He's a very naughty boy.

I was lucky enough to get me hands on a signed copy of Bryan Talbots new book GRANDVILLE for my birthday and what a fine gift it was too (Cheers Dave).

The first time I became fully aware of his art was when he took over the art duties from my beloved Kevin O'Neill on Nemesis the warlock during the books Gothic empire phase which considering the high regard I hold his work in wouldve been a tall order but Bryan took the bull by the horns and shook the fucker to death before my very eyes.

His work, like Mister O'Neills, was brilliantly weird, astonishingly designed, beautifully detailed and incredibly violent and I loved it.

Since then I have tried to read everything I could get my hands on with a couple of exceptions the most recent being Alice in Sunderland which was an absolute feast for the brain.

Now he has given us GRANDVILLE and it is a total monster, the book starts with a rip roaring steam carriage chase through a decaying Parisian refinery in which the players are routinely shot, cooked and blown up and it doesnt let up from there.

The Main Character is a burly Badger in the vein of Sin Citys Marv who when he isnt solving the series of crimes that drive the book is dispensing rough justice to all and sundry in a manner befitting of old school Dredd.

There is a scene in which surrounded by rascals our hero nuts Barbar the elephants badboy cousin before setting him on fire!

Personally I couldnt ask for more, Its even got a gloriously melancholy appearance from TinTins four legged companion set in an opium den that first appeared in an etching by Gustav Dore!

Buy this book!

Gunther Von Hagenstein

Heres another piece I did for the Patchwork of Flesh trading card art project.

Not quite as juicy as I wouldve liked but great fun to be working in colour again all the same, I just love drawing monsters, especially those designed by good old Victor Von Frankenstein and this ones got no skin!

The object of destruction.

This has sat quietly moldering in my sketch pads since 1995-ish when I was listening to a bit too much of the Orb and ingesting a little too much colourful blotting paper.

Its too static and landscape and needed tweaking but as a precursor to the apocalyptic Astronaut storyline thats lurking in the future its a nice apperitif.

PAAAAAAT!

Heres a piece I originally drew away back in 1989 featuring two of my favourite 2000a.d comic characters of all time, the arch deviant Nemesis the warlock and uber future nazi Torquemada.

Pat Mills one half of the creative team (the other being my artistic God totem Kevin O Neill) that came up with these beauties refuses to allow fans to create and publish fiction based on his characters well Im begging you Pat let me! let me! Cant you feel the love???

The basic outline has sat in my art box since then crying out for ink and at last I relented and put the black blood on em... people spend less time in prison for murder!

"Life moves pretty fast..."

Heres a little El Indio preview of AccentUKs latest Whatever happened to the worlds fastest man.

Its Written by the multi talented man that is Dave West and illustrated by the sublime skills of Marleen Lowe, who Im more than a little excited to say provides the origin story in the first issue of Stephensons robot.

This book is the Future shock as high art and a Superhero concept that actually rings true.

It has moments of genuine pathos in it something that only a select few writers and artists can pull off and a rare quality in comic books full stop, this book is so rooted in reality that you forget your seeing a tachyon warping act of heroism taking place and end up pulled into an affecting treatise on the nature of what it is to be human, a real testament to breadth of Daves burgeoning talent as a writer .

And all the while your rooting for the protagonist to suceed.

The art is beautiful, able to put across the sadness and lighter moments of the heroes predicament whilst at the same time being fresh, relevant, technically superb and I think at least the equal of D.Cs Neil Googe, which may bode very well for Marleens future in comics.

Buy it I guarantee you will read it in one sitting, you will never forget it and wont set eyes on anything else like it ever again.

Martian God Emperors.

Heres the first page featuring the Martian androids from Stephensons robot.
A stirling job on the colours by Young Dave West!

The Mary Shelley overdrive.

Heres another Frankensteins monster pic that I have done for the Patchwork of flesh trading card art project. Coloured Pencils onto inks and a bit more traditional than my last effort.