what’s known as a ‘jumping on’ issue, ie: all the stories are new or first episodes, something 2000ad does a few times a year. To commemorate the occasion they’ve got Simon Bisley back to do the first artwork in 18 years for the comic that he made his name in. It’s a striking Dredd but coupled with the tooled up, ‘look, here’s my arse’ pose of Anderson and a barely visible Judge Death, it’s not his best work but will certainly stand out on the shelf.

One of the big developments in recent months is the digital editions of the comic. A recent upgrade which delivers the new issues the same week of publication through the free Apple Newstand app has seen many lapsed readers coming back to it via their iPads and Phones. Aside from a free 69 page sampler issue you can buy singles or there are various deals for 3, 6 or 12 subscriptions, which each come with extra issues for free from before the start date so that you can be up to speed with story lines. All info is here. Not got an iPad and want an Android alternative? Download direct for the 2000ad online shop.  And if that sounds like a hard sell then it was, I don’t do it often but this is a special occasion.

One more thing, Koze and Onion from Soulful Creative did this tasty mural to promote the film using an image of Dredd by Bisley from the ‘Judgement on Gotham’ story.

Judge, Jury & Executioner! from Soulful Creative on Vimeo.

Posted in Art, Comics, Film. | No Comments |

2000ad Week #3: Dredd prologue comic ‘Ma Ma’


Appearing online yesterday and seeing printed form with this weekend’s Megazine issue is a prologue to the Dredd3D film dealing with the villain Ma Ma‘s origins. Written by Matt Smith and drawn by Henry Flint, it’s pretty gritty and not exactly SFW as it includes the first ever utterance of the ‘MF’ word in a 2000ad strip (to my knowledge). If the film is anything thing like this and the reviews of ultra violence are to be believed then it’s going to be hardcore.
Lionsgate (the film’s distributors) have put together a nice motion comic of the strip too which you can watch above. Alternatively you can read the strip version over on Scribd.com OR you can buy a physical version when the Megazine arrives over the weekend.

Posted in Art, Comics, Film. | No Comments |

Upcoming and exclusive Mike Mignola art

Big news for Mike Mignola / Hellboy fans: there’s finally a release date for the next installment of the red devil – Dec 5th – with a book that we’ve been waiting for for years. It’s the return of Mike writing AND drawing his finest creation (aside from The Amazing Screw On Head, but more of that another time). Hellboy In Hell starts a new chapter in the mythos with Red cast down into hell after the events in the recent The Fury storyline.

Other new Mignola art: he’s been doing alternate covers for various B.P.R.D.-related covers all year under the ‘Year Of Monsters’ title, below are some both from the last few months and forthcoming issues. And finally, on the Super-Team Family ‘fictional team-ups’ blog that I posted about yesterday I found a couple of Mignola mash-ups which work nicely.

Posted in Art, Comics. | 1 Comment |

2000ad week #1: Prog 174 cover production art

It’s a pretty big week for the UK comic 2000ad – this Friday the film Dredd 3D officially hits cinemas in the UK, based on the anthology’s lead character, Judge Dredd. The day after that the 35 year old publication hits no. 1800 with a whole host of new stories beginning for readers who want to jump on board. Not only that but the sister mag, the Judge Dredd-related Megazine bumps up its page size and includes concept images from the film as well as an exclusive prequel comic to the movie drawn by none other than… regular readers of this blog will know the answer… Henry Flint. :)

Being that I’ve read the comic since I was 8 years old and have stuck with it every week, through the printers strikes, the mergers, the format changes and the lean years when a lot of the original creators went to the States to seek fame and fortune (and better deals), this is a very big deal. I’ll be celebrating this nicely timed piece of synchronicity this week with a series of related posts leading up to the big weekend of Thrill Power.

First up I’m digging in the archives for some vintage artwork from the first golden period of the comic. Some of you may remember me posting the original artwork for Kevin O’Neill‘s ‘Tube Warrior’ last year, which is one of my most prized pieces of original comic art. That was the black and white line art but it appeared on the comic’s cover in full colour.

Enter Steve Cook, from the already legendary Secret Oranges blogspot, which amazingly celebrates it’s 1000th post this week. His collection of original production art is vast and we were going through a pile of images at his studio when the colour version of the same piece appeared at the top of the pile. Knowing that I had the original, and probably seeing me trying not to completely freak out in front of him, he graciously presented it to me for my birthday, for which I am eternally grateful. Note the header for the ‘Galactic Olympics’ booklet which was a fictitious games with things like ‘laser slalom’ as I remember.

2000ad Prog 174 cover production art, 1980.

Illustration: Kevin O’Neill – ‘Tube Warrior’ Colours: Tom Frame

(300 x 230 mm, black line art acetate overlay, paint on paper).

prog-174-col6prog-174-col8prog-174-col4prog-174-col7prog-174-col10prog-174-col9prog-174-col3prog-174-col5prog-174-col2
Posted in Art, Comics, Originals. | 1 Comment |

More Tron Uprising concept art

While Tron Uprising fans wait until October (!) for the remaining episodes of the first season to air here’s some more concept art by Alberto Mielgo. If you haven’t seen this show (and if you’re outside the US then it’s unlikely unless you’re downloading torrents or subscribe to Disney’s XD channel) you can now buy a series subscription from iTunes and view the first episode here.

Posted in Art, Film. | 1 Comment |

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre at Space Station 65

The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre are the guest exhibitors this summer at Space Station 65‘s gallery in North Cross Road, East Dulwuch, London. More than 20 mechanical artworks, or Automata if you prefer, are on display for free and fantastic for adults and kids alike. The CMT website has more info about what they do as well as lots to read and learn if you want to get into making automata. They also have various papercraft models on sale at the exhibition so you can make your own.

The gallery is open every day except Mondays 11-6pm and it’s free, also if you’re in the area, the East Dulwich Picture Gallery is a short bus ride up the hill and they have an Andy Warhol screenprint exhibition on.

Posted in Art, Toys. | No Comments |

Moebius: ‘Quatre-vingt huit’ book

I stumbled upon this today whilst surfing the net for something else. It’s a book of ‘personal work’ by Moebius, forms and shapes that have no purpose other than for him to express himself in a non-work context. Similar to the method Henry Flint used in his ‘Broadcast’ book – of letting his mind go and just drawing to see what came out – these were collected into a book named ‘Quatre-vingt huit’ (’88) in 1990.

Not all the images are this finished but these are some of my favourites, that he could produce work like this in his spare time is incredible. Apparently it’s now quite a rare book but a quick search will net you a digital copy, hopefully someone will reprint it now that he’s gone.

Posted in Art, Books, Comics. | 1 Comment |

Around Montreal last week

It’s been a bit quiet on the blog this past week as I’ve been away in Montreal doing the ‘Search Engine’ shows at the SAT (Société des Arts Technologiques), I fly back to the UK this evening so I’d like to share what I’ve seen and done all week. It’s three posts until the 1000th entry so I’ll set the scene before the big 1k reveal. First off, I’m sure anyone who’s visited Montreal will know that it’s a city full of great street art and unique architecture, once hosting Expo 67 (the Buckminster Fuller dome is still there if not in its former glory).

The view above was taken from the 15th floor of the CBC building (Canadian Broadcasting Company) where I was doing a mix for a late night show, Bande a Part, the Fuller dome is just out of shot on the righ. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to make it over to the old site but I’ll be back and then it’s top of the list. It’s impossible to walk around though without being confronted by huge murals, graffiti pieces or interesting signage, the best of which I’ve put in the small gallery here.

1966-10-28 LA Free Press v3n43i119 171966-10-28 LA Free Press v3n43i119 081966-10-21 LA Free Press v3n42i118 081966-10-14 LA Free Press v3n41i117 141966-10-07 LA Free Press v3n40i116 11

Pat Hamou, an old friend who worked for Ninja Tune North America and was responsible for suggesting this whole project to the SAT, had curated an exhibition of screen printed gig posters called Music On Paper which was held in the crypt gallery of a church. It’s just finished but there were some great posters on display including the one he designed for my gig.
The next two posts are quite content-heavy so I might not get time to post them before I leave, more when I return to the UK…

Posted in Art, Event, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment |

Jim Mahfood

Always enjoy Jim Mahfood‘s work, very much looking forward to his take on Tank Girl this summer. He also has a new book out collecting his online adventures as a working artist, Los Angeles Ink Stains. He has a print out to go with it too as well as toys, T-shirts and more. Go here

Posted in Art, Books, Comics. | No Comments |

Vintage kids magazines from Italy

Steve Cook and I went on a scavenge for old magazines on my birthday earlier this year and, whilst in a well known West London basement, Steve found dozens of kids magazines from the 60’s and 70’s.

I’ve only had time to scan a few pieces but they are riddled with beautiful illustrations and typography from back in the day, check the Mini 22 logo on the toy gun ad for instance (there’s a telling amount of adverts for toy guns in each issue). Absolutely LOVE the robot cover and spread, which Steve graciously gave up for me from the pile, see also the ad for a vintage Lego train set.

These scans are primarly from an Italian mag called Corriere dei Piccoli (Italian for “Courier of the Little Ones”) and Steve has some from French ‘Lissette’ over on his Secret Oranges blog today. There’s plenty more from both mags to come from both of us so stay tuned and click images for larger versions.

Posted in Art, Design, Magazines. | No Comments |