July Guest – Simon Gane!

1) What was your first published work?
A drawing in one of those Woman’s Own type mags, in about 1982. They had a competition to design a new Star Wars character and I think I was the runner-up. I won a big AT AT Walker toy. Hmm, I might start putting this info on my comic covers given I've won nothing since.

2) Who or what inspires you?
It’s usually the script. The comic artists who have inspired me the most over the years are Hergé and Jacques Tardi because their works are entire worlds achieved very graphically and stylishly.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I’d like to draw something with an exotic setting. On location. I mean, come on... I’ve just been drawing Bristol.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you’ve sent?
It’s a panel from the graphic novel ‘Paris’, written by Andi Watson. It’s set in the 1950’s and I wanted the art to reflect certain characteristics of the illustration of that era, hence the flattened perspective and so on. That couple at the top of the page reappear in other backgrounds too!

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I’ve just wrapped up my contribution to the forthcoming Blank Slate anthology, Nelson. Next up (fingers crossed) is an unannounced one-shot for IDW and then I’ll be drawing a short adaptation of Conan Doyle’s ‘Lot No. 249’ for Graphic Classics.

6) If you hadn’t become an artist what do you think you’d have ended up doing?
I’d like to be an international cricket commentator, but that ain’t the question. I’d probably be fishing shopping trolleys out of the river on behalf of Morrisons.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://simongane.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/Simongane

July Guest – Pye Parr!

1) What was your first published work?
My first published art was a monthly illustration to go with a column about the joys, troubles and delicious ironies of being a radio control plane enthusiast for a niche hobby magazine called RC Model World. It was as great as it sounds. I also did illustrations for patchwork patterns in Patchwork & Quilting Monthly. Great days...
...Yes, I did hunt them out, no, you can't see them.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I love anything with a bit of humour or silliness in it. I bought a kid's book the other day called The Pirate Cruncher by Johnny Duddle, just cos of how fun the art was, which has made me want to have a go at something similar. I'm also going through a Paul Bonner re-obsession. I love all the story and character he gets into these epic paintings that could easily be horribly macho fantasy fare. I can thoroughly recommend his art book Out of The Forests - It's depressingly amazing!

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I like my day job, but getting paid enough for my drawings, comics and paintings that I could do it full-time would be a dream. I can see it now; Couple of hours on an oil painting in the morning, which turns out exactly as I imagined it would do, then a bacon sandwich and cup of tea. I read an email from Tharg saying he wants me to draw a 15 part epic based on death-race 2000 and mad max, then spend the afternoon drawing a picture of a 3-eyed minotaur fighting giant wasps on top of a volcano for some RPG book or something, followed by a sunny 1 hour drive to the pub down deserted roads in a Renault Alpine A110. In France. That's how every artist's life is, isn't it?

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
I'm currently building up a small portfolio of fantasy/sci-fi stuff to send out. I used to draw this kind of stuff non-stop when I was younger, but I've not tried any for ages. These are a few of the pictures I've done so far. I'm a Warhammer geek, so these are all pretty GW inspired, but for the next few I want to come up with stuff of my own. Perhaps bonk-eyed naked Frog-people fighting dog-beasts in a dank cave full of luminous mushrooms... Or that minotaur/wasp thing I just thought of...

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
The next thing you'll see from me is the cover art for Al Ewing's next novel from Abaddon books called 'Pax Omega', which seems like its gonna be typically wierd and pulpy and great. Hopefully the cover will do it justice! Here's a preview of one of the (few) finished bits.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Whenever I told careers advisors at school that I wanted to be an artist, they'd say: 'you can't, that's ridiculous - how about being a graphic designer', which always used to irritate me no end, and I resisted it for years. Now through the cruel machinations of the Gods I AM a graphic designer for most of the week, and I'm almost ashamed of how satisfying I find nicely laid out text, complimentary colours and matte laminate book jackets... If this ever falls through though, a career in rallying beckons.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
My blog is at: http://pyeparr.blogspot.com
I also have a 'proper' site at www.pyeparr.com but that's still a bit work-in-progress.

July Guest – James Corcoran!

1) What was your first published work?
A one panel Zorgo strip with Craig Collins in Wasted number 6 first full strip was in the Jikan special from Paragon Comics.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Originally British comics like 2000ad and Battle. McMahon, Ewins and McCarthy were the names I first remember being aware of lately I have been getting into more European artists like Moebius, Mezeries and Breccia and loads of old British and American Newspaper strips.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
A creator owned War comic failing that I would love a pop at drawing Commando.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
It's an image I have had in mind for a bit, it's slowly becoming a comic that will probably be called "Darker Things"Think John Wyndham writing a noir detective novel at the height of Ufo paranoia, it starts with a body being fished out of the River Clyde and goes from there.

5) What can we expect to see from you next?
I have strip in issue 8 of Paragon comic which is due out very soon, I'll be drawing Occult adventurer Spencer Nero for them next as well as a strip called the Healer for the Glasgow League of Writer's then the Darker Things strip followed early new year by an untitled strip for a comic called Fictitious Ink I'm putting together with some of the Fractal Friction guy's my strip is Basically a grim Soviet Manga featuring giant A girl her old uncle his talking dog and there giant Battle Mech fighting there way across Soviet wastelands.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
As I am just an aspiring amateur that draws for fun I still harbour a desire to be Scotland's first man in space.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://james-corcoran.blogspot.com/

July Guest – Gibson Quarter!

1) What was your first published work?
My first published work was in Northern Lightz issue #8. It was also the very first appearance of Johnny K. and the "War on Drugs"

2) Who or what inspires you?
My Inspirations are almost too numerous to mention! From a comic art point of view, its GOOD art. Reading a  comic and taking in the art often inspires me to start drawing right away. Specifically as far as big name artists, its folks like Frank Quitely, Joe Madureira, Cliff Robinson & Arthur Adams. I find it pretty easy to tell when artists are really investing themselves in their pages...and those are the folks that inspire me.
Oh, and about every 4th person over on Deviantart!

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
My Dream job would be drawing up some Judge Dredd, and also any story involving Wolverine. I'd also like to draw any script written by Robert Kirkman or Grant Morrison!

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
Enclosed is a page of my art from the upcoming Holmes Incoporated #2, and also some promo art for the same book.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
You can always expect to see me over in WASTED (quarterly) drawing the 'War on Drugs' with Alan Grant on writing duties. You can also find me in the mid July release of the amazing HOLMES INC. #2

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
If I hadn't become an artist, I'd be involved with Information Technology ...probably an I.T. recruiter. Or maybe a world famous rock star.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
More of my work can be found on my blog, http://gibsonquarter27art.blogspot.com/  and also on twitter. https://twitter.com/GibsonQuarter

July Guest – Barry Sheridan!

1) What was your first published work?
My artwork was always part of a larger project such as a product design, computer game or graphic design commission. So I've never really had artwork published before - at least not in the traditional sense. I worked on a computer game called "Isaac Newton's Gravity" a couple of years ago. Between us, Alex Ronald and I painted over 200 background images. I think it's the first time I've had 2D painted artwork published en masse.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I'm inspired by other artists mostly. I have this bookmark folder called "Great Artists" and, as I look at it now, it seems full of random styles. I like technical drawings: product renders, intricate cutaways, exploded diagrams and 3D renders. But equally I'm inspired by artists who can present a subject or an idea in a way that's completely original. There's not many of them about.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I'd love to be paid to do a huge technical drawing project. Some sort of engineering or product design task involving perspective, cutaways, renders and all that. I also love film concept art that involves vehicles, environments and props. That would be cool to do. There's also a Judge Dredd story that I've written. I'd like to illustrate this but it's 'unofficial' to say the least: it's an elseworld take on Dredd and his origins.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
"threeHeroes" is a concept piece done while I worked at Outerlight. They'd had just finished making "The Ship" and were requiring concept artwork to accompany pitches to potential investors. They had a game idea involving a rag-tag group of space mercenaries. This was some of the characters.

"tank" was a personal project. I'd just turned freelance and bought Cinema4D. I made this image while teaching myself the software. I'm a lot more comfortable making inorganic things than I am characters or creatures.

"truncheonWoman" was a character from a short story I've written. It remains parked in my Google Docs and I intend to illustrate it..one day

"gearHouse" This is one of the images from the computer game "Isaac Newton's Gravity." It started as a rough 3D model in Maya and then it was painted over in Photoshop

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Professionally, I'm the Art Manager at Muvizu (formerly DA Group). Muvizu is a 3D character animation tool that hangs off the Unreal Engine and we're updating in a few weeks.
Privately, I'm working on a 3D render of a weird Isometric world inspired by Shaun Tan's book, "The Lost Thing"

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
An Engineer. I was one...once. I'd have probably still been there if I hadn't discovered Maya.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
My folio's online: www.barrysheridan.com

July Guest – Tiernen Trevallion!

1) What was your first published work?
That's difficult, I'm not entirely sure. I'd been working as an illustrator/artist for years before I had anything published as such. There were bits of advertising work, for Mars bars and that sort of thing, and a few record covers in the early nineties, But I think the first published piece for me would be for INFERNO magazine, published about 2000. This is significant because I'd decided to take my work more seriously, and myself less so. I was also starting to work on projects I was genuinely interested in. The Games Workshop was something I loved as a kid, so I knew I could get some work with them as I was fairly familiar with their stuff. In fact I used to bunk off school and catch the train to London to visit the first ever Games Workshop... there was no Warhammer then. It was just a games shop, I used to like the miniatures. Yea, o.k. that's pretty lame... but I was smoking fags and drinking cider too, honest.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I am inspired by so many things, maybe I'm just fickle or have been driven insane by spending too much time locked in my studio... my studio is packed with books, films, comics, toys, art, bones, and stuff of all sorts that I've collected. This place has probably become a filter to the outside world. I find most inspiration becomes clear from walking in woods and fields where I live. Some of the strangest inspiration comes from listening to ska music whilst driving, and I mean the original 50's-60's ska. For some reason it seems wholly inappropriate in almost all situations, like Daleks or nuns... what the f**k am I talking about?!
Artists I am inspired by are also too numerous to mention, so here's a short list: Moebius, Juan Gimenez, Enki Bilal, Kev Walker, Mick McMahon, Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, Fegredo, Bisley, Frazzeta, Alan Lee, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Aubrey Beardsly, Gustave Dore, Chris Ware, Jim Woodring, Dave Cooper... and a million others. See... just fickle... I feel like a tart listing artists like that.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Hmmm. The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peak.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
The first Illustration is 'BEHOLD, THE EYE!' which is something I'd like to do more of. Maybe it's a cathartic process, trying to filter out the monkey gibber and tentacles that CLOUD MY EVERY WAKING MOMENT.... AAAaaAAAgh.... and so-on.

The second is FEAST OF TOYS which is part of a series I've been working on for a while now. Basically it's a title under which I'm trying to produce a series of stories and artwork based in a world irrevocably altered by a series of ridiculous and rather steampunk experiments.

The third is TRACTOR GIRLS which is quite old now, but it was a portfolio piece and one of the first pieces I did in [mostly] monotone.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
The next thing you'll see is a 2000AD cover, which actually I'm not happy with. But it's o.k. Will do better next time.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Digging holes probably.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
My website, http://tiernentrevallion.co.uk/, is woefully behind, at least a year in fact. I promise to sort that out soon, it needs trimming too. But that's probably the best place to see my work. Also Mark Cardwell is always decent enough to post my work up on his blog site over at badlibrarianship.

July Guest – David Hitchcock!

1) What was your first published work?
As a self-publisher my first work was Spirit of the Highwayman way back in the mid-eighties. I've always leaned towards a gothic style so the projects have been set in grim and gritty settings, such as victorian London or 17th century England. Whitechapel Freak was a one-shot spin on the Jack the Ripper mythos, printed as a tabloid newspaper it went down very well...not so well with the guys who like to store in comic bags though:) Springheeled Jack came next, this was based on a few snippets from a Penny Dreadful, my version was an actual alien which I thought would have a great visual 'punch' set against a victorian backdrop. Still waiting for Don Murphy to put his Transformers away and pick this idea up as a film.....mmm, I should start up a campaign/poll.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Personally Jack Kirby is the most inspiring artist to me. I remember shopping with my mum in the early 70s and the UK reprint of AVENGERS literally leapt off the newstand at me (for some reason our No.1 was the US's issue 4, the return of Captain America) and I've been pretty much hooked on comics ever since. When I cast my mind back to the sixties, how bland and 'black and white' it all seemed, I can't imagine where Kirby pulled all his ideas from. Ideas that are still as fresh today, being given new life in Dynamic Forces' KIRBY Genesis series, with help by today's modern master Alex Ross. 

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
After all these years going it alone it would be great to get the opportunity to illustrate Batman, it must be set in a victorian playground though, I'd simply refuse to do it any other way;). Or I quite fancy having a stab at a Judge Death tale if one was to come my way.
The last couple of years I've been illustrating MADAM SAMURAI vols 1 & 2 created by Gael McLaughlin and written by Gary Young (writer of the hit film HARRY BROWN starring Michael Caine). Initially it was a film concept which has been bought to life in the form of two action-packed graphic novels.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
The image accompanying this ramble is a portion from book 2 when it was still on the drawing board. Vol 2 will be out very soon, you can order it from July's PREVIEWS.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I'm currently working on a short story for a horror mag called SPLITLIP, written by the netmag's editor Sam Costello. It's a bit on the gruesome side.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I work in the newspaper industry as my full time job, so luckily I'm not reliant upon jobs from publishers, which is a good thing really, as the ONLY shot I had with an American comic (Chthulu Tales, Boom Studios) led to nothing as my style was considered 'Unusual'(?) so I'm still actually waiting to become a bonafide comic artist. Maybe one day.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://davehitchcock.blogspot.com/
http://www.madamsamurai.com/

July Guest – Rob Davis!

1) What was your first published work?
Roy of the Rovers in 1993.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I'm inspired by good comics and the possibility that I might even make some myself.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Dream job? Can't think of any job I've done that hasn't been a nightmare at some point, that's part of the process. My dream job when I was a kid was to draw Judge Dredd and when I finally did it I found it totally unrewarding. So 'dream job' would probably be getting paid an advance to develop something I've written.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
I think both pictures speak for themselves really.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Don Quixote will be out from SelfMadeHero in September and Nelson, the UK anthology novel I'm editing along with Woodrow Phoenix (and contributing to) will be out from Blankslate books in November.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I would have still been an artist. I did other jobs for a few years, worked in a garage and on building sites, but I was only ever going to do this. To imagine myself not being an artist I may as well imagine myself being a thimble.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://dinlos.blogspot.com/

July Guest – Vicky Stonebridge!

1) What was your first published work?
Apart from illustrations in local historical booklets, and comic strips in the small press, there was a children's fire safety book written by children I work with and produced in partnership with the Fire service. It was called Angus Puff, I did all the illustrations under the strict editorship of the children!

2) Who or what inspires you?
Everything. I do not understand people who say they lack ideas, its reining them in is the problem. As for inspiring people I am very lucky to work with many, this is one of the main appeals with comics is the collaborative working. The project I am currently working on collaborating with singer songwriter Tommy Beavitt has got the muse all fired up.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I am a huge Romantic and was heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphelites, so any of the classics would be great; My favorite poets, Keats, Burns, Dante Alighieri; Arthurian legends, Celtic Myths and Legends. But also I love folk tales and the scary dreamlike quality they have. To be honest the Russian Art symposium I went to last year to paint on the theme of myths and epics, was as good as it gets. The work I have on the easel and just around the corner is Exactly what I want to do.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
I am illustrating some Russian songs by Vladimir Vysotsky - "the greatest Russian bard of the second half of the 20th century". These songs are being translated by my friend Tommy Beavitt who has previously translated the works of Robert Burns into Russian and performed them internationally. We are working intensely, bouncing the ideas back and forth. To a non linguist it never occurred to me how nuances of language could completely change meaning, just as brushstrokes and colour can. We are working towards a show in Edinburgh this August during the festival "Reactions to Vysotsky" at the Scotland-Russia Forum and later at the Inchmore Gallery near Inverness. Also exhibiting will be ceramic artist Allison Weightman and artist John Mikietyn, while Tommy Beavitt will perform recitals of the songs.

The song featured in this painting is ОХОТА НА ВОЛКОВ - "who'll come a hunting the wolf?". It is obvious social comment whilst referring to to the traditional Russian hunting technique of corralling wolves along designated routes marked by red flags, to the awaiting hunters guns. Only the bravest wolves may escape their predefined fate by deviating from the set route and leaping the flags.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
There will be a few more of these Vysotsky paintings. Then I am working on a comic strip for an exciting anthology called Bayou Arcana. Colouring on a couple of books which will be BIG! I will be working on a graphic Novel interpretation of Scottish travellers tales. As well there are a few painting commissions on the go, everything from Fire fighters to folk art.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I also have my Youth work, firefighting, Political activism; I ran a pottery for years, I've also done lots of treeplanting, green projects, manual labour. I could have gone in many many directions but Art is the thing that has stopped me simply going mad!

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
www.balnacra.com
http://hiexcomics.blogspot.com/

July Guest – Mike Collins!

1) What was your first published work?
EXCHANGE & MART 1983- A mate was selling some bit of kit and decided it was cheaper to get me to draw it than supply a photo that needed scanning/fixing.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Good art, bad art. I remember getting some comics on holiday in Morcambe in 1969 when I was eight. Two Adams X-Men and the first Gil Kane Captain Marvel (#17?). I've still got em, all dog eared and bent. They amazed me in the way the lovely but so still art in British weeklies didn't. The dynamism was astonishing. I then discovered Garth by Frank Bellamy, and John M.Burns stuff in Look-In- damnit, we could do dramatic!
Bad art inspires me, as looking at what I don't like makes me see the shortcomings in my own stuff, and strive to fix them.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
See attached: Doctor Strange! I became a comic buyer properly in the early 70s when Frank Brunner was drawing the book, followed by Gene Colan. That, right there, was damn fine comics.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
In 2000/2001 I was working for Marvel but just on their Star Trek books, and I'd been talking to Bobbie Chase about getting back into super hero work for them. I did a series of pin ups to show what I could do (as I'd gotten pigeon holed into the likeness stuff). This was one of those images.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Mainly working in animation right now, storyboarding Horrid Henry for telly, but I've a Dredd with Cliff Robinson inking me out later in the summer, then some Doctor Who work before the end of the year.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I trained as a lawyer, so I'd be rocking a mouldy wig in some dowdy courtroom as a barrister- and probably being a wee bit richer!

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
Either through my lousily maintained website, www.freakhousegraphics.com, or on Deviant Art http://mikecollins.deviantart.com/, where a I post a lot on my non-comics (illustration) work.

July Guest – John Higgins!

1) What was your first published work?
Home Grown Magazine, painted cover 1977

2) Who or what inspires you?
Leonard Da Vinci and Richard Corben, seriously!

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
A Batman Story written by Mike Carroll or Al Ewing.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
This is one of my Twist Bitches, part woman, part bioengineered killing entity,
trained since puberty to kill and destroy any living thing she has been pointed at by her god, Razorjack.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Razorjack is an ongoing Trans Media creative platform initiated by my self under the patronage of Com.x. This is a personal art project that is on going until it reaches a certain creative tipping point. And I have just started a Dredd story written by the inimitable Michael Carroll, SF book writer extraordinaire who is fast becoming one of the modern Dredd writers, with Al Ewing who’s stories inspire me to go beyond my Dredd comfort zone, and demands that I give more on the page. As Dredd is one of my all time favorite characters I find this just makes my job even more enjoyable.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
You know that smelly bloke you step over under any railway embankment?

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
www.turmoilcolour.com

July Guest – Kevin Levell!

1) What was your first published work?
I had a few illustrations in a book called The Secret History of Giants...

2) Who or what inspires you?
My wife, my friends and the occasional serendipity of my own thoughts.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
It's a toughie, my initial reaction was 'a John Wagner Judge Dredd', because that's the childhood dream... but on reflection, I think anything for 2000ad would be cool and then going onwards, just to work on original stuff. Superman is another childhood dream, so that would be nice too.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
Well, rather predictably, it's 2000ad related - Durham Red from the Strontium Dog universe - Vampires are super popular at the moment and it's surprises me that she hasn't returned to the prog to cash in on that juve-appeal... I'd love to draw her if she ever did return to the prog though... Tharg? Please?

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I've a few things in the works, mostly I can't talk about them though. The major thing I can't talk about is Corvus, the graphic novel I'm doing with Rich Clements - no, I can't talk about that all... yet!

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Excluding all creative outlets? I guess it would be something to do with animals - my favourite animal is the otter, so perhaps something conservation-y to do with them?

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://kevlev.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/kevlevell
http://www.kevlev.co.uk

Finally, thanks for including me in your birthday celebrations! I'm chuffed to have been included!

July Guest - Neil Roberts!

1) What was your first published work?
My first published work was ‘Bringers of Death’ anthology from Black Library back in 2005. It was a cover I’d done on spec, whilst I was ‘between jobs’ - I’d been wanting to go freelance for a while and they were top of my list of publishers to contact.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Deadlines are the best inspiration. But, creatively? Anything goes. I’ve never wanted to limit myself to a genre or medium, so I’ve always looked at everything as a potential inspiration – holiday snaps, Ian Kennedy, the paintings of Velazquez, Steranko - even the lighting rig on The X Factor. Anything that I can appropriate to make my images look cool is alright by me.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Well, I’m already doing covers for Black Library, so that’s that one covered. Other than that, I’d love a shot at either the usual US comic houses or if D.C. Thomson ever revived Starblazer – that’d be fun! *nudges D.C Thomson*

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
The piece I’ve sent is a cover for an issue of Zarjaz fanzine from a few years ago – I’d wanted to try something more painterly and this was the perfect opportunity – also it was a smaller format and I wanted to riff on those Starblazer/ Commando cover palettes, very bright, often opposing colours. Plus, I wanted to give Wulf a certain Alan Moore-ness to him, with the intense look, beard and the hair. It seemed a natural fit.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Well, I’ve got loads of ’Horus Heresy‘ covers in the pipeline – some of them won’t be coming out until next year. I’ve got a few 2000AD covers coming up – a certain evil War-droid will be making an appearance. There’s a few Battletech covers I’ve recently completed. I’ve just done a load of videogame work for a small games company. I’ve got some logos for Maelstrom Games that have just been released.
The list is exhaustive – I’m trying to keep as busy as possible.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I’d have become a graphic designer or film-maker.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
Sure, my website is updated as and when work is in print – check it out at:
www.skinnyelbows.com
…and a blog of my process and updates of my appearance at signings can be found at:
www.skinnyelbows.blogspot.com
Also, nowadays I’m on Twitter, tweeting my spare time away, you can find me at:
@SkinnyElbows
See you in cyberspace!

July Guest – Robert Thomson!

1) What was your first published work?
My first published work was in a fanzine called Psyklops. That was around the middle of the 1980's. 1984, I think.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I love the craftmanship of artists such as Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy. Old school artists, I suppose, although any sequential artwork or illustration that's well executed always inspires me to pick up my pens and try harder.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I suppose with my love of old school artists it would need to be an old school character. Dan Dare would be my choice. I wouldn't mind having a shot at Judge Dredd though. Knowing Dredd he'd probably shoot back.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
This illustration was completed a few years ago when I was still working in Advertising. It remains my favourite because I managed to achieve ( I think) the illusion of depth of field.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I've just finished inking chores on a strip for Total Fear, Curt Sibling's self published anthology comic magazine. Now I'm gearing up to develop some personal projects and also begin working with my long term collaborator Craig Collins, talented Writer and all round good guy, on one or two ideas which, unfortunately, I can't say too much about at the moment.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Something creative, I'm sure. I've always been involved in the creative sphere to some extent from Cartooning and Illustration to Advertising and Animation. So something creative, definitely.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://comicscorner.ning.com under my alter ego Tiberius McGregor.

July Guest – Dave Shelton!

1) What was your first published work?
An editorial illustration in a long defunct computing magazine called Program Now. This would have been in about 1990, I think. A watercolour piece of, if my failing memory serves, a man with a big hole in his head looking at a computer printout. Can't remember what it all meant. Though I do remember the arms were a bit dodgy.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Noir movies, Billy Wilder, P G Wodehouse, Tom Waits, Ivor Cutler, Radio 4, Ronald Searle, Posy Simmonds, Fritz Wegner, the main squeeze and her daughter, various cartoonist mates (Faz Choudhury, Roger Langridge, Jonathan Edwards, Mark Stafford, Warwick Johnson Cadwell, Woodrow Phoenix, Simon Gane, Tom Gauld), J H Buchanan and tea. Oh and Anon. I've always been amazed by his/her productivity and diversity of output...

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Character design work for Pixar would be fabulous. Otherwise I seem to be ambling closer to my dream job anyway. I'm mostly working on writing and drawing stories of my own these days with pretty minimal editorial interference (but very good editorial support). I just want to get better at that, really. And faster. I don't really have any hankering to be let loose on some iconic Marvel superhero or anything. I wouldn't know what to do with them.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
This is a few years old now, and maybe rather unlike anything I've ever done professionally, but I always rather liked it. It was a character I drew for Sam Hiti's Fist A Cuffs site. Different cartoonists drew contestants for a mad wrestling tournament and each round was decided by voting in the comments section. I was really pleased with Bird Brain. Naturally he was knocked out in the first round. In retrospect, drawing him with a clearly injured knee probably wasn't doing his chances any favours...

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Probably the next thing to come out will be my debut non-comics children's book A Boy and a Bear in a Boat. It's all done now (after a long while) and comes out in January. I'm currently working on Good Dog, Bad Dog Book 2 (working title: The Big Screen), my contribution to the multi-creator Nelson project, edited by Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, and some strips for The Phoenix (no relation - the DFC's zombie offspring) when it launches in (probably) January.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I really don't know. I sometimes think that being a builder of drystone walls might have pleased me though. I worked part-time in a bookshop for nearly a decade and part of my job was sending returns back to the publishers. I got pretty darn good at fitting different-sized books together in the best possible fashion to fit them into the box. I figure dry stone walling would be the same kind of thing but on a bigger scale. With rocks. And outdoors. Probably in Scotland. Sounds all right.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
www.daveshelton.com and www.daveshelton.blogspot.com

July Guest – Roberto Zaghi!

1) What was your first published work?
it was an album of LEGS WEAVER, a sci-fi/humor italian series edited by Sergio Bonelli Editore, a spin-off of NATHAN NEVER. The issue was written by Michele Medda, there was a giant robot and it was great fun to draw!

2) Who or what inspires you?
In comics, of course a big number of artists, but I love Alex Toth's work above all. Jorge Zaffino at 2nd place. Speaking of people currently at work, Jose Garcia-Lopez and Goran Parlov are likely at the top of the list.
Also master illustrators of the 50s and 60s do inspire me a lot. Then Hitchcock, Altman, Lynch, W. Allen, Francesco Rosi, Joel & Ethan Coen....

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Hmmm.... I'm always in trouble with this question. A romance story set during WWII, but tomorrow I may say a completely different thing.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
2 panels of Julia, the lady criminologist created by Giancarlo Berardi and published by Bonelli Editore, and 2 panels of Thomas SIlane, the journalist created by Patrice Buendia and Philippe Chanoinat for Bamboo Edition, beautifully colored by Cyril Saint-Blancat. It's all pen-brush/ink work... I'm still an analog artist.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
A new issue of JULIA for 2012. THOMAS SILANE #6 coming out in France/Belgium this fall.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I left the the faculty of Chemistry to draw comics, but well... I remember that it was a very interesting field!

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
On my blog: http://robertozaghi.blogspot.com/ and my Facebook profile!

Thank you SC and congrats for your 2nd anniversary!

July Guest – Roger Langridge!

1) What was your first published work?
My absolute first published work was a strip on the children's page of a Sunday newspaper - a fairly terrible superhero spoof called Captain Krimble, when I was 13 years old. My first published work as an adult (or somebody who could pass for one in a good light) was a cover for Auckland University's student newspaper in 1988, when I would have been 21 years old - I can't remember what the reason was, but the theme of the illustration was "20% extra", so I drew a lot of people with extra limbs, two heads etc.

2) Who or what inspires you?
My biggest single inspiration is probably The Goon Show, closely followed by the work of Carl Barks (creator of Uncle Scrooge) and E.C. Segar (cartoonist of the original Popeye strips). I've stolen tics and flourishes from dozens of artists that I like, though, everyone from Will Eisner to Edward Gorey to Ken Reid - hopefully assimilating them into my own style for the most part. You shouldn't be able to see the joins if I'm doing it right.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I prefer drawing stuff I've come up with myself, but if I had to choose something that's already out there, I'd love to have a crack at writing and drawing Popeye. (Or Plastic Man. Or Metamorpho, the Element Man...)

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
This was an early version of the illustration that eventually became the cover for my first self-published comic, Fred the Clown #1, in 2001 - I drew this version in (I think) 2000, originally with the intention of releasing a collection of my web strips featuring the character with these illustrations as chapter headings. I redrew the picture from scratch for the eventual comic.

The Fred the Clown character was something of a blank slate upon whom I could throw various styles or formal experiments - the picture itself is heavily inspired by the early animated cartoons by Walt Disney, Max Fleischer and others. I really love the aesthetic of those old, relatively plotless cartoons where the characters essentially just bounced around and suffered pratfalls for seven music-filled minutes.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Coming up: in August, my new series for Boom! Studios, Snarked!, kicks off with a preview issue. This is a Lewis Carroll-inspired comedy adventure which I'm writing and drawing. Then, in September, a few things: a 220-page collection from Boom! of previously uncollected material called The Show Must Go On, collecting work I've drawn and (mostly) written myself over the past 20-odd years; the first issue of an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter: A Princess of Mars, which I'm writing (but not drawing - that responsibility falls to Filipe Andrade); and a contribution to Archaia's Jim Henson's Storyteller anthology, in which I've adapted a Scandinavian folk tale called "Old Nick and the Peddler". Last but not least, in November I'm one of the contributors to Nelson, a graphic novel from Blank Slate Books in which fifty cartoonists each contribute a chapter describing one day in the year of the life of a single person, building her life story over the course of the book. I'm inking that one right now.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I may have ended up a performer of some kind - I used to dabble in amateur theatricals and really enjoyed it, but I realised I couldn't do both that and cartooning simultaneously and be really good at both things - so cartooning it was. These days, though, I think if I couldn't draw for whatever reason, writing would be the next most natural thing to pursue.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
There are links to everything I do at www.hotelfred.com - everybody's welcome!

July Guest - Garen Ewing!

1) What was your first published work?
I published my first fanzine, Demon Issue, in March 1985 when I was 15. I think my first professionally published drawings were for a book called 'The Good Skin Doctor' by Anne Lovell and Dr Anthony Chu, published by Thorsens (1999).

2) Who or what inspires you?
Glorious adventure stories, whether in comic or film; Franco-Belgian albums full of sumptuous art and captivating tales; history and the natural world. All that!

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I'd love to have my own comic adventure series in the European album format - that's been my ambition since I was a kid. Oh, wait - that's what I do - hooray!

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
Back in 2008 I drew an A-Z of comic characters, each letter being voted for by the members of a specially set up Facebook group. Judge Death came up for the letter J. You can see the full A-Z here: http://www.rainboworchid.co.uk/blog/az.php

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I'm currently finishing off volume 3 - the final volume - of my Julius Chancer adventure, The Rainbow Orchid. It will be published in the UK in April 2012.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Well, I am a writer as well, so without the drawing I'd like to think I would still have the writing. Failing that, probably a hotel porter or a fork lift truck driver - I was quite good at that.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
Come on over to www.rainboworchid.co.uk and www.garenewing.co.uk

July Guest - Jon Haward!

1) What was your first published work?
A mag called preview published by Terry Hooper in 1987 I drew a strip called Deman written by my friend Steven Branson.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Frank Bellamy he never handed in a rubbish job, his work still looks cool today just check out the reprints of Garth in the Mirror newspaper, he had a great sense of design in his work plus power and drama, so many artists copied him but he was a one off a total original. I heard Heros the Spartan was being published by Titan, I hope so as this work deserves to be seen.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Batman with Alan Grant, Conan with Roy Thomas, Hellboy with Mike Mignola and Thor with Stan Lee.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
It's a pin up of the Mighty Thor I drew for the Glasgow Comic Con booklet 2011 as the movie has just broke big at the box office I thought it would be cool to draw him, he's always been in my top ten Marvel characters and I've read his adventures since I was a boy. The colour version was coloured by Sha Nazir.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Still art directing Hamlet for Classical Comics although the layouts have all been completed, I'm working on a few projects that I can't talk about just yet but I'm pleased to be drawing them, I also have a load of pitches being looked at by Print Media for Strip Magazine.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Be a cook, I love cooking and it's also a creative trade.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://www.jonhawardart.com/
http://hawardarthouse.blogspot.com/
http://jon-haward.blogspot.com/
http://hamletroughcut.blogspot.com/

Spirit of Hope Signing
Jon dropped us this excellent image of his contribution to the charity book Spirit of Hope and a note to say that he'll be signing at the Spirit of Hope launch on the 23rd July, 1pm-2pm at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

July Guest – Stuart Kolakovic!

1) What was your first published work?
Not 100% sure; I think it was a boring editorial illustration for some Pharmaceuticals magazine in America.

2) Who or what inspires you?
Black Sabbath, Thrasher, my friends.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" or Stoker's "Dracula" for a solid publisher, like The Folio Society or something like that. That'd be pretty cool.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
Most of my illustration work is deliberately quite "Kitsch", flat and graphic (and is usually influenced by my interest in Eastern European folk art) in the hope of trying to make a living drawing commercial illustration. But I feel quite disconnected to my work. When my friends that aren't "artists" see my work, they usually say "That's gay". So I took a few months off to draw a bunch of pictures that I think are a bit more, er, "me". I've drawn them under a pseudonym, "Herman Inclusus", so as not to get people confused with this new body of work and my illustration portfolio and not to scare any Art Directors away. The work was on show installed in a wooden church at London's Nobrow gallery until 22nd June. The work is also available to view and buy online at www.hermaninclusus.co.uk.

It's all pretty dark stuff, inspired by my love for Metal, my interest in the occult and folklore and generally just an excuse to draw gnarly old monk dudes and naked chicks being burnt at the stake. I enjoy playing around with type, but I didn't feel comfortable writing some of the stuff I wanted to say out right. So I wrote everything out in a type of really primitive anagram/code. It's definitely not a complex Tolkien-esque language, but I dig that a lot of people aren't going to bother wasting their time trying to read it. I suppose it's the opposite from what I'm meant to do as an illustrator, ie, draw everything as obvious and as easy to read as possible.

It's still got that eastern european aesthetic though; unashamedly ripping off bits of Eastern/Greek Orthodoxy and Iconography that I've infused with a gothic/occult outlook. I remember being pretty freaked out by the chanting and chalices and beards at my Grandad's funeral. I'm an atheist, so I'm waiting for a bunch of Russian Orthodox fanatics to send me a bunch of hate emails. I quite like the idea of some sort of medieval, traveling, illiterate Monk wandering the vast plains of Russia who created his own religion; stealing bits of folklore and copying the Byzantine style from the few churches he's wandered past.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I'm meant to be working on a comic book called "Lichen" which will be published by Blankslate books. I'm finding it pretty difficult to make time to work on it though. I haven't worked on it in a good few months and every-time I look at it, I cringe. If that ever gets finished, I want to continue festering over my own personal projects and develop the Herman Inclusus stuff.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I'd be a Serial Killer.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
www.stuartkolakovic.co.uk
www.hermaninclusus.co.uk
http://www.heartagency.com/artist/StuartKolakovic/gallery/1

July Guest - Curt Sibling!

1) What was your first published work?
I self-published the 1st Total Fear comic back in 1991. As for pro publishers, I had a strip in the "Big Book of Urban Legends" around the same time.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I am inspired by the great (and small) events of history, human weirdness and the amazing ideas and works of various singular minds.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
Oh...Possibly a comic adaptation of a Russ Meyer movie, or a series of Hammer girl comic pin-ups...Paid work of course! :D

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
It's of a female warrior called Hakati, from my fantasy comic "King Evil". Giant monsters and little lizards are a regular feature in this strip!

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Having just released the new "Hiss" comic, I'm now working on the latest issue of "Total Fear".

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
As a teeb, I was going to join the RAF, so I might now have been attaching missiles to Tornado fighters in some hot, horrible part of the world.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
I have the inevitable Deviant Art Gallery. It can bee seen here: http://curtsibling.deviantart.com/gallery/

July Guest - Nelson Evergreen!

1) What was your first published work?
Well, my first paying job was some Robin Hood illustrations for a school textbook. I drew Robin as a cross between Errol Flynn and Jimmy Hill, but was instructed to de-lengthen his face so he looked more like Kevin Costner. Grrr. By rights though, my first actual published work was in computer games mag Zzap! 64 a few years earlier. They ran this great competition: draw a picture of a cyborg on his day off. First prize was a tiny Toshiba CD player. I won!

2) Who or what inspires you?
My girlfriend has a fantastic brain, and comes up with all sorts of great off-the-cuff stuff which helps fill in the blanks as well as setting me off in interesting new directions.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
An illustrated collection of fairy tales for kids who think they've grown out of fairy tales. There's so much more meat in those stories when you can really let rip with them. Either that or a mad, inventive, funny sci-fi romp.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
The closing pages from 'Damienne Hobbs Reflects', a nonsensical wordless comic strip produced for the first issue of New British Comics ( http://newbritishcomics.blogspot.com - it's onto issue 3 now, and going from strength to strength). Basically a long, time consuming experiment that was slightly brain-melty but a lot of fun!

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Currently working on b&w interior illustrations for several teenage books, all of which happen to be very ghostly and/or very creepy, which means I'm happy as a pig in the proverbial. Just finishing off a promotional poster for Scholastic, too. Plus lots of personal projects/pitches that I'm dying to get stuck back into as and when.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Something equally precarious! I'd say a musician if I wasn't already a failed one.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://www.nelson-evergreen.com
http://nelson-evergreen.blogspot.com/

July Guest - Anton Emdin!

1) What was your first published work?
Well, that would be the school newspaper. But my first paid piece was for a weekly local paper called the Sydney City Hub. I had my own little regular spot on the back page in which I could draw a comic strip or single panel gag.

2) Who or what inspires you?
I have my old favourite artists - many of the old MAD Magazine guys like Elder, Kurtzman and Davis - but I'm constantly being blown away by a lot of stuff on the web. My favourite Aussie illustrator at the moment would be Eamo - his work is so fresh and uniquely Aussie.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
I'd love a TIME cover. That would be pretty cool.

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
Strip Club - This is a full pager for Australian People magazine for a semi-regular spot called "DIY: How To". It's packed with little gags, and the mag runs some funny copy letting readers know the best way to negotiate certain situations. There's more info here http://www.antonemdin.com/blog/2011/05/strip-club/

Don's Party - This is a Spectator cover featuring Australian playwright David Williamson with the cast of his play, 'Don's Party'. International audiences may not recognise the personalities, but I really like the way this one turned out - composition, colour... sometimes it all just works.

Snail Rider - This is just a quick brush and ink drawing for my own enjoyment, but I love doing looser art when I can. A lot of my paid work is done digitally these days, so I relax and quick back with the brush.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I'm finishing off a double-pager for MAD today. Next week, another big crazy scene for People.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Wasn't an option not to draw, but I used to enjoy playing in bands too. I've always fantasised about doing gardening or something manual, but I'd probably miss the mental stimulation.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
You can see a lot of my work at www.antonemdin.com and at the blog: www.blog.antonemdin.com. I also have portfolios at my agency: www.drawingbook.com.au/anton_emdin and at behance: www.behance.net/antonemdin

July Guest - Manoel Magalhães!

1) What was your first published work?
It was an ilustration called "Puma Shaman", for an RPG magazine from Issaries Inc., back in 2003, I guess...

2) Who or what inspires you?
Well, it´s a long list... Moebius, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, Roy Crane, Alfonso Font, Corrado Mastantuono, Duncan Fegredo, Joe Kubert, Will Eisner, Pierre Alary, Denis Bodart... I better stop here, it would take many lines to point them all!

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
My dream job? My own projects being published by some major house! And I´m almost there...

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
Well, one of them is the page of a comisson job I´ve been working for some time. It´s a graphic novel about the great british explorer Colonel Fawcett. The other one is when I started trying out my tablet and the use of colors. The other one is when I woke up one day and wondered: "how´s my work with pencils? Let´s check it out!"

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
I´ve got a sci-fi project called COLONEL, which´s about to be published by Blackline Comics, and I am finishing a new one called SYNCHRONICITY, another sci-fi.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
I´d be a very unhappy person...

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
Take a look at my blog: www.blogmanoel.blogspot.com