“Lou Scannon” debuts with werewolf opener

By John Freeman on July 1, 2011

Doctor Who and Transformers colourist Kris Carter is a man juggling many projects and one of them is an independently-produced sci-fi comedy comic, Lou Scannon, written and drawn by him and his friend Dan Harris.

The first issue, ‘The Wolfman of Astrotaz’, comes crammed with jokes about werewolves, stupid mercenaries and even more stupid space police – and uses magnetic business cards as a macguffin.

“Lou Scannon is a Space Pirate/Mercenary/Smuggler/Miscreant/Whatever, trying to get by in a galaxy ruled over by the oppressive Galactic Coalition Police Force (Or GCPF for short),” Kris explains. “He’s put together his own crew of outcasts and all sorts of hilarity ensues in their quest to make a buck.

“Along the way Lou tries to learn more about his past (of which he knows nothing) but doesn’t realise that in finding the key to his past, he’s also unlocking something that will change the galaxy forever. Or at least for a couple of weeks.”

Lou Scannon #1 is a full 22 page b&w story, the first in a loosely connected arc of six issues (next one is due around December 2011). The printed comic also has additional exclusive materials such as development sketches, deleted pages, and best of all, a good old fashioned readers letters page, with honest-to-gosh nonsense submitted by actual people!

Be warned: it does have some bad language, so it’s not one for the wee bairns.

Lou Scannon co-writer, colourist and letterer Kris Carter has previously worked in newspaper pre-press and graphic design before tackling digital comic book colouring professionally.

A big fan of co-writer Dan’s ‘Lou Scannon’ universe, he badgered Dan to make a comic of it for years, until he decided to light a fire under Dan’s behind by writing and drawing the bulk of issue #1 himself. It worked.

Kris’ published comic book colouring work includes numerous Transformers and Doctor Who titles, Torchwood, TMNT and Wynonna Earp, as well as some stunning work on Crucible, one of many strips planned for the upcoming STRIP Magazine.

Co-writr and penciller Dan Harris created the ‘Lou Scannon’ universe as part of his BA (Hons) Animation degree from Glamorgan University. In addition to being a talented writer and illustrator, Dan is also a tattoo artist and co-runs the “Distinctive Tattoo” studio based in Trefforest, South Wales. His published comic book work includes contributing artwork and colours to the 10thology graphic novel published for the Cardiff Comic Con 2011.

• Lou Scannon costs £3 from the Lou Scannon website – www.louscannon.co.uk

About the Author
Latest Posts

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.