Dan Dare: Six Questions For Writer Rod Barzilay

In the 1990s Rod Barzilay had the idea to bring Eagle comic’s best known character, Dan Dare, back into print, not updated for a Star Wars audience as in 2000AD or as a political commentary as in Revolver, but rather as the original character read and loved each week in the 1950s by hundreds of thousands of British schoolboys.

To remain true to the original Rod decided to approach the original 1950s artists to see if they would be willing to return to the comic strip of their youth. Keith Watson and then Don Harley agreed to this and the magazine Spaceship Away was born. 29 issues later, and with many more of the original 1950s and 1960s Dan Dare artists involved along the way, Spaceship Away remains a high quality, full colour, glossy magazine that is published three times a year. So it was no surprise that when Haynes decided to add Dan Dare to their list of science fiction technical manuals that includes Star Wars, Star Trek and Thunderbirds, Rod was the man to write it.

Jeremy Briggs spoke to Rod about this new Dan Dare Spacefleet Operations Manual from Haynes as well as Spaceship Away.

downthetubes: When did you first encounter Dan Dare and what made him standout for you amongst the other strips in Eagle?

Rod Barzilay: I first saw a copy of Eagle in May 1954, at the tender age of seven. I remember green men caught my attention, the Mekon and his Treens in ‘Prisoners of Space’, and although I liked other Eagle strips as well, the idea of outer space adventures appealed the most.

Desmond Walduck was illustrating the strip at this time while the following year Frank Hampson and his team took up the reigns again. To a lad who knew nothing about artists then, the strip just seemed to get better and better until the end of the 1950’s when Dan Dare was updated which was very unsettling to previous readers. Many characters disappeared, equipment and uniforms drastically changed, and continuity with past events was almost totally lost. When the strip went to black and white my interest waned and I stopped taking Eagle at the end of 1963 (mind you I was more interested in girls then!). However, from 1960 onwards I began to chase the early stories I had never seen. It took ten years to fill in all the gaps and when the original Eagle folded in 1969 I also started looking for the later issues to complete the run. It was only then that I saw some of Keith Watson’s later impressive colour Dan Dare work like ‘All Treens Must Die’.

DTT: You began Spaceship Away in 2003 and it is now on its 29th issue. What inspired you start the magazine and how has it changed over the years?

Rod: The magazine was started as a means to get new 1950s style Dan Dare stories in print for the fans who longed for the original Dan Dare to be revived.

Although Dan Dare is the main focus of Spaceship Away, from issue seven we started adding other sci-fi strips as well, including Charles Chilton’s Journey Into Space reprinted from Express Weekly with artwork by Ferdinando Tacconi, and Sydney Jordan’s “Hal Starr” reprinted from the Dutch comic Eppo and its first time being published in English. Later on we added Ron Turner’s “Nick Hazard”, John Freeman and Mike Nicoll’s “Ex Astris” and eventually the Daily Mirror’s “Garth” with art by Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury.


DTT: Where did the idea for the Haynes Dan Dare manual come from, did you approach them or did they approach you?

Rod: I believe Graham gave Haynes the idea to do a Dan Dare book, along with the suggestion that I could write it. He did bounce the idea off me and I was up for it. As Dan Dare has gone through so many changes over the years we decided to just stick with the original up until the point when Dan was made controller of Space Fleet. This was the period I knew the best and when the strip had the most interesting technology and ideas. The book took about six months to write and I was tweaking stuff right up until it went to the printers at the end of March. Some sections were rewritten when I reread the old stories again and spotted some references that I had miss-remembered, or forgotten about. Also as some information in Eagle had no reference time-line, or was at odds with earlier stuff printed in the strip or elsewhere, this did present some problems, and I had to work it all in somehow. No doubt I’ll get some interesting feedback on my solutions! I would have liked to have expanded some areas of the book had there been more space. Let’s hope nothing important got passed over – no doubt fans will let me know if that is the case!

DTT: How did you and Graham decide on what to feature in the manual? For instance how did you choose the Spacefleet theme rather than feature any spaceships that were in the Dan Dare strips?

Rod: The idea was that when Dan became controller of Space Fleet, he commissioned a manual for new recruits. This would not only give an outline of Space Fleet’s history so far, but would also include details of any craft or equipment they could encounter, be it older Space Fleet craft possibly lost in space, or alien ones that had already turned up in the Solar System and might reappear again someday - forewarned is forearmed. We investigate different drive technologies that Space Fleet has tried out, and alien ones it has encountered. There is a good look at lots of Treen spacecraft including the M.E.K.1 space station, and other important alien craft too, like Tharl’s Battleship, Black Cats, the Crypt inter-star ship, and the Zylbat. We also have notes on Theron, Cosmobe, Pescod, Nav, Triton, Pittar, and Krevvid spaceships, plus some unidentified ones that turn up in the saga as well.

DTT: Artist Graham Bleathman has provided cutaways for Spaceship Away in the past. How much interaction did you have with him over the details of the interiors of the ships and other vehicles featured in the book?

Rod: We both have extensive Eagle collections, which are rich in background details of spaceships and equipment, and did compare notes from time to time, talking over things not fully covered. Two spacecraft, the Marco Polo and the Delaware, were drawn up from my notes and designs in the comic strips in Spaceship Away, but it is Graham’s genius that brings them all to life in such fine cutaway detail. However, Eagle and related publications are a bit thin on the ground with details of Space Fleets early history so I expanded this area taking into account ideas put forward by other fans over the years.

DTT: If the manual is successful enough to warrant a sequel, are there other aspects of the Dan Dare universe that could be featured in a second book?

Rod: Oh yes – we could do a book on all the alien worlds that Dan Dare visited, looking at everything found there, futuristic cities, novel equipment, robots, other spacecraft and strange transport etc – not only in the Solar System, but further afield as well. Venus, Mercury and the Moons of Saturnia are rich in things to have a closer look at, as are planets in other star systems such as Cryptos, Phantos, Terra Nova, Zyl, Platinum Planet, Moss, for example. It would be great fun to do.

DTT: Rod, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

• There are more details of the Dan Dare Spacefleet Operations Manual on the Haynes website

• There are more details of Spaceship Away on the magazine's website and Facebook page

• There are more details of Graham Bleathman's work on his website.

Dan Dare: Six Questions For Artist Graham Bleathman

For most comics readers Graham Bleathman's name is synonymous with large detailed cutaway paintings of buildings, vehicles and flying craft both real and fictional. It was not surprising then that he is now the artist behind four of the new series of Haynes Workshop Manuals that feature fictional vehicles rather that the real cars that the publisher is best known for. The latest of these is the Dan Dare Spacefleet Operations Manual which has just been published.

Jeremy Briggs spoke to Graham about these new Dan Dare cutaways as well as the rest of his work.

downthetubes: You are perhaps best known for your detailed cutaways of Gerry Anderson craft from TV series such as Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet published in the various 1990s comics that covered those series and the large format hardback cutaway books that followed. When did your love of cutaways begin and did you set out to be a cutaway artist?

Graham Bleathman: I first came across cutaway illustrations in the TV21 (and related) annuals that I picked up mainly second hand in the early 70s. A handful of cutaways also appeared in TV21 itself, which I also started to collect at around the same time that I was buying Countdown every week. I never bought (or had bought for me) TV21 when it first came out, so I relied on second hand and charity shops in the early 70s, along with jumble and ‘bring and buy’ sales, where in those days comics like TV21 and Eagle could still be found reasonably easily. It was at these sort of events that I found my first few copies of Eagle, and was of course somewhat taken with the centrespread cutaways as well as the more well known strips like 'Dan Dare' and 'Heros the Spartan'.

I don’t think I set out specifically to become a cutaway artist; it just sort of happened after I left college. During my time at Exeter College of art, I painted a cutaway of Exeter Cathedral, which was followed a year or two later by cutaways of Salisbury Cathedral and a few other buildings which were commissioned by the Salisbury Journal newspaper.

I was also involved in the Gerry Anderson fanzine SIG at the time, and I produced my first Anderson cutaway for that, which was a black and white illustration of the Battlehawk (SIG  issue 15, Spring 1986), from the then current Anderson production Terrahawks. 

DTT: Other than the many Anderson cutaways and the Haynes Manuals, what else have you worked on?

Graham: I worked on quite a few magazines, comics, and other products over the years. Some have an Anderson link; drawing many of the covers for the Fleetway comics (for which I drew the cutaways of course), artwork for Anderson and Star Trek jigsaws, greetings cards for Space Precinct, illustrations of film/TV locations and cutaways for TV series features in Radio Times, Cult TV, Inside Soap (yes, I’ve illustrated EastEnders, Neighbours, Coronation Street and Casualty!). I seem to have drawn thousands of ‘Sketch Cards’ featuring the Anderson shows for a company called ‘Cards Inc.’

A few real world illustrations have been drawn too in more recent years, such as cutaways for the now defunct RAF Magazine, Radio Times and a few books. I also have a ‘secret life’ doing the covers for DC Thomson’s ‘People’s Friend’! Under the name ‘J Campbell Kerr’, a team of artists has painted the landscape illustrations on the covers of the magazine since 1946. I started around 7 or 8 years ago (although I did do a brief stint in the mid 1990s) and, since the death of cover artist Douglas Phillips last year, I now paint around half of them on average.

I have no idea why the 'J Campbell Kerr’ name has been used all these years; no one seems to know the its origins, and nobody wants to break with tradition!

DTT: Your work for Haynes began with the first of the Wallace and Gromit Haynes manuals, Cracking Contraptions, a book that sold so quickly that it had to be reprinted almost immediately it was published and has since gone to a third printing. After your second Wallace and Gromit book you moved on to the Thunderbirds Haynes manual which, given your artistic background seems an obvious choice, and now the new Dan Dare manual. Where did your interest in Dan Dare stem from and how did the Haynes manual come about?

Graham: My interest In Dan Dare originates through TV21; many of the artists on TV21 were poached from Eagle, and I began to notice the work of Frank Bellamy and others in Eagle as I started to pick up second hand copies. The Dan Dare stories seemed to have parallels with many of the concepts seen in the Anderson shows (particularly the way they were developed in TV21), such as a World Government and a (generally speaking) optimistic view of the future.

I became involved with Haynes when by bizarre coincidence both myself and the writer of the Thunderbirds manual (Sam Denham, with whom I have worked before on a couple of books) approached Haynes separately with a view to doing a Manual based on that series. Initially, Haynes weren’t too keen, but as they were moving into doing manuals based on fictional subjects anyway, they offered me the job of illustrating two Wallace and Gromit manuals instead, having seen my Thunderbirds artwork and in particular a Wallace and Gromit cutaway (of Wallace’s house) for the Bristol Evening Post. The Thunderbirds manual was therefore put on hold for 18 months or so. The success of the Wallace and Gromit manuals prompted Haynes to proceed with the Thunderbirds edition, and that has proved successful enough for them to commission something I had also thought about for a couple of years, Dan Dare. That book is now complete and I have returned to the Anderson world with another manual with Sam Denham to be published next year.

DTT: The writer of the Haynes manual, Rod Barzilay, is a familiar name to Dan Dare fans due to him creating and editing the long running Dan Dare magazine Spaceship Away. How did Rod come aboard and how did the pair of you sort out which spacecraft and other Dan Dare vehicles to feature in the book?

Graham: I knew Rod from Spaceship Away magazine, having initially met him at a Dan Dare ‘Open Day’ at an exhibition in Bristol a few years ago, at which Eagle and TV21/Countdown artist Don Harley was also present. I have since drawn around 10 or so cutaways of Dan Dare spacecraft (and real world locations such as the artists’ studios in Southport and Epsom), for SA over the years, and Rod’s knowledge of Dan Dare’s ‘fictional’ history made him ideally placed to supply the basic text of the book and provide the expert knowledge that I lacked; I almost got the impression that the future history of the Dan Dare universe was more real to Rod than our own!

This meant that he could concentrate on Space Fleet’s history and characters leaving me to deal with the artwork and technical bits. His comprehensive knowledge was ideal for me to bounce ideas from, with comments like ‘Space Fleet wouldn’t use that sort of space drive until such and such a date’, etc! We also selected the ships and locations on the basis of how important (Rod in particular) thought they were important to the Dan Dare history. I’m sure a few favourites will have been missed out, but with around 45 cutaways and illustrations in the book (not to mention lots of Eagle frames and other new artwork), I hope most people will be pleased with the results.

DTT: Those Dan Dare craft, along with the majority of the fictional vehicles you have painted cutaways of, were never created to be analysed in the sort of detail your work requires. How much of any given cutaway is 'creative engineering' on your part and do you have any background in the technical drawing of engineering subjects to help you fill in the gaps that the original artist's imagination did not need to show?

Graham: There is a fair bit of ‘creative engineering’ in the Dan Dare book in particular, although as much applies to the Anderson subjects as well (and especially Wallace and Gromit!). For Dan Dare, the main problems are visual inconsistencies between instalments, and often from frame to frame. After all, apart from the Anastasia and a handful of other cutaways, no-one at the time gave too much thought about how the ships worked or whether the details altered from frame to frame. In the 1950s, some effort was made to keep things consistent with the use of studio models and endless photographs, but no-one had time to ensure that fine detail (the detail that I would need years later, anyway!) remained true through all the stories.

In terms of scientific accuracy, the technology seen in the strip has not been seriously updated, although a couple of aspects such as radiation proofing in spacecraft and spacesuits and polarised heat resistant windows on spacecraft (for example) do get a mention every now and then. I don’t have a scientific background, nor do I have a background in technical drawing either, so it does seem a little odd to many people that the one thing I’m well known for are cutaways of vehicles, locations and spacecraft, both real and imagined!

DTT: The diversity of your cutaway subjects is remarkable, from the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter/bomber for RAF Magazine to Holby City Hospital for the Radio Times, from Thunderbird 2 for Thunderbirds The Comic to the Precinct House space station for Space Precinct magazine, there must be few types of vehicles or constructions that you haven't covered. Which of these has provided you with the greatest challenge to depict and which, of all of them, is your own favourite of your work.

Graham: The cutaway that gave me most problems was one of Wallace’s ‘cracking contraptions’ from the one of the Wallace and Gromit Manuals. It was a device for changing channels on a TV set that involved cogs and catapults in true Wallace tradition (as opposed to a simple remote control). Unfortunately, there was no visual consistency from shot to shot when watching the contraption in action on TV, and the solution I came up with was the only one that Aardman didn’t like. A compromise of sorts was reached, although the result isn’t terribly satisfactory. I guess the makers of said sequence weren’t really expecting some poor sod to try and make sense of it a few years afterwards; the contraption and the short film in which it was featured was created for a laugh, after all.

My favourite cutaway? Probably the Thunderbird 2 I painted for the Thunderbirds FAB Cross Sections book published by Carlton in 2000.

DTT: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Graham.


There are more details of Graham Bleathman's work on his website.

There are more details of the Dan Dare Spacefleet Operations Manual on the Haynes website.

There are more details of Spaceship Away on the magazine's website and Facebook page.

Creator Talk: Six Questions for Star Wars Artist Tanya Roberts

With her long dreadlocks now replaced with a Venus Bluegenes-style mohican, Edinburgh based artist Tanya Roberts continues to make a striking impression at comics conventions from California to Germany as well as in the UK. She has been drawing the comic strip in Titan's Star Wars: The Clone Wars comic for some four years now and yet, despite being a professionally published Star Wars artist for so long, her work is not that well known as the title is aimed at a junior audience. Jeremy Briggs spoke to Tanya about The Clone Wars and her other work.

 

downthetubes: What comics did you read as a child and did they inspire you to start drawing?

Tanya Roberts: The comics that I read were largely the ones I could get a hold of. I read a lot of Tintin, Asterix, 2000AD, Beano, Dandy, you know? A British kid's staple comic diet.  I grew up in Africa so whatever I could get my hands on that looked like a comic I consumed hungrily. However I always preferred watching animated movies and would draw 'storyboards' of little stories that I wrote, which came in handy later on when my career in traditional animation (RIP) never left the ground.

DTT: What titles have you worked on?

Tanya: The first professional thing I got asked to do I am still doing today, Star Wars: Clone Wars - that was four years ago! It's great to be affiliated with one of the most recognisable brands in the world. I've also worked for Boom! Studios with Toy Story where I had to make Disney and Mattel happy and have worked for Ape Entertainment drawing Strawberry Shortcake. It's fun to draw but it's so sweet I HAVE to watch crime shows while I'm drawing it to balance out the cute!
 

DTT:  How did you get started on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and were you a fan of the Star Wars universe beforehand?

Tanya: I contacted Titan about how on earth I could draw Transformers (please, please) and they came back and asked me what I thought about drawing Star Wars instead. I thought it might be a good trade. I had been to Comic Con (in San Diego) that year and had seen Lucasart's HUGE character display for The Clone Wars so when I watched it I was hooked. I'm lucky to have a nerdy dad who introduced me to the original Star Wars movies so, of course, I was already a fan.

DTT:  How much input or control do Lucasfilm have over the contents of The Clone Wars comic and did this pose any issues when you first began on the title?
Tanya: I have discussed this with a few Star Wars artists and Lucasarts are very open to whatever vision you might have for the characters. They're brilliant people to work for, I pretty much just make up aliens and spaceships and they just let me (sometimes) get away with stuff. I put a nipple tassel on a Hutt in one issue and they didn't reprimand me, which was nice.

It's very refreshing to have so much leeway with such a large company and I wish more companies where less strict and covetous of their characters and property. After all, we each bring our own style to the property so what fun is it if we're all leashed up and muzzled?

DTT: How would you describe your style of artwork on the various comics you have worked on?

Tanya: Cartoony, really, but quite angular. Disney with angles maybe? I have an artistic path I'm following and a working style I want to get better at. It's great that I get hired based on that style alone, I'm glad people seem to like it.

Having an animation background helps because some companies want you to stick rigidly to their model sheets. Surprisingly Disney let me get away with more than I thought I could; with Rex (the dinosaur in Toy Story) I made him a lot more bendy than he is in the movies but they did have to call me on some of the poses.

DTT: The majority of your professional work has been on licensed properties. Do you have any plans for working on your own characters?

Tanya: It has been fun as well to draw already well loved characters in my style and I want to continue doing that, but I have always worked on my own characters and stories - just for the laugh.

I'm actually self publishing my very first comic that will be launched this November at Leeds comic festival: Thought Bubble. The comic is called Forgotten Muse and it's about a muse who has to deal with the fact that his guy is being distracted by the internet and television, and how he gets around it. If anyone is interested, details are available on my website.

DTT: Tanya, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

There are more details of Tanya Roberts' work on her Enolian Slave Deviant Art site and her new website The Art Of Tanya Roberts.

Tanya provided the publicity artwork for the 2012 Hi-Ex comics convention. She was interviewed in  the run up to the con by the BBC News website.

There are more details of Titan's Star Wars: The Clone Wars comic on the Titan Magazines website.

There are more details of Kidzoic's Strawberry Shortcake titles on the Ape Entertainment website.

Tanya will be appearing at Thought Bubble in Leeds over the weekend of 17/18 November 2012 where she will be selling copies of Forgotten Muse as well as pages of her original artwork. Her table is number 29 in the Royal Armouries Hall.

Creator Talk: 6 Questions For Artist Simon Fraser

The retro-futuristic Russian rogue Nikolai Dante began in 2000AD Prog 1035, dated 25 March 1997, and came to its conclusion 15 years later in Prog 1791.

Created by the Scottish team of writer Robbie Morrison and artist Simon Fraser, who would eventually alternate on art duties with industry veteran John M Burns, the popularity of the series shows in the 10 different graphic novel compilations of Nikolai Dante stories that Rebellion have published over the years. The 11th and last Dante book is Sympathy For The Devil, available now.

Jeremy Briggs talked to Simon Fraser for downthetubes about his work on the character.

DTT: How did you first hear about Nikolai Dante?

Simon Fraser: Robbie mentioned it to me while I was working on drawing Shimura ‘Dragonfire’, which he wrote for the Judge Dredd Megazine. He had been doing a lot of research in the Mitchell Library (in Glasgow) on Peter the Great for a historical project he had wanted to write involving two Scottish mercenaries. That was transformed in a more fantastical direction when he knew that 2000AD were looking for new ideas. Robbie is always very enthusiastic about his ideas and enjoys talking about them when he gets a few drinks in him.

DTT: How much input did Robbie Morrison give have on the look of the series and how collaborative has the work with him been over the years?

Simon: Robbie’s only specific visual instructions were that it should look Napoleonic and that there should be Onion Domes. There’s actually a lot you can get from those two ideas. Robbie is very good at getting to the essence of something, then he has the confidence to let an artist run with what they come up with.

DTT: It is unusual these days for a British adventure series to run for such an extended period of time with the same creative team. Did it pose any particular problems for you such as aging the characters, maintaining visual continuity with John M Burns, or maybe even getting tired of drawing the same characters?

Simon: Absolutely! My life has changed enormously during those 15 years and it has sometimes been very difficult to keep focussed on an idea that we started working on in our mid 20s. It was essential for Dante to age (if not mature exactly ) because we were ageing ourselves. So to keep the character vital for us he had to reflect ourselves in at least that way. We did actually take a few breaks here and there.

John Burns did most of the heavy lifting during the first war. That was great as I found that I had no particular appetite to draw a war story. I’m much more comfortable with the swashbuckling and the character pieces and the comedy. Burns really gave the sieges and the massacres an epic sense of tragedy and scale.

It’s surprising how little interaction there was between the artists. Periodically I sent John a sketch, Dante’s crewcut for example, but most of the time I deferred to him and he to me. There were certain characters that were his designs, Dante’s Mum, Kurakin and the Rhudinstein Irregulars, who I had to really work at to get my own recognisable versions of. There are some points on which we disagreed. He drew Kurakin rather soft and pretty, which I felt didn’t match who the character was. A Mongol swordswoman can be beautiful, but there has to be real steel in her bearing , not just in her hands. Kurakin would never be passive or merely decorative. Dante’s mum was a perfect design however, I couldn’t improve on his version.

DTT: Robbie included his versions of various British comics characters into the stories, from Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright as Captain Luther Emmanuel to Warlord's Lord Peter Flint as Lord Peter Flintlock. Did you enjoy these 'in-joke' sections of the stories and how much reference material did you need for these characters?

Simon: Those references were all good fun. I like that we could tip our hats to the stories that inspired us. Luther Arkwright particularly is a work which both of us have a huge amount of respect for. A certain irreverent cheek is one of those 2000AD traditions that makes the comic what it is. I don’t remember doing any particular reference for the characters in question. It’s not important to get bogged down on what are essentially throw-away gags.

DTT: Now that the series is over and you can "choose your favourite child" as it were, was there a particular Dante character that you particularly enjoyed drawing?

Simon: I became very fond of Dante’s Mum, Katarina Dante. She became a key figure in the story and her strength as a character probably pushed her further forward in the narrative than we might have expected at the beginning. Mad King Henry and Papa Yeltsin were always a hoot to draw. While I love Lulu as a character she was by far the most problematic to draw. This was entirely my own fault (all that lace!), but once you have a strong look for a character you kind of have to honour it. No matter how much of a pain in the arse it is to render.

DTT: What are you working on at the moment and what can we expect to see from you in the future?

Simon: That’s hard to say for certain right now as I’m just at contract stages with a couple of big projects. It looks like I’m working on a Doctor Who story for IDW, which is a thrill for me as I grew up immersed in Wagner/Grant/Mills and Moore’s Doctor Who Weekly work. Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and David Lloyd had a huge influence on me through that comic.

I’m in negotiations right now over a short sci-fi piece for Dark Horse with a writer who I’ve wanted to work with for some time. I’m also working on a pitch for a series of books of comics journalism trying to explain the ongoing events of the Arab Spring. That’s going to be a big project and something I feel very strongly about. I’m still working on more Lilly Mackenzie in my spare time too.

• There are more details of Simon Fraser's art on his blog. http://simonfraser.posterous.com/blog/

• Simon helps run and contributes to the New York based webcomics collective ACTIVATEcomix.com http://activatecomix.com/

• Simon is a member of the Scotch Corner daily art blog where this interview has been cross-posted. http://scotchcorner.blogspot.co.uk/

• Simon is a member of the DrawBridge Studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn which also has a blog http://draw-bridge.blogspot.com/

• Details of all Simon's work on 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine is available from Barney's 2000AD Database

Creator Talk: Six Questions For Artist/Writer Garen Ewing

When The Rainbow Orchid creator Garen Ewing began writing and drawing his ligne clair style Adventures Of Julius Chancer in Jason Cobley’s small press BAM! black and white anthology in 2002, he would have hardly have expected that a decade later The Rainbow Orchid trilogy of books would be available to buy in colour in both British and Dutch editions with French and Spanish versions in the works.

With the three individual books now collected and released in the United Kingdom as The Complete Rainbow Orchid omnibus, Jeremy Briggs talked to Garen about his work and the future of his characters.

downthetubes: The artwork and story style of The Rainbow Orchid would suggest that you grew up on Tintin books. What comics did you read and enjoy as a child and which ones do you like now?

Garen Ewing: Yes, Asterix and Tintin were the mainstays, in fact the obsessions, of my childhood, and they still remain my favourite comics. I also read various humour weeklies, such as The Dandy and Whizzer & Chips, but I preferred adventure comics - The Victor, Tiger, Warlord, Battle, and later 2000AD. I was also a big Oor Wullie fan thanks to my Scottish grandmother. As my teens approached I moved onto Warrior, which I loved.

Currently I'm enjoying the greater availability of European comics in English, especially Blake & Mortimer and Yoko Tsuno - both of which I'd had the 1980s Comcat editions before - and Leo's Aldebaran series. As well as the Cinebook range, books from NBM (love the two Miss Don't Touch Me volumes) and Fantagraphics (especially the Tardi and Tillieux reprints). I'm really looking forward to Bryan Talbot's third Grandville album and also catching up with the more recent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books.

DTT: Where did the original idea of The Rainbow Orchid come from?

Garen: As far as the story goes I think it originated in my research for what was initially going to be a Victorian vampire tale, and looking into that era's obsession with orchid collecting. That, amalgamated with my love of classic lost world adventure stories by such authors as Rider Haggard and Jules Verne. Add a dash of Franco-Belgian graphics and we're there!

DTT: How much has it changed over the years from your initial concept?

Garen: Hardly at all as far as the plot goes, I pretty much kept to my original plan. Quite a few details changed, as they must, and the character of Meru was a bit of a surprise to me - he just popped up, but plays a major part.

DTT: Now that The Complete Rainbow Orchid is available, how would you 'sell it' to someone who hasn't yet bought one of the individual books?

Garen: Probably the best shorthand, courtesy of a friend's description, is it's Tintin meets Indiana Jones only a bit more cerebral. I'd like to hope that it's the kind of story you can settle down with on a Sunday afternoon, a mug of tea at your side, and get totally lost in for an hour or two. It's 1398 panels of pure adventure, good for kids and adults alike.

DTT: You have recently had several strips in The Phoenix comic. Can you tell us a little about them and if they will continue?

Garen: I was the illustrator on two of Ben Haggarty's Silk Roads strips, The Legend of the Golden Feather (left) in issue 1, and a four-parter, The Bald Boy and the Dervish, a few months later, both Arabian Nights-type tales and great fun to do. I'm not sure if I'll be doing any more of those, but I will be doing something for The Phoenix again at some point, if plans work out.

DTT: What's next for Rainbow Orchid's Julius Chancer character?

Garen: I'm writing the next Julius Chancer adventure now. I don't want to give too much away this early on, but I can say it involves a stage magician, a ruined seventeenth-century house, an uncharted island and an ornate wooden box.

DTT: Thank-you for taking the time to talk to us.

There are more details of The Rainbow Orchid on Garen's Rainbow Orchid website which includes a shop with badges, t-shirts and signed and sketched copies of the books available.

There are more details of Garen's other work at his own website.

The downthetubes reviews of the three Rainbow Orchid books -
Book 1 review
Book 2 review
Book 3 review

Comics Talk: Six Questions For illustrators Editor Peter Richardson

Artist Peter Richardson is the editor of the new quarterly journal, illustrators, covering British and European comic, newspaper and magazine artists which is published by London's Book Palace Books.

Peter spoke to Jeremy Briggs about the publication, how it came about and his plans for future issues.

downthetubes: Where did the initial idea for illustrators come from?
Peter Richardson: Geoff West, the Svengali-like genius behind Book Palace Books, was the man that initially mooted the idea. I had produced a hefty volume for Book Palace Books devoted to Ron Embleton's Wulf the Briton and was also working on a book devoted to the art of Denis McLoughlin and I think that Geoff began to get excited at the thought of producing a quarterly journal devoted to the best of UK and European illustration over the last 150 years.

The rationale was that there was an evident yawning gap in the market, which in a way was underlined by Dan Zimmer's Illustration quarterly, which is largely confined to great American illustrators. We wanted to produce a journal with equally stunning content, sharing the great UK and European illustrators with an international readership.

DTT: What is your background and how did you get involved with illustrators?
Peter: I have been working as a freelance illustrator all my adult life and have worked in a wide variety of media. I've taught illustration and generally been able to immerse myself totally in a job I find immensely rewarding. I got involved with illustrators because I've known Geoff for many years. I had started buying books and comics from him in the late 1970s but we got to know each other in the early 1990s when we would meet for lunch in some trendy London eatery and compare notes on various aspects of trash culture. These meetings reached their nadir when, on one occasion, the waitress had to ask us if we wouldn't mind moving our Swoppets off the table so that she could serve our food.

So we have known each other a long time and when I started blogging a few years ago I think that also acted as a catalyst for my publishing activities with Book Palace Books. illustrators itself has been in development for well over a year. There has been a phenomenal amount of work involved in getting this publication to a point where we felt confident enough to go to press!

DTT: What is the format of the journal and what sort of subjects will it be covering?
Peter: The format of the publication is crucial and we’ve devoted a lot of time into getting it right. This involved a certain amount of trial and error and running page layouts past a variety of people, several of whom included designers, typographers and art directors, including our associate editor Bryn Havord, who was a visionary and influential Fleet Street art director, in order to get the thing just as we wanted. The most important thing to bear in mind with a production like this is that less is more. If as a reader you are overly aware of the design of each spread then you are not getting the full impact of the artwork. Our style is simple and clean with dynamic layouts and easy to read typography, providing an enjoyable and stimulating experience for the reader.

The subject matter is as it says on the tin, illustrators. The fact that our remit is so definite, and the material we can focus on so infinite, allows us to be very creative in terms of what we present. In issue 1 we feature the art of Denis McLoughlin with a beautifully written and compelling profile by his friend and biographer, David Ashford. It features some superb reproductions of McLoughlin’s hard-boiled fiction covers, as well as a lot of his western themed work, much of it scanned from the original boards. In addition we have an interview with Ian Kennedy, who will need no introduction to your readers. He relates some fascinating experiences of working as one of the UK's premier comic strip and fantasy artists with both IPC and DC Thomson (with whom he continues to work as Commando cover artist extraordinaire). In addition we have a terrific feature by David Roach on the work of Angel Badia Camps, a Spanish illustrator who did much to revolutionise the romance pulp fiction artwork of the '60s and '70s. Mick Brownfield takes us through the process of creating a Christmas cover for Radio Times and the issue rounds off with a look at the work of Cheri Herouard, again penned by David Roach, who presents us with some of this Parisian artist's best ‘good girl’ art of the 1910s and 1920s.

Moving on to issue 2 we have a really superb feature on David Wright, covering his life and art and featuring some stunning examples of his pin up art for the Daily Sketch, as well as the story behind his creation of Carol Day, which is often cited as one of the greatest newspaper strips you have never seen! It really was a work of genius and we are able, with the help of collectors and enthusiasts such as Roger Clark, to present the very best examples of Wright’s art many scanned from the original boards. We also have features on the fabulous adventure and wildlife art of Raymond Sheppard and there's a fascinating look at the life and work of historical and boy's adventure illustrator, Cecil Doughty, whose work really blossomed on the back of the post war revival in children’s book and periodical publishing. There’s a look at the work of Renato Fratini who created some truly jaw dropping artwork during the 1960s and early 1970s for covers and film posters, including From Russia With Love.

Issue 3 will include the work of one of the most remarkable illustrators ever in terms of sheer draughtsmanship, vision and powerful storytelling. I am referring to the work of Fortunino Matania who started his professional career at the age of 14 and went on to become one of the greatest historical artists the world has ever seen. In addition, he was also one of the greatest reportage artists, sharing trenches with soldiers on the Western Front during the 1914-1918 War as well as covering events such as the Coronation of King Edward VIII - which he had to draw to a tight deadline from memory as not only were cameras not allowed within the confines of Westminster Abbey for such occasions but neither were pencils and sketch books!

Issue 4 will feature the work of Michael Johnson who was one of the premier UK illustrators of the 1960s and has been honing and refining his craft ever since. He was part of that incredibly exciting era when it was still possible for illustrators to earn a small fortune working with visionary art directors. Our associate editor Bryn Havord, who was one of those art directors, will be penning this piece. On top of that we have a long and fascinating interview with Mick Brownfield, who has to be one of the standout talents as well as one of the most consistently high profile UK illustrators for at least the last forty years.

DTT: Who will be writing for it and will the use of original artwork continue in future issues?
Peter: We are very lucky as we have a really great roster of writers who we are adding to as illustrators gathers momentum. I have mentioned the two Davids; Ashford and Roach, both of whom have written some excellent features for us, and Bryn Havord, who was an award-winning Fleet Street art director who commissioned many of the movers and shakers who will be appearing over the coming years in this publication. We have Luci Gosling of the Mary Evans Picture Library who is going to be working with us as well as Brian Sibley, Rian Hughes and several other writers who we are currently sounding out, as well as your good self Jeremy.

Our editorial directive is that the writers should reveal their own personal passions for the artist’s work and try to bring their subject to life. This, of course, requires research, sometimes interviews with the artist if possible and with other interested parties, but we are keen to present to the reader not simply a dry and ultimately dull list of publications with attendant dates but writing that attempts to bring life and vitality to the artists and their work.

The use of original artwork and/or top quality tear sheets is an essential for a publication of this magnitude. In addition to sourcing the optimum best artwork, there is a certain amount of non-intrusive restoration involved in cleaning up old and degraded printed samples so that in each and every case we can present the artist's work at its very best. No effort is spared and the use, where possible, of original artwork is an essential part of our editorial directive. At which juncture I must mention the incredible amount of friendly and unstinting assistance we have had from collectors and galleries all of whom have provided superb scans of artwork, which will now, thanks to illustrators, be reaching a far wider audience.

DTT: In addition to illustrators, what other titles are available from Book Palace Books?
Peter: There are a whole host of really rather tasty titles which you can check out on their website at: http://www.bookpalacebooks.com/

The most recent books include the already mentioned The Art of Denis McLoughlin, which was a real labour of love. During the course of assembling all the material for this book we managed to access material that had been rescued from an old garden shed by a member of the family, shortly after the artist's death. These included many of his working drawings for the murals he produced for the Woolwich Barracks, which was subsequently destroyed by a V1 rocket in 1944. These artworks have never had a public airing before. Aside from that we have literally hundreds of covers from his hard-boiled fiction work for TV Boardman, including for the first time ever complete indexes of his covers and all the hard-boiled paperback covers, many of which are scanned from printer’s proofs. There are also reproductions of his Buffalo Bill Annual artworks, many of which have been scanned from the surviving boards, plus superb scans of his Boardman comic work from publisher’s proofs given to David Ashford by the artist. This book is something that we are all exceptionally proud of, our only regret being that Denis himself won’t be around to see it. He was a really lovely guy and it would have been so rewarding for everyone concerned if he could have had a copy of this defining retrospective of his work.

We are also working full tilt on a major project which has the working title of Frank Bellamy's Complete Heros the Spartan, it's a companion volume to the already published Ron Embleton's Complete Wulf the Briton and like Wulf will come in a regular as well as limited collector's edition. As with Wulf, we are putting a lot of time and effort into the restorations as well as sourcing some fabulous examples of original artwork in order to add that really necessary degree of contextualisation to this long overdue publishing project.

DTT: The high quality format of illustrators means a high cover price. How would you go about selling it to someone who is not yet convinced about buying it?
Peter: Well, it is a lot of money if you compare it to a copy of a certain weekly celeb magazine which retails for £3.95. But here's where what we are producing begins to define itself as something more than ephemera. A yearly subscription to such a publication is around £75.00, whereas illustrators is only £55.00 in the UK. With the former it has a finite shelf life, something that you will be wrapping the household rubbish in after a couple of weeks. illustrators on the other hand is not ephemeral. It's a reference tool and in many cases will be the only defining source of information on a given artist's life and work. With 96 pages, square back binding, and state of the art printing, each issue of illustrators is more of a book than a magazine. It will build into a reference work dedicated to some of the greatest artists the world has ever seen. If you then compare it to some high end art journals you will then see that we are actually less expensive than most of our contemporaries.

It's also worth mentioning that illustrators will not be drowning in a sea of advertising! The advertising we do carry is aimed very specifically at our readership, stuff that we find exciting and of interest and we feel sure that our readers will too. Whilst on the subject - and this is where it gets even more exciting for people involved with the world of illustration - illustrators offers people (be they artists, galleries, agents, art colleges, image libraries, you name it) the chance to promote their services for an incredibly low price via our directory listings page and the QR code on the front of each issue, which enables readers to access each advertiser’s website via their smart phone.

Individual issues of illustrators are available at £15 plus postage and four issue subscriptions are available for £55 post free.

An e-preview copy of illustrators issue 1 is available here.

There are more details of illustrators journal and how to purchase copies on the illustrators website which includes links to various artists and comics websites, original artwork sales sites and art supplies sites.

There are more details of Peter Richardson's own art on his personal website and Cloud 109 blog.

Comics Talk: Six Questions For The Carlisle MegaCon Organising Team

Despite the number of comics shops in places like Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Carlisle, the north of England seems to have few comics events. This is starting to be addressed at a local level with Newcastle's one day library-based Canny Comic Con in December 2011 and now Carlisle's half day MegaCon next weekend, showing that local comics fans do not need American guests or enormous London venues to enjoy themselves.

Levi McGlinchey, Owen Michael Johnson and Graham Barke are members of staff at the Waterstones bookshop in Carlisle city centre and are organising the Carlisle MegaCon event due to take place in the Richard Rose Central Academy on Saturday 18 August 2012. Guests scheduled to be there include artists Sean Phillips and Graeme Neil Reid, writers Jim Alexander, Andy Diggle and Gordon Rennie, and local crime and horror novelist Matt Hilton. Jeremy Briggs spoke to the organising team about the event.

DTT: As booksellers in the Carlisle branch of Waterstones, what books do you stock in your graphic novel and manga sections and which of them are good sellers in your store?
MegaCon Team: At Waterstones Carlisle we sell a wide range of main stream superhero titles, independent graphic novels and manga as well as the usual staples of science fiction, fantasy and related product. We have a huge market for manga in Carlisle, as such our store has one of the largest manga sections in the company! Umbrella Academy is one of our bestselling titles that appeals to a wide market, both our manga and teen customers. Characters such as Batman always sell well, Arkam Asylum, Year One and Long Halloween being the biggest. Comic book movies of recent years have brought both an influx of new readers and massive interest in those characters. In short, the nerd army of Carlisle has been very kind to us, that is one of the reasons we mounted Megacon!

DTT: Knowing what the local comics fans purchase from the store, how did that influence your choices of guests, dealers and the talks or workshops due to take place during MegaCon?
MegaCon: The tastes of our regular customers vary, but the unifying theme is genre books with a dark edge to them such as Vertigo. Those customers also prefer material not concerning superheroes. Our independent titles do well, which is why we are interested in hosting graphic novelists who practice both mainstream books and creator owned work. We have a huge growing trading card market in Carlisle. We are one of the top two stores in the company championing trading card games. To cater to this need in Carlisle we have decided to start holding trading card tournaments, and have such invited Konami along to MegaCon and providing areas for both Yu Gi Oh and Magic the Gathering players.

DTT: Having run smaller events in-store in previous years, why did you decide to expand this year and how did you end up using a local school?
MegaCon: MegaCon was previously ReCon in our store. We have held ReCon for a number of years in conjunction with Diamond Publishing (previously Tokyo Pop). Our ReCon audience has grown far beyond our shop capacity, so this year we decided to take the leap and take ReCon to the next level. Our branch of Waterstones has used Richard Rose as a venue for author events in the past. We loved the atmosphere and vibe of the place so much we though it would be the perfect place for a Con. The main atrium of Richard Rose is such an interesting and unique space and lends itself perfectly to such a fun large scale event.

DTT: You have a diverse selection of guests from comic artists and writers as well as local novelist. Was it a deliberate plan to get as wide a selection of creators as possible?
MegaCon: MegaCon is also a community project. We chose specifically local creators as a means of showcasing incredible talent form the North West. We hope that this inspires other artists, writers, and creators/nerds to be more active. This is the first event of its size and type in Cumbria's history, so we have tried to make the event as accessible and interesting to the widest audience possible. The diverse programme of competitions, tournaments and workshops should satisfy not just die-hard comic fans, but also gamers, cosplayers, collectors and casual fans of popular culture in general. We each grew up loving cult entertainment but felt isolated in such a rural area. There was never an event unifying the tribes. We intend to get young people appreciating, and more importantly, making great art, be that comic or otherwise.

DTT: Your selection of exhibitors/dealers seems to be a mixture of local businesses and local small pressers. Did you set out to have a good variety of stallholders or was it just the way it turned out?
MegaCon: There are a lot of niche businesses in the area. We didn't have to go very far to fill all the spaces available, but once word got out we were holding a Con, the response was overwhelming and we had an army of local businesses and artists at our door wanting a space. Sadly we didn't have space for everyone that wanted a stall, but next year we hope to make MegaCon even bigger to accommodate more local dealers.

DTT: How will you gauge the success of the event and, if it is successful this year, could you see the Carlisle MegaCon becoming a regular event?
MegaCon: It's our full intention to carry on in the tradition of ReCon and hold MegaCon annually. There is loads of budding comic book creators in the area, just itching to get started. If MegaCon is incentive for just one to pick up a brush or pen and make great art, we as organisers will be thrilled. Equally, if our attendees - be they 30 or 300 in number, 4 or 94 in age - have had a great day, we will have succeeded in our goals. The long term vision for MegaCon is to build upon it year on year. We have had big industry names confirm they would be interested in being on the bill for next year, so we very much hope attendance justifies further expansion in the coming years.

DTT: Thank-you all for taking the time to talk to us.

Carlisle MegaCon will take place on Saturday 18 August 2012 at the Richard Rose Central Academy on Victoria Place, Carlisle. Doors open at 1pm and the event will run until 6pm. Tickets cost £5 and are available in advance at the Carlisle branch of Waterstones in person on via the phone (01228 542300), as well as on the door on the day (subject to availability).

There are more details of Megacon on the Megacon Facebook page, their Twitter feed, and there is a also a Facebook event/discussion board page.

The MegaCon organising team were out and about cosplaying in Carlisle city centre in July to publicise the event and were photographed by the Carlisle News and Star.

Treating Comics Seriously: Six Questions For Curator Jesper Ericsson

Jesper Ericsson is the curator of the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen which celebrates the 200 year history of the Gordon Highlanders infantry regiment from its creation in 1794 to its amalgamation with the Queen's Own Highlanders in 1994.

The museum is holding an exhibition entitled Steadfast! Commando at the Gordon Highlanders Museum from 9 July to 30 November 2012, named after the English translation, Steadfast, of the regimental motto, Bydand. Jesper told Jeremy Briggs about the background to the exhibition the museum and why he wanted to hold an exhibition of Commando artwork.

DTT: Could you tell me a little about the regiment and the museum?
Jesper Ericsson: The Gordon Highlanders was one of the most famous infantry regiments of the British Army in its 200 years of existence (1794 - 1994), seeing service from the Napoleonic Wars, India, the North West Frontier, Afghanistan, both World Wars through to Malaya, Cyprus, Borneo, Northern Ireland and Bosnia. The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, is the current unit that includes in its antecedent history The Gordon Highlanders.

The Museum is a 5-Star Museum, one of only two in Aberdeen, and we are a completely independent self-financing charity. Because the number of core staff is so small, we would be lost without our extraordinary and loyal volunteers. We currently have around 180, who help in the tea room, guiding, collections, research and the garden. Many are Gordon Highlanders, some even who served in the Second World War, whereas others may have had family who were in the Regiment. Others come from different branches of the military and many have no connections to the Regiment at all! The Gordon Highlanders was very much a family Regiment, and that is how it still feels at the Museum thanks to our volunteers.

DTT: Did you read comics as a child and, since you became the curator of a military museum, were war comics a particular favourite?
Jesper: I can safely say that reading comics such as Battle, Warlord and Commando set me up for where I am today! I think I was about 9 or 10 when I discovered war comics, and have kept all the issues I ever bought. As a kid growing up in Cambridge, I still remember cycling down to the market in the middle of town on a Saturday morning, heading for a particular book stall that sold second-hand Commando comics for 10p an issue, 5p if it wasn't in the greatest of condition. Then after buying 10 - 15 issues, it would be back to my local newsagent to pick up my issue of Battle or later Battle Action Force, then home to devour the stories and artwork!! Up in the loft I've got hundreds of issues of these three titles and I still look out for old comics at car boot sales or second hand shops, and buy new ones every month, so the interest and buzz of seeing amazing new artwork and stories has never left me.

DTT: Why chose to put on an exhibition of Commando artwork in the museum?
Jesper: This is pretty much my dream exhibition, it's as simple as that, and when Calum Laird, Editor at Commando gave me the opportunity to loan artwork I absolutely leapt at it!

DTT: How did you choose the artwork that is on display and does it have any themes?
Jesper: Choosing covers was both incredible and nightmarish. For every cover that was chosen, I could have happily picked a dozen more! There are themes - for example alongside the Commando display I've curated a special exhibition about The Gordon Highlanders in North Africa, in particular the Battle of El Alamein since it's the 70th anniversary of the battle later this year. In this special exhibition room, I've got quite a few desert themed covers, including issue 1 'Walk - or Die!' In the corridor outside, where the main Commando display is, it's a wide variety (air, sea and land) to try and show a 50-year sweep of what Commando is all about - from classic covers to some more unusual ones. I've also picked several with a Scottish theme to throw in the mixture. You'll have to come and visit to find out more!

DTT: The publicity for the exhibition includes an image by Ian Kennedy of a piper, what is the story behind this?
Jesper: Yes, this is brilliant. When I was going through the covers, in the back of my mind I was looking for a 'poster boy', for want of a better expression. Then I came across this cover by Ian Kennedy from issue 2349 'Warrior Blood', published back in 1990 and never reprinted, and thanks to some wizardry from the Commando design team, he was magicked into a Gordon Highlanders piper! We're very chuffed with him indeed, as he's completely and utterly unique to us.

DTT: Will the museum have any events relating to the Commando exhibition during its run?
Jesper: Most definitely. At 1pm on Monday 9 July, we've got a 'Meet the Commando Team' event at the Museum. This is completely free, but needs to be booked. We're hoping to see editor Calum Laird, deputy editor Scott Montgomery, graphic designer Grant Wood, former editor George Low plus artists Ian Kennedy and Gordon Livingstone, who will be taking questions and signing comics, so I'm really looking forward to that as you can imagine. We have also got art classes and other activities planned. The best place to look is the events page of our website, as any updates will be announced there first.

DTT: Jesper, thank-you for your time.

The Steadfast! Commando At The Gordon Highlanders Museum runs from 9 July to 30 November 2012. Entrance to the exhibition is included in the normal museum admission price.

There are more details of the Gordon Highlanders Museum at the museum website and an up-to-date listing of all the museum's events in the website's events section.

There are more details of Commando at the official Commando comic website.

Treating Comics Seriously: Six Questions For Lecturer Phillip Vaughan

Phillip Vaughan is a lecturer at the University of Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art And Design (DJCAD) with a background in 3D animation for the television, film and games industry. At DJCAD he teaches graphic design and has run the first module on Comic Art and Graphic Novels, the results of which have just been published in the Anthology One book from the new UniVerse imprint. Jeremy Briggs talks to Phillip about his work teaching the new generation of animators and graphic artists.

What comics did you grow up reading and what do you read now?
Being brought up near Dundee, it was inevitable that my first comics were The Beano and The Dandy. I soon graduated to more 'adult' comics such as The Victor, Warlord, Commando, Starblazer, Spike, Buddy and Champ, all DC Thomson stalwarts. In 1982 I picked up the new Eagle, but wasn’t impressed with the photo strips (bar Doomlord!), really I bought it for Dan Dare, especially the early Ian Kennedy run. A slow adopter, I moved onto 2000AD in 1984. Also around this time I discovered Marvel and DC Comics imports in my local newsagents. Sporadic though these imports were, I managed to collect runs of Uncanny X-Men, Peter David's run on the Hulk, John Byrne's run on Superman and some of Alan Moore's stint on Swamp Thing.

These days, I have stuck with 2000AD through thick and thin, and like the sentiment of anthologies such as Strip and Clint. I dip my toes into the American mainstream now and then, currently reading Hellblazer, Fatale, Action Comics and Captain America (mainly for the Alan Davis art). I have also been picking up Requiem by Pat Mills and Oliver Ledroit.

You lecture at DJCAD, could you tell us a little about what you cover and how comics came to be in the curriculum?
For the past 7 years I have lectured part-time in Graphic Design, mostly covering On-Screen and Motion Graphics, and I have also taught 3D Animation. We restructured our courses last summer, and as part of the new Communication Design umbrella, we were invited to pitch new expansive modules. I proposed the Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module, and was happy when this was picked up for Level 3 students to participate in.

Dr. Chris Murray, Lecturer & Programme Convenor at the School of Humanities (left, with Phillip Vaughan, centre, and Cam Kennedy, right), was a great help in the preparation of this module, as he had undergone the same process in the School of Humanities a couple of years before. The first cohort of students signed up for the module last year, and we are expanding to offer the module to other undergraduate areas of the art college next year.

You have had a number of comics creators give talks to the pupils as part of the course - who has done this and do the students value these talks?
So far we have been very lucky to welcome David Bishop, Colin MacNeil (a DJCAD graduate and cover artist of Anthology One), Frank Quitely, Cam Kennedy and the guys from DC Thomson, Calum Laird, George Low and a childhood favourite of mine, Ian Kennedy! Phew! This year, as well as returning guests, I have a few more very special creators up my sleeve, who have agreed to come in and impart their considerable knowledge! The students have given very positive feedback, and I can't wait to reveal who we have coming this year!

How did you get involved with the Dundee Comics Day?
Dr. Chris asked me! No seriously, me and Chris had been having several planning meetings with regard to my module and Chris's Comic Studies MLitt in Humanities. We dreamed up a wish list, that just so happened to include a lot of 2000AD alumni and I had a few contacts, Chris had his contacts and we managed to get a stellar line up of guests for Dundee Comics Day 2012. Again we are looking to push the boundaries for this year’s Comics Day…stay tuned!

How did Anthology come about and is it something that we can expect from each year of the course?
The Anthology was always part of the brief for the DJCAD Comic Art and Graphic Novels module, where the students were asked to produce between 2-6 finished pages of comic art, on a subject of their choice, for publication. The final book, Anthology One, features the best of the work from the module, and runs to 72 pages of full colour artwork. Colin MacNeil has provided a stunning cover for the first issue. The book costs £5.95 and is non-profit, with costs just covering printing, and it will be used to support and promote the students hard work!

We will be launching the book at Hi-Ex on the 31st March. Everyone who has seen the finished product has been very impressed with the work, which was produced in a very short space of time. Anthology Two will feature the work of students from the Comic Studies MLitt, and then we will keep the book running as a biannual affair! These publications will all be published under the UniVerse imprint which we have recently set up.

Could you tell us a little about your work outside of the university?
When I am not teaching, I work as a freelance designer/animator. Over the last 16 years I have worked on many different projects including 3D animated sequences for Deathtrap Dungeon, Star Trek, Farscape, Tom & Jerry, Wallace & Gromit, Teletubbies(!), Braveheart, plus a couple of original computer game concepts for various publishers such as Eidos and Sony. Most recently I completed the character design, animation and front end work on an iOS Superman Game App for DC Comics/ Warner Bros, which was nice! In the little spare time that I have I produce comic work just for fun and have had a couple of strips in Zarjaz, with the next one appearing in issue 15, out in July. The next project on the table is a comic book collaboration with Dr. Chris Murray.

There is more information about Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design on their website.

For more information about the Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module at DJCAD e-mail Phillip Vaughan at p.b.vaughan@dundee.ac.uk

For information about ordering Anthology One email: universecomic@gmail.com

There is more information about the University Of Dundee's MLitt in Comics Studies on the university website.

There are more details of Phillip Vaughan’s freelance work on his website, V14 Studios.

Phillip Vaugan will be at the Hi-Ex Comics Convention in Inverness on Saturday 31 March and Sunday 1 April 2012 where he will have copies of Anthology One for sale.