Comics Artists P
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| Online Art Board Supplies Comic art for the major US companies such as Marvel or DC is drawn on special art board that includes 'blue line' indicators so the artists draw to the correct size proprotional to the final US comic book art size. Artists contracted to the companies are provided with this board, although I am not sure if this is still supplied gratis, as it was in Paul Neary's day as Editorial Director at Marvel UK, or if they have to pay for it. Page measurements apparently vary slightly from company to company, so using ordinary Bristol board and a ruler may be a better option for the aspiring artist than seeking down this specialised board. 2000AD is now published pro to US comic book size. BlueLine There is a type of Bristol board called BlueLine which features these the official comic page measurments printed on it. It's solicited through Previews and, therefore, most comic shops should be able to order it. Some artists don't like it. Bristol Board Most art supply shops in Belfast sell Bristol board in A3 20 sheet blocks. Art Supplies • Great Art Supplies Gerstaecker UK Limited / Great Art, Normandy House, 1 Nether Street, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1EA Telephone Order line 0845 601 5772 (Local call rate) Described as Europe's largest and brightest catalogue for art materials, this company says "Whatever your angle - whether you're an art student, leisure painter, art teacher or professional artist - we're sure that you'll find that we are full of all the supplies you need." They publish a variety of catalogues for each country -- one artist I know orders material from their French rather than UK edition. • London Graphics Company 16-18 Shelton Street, Covent Garden London WC2H 9JL Tel: 020 7759 4500 Fax: 020 7759 4585 London Graphic Centre was established in 1973 as a specialist graphic materials supplier to the London Design and Advertising market. Dip Pens • Hans Presto This Swedish (with English translation) site apparently stocks and sells just about every dip pen ever made. It also has sections on Lettering, Comics and Handwriting. (thanks to artist Kev Hopgood for this one) |
NEW BRITISH COMICS COLLECTIONS AVAIALBLE NOW... This is the first Dan Dare collection I've edited for Titan Books, comprising work by Frank Hampson, Frank Bellamy and Don Harley.
Superb World War 1 strip first published in Battle and another collection edited by me for Titan
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Comics Artists P
Keith Page
Blog: www.keithpageukcomicsart
ist.blogspot.com
Artist whose work includes Ramsey's
Raiders for
DC Thomson's Commando and
other stories, and a "prequel" of the original Dan
Dare for Rod Barzilay's magaszine Spaceship
Away.
Keith is also working on a new series written by script and screenwriter Stephen Walsh, Charlotte Corday of the Sirete, set in London in the early 1950's. This is a full length graphic novel, with a few surprises. Titled London Calling, Charlotte is also be appearing in a slightly different form via Rok Comics.
"I had the original idea for the character some time ago," Keith explains. "The outline concept was the adventures of a French detective of some sort getting involved in all sorts of arcane exploits in 1950's London which could best be described as "Brighton Rock meets Quatermass and the Pit". This evolved further in defining the motivations of the main character Charlotte Corday and the inclusion of a human-sized "Muffin the Mule" entity, (which had its origins in a strip I did for IPC's Revolver many years ago.) All this might sound strange but I can't reveal anymore without spoiling the plot!
"I drew a number of pages of my initial storyline, together with a lot of characters sketches and then set the whole thing aside for a while. At this point I got in touch with script and screenwriter Stephen Walsh who was writing for Commando. Stephen took the original theme and came up with a brilliant graphic-novel length script incorporating a host of new characters. We decided to approach some French publishers, so the whole thing was translated into French by my wife. In this version, Charlotte is one of a team of French agents on a mission to London. The thinking was to leave scope for a series of linked books with a different agent's story featured in each.
"To cut a long story short, it proved too difficult to interest French publishers and Charlotte remained on the shelf for a while. Eventually, however, I decided Stephen's script was just too good to abandon , and I had a large amount of period reference material, location photos, so I drew the whole 50 page story.
"It features a variety of themes including the North London Vampire Squad ( a little-known division of the Met) and what could have been the inspiration for John Steed of The Avengers. Tony Hancock and his landlady also put in guest appearances."
• Read the 2009 downtheutbes interview with Keith
Jerry Paris
Official Blog: jerryparis.blogspot.com
A Marvel UK regular back in the 1980s (his credits
included Action Force), Jerry now specialises in Character Design, Concepts,
Comic Book Art, Hand Lettering, Book Design and Storyboards. "I still draw
on actual paper," he says, "and often use real ink and paint before the
work finally becomes digital."
Jeff Parker
Official: www.parkerspace.com
Parker's illustration and strip work includes
storyboarding live-action spots, mostly commercials for television. In
2003 the creator, writer and artist of the self-published graphic novel,
The Interman signed
a deal with a production company to produce his story as a movie.
Jed Pascoe
Official: www.jedpas.co.uk
Generally acknowledged to be just about the fastest
caricaturist in Europe, he'll liven up a party by whipping out wacky
versions of guests' faces in only two minutes - sometimes even less!
He's also an experienced illustrator: I've illustrated more than thirty
books, and contributed to the Financial
Times, Sunday
Mirror and Radio
Times to name a few. On the corporate side,
his client list includes The Coca-Cola Company, Virgin, Tesco,
KPMG, Deloitte, and PriceWaterhouse.
Luke Paton
Official: www.theadventuresofkezandluke.com
Luke is the creator of the web comic The
Adventures of Kez and Luke. He works for Egmont UK on TOXIC comic.
Terry Patrick
Terry Patrick
often
drew Black Sapper (who appeared in Rover, Beezer and Hotspur)
and Red Star Robinson (Hotspur). An
excellent fan site dedicated to the series Space
Patrol, which was adapted for comics by DC Thomson and appeared
in the Beezer between 1966 and 1967,
notes Terry Patrick was born in 1929 and grew up in Ilford, Essex,
with Ron Embleton with whom he shared an interest in art. The two entered
a competition run by DC Thomson in 1950 which Embleton won and Patrick
came joint second. Both had extensive artistic careers: Terry set up
a small studio in his parent's house with Embleton and another artist
called Jim Bleach and they drew strips for a small London firm called
Scion. All three soon found work with the better paying Amalgamated
Press, although Terry Patrick spent much of his career drawing for
DC Thomson.
In addition to his work for Spike, Patrick's credits
also include work on Rick Random - Space Detective comics
in the 1950s, a futuristic installment of the semi-regular text story The
Arch Of Time in The Beezer Book for 1966
and dozens of strips for Hotspur, Warlord (Killer
Kane), Crunch (Starhawk), The
Beano (The Queen's Highway, Danger
Bus and Deep-Sea Danny's Iron Fish), Topper (Thunder
Gunn) and Victor.
The Space
Patrol site also note that sadly, Patrick succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease
which forced him to retire in 1991, and died a few years later.
Eddie Perkins
Official: www.atomicpanda.com/
Artist/writer of Girl 5 and Dragon Heaven, who's been published by Radio Comix, Antactic Press and others
Tim Perkins
Official: www.wizards-keep.com
Tim Perkins has worked as a graphic designer since 1980 and in the
comic book and children's books industries since 1983. In 1999 he began
work in the theme park industry and a year later in the animation field.
His fab Wizards
Keep site is the culmination of his many years of experience in the art
industry.
His
career in comics includes working for Marvel UK, 2000AD, Marvel US, DC
comics, Defiant, Tekno, Caliber, Fleetway, Newsstand, and Toontastic amongst
others.
Some of his career highlights in comics as Dreamstone,
Dark Dominion, Phage - Shadowdeath, Chopper, Dinoswords, and Doctor Who.
Amy Pearson
Official: www.mathemacomic.com
Blog: http://mathema-comic.blogspot.com/
Creator of the terrific online strip
Mathema, runer up in one of last year's Zuda
Comics contests. Read
an interview with Amy here on the downthetubes blog
Thien Pham
Official: www.e-zcheese.com
After being
attacked by pirates, the boat that harboured Thien Pham and 75
other Vietnamese refugees washed ashore on an island off the
coast of
Thailand in 1979. One year later Thien and his family came to
the United States and since then Thien has worked to make some
of the best
mini comics around, including Words
and Pictures,
Air, Hamachi
Girl and Sumo.
He is also a teacher,
painter and printmaker.
Thien now resides in Oakland, California with his girlfriend
who might
be a better cartoonist, but was never attacked by pirates.
Sean Phillips
Official: www.seanphillips.co.uk
Blog: surebeatsworking.blogspot.com
Sean
Phillips work includes 2000AD, Hellblazer,
Kid Eternity, Invisibles, Uncanny X-men, Batman
and many more. He began his career drawing
British girls comis, including covers for Judy,
which he has bravely posted
on his blog.
•
You can buy his
art from SplashPages
Richard Piers Rayner
Official: http://raynerseye.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk
Best known as the artist for Road
to Perdition, Richard's credits also
include Evening's Empire for Doctor
Who Magazine -- published as a Seventh Doctor Special
-- and other strips.
Ed Pinsent
Official: comics.edpinsent.com
Prolific cartoonist in the 1980s and former editor
of Fast Fiction,
Ed isalso publisher, editor and writer of The Sound Projector
music magazine. He writes most of the reviews and conduct interviews.
Howard Priestley
Official: www.funkpriest.com
Howard was knocking on the doors of the comic book publishers back in the 1980's but with little results. Since then though a change in direction led him through a door to another Universe where comics could flourish in another form -- P Funk. For the uninitiated that's the music of people like George Clinton and Bootsy Collins etc. Check it out!
Steve Pugh
Official: www.stevepugh.com
Steve Pugh draws for DC Comics, Marvel,
Darkhorse and 2000AD. He's probably best known for working on Animal
Man with Jaime Delano, and the Saint
of Killers mini series with Garth Ennis.
Pulp Theatre
Official: www.pulptheatre.com
Pulp Theatre is an animation/new media studio founded in 2000 by award winning comic artist & illustrator David Bircham and graphic artist Daley Osiyemi as a collective for talented artists, writers and animators, dedicated to developing and successfully marketing exciting new and original titles for comics, film and television.
Pure Crass
Official: www.geocities.com/purecrass
Purecrass. Home of comic writer/artist duo
David Hailwood and Stuart Giddings. Both have been published in numerous
Independent comics, and are long serving members of the Temple APA. David
Hailwood recently had a film on TV about killer socks, which he prays
no-one ever saw...
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