John Watkiss’ Sherlock Holmes Art on Sale

By John Freeman on April 16, 2010

Dez Skinn‘s Quality Communications is offering a limited edition collection of movie concept art by comics creator John Watkiss he did for a proposed Sherlock Holmes film.

“One member of our funnybook community whose quality of work far exceeds his profile is John Watkiss,” says Dez. “I first knew his classical linework in Acme’s old Ring of Roses, written by Das Petrou and reprinted by Dark Horse (and now in pre-production as a Hollywood movie).

“No stranger to film, John spent 15 years working in tinseltown for Disney (and has a some seriously scary stories about such). He’s back in Blighty now, and working on a Robert E Howard production. But his last major work was as concept artist for fellow Brit Lionel Wigram, a film producer who had the hots on for making a young Sherlock movie. John produced 18 pieces of concept art which Wigram used to sell the idea.”

Dez is offering a unique behind-the-scenes limited edition of the art, offered exclusively on eBay, revealing how the movie would look long before Ritchie, Law or Robert Downey Jr were involved.

On offer are limited edition prints of 18 pen and ink drawings which made the movie happen. Each plate is reproduced on high quality 240gsm glossy card, measuring 11.75 x 8.25″, and suitable for framing. This portfolio comes with an annotations page, detailing both the history of the film and descriptions of each print, written by Dez.

Produced by Quality Communications, this is a strictly limited edition of 500 sets, with each top plate signed by the artist and numbered.

UPDATE: 31st March 2023: Dez Skin’s eBay store is long extant so links have been removed from this item.

The original art was sold by the Nucleus Gallery some time ago

UPDATE, January 2017: John Watkiss died in January 2017, after a long illness. He was 55. You can read our news item on tributes to both him and his work here and our feature on his career here

• John Watkiss Official Web Site (which replaced his blog) is at: www.johnwatkissfineart.com

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.