Leading screen printer John Patrick Reynolds and his company Comic Art added Asterix the Gaul to their licensed range earlier this year and the range is looking terrific, complementing the company’s existing range of British comics-inspired art very nicely, working closely with the character’s owers, Editions Albert Rene.
John’s cotton paper screen prints of classic British comics include “Oor Wullie”, The Beano (giving Dennis the Menace the Andy Warhol treatment), The Dandy and Victor have already become collectors’ items since their first appearance in the 1990s and received praise from the BBC, the Observer and the Daily Express, among others.
Comic Art sell their prints directly to consumers, and a network of galleries and giftshops that they have built up over a ten year period, as well as attending trade shows and Art Fairs to sell directly.
“John recognised that there was an unmarked artistic tradition in this country,” said Martin Lindsay, the licensing and rights manager at DC Thomson, back when he began his DC Thomson range in the 2000s. “We can’t take credit for this idea, but it had not been a conscious decision in the past to avoid this kind of high-end reproduction.’
Other licensees for Asterix in the UK include Plastic Head Distribution and Steiff.
• Comic Art’s Asterix screenprints can be seen at : http://thecomicartwebsite.com/product-category/asterix
• Official Asterix web site: www.asterix.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: Art and Illustration, Comic Art, downthetubes Comics News
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