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| Images copyright REBELLION |
As it's currently 2000 A.D.'s 40th Anniversary, I thought I'd celebrate a little Anniversary of my own. Namely, the 32nd Anniversary (as near as dammit) of the appearance of the first strip I ever lettered for the mag. It seems like only yesterday in memory, but I was still a young man around my mid-20s when I lettered this tale in the Walsingham Guest House in Southsea, sometime in January 1985. (Though I may have started it in the Wansbeck Hotel in London the day before.) Ah, happy days. So - "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" below.
(Actually, it's 32 years to the day since the above issue went on sale. It's dated March 2nd, which means it appeared in newsagents' shops on February 23rd. I didn't realise that when I decided to re-post the piece, it's simply an amazing coincidence. Wow!)
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Not counting paid jobs I'd done since still at school, my very first 'big-time' professional freelance lettering job was for IPC MAGAZINES in 2000 A.D. - a strip called 'EXTRA! EXTRA!', which appeared in Prog 407, cover-dated March 2nd, 1985. (It wasn't my first published IPC job however - that was a CAPTAIN KID - The PINT-SIZED PIRATE page in WHIZZER & CHIPS, which I lettered one night in the 2000 A.D. office before going home to my bedsit in Fratton, Portsmouth.)
The story was written by PETE MILLIGAN and the art drawn by the late JOSE CASANOVAS, who sadly died in 2009. To be honest, I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did. I didn't have the right 'patch-paper' so the lettering came out a little scratchy-looking and was also a tad too large. I remember STEVE MacMANUS being quite pleased with it though, especially the newspaper headlines.
And thus began my full-time, fifteen year career working for the 'big boys' - not only IPC but also MARVEL COMICS (the British and American divisions). Anyway, I thought that some of you might enjoy seeing where it all began. (Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Casanovas' art is slightly reminiscent of RON TURNER's?)
I'd like to think that I improved over the coming months once I 'found' my style, but, all in all, it wasn't too bad a beginning for someone starting out in the world of comics. Technology can be a wonderful thing, but I can't help but feel that some of the art has gone from lettering now that anyone with a keyboard and access to computer fonts can do what once used to lie only within the province of calligraphic artists.
The original scans were a bit 'ropey' (pun intended), so I've now replaced them with far clearer ones. The pages don't look pixelated now and are a lot easier to read.
