Happy 2000th 2000AD!

Borag Thungg!

Today marks a momentous occasion in comics publishing, in fact in any form of publishing, for today sees publication of the 2000th copy of 2000AD.

The current issue is a testament to all that is 2000AD - including its polystyrene-devouring, emerald-hued alien editor Tharg the Mighty - featuring many classic characters as well as a brand-new strip, all wrapped up inside an awesome Cliff Robinson cover with colours by Dylan Teague.

I didn't start collecting 2000AD on a regular basis until Prog 800, with its handy Series Index Micro-Guide, although I had bought it for the duration of Smith and Weston's Jack the Ripper Indigo Prime story Killing Time* and once when I was on holiday in Scotland. (All I can remember about that issue is that it featured a Rogue Trooper story.)

Since that time I have bought every single issue and now subscribe (to the weekly Prog and the Megazine) and am proud to have been a very small part of the ghafflebette publication, making into the weekly for the first time last Christmas.

I have also been fortunate enough to work with a number of 2000AD art droids in the past. Simon Davis (currently painting Slaine) illustrated my Warhammer short story Mark of the Beast, Steve Yeowell (who recently illustrated Black Shuck) joined me for The Tale of the Hound that was published in the Warhammer Comic, one of P J Holden's first published strips was my very own Slavebreak!, Paul Jeacock (sometimes Paul Staples) who painted Finn back in the day illustrated a Necromunda comic strip of mine called Kill Confirmed, Simon Coleby (producing phenomenal work for Jaegir) produced the cover for my first short story anthology SHARKPUNK,cover artist Neil Roberts produced an illustration for Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu, as did Absolom artist Tiernen Trevallion, and more recently I have been collaborating on gamebook projects with Kev Crossley, who has also painted covers for the House of Tharg. And then there are Pye Parr and Mark Harrison who have been in the Megazine and 2000AD and who both produced covers for my Pax Britannia novels. And not to forget Patrick Goddard, Dylan Teague and Lee Townsend who all worked on Ephrael Stern: Sister of Sigmar, and Clint Langley (of ABC Warriors fame) who produced the cover for my first ever novel The Dead and the Damned.

I own a number of original pages of art that has appeared in 2000AD, including Chris Weston's work on Canon Fodder. Colin MacNeil's work for Satanus Unchained, and Simon Fraser's line-art for Nikolai Dante.

But it's not only the artists I've worked with, I am fortunate enough to count many of the comic's script droids among my friends as well. Indeed, Ian Edginton recently wrote a story for me for Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu.

So florix grabundae to Tharg for all the zarjaz thrill-power over the years, and if you're a nonscrot who has yet to discover the delights of 2000AD, don't be a grexnix and get out there and buy one from your local thrill-merchant today.

And this isn't the end. There's still more to look forward to look forward to next year, namely 2000AD's 40th birthday party! Maybe I'll see you there. :-)

But for now, Splundig vur Thrigg, Squaxx dek Thargos!

Tie-in Tuesday: My new claim to fame

The first comic strip I ever had commissioned was Kill Confirmed, which appeared in a special free issue of the Warhammer Monthly comic given away with Games Workshop’s White Dwarf magazine. It was a short tale of life and death in the Necromundan Underhive with a nasty twist in the tail.

The artist assigned to the strip was Paul Staples whose name was already familiar to me from his work on seminal British anthology comic 2000AD. His work on ‘Finn’ for the ‘Interventions’ had impressed me in particular. However, after illustrating Kill Confirmed he mysteriously became Paul Jeacock and worked for a time as part of Games Workshop’s art department. While there, he was particularly involved in developing the most recent editions of the Warhammer Wood Elves army and the new Ogre Kingdoms range.

So what's my claim to fame? Well, Paul Jeacock just also happens to be the man who designed the masks that feature in the new Max Max movie Fury Road. Like the one worn by the charming Immortan Joe.

And in case you're wondering what my old claim to fame was, it was that I once directed Colin Firth. Yes, the Colin Firth.

Seriously.

Warhammer Wednesday: The Ten-Tailed Cat T-shirt

Back in the day* I wrote a number of comic strips for the Black Library that were published under the 'Tales From The Ten-Tailed Cat' banner. They were...

The Executioner’s Tale

Inferno! #28 (2002) – re-printed in the graphic novels Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat Volume 2 (2003) and The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

The Miner’s Tale
Inferno! #32 (2002) – re-printed in the graphic novels Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat Volume 2 (2003) and The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

The Tale of the Hound
Warhammer Monthly #79 (2004) – re-printed in the graphic novel The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

The Farmer’s Tale
Warhammer Monthly #80 (2004) – re-printed in the graphic novel The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

Well fans of The Ten-Tailed Cat (the tavern in Talabheim where these tales were ostensibly told) can, for a limited time, purchase this limited edition T-shirt.

So don't delay, get your order in today!

* 'The day' being the time when Warhammer Monthly and Inferno! magazine were still being published.

Y is for Yeowell... Steve Yeowell

I first became aware of Steve Yeowell's work when I started reading 2000AD in the early nineties. (I know, I was a late starter.) The most vivid memory I have from that time was of his work on Zenith and I was later to enjoy it in the long-running Devlin Waugh six-month story-arc that was comprised of Chasing Herod, Reign of Frogs and Sirius Rising in 1999.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered in 2004 that Steve would be illustrating my comic strip The Tale of the Hound (part of the Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat series published in Inferno! and Warhammer Monthly).

Steve's currently hard at work on more Red Seas for 2000AD but he kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions for this blog.

1. How did you start out as a professional artist?
I started writing and drawing a strip for small press SF stripzine “Totally Alien”, moving on to drawing episodes of “Lieutenant Fl’FF” in “Swiftsure” for Harrier Comics, all the while sending out samples.

2. What was it that gave you your big break and led to what you are doing now?

I helped out John Higgins on a half-page strip he was producing for a music/lifestyle mag called “The Street”. That led to a cover for “Spider Man And Zoids” at Marvel UK then a fill in on the Zoids strip. When regular penciller Kev Hopgood moved on to “Action Force” I was offered the strip full time.

3. What is your preferred method of working? Which medium suits your style best?

I work traditionally, pencilling and then inking the pages. I use Photoshop for minor corrections and deliver files of the pages digitally.

4. You have created and illustrated all manner of famous comic book characters. Which are your favourites?

My favourites are the characters I grew up with – my very favourite American title being the Fantastic Four. However, I found when I had the opportunity to draw an appearance by them in “Skrull Kill Krew” that I didn’t want it to be me drawing them – I wanted it to be Jack Kirby...

5. How does working for 2000AD compare to working for Black Library?

Apart from the invoicing procedure, pretty much the same!

6. What is the appeal of working creatively within the Warhammer setting?

It is its own unique and internally consistent self-contained world.

7. How did you find the process of illustrating The Tale of the Hound for Warhammer Monthly?

Clear and straightforward – nice work, Jon!

8. Of which piece of work are you most proud?

“67 seconds” – a graphic novel James Robinson and I produced for Epic. James gave me a script like a screenplay so I had more freedom than with a normal full script.

9. Is there anything you haven’t illustrated that you would still like to?

I’d like to draw a straight historical adventure.

10. What are you working on at the moment?

The last series of “The Red Seas”.

11. What advice would you give to any aspiring artists wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Keep a sketchbook of real things – not an ideas book – it’ll give you a feel for what looks right when you have to make them up. And be persistent!

Thanks again to Steve for taking the time to answer my questions, and remember to keep an eye out for his work in forthcoming issues of 2000AD.

U is for the Unbelievable Art of Mr Karl Richardson

I first became aware of Karl Richardson's art when he started working for Black Library when they were still producing the Warhammer Monthly comic. His work then started to crop up regularly within the pages of 2000AD, and now, several years later, he and I have worked together for the first time.

You see Karl has illustrated my first Warhammer 40,000 Path to Victory gamebook, Herald of Oblivion. (You heard it here first, 40K fans!) So, over to Karl...

1. How did you start out as a professional artist? What was it that gave you your big break and led to what you are doing now?

I got a studio job, straight from 6th form when I was about 18. During my brief stay (it was the recession in the early nineties and I was let go after just under a year) I was mainly doing cartoons for greetings cards and posters. It was nothing too exciting and badly paid, but was a good insight into how the commercial art world worked. I decided to go freelance and continued to do the same kind of work as I was more assured of work. It worked out pretty well; I was earning more money, doing better work and felt more in control of things. After about 7 or 8 years I was starting to get the feeling I was underachieving with my work and just doing enough to get the job approved, principally because I was bored and badly needed a change in direction. During quieter times work-wise I started to sketch fantasy and comic book characters with the vague idea I might send off to 2000AD or Marvel! But sometime in the late nineties I was made aware of Games Workshop and the fact they were venturing into comics with Warhammer Monthly. I started to send off black and white inked posters of their characters and after about six months I got an internal drawing to do for an issue of inferno. It was definitely a turning point for me. I’d worked really hard on it and I can remember feeling different while I was working on it, in that this was what I really wanted to do! A cover for Warhammer came shortly after and eventually this led to getting the gig on Daemonifuge 2 and then Lone Wolves! After that there was no turning back.

2. What is your preferred method of working? Which medium suits your style best?

I still start all my work with pencil and paper, but finish everything on the computer whether its comic pages or fully rendered. I fall in and out of love with the computer depending on how many times it crashes on me, but at the end of the day it’s a fantastic tool to have at your disposal. Having said that, I’m currently thinking of returning to acrylic painting just to mix things up a little.

3. Which setting do you prefer – Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000?

I definitely prefer 40K - I think it retains most of the sensibilities of fantasy whilst letting you draw bolters spitting great gouts of fire lead at someone!

4. How did you enjoy creating illustrating Herald of Oblivion, drawing everything from Tyranids to Necrons?

Illustrating Herald of Oblivion was fun. I got to do a few new characters like the Necrons, the Painbringer being my favourite, and a return to Tyranids is always a joy. It also gave me the opportunity to work in full colour as I got the chance to do the cover!

7. How does working for 2000AD compare to working for Black Library?

I think there’s a little more creative freedom with 2000AD. As long as you retain the fundamental look of their characters there is room for interpretation. The Warhammer worlds on the other hand have to be adhered to very diligently. But I enjoy the bold and striking imagery inherent with the Warhammer worlds and love working in the future war theatre though, so I don’t mind!

Thanks to Karl for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to answer my questions and don't forget, you can see more of his artwork for Herald of Oblivion when my first Path to Victory gamebook is published later this year.

P is for PJ Holden

I came to work with PJ when I was scripting strips for Warhammer Monthly. I had written a three-page, one-trick story set in Games Workshop’s Necromunda setting (a futuristic industrial wasteland off-shoot of the Warhammer 40,000 universe) called Slavebreak!

I was hugely impressed by the amount of effort PJ put into creating the various characters for the strip, and have gone on to enjoy his work in such periodicals as 2000AD, The Judge Dredd Megazine and Strip Magazine.

And I'm pleased to say that the Belfast-based comic book creator has agreed to be interviewed for Artist's Month on www.JonathanGreenAuthor.com. So here we go...

1) How did you start out as a professional artist?

I've always wanted to draw comics, but finding the moment to turn my back on a well-paid job in IT was always difficult. Oddly having two kids pushed me into an either or choice (up until three years ago, having a computing career and comic drawing career was my life).

2) What was it that gave you your big break and led to what you are doing now?

I've had a couple of 'first' professional gigs. But the one that really kicked it off was my first Dredd that came about after doing a bunch of short strips with Gordon Rennie for various small press titles. I showed Andy Diggle (then editor) my portfolio at the first Dredd Con (in 2000) and he said he'd give me some work. Gordon then pushed a little and bang, things were off and running. Then stalling, and running and stalling.

3) What is your preferred method of working? Which medium suits your style best?

Script + pencil + inks. Anything else boils to me arsing around. I've introduced and removed digital elements to my work as the mood took, and I've done various things, like greywash. I'm never sure if I have a single set style. I think my work is always recognisable, regardless of whatever idiotic method of rendering I decide to coat it in.

4) You have illustrated all manner of famous (and infamous) comic book characters. Which is your favourite?

Dredd. I'm pretty much in love with drawing Dredd.

5) How does working for 2000AD compare to working for Black Library?

Well, it's been a while! My last work for the Black Library was waaay back in... mumble, mumble something. I enjoyed both - I'd just started my drawing career and to get work from 2000AD AND the Black Library felt like, this is it, I'm on my way! (It wasn't it, and I wasn't on my way, though)

6) What is the appeal of working creatively within the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 settings?

I'm more a Warhammer 40K man. I just like the absurdity of it. The over the top, grim piled on grim. It makes me laugh.

7) How did you find the process of illustrating Slavebreak! for Warhammer Monthly?

Oh er... I wish I could remember. I think I enjoyed it. Certainly it's one of my fave strips that I drew from that period. And that's usually a good sign. [That is a good sign! – JG]

8) Of which piece of work are you most proud?

The Battlefields strip I did with Garth. That's less pride in the work as much as it's pride in the overall strip. The story and subject matter where both top notch.

9) Is there anything you haven’t illustrated yet that you would like to?

Blimey, I'm sure there are lots of things. I'm not madly driven to draw certain things though - I like doing stories, and doing them well. Whether the story consists of cyborgs, airplanes or dinosaurs is less of an issue.

10) What are you working on at the moment?

Dept of Monsterology for Renegade Arts, Samizdat Squadron for The Judge Dredd Megazine and BOX for Strip Magazine.

11) What advice would you give to any aspiring artists wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Marry someone rich.

Thanks again to PJ for taking the time to answer my questions and post his pictures, more of which you can find here, along with various projects in progress, on his blog.

Leonatos Reborn!

Captain Leonatos of the Blood Angels Chapter made his first appearance in Warhammer Monthly back in 1998. He went on to 'star' in three graphic novels, all written by Gordon Rennie and illustrated by Colin MacNeil.

Fourteen years later, Leonatos and his brothers are back in a brand new audio drama from scribe Rennie:

Travelling the Eye of Terror in search of a stolen artefact, a band of Blood Angels exiles encounter another group of Space Marines on a similar quest – but is all as it seems?

To find out more, click this link.

W is for Warhammer Monthly

Warhammer Monthly was an anthology comic published by the Black Library, from March 1998 to December 2004, running to 86 issues in total. The final two issues were published bi-monthly as the Warhammer Comic, and it remains the only comic book ever to win an Eagle Award and get canceled in the same week. It featured stories set within Games Workshop's fictional universes of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

The first ever comic strip I had commissioned was a Necromunda tale called Kill Confirmed (1999). It was the story of a Spyre Hunter's hunt and was illustrated by Paul Jeacock. My second comic strip was also set in the Necromunda underhive. This one, Slavebreak! (2002), was one of P J Holden's early pieces of paid comic strip work, for which he created a number of character studies.

In December 2002 Warhammer Monthly became Warhammer Warped Visions, just for that month. It featured one-shot variations of Black Library's most popular comics, but with their settings reversed between the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes. For example, the Dark Elf Malus Darkblade was portrayed as a Dark Eldar, while the Titan Imperius Dictatio was shown as an Empire Steam Tank. I contributed the lead story which turned Battle Sister Ephrael Stern, of the hugely successful Daemonifuge strip, into Ephrael von Stern: Sister of Sigmar, transplanting the character to the damned Warhammer city of Mordheim. The strip also featured on the cover and the editor told me that if he'd had the budget for some colour pages that month (as he had the year before) it would have been my strip that received the colouring treatment.

My other strips were all Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat and were collected, along with the ones I'd written that appeared in Inferno! magazine, in The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005).

My total contribution to Warhammer Monthly is as follows:

Kill Confirmed – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction comic strip – Warhammer Monthly free issue given away with White Dwarf Magazine #232 (1999)

Slavebreak! – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction comic strip – Warhammer Monthly #57 (2002)

Ephrael von Stern: Sister of Sigmar – Warhammer fantasy comic strip – Warhammer Monthly #63 (2002)

The Tale of the Hound – Warhammer fantasy comic strip – Warhammer Monthly #79 (2004) – re-printed in the graphic novel The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

The Farmer’s Tale – Warhammer fantasy comic strip – Warhammer Monthly #80 (2004) – re-printed in the graphic novel The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)