Cyber Man

Of all the Dr Who creations I've drawn - I'm probably best known as the artist of The Cybermen - a 24 part story I drew back in the early 1990's. I'll be featuring an extensive post on this personal landmark series soon. Meantime he's a blog first - never reproduced anywhere - my take on the modern era Cybermen!

A

Baron Frankenstein ( A Terry Sharp film)

Waiting in the wings for quite awhile to be drawn is Terry Sharp's first gothic feature - BARON FRANKENSTEIN. Legend has it that two pencil layouts exist in the Studio - but for now may I unveil our main protagonists! My good friend Bob Tinnell wrote the tale - he also scribed our graphic novel THE FACELESS: A Terry Sharp Story which is available from Amazon. We both intend to get back to the big guy and I'll certainly be highlighting my favourite 1960's film director and fighter of Evil - here at the blog.

BARON FRANKENSTEIN was initially shelved for various reasons - running at 30 plus pages in colour - finding an opportunity for that much free time was a task. Also I'd just finished drawing UNIVERSAL MONSTERS for Dr Who Magazine and frankly - bad pun intended - I was burned on gothic. Yes it can happen. Anyway here's the pix.:)

A

Little Shoppe Of Horrors

Issue 22 of the brilliant Hammer Horror mag Little Shoppe Of Horrors is available now - this highlights Hammer's groovy 1970 Drac flicks! I must backtrack though to 1979. I was at my first fantasy convention - Terence Fisher in attendance - yep I'm that old .:) I was rummaging through the dealers room - I'd already bought a set of Twins of Evil front of house stills and a Vampire Circus quad poster - when I cam across a couple of very early issues of LSOH. A quick scan alerted me to the fact I needed these. I think I was thrilled to see such top quality artwork being used. I decided there and then I'd draw up some pieces and send them on ( ah to be 14 again:). Of course I never sent my crude attempts at drawing Hammer scenes - but the fire had been lit.

Fast forward a number of years - I meet my great artistic pal Neil Vokes ( http://vokesfolks.blogspot.com/) - Neil suggested me to Dick Klemensen and childhood dream came true. I drew up an Ingrid Pitt from Vampire Lovers and Maddie Smith from the same film. I've been fortunate enough to be in every issue since and trust me the artistic competition is daunting ( we are talking Bruce Timm for instance!!) - knees start wobbling.:)

Below you'll find the first of a number of LSOH pieces I'll be sharing. I pencilled Caroline Munro twice - you can see which one I submitted. I actually think the piece not used had the better idea - but the likeness worried me.

You can get LSOH at http://www.littleshoppeofhorrors.com/ and from next issue , Diamond won't be distributing it - so Dick's website is a must.

A

Reality Tv - Dr Who !

I was asked to supply four illustrations for a Doctor Who Magazine feature about alien invasion. The subjects chosen were the Cyberking from the latest Christmas Special episode , the Autons ( a groovy 1970's menace) , the Lochness monster ( the rather formidable Zygon pet) and The Daleks of course - from the latest incarnation of the show. The deadline was under a week and the Dalek spread stretched over two pages - so even if I drew it print size ( which I did) - time was very tight

The office supplied me screenshots of the Cyberking ( a cgi construct) . Whilst these were a mighty help they lacked alot of detail - personal interpretation the obvious answer. This one ended up having a chunky Mick McMahon look and was all the better for it. I loved drawing the Autons best. I skimmed through the Target novelisation looking for a suitable scene. I didn't want to just show 'em crashing through a shop window - but actually facing the Army ( which we never see in SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE but it's in the book). The Lochness Monster was arguably the trickiest - trying to fit in all the elements including the Zygon tracker drove me a little nuts - the addition of a filter on the monsters flesh made me very happy in the end. The Daleks had to pencilled in an evening and inked/coloured the next day. I used the clone brush to add extra Daleks to the sky. To me it's the least successful because frankly the deadline wasn't enough for my exacting standards.I inked the majority of these with a brush pen ( crudely in places) before scanning on and adding solid blacks before colouring.I enjoyed the frenetic pace of decision.

I genuinely loved doing this job - reminded of the time I had to do some new Dr Who Weetabix cards for the magazine. I guess I'm just a 1970's Auton boy at heart. Can you spot the mistake in the Auton pencils and final piece? The pace was that mental...

A

Reptile ...sssss

THE REPTILE is just about my favourite Hammer film. I really like the design of the monster and quite a few years back I did this piece. My work has moved on since then but I still like the bold stylisation. Later this year I'll be tackling a new REPTILE in colour...

A