Ray Stantz

Jimi Hendrix

Loved Jimi Hendrix's music since I was a teenager and first heard 'Are You Experienced'. I've known a basic history of the man but never looked into who he was in any great way. The BBC series Imagine showed the docu-film 'Hear My Train A Comin' the other week and it was pleasing to see that the man came across as a genuinely nice guy. I liked his attitude to life and one piece of footage showed him being interviewed on TV for the Dick Cavett Show, he was asked about fame and what kind of compliments he liked to hear about himself, his response sums him up:

I don't really live on compliments. As a matter of fact, they have a way of distracting me. I know a whole lot of musicians, artists out there who hears the compliments and thinks "wow, I must have been really great" and so they get fat and satisfied and they get lost and forget about their actual talent and start living in another world.

This was painted on watercolour paper in black wash and then I added colour in Photoshop, felt good to do a little tribute to a great person.

Peter Venkman

ECTO-1

Leo Baxendale

Over on the Forbidden Planet Blog they celebrated 60 working years of artist Leo Baxendale who has brought us many a memorable British comic character including the likes of Minnie the Minx and Grimly Feendish. They asked some folks to help mark this anniversary by drawing their favourite creation of Leo's and you can see the results here: http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2013/comics-happy-60th-anniversary-leo/
Above you can see a section of my tribute just before a certain Minx does something a bit naughty.

Let the Wookie win...

Pinhead

Madman with a box

Next?

John Byrne

My first exposure to John Byrne wasn't the much lauded TV series 'Tutti Frutti' but the 'follow up' series 'Your Cheatin' Heart'. Apart from loving the series (probably my first exposure to Tilda Swinton too) it also showed me that the writer, director was also an insanely brilliant artist.

Without doubt the best person to draw John Byrne is actually John Byrne who has painted many wonderful self portraits but as I watched an episode of 'What Do Artists Do All Day' on BBC4 highlighting John Byrne I was struck by his profile in one scene and paused it to sketch it out.

Screaming at me from the past!

The normal 24 hours in a day just isn't enough for me at the moment so I've had no time to set up the post I had planned, instead I raid my archive for a fan magazine cover I did back in 2005. Eagle Flies Again ran a UK comic horror special and I drew up a tribute to the comic Scream for its cover. I only produced pencil art for this and just bumped up the black in Photoshop for the final image. I'd change a few things about it now but I'm still reasonably pleased with the look of the central characters, well I'd redraw Dracula but if I did that I'd end up redrawing the lot so I won't go down that route. Here then is cover I drew in 2005.

Convention sketch

I'm all kinds of rushed again today and my planned post will have to wait. I don't think I've posted this before so this convention sketch from a while back will have to suffice. Judge Death headshot is a favourite convention sketch for me, its one I think I can get away with while being watched by others and nobody leaves utterly disappointed :)

UPDATE: Turns out I have posted that before so here is a Dredd Head that I haven't.

The Gunslinger - WestWorld

WestWorld is another film that I can instantly recall my first ever viewing of, not the date but where I was at least and that was in my grandfathers house in Dunston. It was being shown on TV and I reckon I must have been about 10. What a film! Two friends go on western themed adventure park holiday, populated by androids so close to human beings you wouldn't know the difference and where anything goes. Things take a turn for the worse for those visiting when the androids start to malfunction and kill the holidaymakers. Our two friends find themselves on the wrong side of the Gunslingers pistol. He's the original Terminator, ruthless and single minded, what the heck could you do to get the gunslinger give up!?!

My thoughts about Yul Brynner's portrayal of the 'Gunslinger' where not based on Schwarzenegger's Terminator (it wasn't released yet) but more to do with the relentless Doctor Who baddies the Cybermen, you couldn't stop them (well maybe if you had some gold on you) and you sure weren't going to stop the gunslinger. Even before his programming took a hit the gunslinger gave me the creeps. I didn't know the look of the character was based on Brynner's previous role in The Magnificent Seven I just knew you wouldn't mess with him. Plus of course it's Yul Brynner, the guy was cool, that trademark bald head, those piercing eyes. The guy was cool.

WestWorld was written and directed by Michael Crichton (he of Jurassic Park fame) and released 40 years ago. Apart from loving the film anyway that kind of makes it extra special for me being released on the year of my birth. A less than brilliant sequel, FutureWorld, was released three years later and there was even a very short lived and hardly seen TV series. Rumours are forever being posted about a remake but I reckon you'd be hard pressed to top the imagination and originality that the 1973 version gave. 

WIP Impossible Girl

Silly busy at the moment with no real time for anything so you'll have to do with a blurred iPhone pic of work in progress. Just enough time to say I'm pretty excited by the casting of the 12th Doctor, excellent choice of an excellent actor.

Scotch Corners

I was in the wilds of Perthshire last week on a quick family break and while visiting the very picturesque village of Pitlochry I just had to get an ice cream from somewhere suitable.

Evil Genius

"If I were creating a world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one!"

The Evil Genius played by David Warner in one of my favourite films Time Bandits. Pencils, Copic Markers and Brush Pen.

Thrud the Barbarian

Over on my own blog I posted up an old interview I did with the creator of Thrud, Carl Critchlow, then years ago. Sheesh time flies! Go take a look.

Little My

Telephone doodles of Little My, I find her disposition most pleasing and she's fun to draw.

Time Bomb

I've said a few times I love when a private commission hits my own 'geek spot' and illustrating Johnny Alpha from the 2000ad strip Strontium Dog always hits that spot. A4 in size and finished with inks, Copic pens and Promarkers there has since been a few nice added bonuses for the happy owner of the piece. The illustration will be putting in an appearance in not only the fanzine Dogbreath published by FutureQuakePress but also appeared in the pages of 2000ad sneaked in as a cover to a future issue. I've written a 'reference' piece on my blog about the strip for those who like knowing all the details.

2000AD - Time Is The Only Enemy

2000AD Prog 1837 is out tomorrow (19th June) and features a four page Future Shock tale I illustrated written by David Baillie called 'Time Is The Only Enemy'. It has been close to two years since I did any work for the Galaxy's Greatest Comic so it was a welcome commission and a joy to be back in my favourite comic.

The Forbidden Planet Blog has a preview of the comic to tempt you and finding it on the shelves of your local newsagents should be easy enough with this stunning Judge Dredd cover by Scotch Corner guest Chris Weston.