Tough Guy Appears in Mohawk Preview Comic

Just a quick note to say that the first preview of my new comic series written by Chris Bunting and published by Mohawk Media is available for free download here

The preview also includes a nice selection of some of Mohawks other titles including a chunk of the current Mr T graphic novel.

Enjoy

Multiverse

I've just finished reading issue 1 of the new comic news magazine 'Multiverse'.

It's a very enjoyable read especially if your interested in the current crop of US comics. The mag is very superhero heavy but this issue comes hot off the heels of the big US comic cons and superheroes are big news, so fair enough!

It's great to have this mag, I really missed Comics International when it folded and Multiverse is an admiral replacement. I hope, once it's found it's feet we will see reports and reviews from the wider comics scene, and more support for UK titles.

For another review on this magazine check out Lew Stringers blog at http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/

Multiverse web site http://www.multiverse-magazine.com/

That time of year.

Well it's that time of year...

It's soon crept up but I must say I'm feeling rather good about Crimbo this year, must be the snow!

I put together a newsletter each month for my home church and this year was asked if I would like to do a comic for the cover of the December issue. With one thing and another fitting this in to my schedule became somewhat of a task but here it is hot of the Mac!

With time against me I had to get a bit creative with the colouring, but it worked out quite nicely I think?

Enjoy..

The Best Drawer in the World!

I had a fun afternoon yesterday. Myself and colleague Simon Cross was holding a figure drawing and character design workshop at the Ropewalk in Barton with a great class of 9 and 10 year olds.

We had some great ideas generated ranging from shape shifting killer robots to eco friendly plant pot girls. But the highlight for me was a comment from one boy who quietly said to me....

"Wow your the best drawer in the world!"... then he paused and said " Well the second best". He paused again and said, " No.. you are the best drawer in the world".

Most amusing!

The Dandy gets a fresh lick of paint

Last Wednesday saw the release of the all new singing and dancing The Dandy.

Featuring the new comic adventures of cover star Harry Hill, this new look Dandy is something really special.

I really hope that The Dandy will become a trailblazer in so much that it revitalizes the UK comics market. The Dandy features an all new exciting cast of characters created by some of todays finest cartoonists. This is the first comic I've read in sometime that has really got me excited and hopeful for the future of british news stand comics.

The Beano is doing a stirling job too offering kids today a fun packed read every week not relying on licensed properties and bagged toys and gimmicks.

I hope this is a turning point and other publishers soon follow suit and let comics be comics.

Beano Annual 2011

Just a quick note to say that the Beano Annual 2011 is out now featuring my first published work for the Beano, a cheeky little two page strip featuring General Jumbo.

Hopefully more Beano antics will be coming my way soon!

Enjoy!

Steve

Breaking into Comics

Well September has been a really exciting month for me.

Since I was 5 years old I have always wanted to draw comics for a living and I've been drawing my own comics as a hobby all my life. It's somewhat of an addiction for me, something I need to do!

Over the past 7 years I've seriously focused on trying to "Break into Comics" a term that has adorned the title of many a "How to" book I've read in my time. Despite being told time and again that it can't be done, I can now say to those people IT CAN!

Along with the soon to be released Tough Guy graphic novel from Mohawk Media, I'll soon be starting on a new strip for next years Beano book. And this month I have had a short series of comic strips commissioned by one of the UK's comic institutions. What makes it even more exciting is that the strips star is a character I have created myself and will appear in a soon to be relaunched version of the title with a whole host of new stars who will appear alongside some well established old friends.

What is this comic I hear you ask...

Well I'll tell you a bit nearer the time, chortle!

Will post some new art very soon.

Good Times!

Beanotown

Hi, long time no post!!

Well i've been busy exploring some new avenues of work.

The most exciting being given the opportunity to try out on some sample art

for the residents of Beanotown!

I've just finished a test script for a well known Beano character.

Waiting rather (im)patiently for the outcome.

More soon...

Below is one of my try out sheets.

Exclusive first look at Tough Guy

Here’s an exclusive first look at four pages from the official Tough Guy, coming from Mohawk Media in 2011.

Words by Chris Bunting; pictures by Steve Beckett; explosions by Tough Guy.

Tough Guy is expected to appeal to the young male market … and the ‘not-as-young’ male market too.

THE TOUGH GETS GOING WITH MOHAWK MEDIA

Publisher Mohawk Media has today released a teaser image following its acquisition of the license to produce original adventures of Tough Guy.

Tough Guy, the British publisher’s first title since the top-selling official Mr. T graphic novels, is written by Chris Bunting (Mr. T; Action Man) and illustrated by Steve Beckett (Beano Annual; General Jumbo).

Bunting describes Tough Guy as a “real throwback action hero, a punch in the eye of two major opponents: terrorism and rampant political correctness. He’s A-Team meets Bond and Indiana Jones, with the hard edge of Dirty Harry.”

Bunting continues: “Boys, both young and middle-aged, are bound to identity with Tough Guy, as he’s anything but yet another bland, demasculinised hero.”

Further details are due to be announced by Mohawk Media soon.

Geronimo - At long last... The 11th Doctor

I've been waiting for the new series of Doctor Who introducing the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond with a mixture of excited anticipation and a little sadness for a while now.

Why?

Well, excited to see a new regenerated Doctor, something I've always enjoyed no matter who takes on the role. But with a little sadness because leading up to this series I was invited to pitch for the art chores for the comic strip in the BBC's Doctor Who adventures magazine. Needless to say I didn't get the job but I did well and got in the final selection of artists to be chosen. My work was, so I'm told by the BBC, shown to Matt Smith and Karen Gillen.

So for a time I grew quite attached to the idea and spent a long time sketching the characters.

I have to say that Matt Smith is tricky to draw and in hindsight perhaps I didn't quite capture the likeness I was after.

Anyway below I've posted a few of the pieces of art I put together for the pitch.

Later..

Max Missions

OK so I'm now going to try and follow up my first General Jumbo strip with a new pitch to try and see if the Beano are willing to revive the character in either the weekly comic or the monthly Beano Max. I think with the recent track record these adventure style characters have had in the weekly comic's past I may have my work cut out for me with this pitch.

I'm also writing the strips myself which is a departure for me, but somehow it's seems to be working out?

I'm trying to keep these short and get a bit of humour in them so they sit nicely alongside the regular stuff.

Here are some pencils for this tryout.

Enjoy, more soon....

Of Wolf and Man

I'm exploring a few work options at the moment.

One of the things I'm working on is a children's book pitch loosely based on the

Grimsby folk legend of Grim and Havelok.

Below is an illustration of some of the characters who appear in the story.

The Wolf Clan.

Invasion of the Beano Annual 2011

Hope you enjoyed the sketches posted last time.

The result of said sketches and some persistent nagging (sorry Beano ed)

was a script which I had to turn around fairly quickly and then success, The General got his place in the book.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the book when it comes out around September time.

And I have to say, I've grown rather fond of General Jumbo and I would love to do more with him.

Posted below are a few more sketches, one in particular depicts the kind of scrapes I'd like to see Jumbo get himself into.

Enjoy... more soon.

Destination Dinchester

What amazed me was the response I got from the Billy the Cat samples I sent.

The next afternoon I received a reply from the Beano ed. He liked the samples very much and offered me the chance of a slot in the Beano Annual 2011.

Awesome!! and even more awesome was the character I was given to work with...

General Jumbo. The school boy in charge of his very own remote controlled toy army. (Whoops, I shouldn't refer to them as toys.)

All this from my first proper pitch to an established title. Now it's been a long time in the making and I've spent years working towards this moment by creating my own comics and self publishing. I was overjoyed!

So to work. At that stage nothing was certain. There was a possibility Jumbo may not make it in the book at all due to restrictions on space. However I was up for the fight!

I've posted below a few of the sketches I sent through to try and win the editor over.

Enjoy.

Adventures in Beanotown

Well here we go, first post.
It's been an interesting time for me work wise. I've been freelancing for nearly 6 years now, mainly producing design work for a large multimedia broadcaster. But I've also been skirting around the fringes of the UK comics scene.

I got into self publishing/small press comics about 5 years ago when I released a mini series called SAM119, which despite some big hurdles with distribution did pretty well.

I followed that up with appearances in FutureQuake and DogBreath fanzines which I hope to return to again at some point if they'll have me?

But where to next?

I had to ask myself the question how far do I want to go with comics, it's a notoriously difficult industry to break into and getting your work seen and taken seriously is a mammoth task in itself.

Or is it?

I suppose it comes down to the belief you have in your work and who you dare to show it to. Fellow artists will no doubt agree that you yourself can be your harshest critic. After some serious soul searching I decided to send some work off to some comic book editors...

First job was to scour the magazine racks and see what was out there. I decided early on that I wanted to focus on children's comics, you've got to go where you think you might fit. But now options are limited.

Now in my opinion the king of UK comics has to be the Beano. But I tend to draw in a more action and adventure style not immediately associated with the residents of Beanotown. Then I remembered a cool character called 'Billy The Cat'.

Having checked Billy was still in action I put together a quick sample to send off to the Beano Ed...

Billy the Cat © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.