IDW celebrates 50 years of Who with 'Prisoners of Time' maxi series

British comic creators look set to be heavily involved in US publisher IDW's Doctor Who at 50 celebrations with Simon Fraser and Lee Sullivan among the artists involved in their 'Prisoners of Time' maxi series, which launches this month.

'Prisoners of Time' will feature every incarnation of the Doctor, as well as a long list of villains, including the Zarbi from the TV story best known as The Web Planet.

The opening issue is being offered with two covers, one by Simon Fraser and the other a photo cover from publicity stills from the original Doctor Who episode, 'An Unearthly Child'.

"It's a 12-issue miniseries featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor," co-writer David Tipton told Comic Book Resources. "Each Doctor will be featured in one of the issues."

"And of course, there's a larger mystery spanning the course of the series," added co-writer David Tipton, "one which is set up in the opening pages of issue one, and which will increasingly come to light as the series progresses."

As yet, apart from the Zarbi, the villains who will play a part in the story have yet to be revealed.

Lee Sullivan has drawn the Patrick Troughton-Second Doctor story for #2 and Mike Collins has drawn the Pertwee-Third Doctor segment for Issue 3.

As well as the story, each issue will include an essay on the featured Doctor by prominent Who experts. Producer, director and script editor for Big Finish Productions, John Ainsworth provides these for #1 and #2, with Gary Russell contributing to #3.

• Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #1 written by Scott and David Tipton with art by Simon Fraser goes on sale 23rd January from IDW Publishing. 

• Read an interview with David and Scott Tipton about the maxi series on Comic Book Resources

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

Have some Sympathy for the Devil

For more than 15 years, Russian rogue Nikolai Dante has fought, thieved and loved his way through life in the 27th Century.

2000AD has always bred a different kind of hero and brought the world a different way of telling stories - now one of its most popular characters comes to an end, courtesy of his original creators Robbie Morrison and Simon Fraser, in Sympathy for the Devil, set for hardcover release on 11th October 2012.

Since its debut in 1997, Dante has become an iconic part of the British comics scene with his swashbuckling antics and devil-may-care bravado, and the long-running story reaches its explosive conclusion in this full-colour volume.

In this final instalment of his epic story, Dante must escape from captivity in order to lead the revolutionary army in its final battle against his tyrannical father, the psychotic Dmitri Romanov.

With additional art from industry legend John M. Burns, Sympathy for the Devil is both a fitting and striking end to this stunning epic.

Join Nikolai Dante as he reaches the end of his journey ... or does he?

- Nikolai Dante: Sympathy For The Devil - Written by: Robbie Morrison; Art by: Simon Fraser ISBN: 978-1-78108-073-3. Price: £18.99; Pages - 224. Published: 11th October 2012

Scotch Corner Art Blog Celebrates Its 3rd Birthday

The Scotch Corner daily art blog is celebrating its third birthday and, like last year, has called on a number of guest artists to give a short holiday to the Scotch Corner regulars, artdroids Graeme Neil Reid, Gary Erskine, Simon Fraser and Alex Ronald, and artists Jon Hodgson, Andy Hepworth and Thomas Crielly.

The first guest for July is artdroid Henry Flint who provides the illustration of a 2000AD cover for the current Judge Dredd saga 'Days Of Chaos'. In addition to several images, each guest will answer a series of questions and Henry reveals that his first published work wasn't in 2000AD but actually in The Dandy where he, as a reader, sent in a picture of Deperate Dan which won him Star Letter and a jigsaw.

Further guests to come in July include Paolo Rivera, Mike Austin, Paul Bourne, Simon Gurr and INJ Culbard.

The Scotch Corner art blog is here.

Scotch Corner @ Kingdom Of Adventure in July

The daily Scottish art blog Scotch Corner made up of professional artists Thomas Crielly, Gary Erskine, Simon Fraser, Andy Hepworth, Jon Hodgson, Graeme Neil Reid and Alex Ronald, is celebrating its second birthday in style by, er, taking a break. Instead of posting themselves over the course of July they will be handing the blog over to a selection of guest artists including top names such as Roger Langridge, Anton Emdin, James Ryman, Bob Eggleton, Chris Weston and Mick McMahon.

However the Scotch Corner gang are not leaving their fans high and dry as they will be appearing at the Kirkcaldy comics and RGP shop Kingdom Of Adventure on Saturday 2 July 2011 beginning at Noon for a signing and sketching session which will then be followed by the recording of a podcast. Thomas Crielly, Gary Erskine, Andy Hepworth, Jon Hodgson and Graeme Neil Reid will be there in person while Simon Fraser will be appearing via Skype.

There are more details of the event at the Scotch Corner blog and more details of the venue on the Kingdom Of Adventure website.

Cal-Hab Droids Infiltrate Megazine 301

The latest issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine, Meg 301, has a distinctly Scottish flavour to its art and script droids.

Behind a lovely Judge Inspector Inaba cover by Frank Quitely, from Cal-Hab's west coast, comes the Dredd story The Natural (shown below) about a Mega City One athlete who, controversially, refuses cybernetic assistance for his races. Written by Gordon Rennie, pencilled by Graeme Neil Reid, both from the east coast and inked by west coast Gary Erskine, the strip is the debut for Graeme in a 2000AD title. Graeme has been talking about his route to drawing Dredd professionally on his blog where he bravely shows off some of his earliest Dredd artwork from 20 years ago, as well as the spec scripts and responses he received from the Nerve Centre at the time.

The Judge Inspector Inaba story Hondo-City Justice, with art by Neil Googe, is written by Cal-Hab-er Robbie Morrison while Robbie's Nikolai Dante co-creator Simon Fraser, another Cal-Hab-er, writes and draws Lilly MacKenzie And The Mines Of Charybdis now on its fourth episode in which Lilly and Cosmo finally make it onto the surface of the planet.

Both stories are coloured by Gary Caldwell, yet another Cal-Hab-er.

Last but certainly not least of the Cal-Hab droids in Meg 301 is Alan Grant who is writing the Anderson Psi-Division story The House Of Vyle, drawn by Boo Cook, in which Cassandra is called to the hamlet of Salem just outside the Mega-City's walls where strange things are afoot.

Megazine 301 also includes Armitage by Dave Stone and John Cooper while the reprint is a selection of Mick McMahon's Judge Dredd stories.

• Judge Dredd Megazine 301 is available from newsagents and has a cover price of £5.99.

• Graeme Neil Reid, Gary Erskine and Simon Fraser are all members of the daily artblog Scotch Corner.

Bohze Moi! Scotch Corner Recruits Simon Fraser

The Scotch Corner daily art blog has added its sixth and final regular member in the shape of Nikolai Dante artist Simon Fraser.

Simon has taken on the previously vacant Saturday slot on the blog which also features other Scottish artists Thomas Crielly, Gary Erskine, Andy Hepworth, Jon Hodgson and Graeme Neil Reid. The Sunday slot is deliberately left open for Scotch Corner readers to promote their own artwork, whether they are from north of the border or not.

Having starting off his tenure on Scotch Corner with a selection of his life drawings and a few tantalising comments about what is to come, Simon's current post is artwork from a proposed movie project.

Simon, along with fellow Cornerers Gary Erskine and Graeme Neil Reid, will be attending the Hi-Ex convention in Inverness this weekend where he will donate a page of Nikolai Dante artwork to the convention auction for the charity Children 1st as well as a separate double page spread which will be auctioned for the Haiti earthquake appeal.

Simon's Scotch Corner contributions can be found here while there are more details of the Children 1st Dante page on the Hi-Ex website and the Haiti page on Simon's blog.

In Review: Nikolai Dante - Amerika

Writer Robbie Morrison's roguish Nikolai Dante character has been a success for 2000AD from his first appearance in Prog 1035 in March 1997 and with Amerika the Rebellion reprint books of his ongoing adventures have reached number 9.

It is the 27th Century and the Earth is dominated by the Russian empire of Tsar Vladimir the Conqueror. Despite their considerable differences in the past, Dante is currently the Sword Of The Tsar, operating as a trouble shooter for the Empire. Of course this being Nikolai Dante he is more likely to cause the trouble than to shoot it. The book reprints the ongoing story of Dante from the Amerika story itself up to An Army Of Thieves And Whores and adds a shorter spin-off story, Lulu's War, at the end.

Amerika is set again a backdrop of unrest in New York in which suicidal rebels take strength enhancing drugs to attack their Russian occupiers. These drugs give then superhuman abilities and Morrison, along with artist Simon Fraser, have fun in creating perverse versions of familiar superhero characters from the Captain America styled character on the cover to the Incredible Hulk and even the Watchmen. This is not that unusual in the Dante stories as Morrison has previously incorporated his versions of British comics characters such as Janus Stark, Luther Arkwright and even Lord Peter Flint from Warlord into his stories. Along with his love interest, the Tsarina Jena Makarov, Dante's task is to stop the violence from the terrorist groups and get them to declare a truce to allow elections to take place. Simon Fraser, as artistic creator of Dante, draws him with his usual dynamicism and uses his surprisingly rare splash panels to good effect.

The art chores on Dante are regularly split between the Fraser's traditional comics style and veteran John M Burns fully painted stories. As different as they are they both work just as well for the character and Burns paints the middle section of the story as Dante, sickened by what he has seen and had to do in New York, finally snaps and turns against the Tsar. This is a more sober storyline of torture and repression and Burns moody style fits it well before Fraser returns to art duties as the story opens out into an all out revolution against the Tsar's regime.

The extra story in the book is a short spin-off tale set during the uprising and involves perhaps the darkest of all Dante's siblings, Lulu Romanov. Lulu's ability is the creation of supernatural demons and her battle is set in Venice against the vampiric Nightstalkers. The art by Paul Marshall, who has previous illustrated tales of the vampire Durham Red, is not as polished as Fraser or Burns however, in a story that could so easily been too dark visually as well as plot wise, Harrison ensures that the panels tell the fairly vicious story clearly.

Dante is a fan favourite in 2000AD but, as these stories show, the world that he inhabits is coming to an end, with Morrison portraying him as less of the happy-go-lucky swashbuckler than he once was while John M Burns in particular is beginning to portray him as an older man.

All good things come to an end but Amerika shows that the tale of Nikolai Dante is not there quite yet.

There are more details of Nikolai Dante: Amerika on Rebellion's 2000AD Online website.

Simon Fraser has a "semi-official" Nikolai Dante site as part of his own website and he will be a guest at the Hi-Ex comics convention in Inverness on 27/28 March 2010.