John Cooper’s Rugby World Cup strip

By John Freeman on November 4, 2007

For the Rugby World Cup final (yes, yes , I know it was a couple of weeks ago but I’m a bit behind) the Guardian newspaper produced a 12 page special full of the usual talikng heads, talking, as it turned out, turkey. Anyway, they also found room to comission a 15-panel strip from John “Johnny Red” Cooper who I haven’t seen produce a comic strip for what feels like a very long time.

Anyway, here it is….

I’ve had to stitch it together on my scanner because the newspaper is so large but hopefully that doesn’t detract from the overall quality or the joy at seeing John working on comic strips again.

The only other place I’ve seen his work recently (and even then not very often) is on Channel 4 news as their courtroom sketch artist.

This material is (C) The Guardian newspaper

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John Freeman

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.