"Carol Day' artist David Wright features in illustrators Issue 2

The latest issue of illustrators, the heavily illustrated art quarterly celebrating the finest European illustration of the 20th Century, is now available.

illustrators Issue 2 features two major articles on the artwork of David Wright – Peter Richardson looks at Wright's elegant, painted pin-up art (soon to be seen in Sirens: The Pin-Up Art Of David Wright from Titan Books) while Roger Clark gives his appreciation of Wright’s long running black and white line drawn Daily Mail newspaper strip, Carol Day (reprints of which are now available as an e-book from Amazon UK for Kindle and iPad).

 

This issue also includes articles on the historical illustrations of Cecil Doughty by David Ashford, the animal art of Raymond Sheppard by Norman Boyd, and the paperback and film poster art of Renato Fratini by David Roach. 

There is also an image gallery of the Fleetway Super Library covers of Jordi Penalva while John Watkiss discusses his Walking Dead concept artwork.

illustrators issue 2 costs £15 (or £55 for a 4 issue subscription to the title) and many of the artwork images included in its 96 pages are taken from scans of the original art boards.

illustrators 2 is available direct from the Book Palace Books website.



For a sneak peek of illustrators issue 2 click here.

illustrators editor Peter Richardson was interviewed about the magazine on downthetubes here.

• Several Carol Day adventures are available for Kindle, here's links to a few which will take you to the rest: 

• Carol Day - Lance Hallam - Kindle edition

• Carol Day - The Changeling

• Carol Day - Dangerous Currents

'Next Blog' brings news of John Watkiss latest work

This is one of those 'lucky finds' on the Web, courtesy of Blogger's 'Next Blog' button. In the past, these often used to throw up random spam sites, but it seems Google has been cataloguing their blogs, so clicking 'Next Blog' on downthetubes might just take you to another comics-related blog.

Although still something of a lucky dip, last night I came across the official blog of artist John Watkiss.

Best known to comic fans for his work on titles such as Sandman, Conan and Deadman, Brighton-based John's extensive career has led him from cover artist for graphic novels to storyboard artist and character designer, working for companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Ridley Scott Associates, DreamWorks and more.

His Conan work remains some of his best known work, so it's perhaps no surprise that he has provided the illustrations for a new Robert E. Howard collection, Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures.

The adventures are set in medieval-era Europe and the Near East, described by publisher Del Rey are among the most gripping Howard ever wrote - full of pageantry, romance, and battle scenes "worthy of Tolstoy himself". Most of all, they feature some of Howard’s most unusual and memorable characters, including Cormac FitzGeoffrey, a half-Irish, half-Norman man of war who follows Richard the Lion-hearted to twelfth-century Palestine - or, as it was known to the Crusaders, Outremer; Diego de Guzman, a Spaniard who visits Cairo in the guise of a Muslim on a mission of revenge; and the legendary sword woman Dark Agnès, who, faced with an arranged marriage to a brutal husband in sixteenth-century France, cuts the ceremony short with a dagger thrust and flees to forge a new identity on the battlefield.


At almost 600 pages, the book features plenty of illustration by John and also includes miscellanea, informative essays, and a fascinating introduction by acclaimed historical author Scott Oden. Worth taking a look.

• Buy Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures from amazon.co.uk


• Buy Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures from amazon.com

John Watkiss' Sherlock Holmes Art on Sale

Dez Skinn's Quality Communications is offering a limited edition collection of movie concept art by comics creator John Watkiss he did for a proposed Sherlock Holmes movie via eBay.

"One member of our funnybook community whose quality of work far exceeds his profile is John Watkiss," says Dez. "I first knew his classical linework in Acme's old Ring of Roses, written by Das Petrou and reprinted by Dark Horse (and now in pre-production as a Hollywood movie).

"No stranger to film, John spent 15 years working in tinseltown for Disney (and has a some seriously scary stories about such). He's back in Blighty now, and working on a Robert E Howard production. But his last major work was as concept artist for fellow Brit Lionel Wigram, a film producer who had the hots on for making a young Sherlock movie. John produced 18 pieces of concept art which Wigram used to sell the idea."

Dez is offering a unique behind-the-scenes limited edition of the art, offered exclusively on eBay, revealing how the movie would look long before Ritchie, Law or Robert Downey Jr were involved.

On offer are limited edition prints of 18 pen and ink drawings which made the movie happen. Each plate is reproduced on high quality 240gsm glossy card, measuring 11.75 x 8.25", and suitable for framing. This portfolio comes with an annotations page, detailing both the history of the film and descriptions of each print, written by Dez.

Produced by Quality Communications, this is a strictly limited edition of 500 sets, with each top plate signed by the artist and numbered.

• Check the portfolio out here on eBay

• Check out the Quality Communications store on eBay - lots of British Comics goodies!