NOT JUST A LETTERER...

'Homage' to cover of IRON MAN #150.  Hand drawn, no tracing or graph
paper or projectors involved.  Characters copyright MARVEL COMICS

It's not generally known, but although I was primarily a lettering artist throughout my 15 year career in comics, my original 'ambition' was to be an adventure comic strip artist.  I started lettering simply to get my size 9s in the door, but when I saw I could earn more as a letterer than as an artist (on account of being faster at the former than the latter), I stuck mainly with the lettering.

However, I did a bit of drawing as well, adding to panels when re-sizing IPC comic libraries, and doing occasional spot illos when the opportunity presented itself.  I also worked as a restoration artist on some MARVEL MASTERWORK volumes, re-inking and even re-creating JACK KIRBY art, which was a huge thrill for me.

However, my frank and forthright views on this blog on the current state of the British comics 'industry' (hah!) has brought me in for criticism from some quarters, with a few disgruntled individuals dismissing me as "only a letterer" and a "Kirby tracer".  Thing is, I got my first paying gig as a cartoonist when I was still a schoolboy, and have produced artwork for publication (and for which I was actually paid) since even before (during and after) I started freelancing for IPC/FLEETWAY, MARVEL COMICS (and others).

So here are a few examples of pencil and ink artwork ranging from my teenage years right up to adulthood.  Quite a few are professional pieces I was paid for, some were freebies for people I know, and the remainder were done simply for my own amusement.  I've shown them all before on the blog at various times, but it can't hurt to remind people I'm certainly more than "only a letterer".  Funny how some people who work in comics mistakenly imagine it's the only legitimate outlet for an artist's work, eh?

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Wow!  This is one of the fastest visited posts in my blog's history - and quite a number of them via proxy servers and 'detour' routes too.  (Must be from people who don't want me to know they've looked.)  And yet, no comments so far.  Don't be shy now; tickle my ego by telling me what I know already - some of these images ain't half bad at all!

Pencil caricature (using my pseudonym) done as a gift for someone

"As you dislike a certain cartoonist's version of DESPERATE DAN, then why not do it
yourself?" someone dared.  So I did!  Characters copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

B&W copy of colour ad for local restaurant.  Fee was £100, but decided not to sell in the end

2000 A.D. pin-up.  I was paid for it, but don't know if it was ever
published.  Characters copyright REBELLION PUBLISHING

Pencil sample which led to ltg work from IPC.  Characters copyright MARVEL COMICS

Set of four cartoon illustrations (sans captions) for Equestrian event programme

Cartoon illustration for local business

Acrylic ink caricature of a friend's son

Pencil caricature done as a gift for someone

Parody of AMAZING FANTASY #15 splash page

Cartoon strip for local business

Proposed strip (at the request of BOB PAYNTER) for OINK! while at the preparation
stage.  Never got any feedback, but a similar character appeared a few months later

WILLIAM HARTNELL 'DOCTOR' and TARDIS drawn in 1983, background completed in 2013

Acrylic ink portrait done as a gift for someone.
Yeah, you can see my heart wasn't really  in it

Drawing done as a gift for someone.  Copyright KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, Inc

Newspaper ad drawn as a teenager for local business

Photocopy of pencil drawing done for my own amusement around 1981

Instruction leaflet for local business's delivery drivers

Newspaper ad for Glasgow hairdressers

Acrylic ink caricature done as a gift for someone

Logo for The ILLUSTRATED COMIC JOURNAL

Drawing done as a gift for someone

Pair of flyers for local business

Proposed logo for Glasgow Con.  Don't know if it was used or not

Cartoons (sans captions) for two camping posters done in my late teens/early 20s

Logo for local business

Acrylic ink caricature done as a gift for someone

Quick caricature done as a gift for someone

Fun & Activity booklet produced for local business

Acrylic ink caricature done as a gift for someone

Unfinished pencil caricature

Comic strip drawn for The BOOTS NEWS when I was 17.  Coloured decades later

Pencil drawing done as a teenager

Unpublished strip for local paper.  Others were published though

Cartoon strip drawn for my own amusement

Character copyright DC COMICS

And finally - a couple of pages of JK artwork I inked.  The FF one appeared in an issue
of The JACK KIRBY Collector.  Characters copyright MARVEL COMICS

A VIEW TO A KILL TRAILER...

A VIEW TO A KILL was ROGER MOORE's

swansong as JAMES BOND, but it was probably his

weakest outing as secret agent 007.  Nothing to do with

ol' Rog himself,  more to do with the fact that it was re-

cycling stunts seen years before in TV's The FALL

GUY and even black and white silent films.

Although it had some good moments, overall it

was a bit of a damp squib.  However, let's not hold

that against it as we watch the trailer for the final film

of the longest-serving Bond of all.  Seven movies over

twelve years is nothing to be sniffed at.  Okay, all

together now - "We want Woger!"

BABE Of The DAY - BRIGITTE BARDOT...

Better wrap up, BRIGITTE - there's

a bit of a nip in the air.  (Which you can

see if you look closely enough.)

LOOPY LAPSES In LOGIC DEPARTMENT - PUZZLE Of The PERILOUS PRISONS!

From MYSTERY IN SPACE #91.  Image copyright DC COMICS

So here's the scoop!  ADAM STRANGE and his girlfriend ALANNA arrive on Earth (having hitched a ride with HAWKMAN and HAWKGIRL), unaware that MORTAN (the baddie) intends to prematurely return Alanna to RANN.  Having secretly bathed her in negative ZETA-BEAMS before she left, Mortan's plan is that Adam will then return to Rann at the earliest opportunity, the two lovers will run into one another's arms and - KA-BLOOIE! - the end of both of them as positive and negative Zeta-beams just don't mix.

Sounds simple, right?  However, look at the pic.  There's Mortan aiming his gun at the pair.  He's got a clear shot and nobody even suspects he's there.  So why not simply aim a disintegrator gun at the duo and blow them off the face of the planet?  Well, then we wouldn't have a story is the obvious answer, but it makes one realize just how artificially convoluted (not to mention redundant) some of the plots were in a lot of those old stories.  Full marks for ingenuity, but none for logic.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further 'Loopy Lapses in Logic Dept.' instalments in future posts.