Andrew Skilleter's Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet artwork in the spotlight

Illustrator and comic artist Andrew Skilleter has just launched an extensive new Facebook page based around the original art he created for the 1990s Gerry Anderson comics.

Best known for his professional Doctor Who art, Andrew contributed many covers and pages, to the Gerry Anderson comics, Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90, edited by Alan Fennell in the early 1990s, including the illustration of the long running The Complete Thunderbirds Story.

The Facebook page features scores of covers, strip pages and vivid centre spreads to be viewed and all the art is for sale.

The page also features a full account of his involvement and links to relating sites, including a full Anderson centered interview with Andrew - plus some of his detailed pencil prelim drawings for the strips.

The page will be regularly updated and will be of particular interest to the generation who grew up with the Fleetway Gerry Anderson comics of the early 1990s.

"As a professional illustrator, I was busy with a flow of commissions including Doctor Who," Andrew tells us, " when I became aware of the new Thunderbirds comic and subsequently discovered that Alan Fennell, who had done such a superb job editing the legendary TV Century 21 comic, was the editor. I had grown up with a passion for the best of the British comic artists many of whom were featured in stunning full scale and colour in TV21. I loved strips and the world of magazine publishing.

"And so began an enjoyable working relationship with Alan, producing covers for the Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 titles and illustrating virtually all of The Complete Thunderbirds Story written by Alan, and covers for a number of the Ravette reprint albums of TV21 strips. I was particularly please to have done the Scarlet cover for Ron Embleton’s strips.

"Following the sad passing of Gerry Anderson there are plans by his son Jamie for new Anderson productions, a TV revival of Thunderbirds, Egmont’s plans to reprint material from the 1990s comics and a relaunch of Sylvia Anderson’s website, so this seems the best time to bring the full extent of my Anderson involvement to a wider public."

• Facebook page: www.facebook.com/GerryAndersonArt.AndrewSkilleter

• Andrew Skilleter's official web site: www.andrewskilleter.com or Facebook: www.facebook.com/artofandrewskilleter

Skilleter releases 'Sarah Jane' charity print

Artist Andrew Skilleter has released Sarah Jane Tribute Charity Print, donating a set sum from each and every print sale to supporting the Macmillan (Cancer) Nurses, £2.50 on an A4 size print, and £5 on an A3 size print.

The print celebrates the Doctor Who character portrayed by the late Elisabeth Sladen, who died last year.

You can also choose to have a Remarque Edition if you wish and Andrew will add a drawing, donating an extra £5.

"Please try and support this - let’s raise some money," asks Andrew. The image posted here is deliberately watermarked the image here to encourage as many of you as possible to buy the print which is not!

- More info: http://andrewskilleter.com

 

 

Cybermen limited edition book goes on sale (break out your gold)

Acclaimed illustrator Andrew Skilleter, perhaps best known for his Doctor Who art, is offering Cybermen fans the opportunity to buy a unique edition of the Cybermen book first published by Who Dares/Silver Fist in 1988 - a limited facsimile edition of actor David Banks the Cyberleader's personal copy No 1, in a Limited Hand Bound embossed ‘titanium’ Silver Edition.

You can find this Collector's Item on Ebay as a Buy It Now/Best Offer listing offered for sale by Andrew Skilleter, offered as a Limited Edition of just 75 copies of this classic title. But be warned, it's strictly an item for the well heeled fan, with a cover price just short of £800 reflecting its manufacture and rarity.

David Banks portrayed the Cyberleader throughout the 1980s, in Earthshock, Attack of the Cybermen, Silver Nemesis and The Five Doctors and his much-acclaimed Cybermen book was first published in 1988, with an introduction by the Cybermen’s co-creator, Gerry Davis. The book was extensively illustrated by Target and Classic Who artist, Andrew Skilleter together with numerous photographs and graphics, then later re-released in paperback by Virgin Books. The title was voted some years back as one of the best ever Doctor Who books of any any kind.

This limited edition, individually bound, large format hardbound book is hand bound in a textured silver fabric. Embossed on the front cover is the Cybermark personalised with ‘D’ on the left and ‘B’ on the right.It has high quality heavy weight textured black end-papers, followed by two heavyweight grey papers with the certificate mounted on the right hand side numbered as 1/75 and signed in silver by David Banks, who played the Cyberleader in several Doctor Who stories, and in black by Andrew Skilleter and the book binder. There's also a silver’ ‘D’ & ‘B’ initialed by David Banks either side of the certificate title.

This unique, if incredibly expensive collectable edition comes protected by a sturdy black cloth slipcase and offered in a deliberately 'distressed' appearance unique to each special edition, (the photograph above doesn't do justice to the embossed Cybermark). The slip case shows some signs of shelf wear and a just perceptible fade on the open edge, we assume to give the impression of the book being a well Cyber-thumbed tome.

One for determined Cybermen collectors to check out. Perhaps they can use some of the gold they have set aside just in case of a Cybermen invasion...

- View the Book on eBay here

- Andrew Skilleter's official web site: www.andrewskilleter.com

- Facebook fan Page http://www.facebook.com/artofandrewskilleter

 

 

 

Artist Spotlight: Andrew Skilleter

I first worked with Andrew Skilleter when I was editing Doctor Who Magazine in the late 1980s and I admire his work tremendously. He's a dab hand at both original and licensed art commissions, particularly Doctor Who (for which he's best known) - and some of his Dan Dare pieces, inspired by the Eagle comic character, are tremendous fun.

Anyway, after much planning and labour and little help from his friends, his new website is now live, including extensive galleries, bigger and better images, a blog and shop with online secure checkout if you want to buy any of his prints, such as his Narnia range.

As well as Doctor Who, Andrew has worked in numerous genres and you'll find a kaleidoscope of multi-genre images on this new site.

• Check it out at: http://andrewskilleter.com

Complete Frank Hampson Story Book Announced

PS Publishing has just released details of Tomorrow Revisited: The Complete Frank Hampson Story, scheduled for release in April - the 60th anniversary of Eagle.

Written by Alistair Crompton, with art contributions from Don Harley and Andrew Skilleter, the book charts the life and work of Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson, published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the launch of Eagle.

But this is more than a plain biography: the book is simply crammed to the gunnels with superb examples of Hampson's best work, printed in full colour from original art boards, so you can see all the amazing detail and painstaking backgrounds Hampson was so good at creating.

Along with plenty on Dan Dare, also featured is information on seven other strip cartoon characters, intended for Eagle, available in print for the first time, together with backgrounds of how they were drawn and some of the intended story-lines.

Tomorrow Revisited, which will cost £29.99, also contains sketches from Hampson's notebooks, and some of the many hundreds of photos he took to help him create his strips.

In addition to the regular release, a slipcased limited edition (£69.99) is also being produced as a cloth bound hardback full colour book; and a deluxe leather bound hard back edition (Limited to 100 copies, priced at £295.00) housed in a leather bound Presentation Case, which comes with a certificate of limited availability signed by Alistair Crompton, Andrew Skilleter and Don Harley; a unique original illustration by legendary Eagle artist Don Harley; and a Frank Hampson illustrated Homage by Andrew Skilleter.

• Until April 2010, the bookshop version of Tomorrow Revisited: The Complete Frank Hampson Story is on offer at 10% off.


• For full details and a preview of some of the pages from the book visit http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/info_480.html

Andrew Skilleter Narnia Artwork Exhibition

Today saw the opening of The Wonder Of Illustration art exhibition at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.

The exhibition features original Alice's Adventures In Wonderland artwork by Spanish artist Angel Dominguez and original Chronicles Of Narnia artwork by Britain's Andrew Skilleter.

Skilleter's artwork was originally created for the BBC Radio Collection's releases of the BBC Radio 4 adaptations of the seven Narnia books by CS Lewis. The exhibition runs until 4 July 2009 and all pieces of art on display are for sale. The exhibition is included in the museum admission charge.

To coincide with the opening of the exhibition, Andrew Skilleter has revamped his website at andrewskilleter.com. The site now features galleries of the many book covers that he has produced over the years. While Skilleter may still be best known for his Doctor Who covers, the site also features galleries of his Ruth Rendell covers and his fantasy art as well as showing that his science-fiction art was not just limited to the Doctor and his enemies.

The SF gallery features subjects as diverse as Journey Into Space, Dan Dare, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Star Wars saga.

Details of The Wonder Of Illustration exhibition are here.

Andrew Skilleter's new website is here.