Megazine reaps new Pat Mills and Clint Langley SF thrller

(with thanks to Pat Mills, via Matt Badham): American Reaper, by Pat Mills and Clint Langley, starts running monthly in Judge Dredd Megazine from 12th October 2011.

Pat says it's a dark science fiction thriller about future cops - known as Reapers - hunting down criminals  who carry out illegal identity transplants.  With the digitisation of consciousness, the old, the sick and the rich are able to occupy the bodies of healthy teenagers and enjoy a new lease of life.

There are even controversial plans to legalise ID transplants, with young prisoners on Death Row paying their debt to society by "donating" their bodies to the great and the good.

Produced by Repeat Offenders Ltd - a company formed by Pat, Clint and producer Jeremy Davis - and optioned as a movie by Xingu Films (producers of the superb Moon, and A Guide To Recognising Your Saints), Pat and Clint have produced a cinematic graphic novel series, and Pat feels Clint has surpassed himself on the art fron for this project.

The strip includes advert extras by Fay Dalton (winner of the 2010 Pickled Ink agency's Pickled Award, who's also working on the graphic novel Party Girls), featuring the Reapers' sinister Stop & Scan laws and the mysteries of hologram download dresses that are the height of teenage fashion in 2062.

Fay Dalton poster

Xingu says the film version of American Reaper was brought to them as a short pitch from Pat  with some sample art from Clint. "Immediately captivated by the exciting premise, and the exceptional track record of the creative team involved, Xingu came on board not only to commission a screenplay, but also to raise the financing for the graphic novel itself. A departure for our company, but another sign of our flexibility when it comes to how best to get the stories we believe in made."

• More about American Reaper on Facebook Page: American Reaper, or follow on Twitter @American_Reaper

• More about the American Reaper movie project on the Xingu Films site 

• Judge Dredd Megazine Official: www.2000adonline.com

Fay Dalton Scoops Pickled Award

British illustrator Fay Dalton has won the Pickled Ink agency's Pickled Award, launched earlier this year in a bid to find an artist to draw a new graphic novel by Super Gran creator and writer Jenny McDade.

The judges, who included 2000AD co-creator Pat Mills, felt her submission set her apart amongst entries from around the world. "Her photo-realistic characters ooze class, emotion, attitude," they declared, "and have an airbrushed quality that parallels the celebrity photographs splashed over the covers of today’s glossy magazines."

"She's the most exciting female comics artist I’ve seen since the Golden Age of female comics, which was so long ago most people have forgotten it existed (Jackie, Misty, Tammy etc) and that mainstream female comics once outsold male comics by at least a ratio of two to one," says Pat.

Fay, a Portsmouth University graduate with a first class degree in Illustration, is based in London and says she is inspired by a wide range of artists and illustrators like Gerald Scarfe, James Jean and Cindy Sherman. She enjoys illustrating current social issues such as celebrity culture and plastic surgery but also loves illustrating for children's books, and creating character designs.

"I often illustrate serious subjects with a lampoon twist," she says. "However I approach my subjects with an open mind."

“Fay has huge potential," Pat Mills enthuses. "Her work with Jenny’s great story shows that for a female audience there’s finally a British mainstream alternative to American super heroines, female “art house” comics and Manga. It’s cool and sexy, funny and emotional.
So there’s going to be a lot of blokes following it, too.“

Pickled Ink feel Fay's work will provide perfect visual accompaniment to Jenny McDade’s feisty, sexy, insalubrious, glamorous graphic novel script Party Girls and she's a richly deserved winner of the Pickled Award.

More of Fay's submission, which clinched hr win, will be revealed at the London Print Studio on Thursday 16th December where Pickled ink will be hosting a Q&A with Pat Mills and Jenny McDade as part of Comica Festival, an annual comics festival directed by Paul Gravett.

Pat and Jenny will be discussing Party Girls as well as the world of girls’ comics in general, offering an insight into why female comics dropped off the radar in Britain and the efforts that are being made to bring them back

In the meantime, Fay’s full portfolio is available to view at www.pickledink.com and whilst Party Girls is in development, Fay will be available for commissions.

• Q&A with Pat Mills & Jenny McDade: London Print Studios, Thursday 16th December 6.30 - 8.0pm. See www.comicafestival.com for more info