Sneek Peek: X-Men versus Dracula by John Royle

By John Freeman on 20 October 2010

Here’s a sneek peek at an upcoming cover for Panini’s Marvel Heroes title by fab artist John Royle.

John’s also penciled the upcoming X-Men and Dracula strip from what he tells us is a great script by Mitchel Scanlon, with inks by David Roach and “lovely colour” by John Charles.

“I’m just working on a two-issue Spider-Man story for Panini’s Spectacular Spider-Man,” he tells downthetubes. “It’s a great action adventure featuring Spidey, Dormammu, Doctor Strange, Captain Britain, Spitfire, Union Jack and Megan!”

When not drawing Spider-Man or X-Men, John’s also been busy this year for a variety of commercial clients.

A recent job was a one page comic strip ad for Benylin, commissioned by top ad agency JWT, which is now running in various magazines in the UK such as Closer and marks another appearance of “Chester the Mucous Monkey” seen in the brand’s recent TV ads, brought to CGI life for the small screen by Leigh Brett.

The page went through several changes at art and lettering stages, but JWT and the client are delighted with the final look, which was deliberately intended to ‘homage’ classic comic storytelling, right down to the “Editor’s note” in the main panel.

• Check out John’s work at: www.johnroyleart.com

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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.