Saturday 17 January 2009

Early '87












In the early months, I turned to three of British comics' regular genres with single-page, try-out strips which dealt with sci-fi; World War II and urban vigilantism.

The Chair was just a futurist cybrid of that contraption from the first series of Blackadder and Mek-Quake which was set in some sort of KGB detention camp. The eponymous Chair afforded a get-out-quick option for anyone who lasted ten seconds in it - quite a taut little tale actually!

Sgt. Baker was a further homage to a character from 'Speed' comic which was originally drawn by the great Mike Western. A prequel to the character's blazing entrance in the first episode of Baker's Half-dozen which inevitably became a bit of a candle by comparison.

(I'd just read about foreshortening in 'How to draw comics the Marvel way' around this time. All too easily overdone or deficient that device, at the best of times.)

Moonwhite actually appeared to have the makings of a fine character until a step outside the door invoked the daunting realisation that a strip which was set in the backstreets of Cardiff would require a radically different type of gritty, urban realism for it to be gritty, urban and realistic. . . although these days!

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