Brett Ewins MP makes statement on imprisoned artist

As Brett Ewins' MP Steve Pound was getting rather swamped by people raising concerns about Brett's case following the report by Tony Wright, comic creator 'The Emperor' offered to act as a go-between and forward updates to concerned parties (via the 2000AD forum and websites covering British comics that can spread it further).

This is the latest and it sounds like Brett, who is currently in prison, is now getting the medical treatment he needs:

30th March 2012

I visited Brett in Wormwood Scrubs this morning and although it took some time for me to get used to his new heavily bearded appearance I was greatly relieved to find him in far better spirits than when we last spoke.

He is receiving nearly all his medication and lacking only one particular tranquiliser but I’ll do what I can to sort this out.

Brett now has his own cell and is producing a huge quantity of writing including work on his novel and many songs and poems.

He has asked me to remind people that the Johnny Nemo collection will be published next year!

We had a typically amazing Brett Ewins conversation for an hour and ranged over Buddhism in Thailand, adventures in Iceland, the art of Edward Lear, the “Black Freighter” pirate comics of the late 1950s/early 1960s, Henry Thoreau, standards of food available in Hanwell pubs and I almost missed the bombshell that Brett is engaged to marry a world famous singer/performer later this year.

More details of Brett’s betrothed to follow!

Brett is pinning his hopes on a bail hearing due within a fortnight and he is very hopeful that he will be allowed home then.

His lyrical description of his longing to walk a country lane and look at the sky proved to me that Brett is not only one of the finest British artists of all time but a Writer of striking beauty and originality.

He is working on a spy novel and I can’t wait to read it!

People who know Brett well will be interested to hear that he now has a full luxuriant white beard but is very thin and still has to use his walking cane.

He is currently reading all of Louis Theroux and his mind is as sharp as ever on detail.

At one stage we were talking about Spike Milligan and I mentioned that he used to live in Orme Court off the Bayswater Road. Brett gave the exact address and told me that he used to write to Spike when he was a student at Drayton Manor !

Brett is smoking “to pass the time” and I was told that I could bring in a Postal Order for him to buy some tobacco but that it had to be made out to the Governor.
When I arrived I was told that I had to post in the order – even though I was actually in the prison at the time!

If anyone is planning to send anything I strongly suggest that you look at the Wormwood Scrubs website for details of what may and may not be sent.

I am very grateful to “mighty emperor” for posting this information and sparing me having to write to the scores of Brett’s admirers who have contacted me.

I’ve known Brett as a neighbour and a constituent for 25 years and I will continue to do all that I can to help at this time.

The prisons minister, Crispin Blunt, is very much aware of the situation and the governor at the Scrubs has received many a message urging better treatment for Brett.

The very considerable improvement in the medical treatment may well reflect these sources of pressure!

I’ll try to update you on the bail hearing as soon as possible.

Steve Pound MP,
Ealing North.

This is the most encouraging report we've had on Brett's status to date. We wish him well and hope he is released soon.

Air Pirate Press launches 'The Art of Brett Ewins'

Recently released by Air Pirate Press is The Art of Brett Ewins, a new book shedding light on the life and times of on of Britain's best-known comic artists.

In a frank and revealing 11,000 word interview, the 80-page book, put together by Brett with help from former 2000AD and Doctor Who Magazine editor Alan Mackenzie, details this popular artist's drawing techniques, his work habits and the years of stressful over-production that led to major illness and his early retirement from the harrowing production-line life that is the lot of most professional comic strip artists.

Two years in the making, The Art of Brett Ewins shines a fascinating spotlight on the creator of such iconic comic strips as Johnny Nemo, Skreemer, and Bad Company, covering his decades long career illustrating major 2000AD strips as Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd and Anderson: Psi Division.

From his first efforts in the comics business with close friend and drawing partner Brendan McCarthy, with whom he published Sometime Stories, Ewins landed drawing assignments with the then-nascent 2000AD comic. Inside a year he was drawing fill-in episodes the comic’s lead strip Judge Dredd, then was handed the long-time gig on Rogue Trooper.

By the mid 1980s more Dredd and work on the Dredd spin-off Anderson: Psi Division followed. Again, teaming with McCarthy, Ewins produced two limited series – Strange Days and Johnny Nemo – for American independent publisher Eclipse. Then in the second half of the 1980, Ewins embarked on the operatic Bad Company, working from scripts by his long-time friend and collaborator Pete Milligan.

During the early 1990s, while Ewins was illustrating a third series of Bad Company and simultaneously editing the cult monthly Deadline, his health took a turn for the worse and by 1995, he had all but retired from the comics business.

The Art of Brett Ewins chronicles all this and more, in Brett’s own words, talking frankly about his years in the comics business work and the toll it later took on his health.

The book features plenty of artwork, mostly shot from the over-sized originals, revealing just how Ewins’ pens and brushes created his many mini-masterpieces, including inked comic pages, pencil drawings and full-colour paintings - some 49 black-and-white and 70 colour pictures in total


• The Art of Brett Ewins is an softcover book is on sale now via Available from Amazon.co.uk, WHSmith.co.uk and other leading online booksellers, priced just £9.99. (ISBN 978-0-9569149-0-3)


• Air Pirate Press: www.airpiratepress.com