Saturday 18 August 2012

The Snow Queen

Spot illustrations by Alan Davis. The Daredevils issue 8, August 1983.


Space Suburb

Centre-spread by Graham Bleathman from Space Precinct, dated 5th December 1995.
More GB cutaways here.




The Mad Emperor

Art by Robert Forrest. Knockout, dated 23rd July 1960.



MacTavish of Red Rock

Art by Mike Western. Knockout, dated 1st September 1962.



Von Hoffman's Invasion

Eric Bradbury illustrates this story from Jet, dated 18th September 1971.




Friday 17 August 2012

Root of the Trouble

Art by Edgar Spenceley. Illustrations for a prose story in the Daily Mail Boys Annual, 19? Not sure, early-to-mid sixties?




Vengeance Comes Unseen

Art by Terry Patrick. The Hotspur, October 21st 1967.



Fishboy

Art by John Stokes from Buster, dated 1st November 1975.



Wednesday 15 August 2012

Espers

While not 'technically' British comics, apart from the writer and publisher, Espers was drawn, coloured and lettered by Brits. So there! It's a cool series and the writer, James Hudnall's Age of Heroes, is at this very moment appearing in Strip Magazine. Anyway, there's a cool roster of cover artists, plus David Lloyd and John Burns providing interior art along the way.

Oh yeah, circa 1987.

Mick Austin.


John Bolton.



Brian Bolland.



Garry Leach.


John Burns.















Buffalo Bill

By Geoff Campion. Not sure what the date is for this one. It's from Comet, circa 1954. Well and truly plundered from this site.







When the Sky Turned Green

Carlos Cruz illustrates this story from Champion,  23rd of April 1966.

More info about Carlos Cruz translated into Google 'Ingrish', here .



The Killer in the Cab

I never read much about John Richardson, and yet he worked regularly for both DC Thomson and IPC in the 70s and 80s. Usually, he employed a more cartoony style, but he could do the straight stuff when needed. In this, Alan Moore's first work for 2000AD he seems to be channeling  Frank Bellamy.  Sorry about the quality of the scans they're not mine. From 2000AD dated 26th July 1980.

Small bio from John Richardson's website:

It was after studying at Art College that John Richardson decided to become a cartoonist and illustrator and his first professional work was providing strip cartoons for popular children's comics in the UK (eg. Bunty, Hotspur, 2000AD). John was also writing and illustrating his own strips in various magazines, 'Super CC' for 'Custom Car' magazine, 'Tina Tailpipe' for 'Superbike' magazine and 'Lunar Jetman' for 'Crash' magazine, all of which ran for many years. Newspaper work has included the 'Amanda' strip which appeared in the 'Sun'.





The Trails of Shiwa Sands

Art by Matias Alonso. Victor, dated June 12th 1971.




Monday 13 August 2012

Mark-making

Hm. When I initially came up with the idea for a website about British comic art I toyed with the idea of taking various artists work and comparing how they drew various elements, like trees, rocks, folds in clothing etc. Having once been interested in pursuing comics as a career I'd often poured over my favourite artists work to see how they constructed and rendered objects (which is why I find original art so interesting to view). I guess that's how a lot of people start: they copy another artists style until eventually they develop their own way of drawing things. My own drawing style is mainly based on a Moebius illustration I saw in a Metal Hurlant feature I read in NME back in the early 80's. Anyway, I was trawling the Net a while back and came across this bloke's blog and he had a similar idea. He's taken a couple of pieces of art and examined the mark-making within the page.

See, no idea is truly original.

Here's the original art, a John Hickleton page from 2000AD:


And a couple of examples of the mark-making process:



Any-hoo. If you're interested have a dekko at his blog:

John Hickleton.

Mike Dorey.

A page from 2000AD. Not the original art, unfortunately. 



Sunday 12 August 2012

Eartha

Art by John M Burns. Well and truly nicked from here.



More Eartha art at Alan Davis's site.


More John Burns here and here at Lew Stringer's blog.