Hachette launch 'Draw the Marvel Way'

Hachette Partworks have launched a new magazine for aspiring superhero artists. Draw the Marvel Way is a fortnightly partwork filled with professional drawing tips and tutorials (by Mike Collins sharing his 30 plus years of experience as a comic artist) and accompanied with various tools of the trade.

Some might complain that it's teaching people to draw in a limited stylized way, but anything that encourages the art of drawing is welcome in my opinion. What I do find curious though is that issue 2 will come with an art box to store a collection of water colours (given away a few at a time in future issues). Colouring in comics (especially Marvel) is done digitally now, so this seems quaintly old fashioned for the purpose of this particular partwork. However, it can't do any harm to teach the old style of applying colour I suppose. Besides, bagging the mag with a Photoshop disc would push the price up a few hundred quid. 

Cover price of issue No.1 is £1.99. Usual price £4.99. (Not a bad price for a partwork.)

As is the norm with most new partworks, Draw the Marvel Way is only being tested in selected areas at the moment so chances are you won't find it in your newsagents. If anyone knows the area it's being tested in, please let me know. It if proves successful I'm sure it'll be relaunched nationally. 

To find out more, visit the official website here:
http://marveldrawing.hachettepartworks.com/

The art of Bob Monkhouse

The entertainer Bob Monkhouse (1928 - 2003) was well known for his numerous TV, film, and radio appearances, his stand up act, and as a game show host, but at one time he was also an accomplished cartoonist and comic artist. 

In the 1940s and 1950s Bob wrote and drew various strips, a few for the big publishers such as DC Thomson, but mainly for the smaller independent outfits that thrived at the time. One of his best known works (some might say notorious) was the issue of Oh Boy! Comics launched in 1948 by Paget Publications (shown above) with its phallic aliens. I think there'd be a public outcry if that appeared on newsagent's shelves today but Bob apparently got away with it back then. Using the alias 'Ramon', Bob not only scripted and drew this strip he also lettered it and designed the logo. 

When he was at school Bob's classmate was Denis Gifford, who of course would become a comic artist and author in his own right. They even set up their own comics company, Streamline, for a short time.

As we know, Bob's career took off in other directions with him writing gags for people such as Max Miller and then becoming a comedian and performer himself, first on radio, then on television, and acting in several British movies including Carry On Sergeant. This left him with no time to pursue a career in comics, although he retained his enthusiasm for comics all his life, collecting comics and original artwork. 

I always felt it was a shame we didn't see more of Bob Monkhouse as a comics artist, but in 1981 Arrow books published The Book of Days, - 'A whacky day-by-day guide to history's strangest facts'. It was written by Bob, and also illustrated by him, proving that he definitely still had his artistic talent. Here are a few of the cartoons that appeared in the book. Click images to see them larger...

In this age of celebrity status being given to people just for appearing in a reality TV show I think we appreciate the stars of the past more than ever. Bob Monkhouse was a fascinating and truly multi-talented person, and as a comics artist and enthusiast he was also 'one of us'. 

(The cover of Oh Boy! Comics at the top of this post is scanned from the book Super-Duper Supermen by Denis Gifford. The book Great British Fantasy Comic Book Heroes (reviewed here) reprints the entire 5 page story.)  

Bog-Man! A new hero for our times

The latest issue of Egmont's Toxic, out now, features something a bit different from me; a story within a story. In the Team Toxic strip Stinky Hero, Bog is knocked out and dreams of being a superhero, - Bog-Man! 

Superheroes are very popular with kids these days thanks to blockbuster movies and games (and comics of course) so I thought I'd reflect that with this Batman parody. As this is Toxic you can expect lavatorial humour of course, particularly with Bog-Man and his sidekick Trumpy riding their Bog-Mobile! (Some of you may notice a certain old character of mine making a cameo appearance here too. Yes, it was inevitable that Tom Thug would become a white van man!)

See billionaire Bog Strain become Bog-Man to fight The Stinker, The Poopin, and Cat-Litter Woman! 

The two page strip appears in Toxic No.251, out today, which also includes various features for kids on superhero movies and games plus Russ Carvell's Captain Gross strip. All bagged up with a bunch of gifts for just £2.99. 

http://www.toxicmag.co.uk/

DWM 484 preview

Issue 484 of Doctor Who Magazine will be in shops across the UK from tomorrow (March 5th). This packed issue features a brand new complete 12 page comic strip, Space Invaders, by Mark Wright, Mike Collins, David Roach and James Offredi starring the 12th Doctor and Clara. 

There's also another Daft Dimension strip by me...

The rest of the issue is a fantastic mixture of features, interviews, and reviews, including a look back on the 1972 TV story The Time Monsters...

An in-depth analysis of the 1964 serial Marco Polo...

Plus loads more including interviews with Paul McGann and Bonnie Langford plus an exclusive interview with Doctor Who's head writer Stephen Moffat on the next series...

All in all, 84 pages of all-new material for just £4.99. Now in its 36th year of publication, Doctor Who Magazine is the essential mag for all fans of the show. 

It's shaping up nICE-ly for September in Birmingham

Here's the flyer for ICE, the International Comics Expo which takes place in the centre of Birmingham on Saturday, September 5th. As you can see, more guests have now been added and there's a fantastic line up including Iron Man artist Bob Layton, writer Robbie Morrison, Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson, the living legend that is Dave Gibbons and many more. Even me! 

That's not all. The following day (Sunday, September 6th) the same venue plays host to Comics Uncovered 2015, with master classes, seminars, workshops etc from some of the finest people in the industry. This is an unmissable event if you have ambitions to work in comics, or you just want to learn more about the nuts and bolts of the business. 

Book your tickets now! To find out all the details, visit the website here:
http://thecomicsshow.co.uk/

A new art exhibition from Jessica Martin

Multi-talented actress/singer/impressionist Jessica Martin has had an impressive start to her comics career. Bursting onto the scene in 2014 with the very well received It Girl, contributing to the anthologies To End All Wars and To Arms! and then publishing her second comic Vivacity. It's been a noteworthy debut and Jessica is also now a familiar face within the UK comics community at various shows and events around the country. The artist is currently hard at work on her graphic novel Elsie Harris Picture Palace to be published by Miwk later in 2015 and this month has an exhibition of her work at the Radlett Centre's Althorp Gallery in North London.

Entitled Jessica Martin's Picture Palace the exhibition opened yesterday (March 2nd) and runs throughout the month until March 31st. On her blog, Jessica describes the exhibition as "my very own hall of fame dedicated to all the Hollywood and British film icons who have enthralled me for a lifetime." There is a private viewing night on Thursday 12th March from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. 

For more information visit Jessica's website here:

http://officialjessicamartin.com/blog/?p=1501

...and the Radlett Centre website here:

http://www.radlettcentre.co.uk/Art-Exhibitions

My review of It Girl:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/review-it-girl.html

My review of Vivacity:

http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/review-vivacity.html

Mike Noble in TV Comic

Before his long run illustrating Fireball XL5 and Zero X (plus a few Captain Scarlet stories) for TV21, Mike Noble was a regular artist in TV Comic from 1960 to 1965. Westerns were still very popular at the time and Mike illustrated The Lone Ranger in 1960/61. (Mike had also previously drawn the strip for Express Weekly in 1958 to 1960.) The above example is from TV Comic No.467, dated 26th November 1960.

After The Lone Ranger, Mike was commissioned to draw a similar strip, The Range Rider from 1961 to 1964. This example is from TV Comic No.579 (19th January 1963). It looks as though Mike was experimenting with a different inking technique on this one, with bolder outlines on the characters...

Here's another Range Rider page from TV Comic No.588 (23rd March 1963)...

...and another one from a year later, published in TV Comic No.634...

Personally I prefer his TV21 strips, full of explosive action, marvelously coloured, but it's interesting to see that Mike's early work also had his identifiable dynamism and excellent figure work. Definitely one of the greats, and, as always, my favourite UK adventure strip artist.