PATRICK O’CONNOR: SIX QUESTIONS

Patrick is an unsung hero here at Corvus. He is the man who quietly gets on with it and is at every show, selling and sketching, in short, in the hideous language of advertising; Patrick is our unique selling point. Patrick has been around since Corvus began and has been an essential asset from day one.

You may know him from his involvement in The Baker Street Irregulars, Patrick has helped to shape the concept in to what it is today. A shy man I caught up with hi recently to ask him those six questions.

How did you get started in this business?

I have always had a love of comics from as long as I can remember. I used to draw my own strips as a child trying to emulate the great artists. I really enjoyed the adventure stories in the Hornet or the Hotspur and the Commando books. From that I attended a few of the conventions in England and made contact with other like-minded people, I concentrated more on inking after meeting a professional at a convention and suggested I work in this area. I was able to strike up a conversation with another great professional artist Anthony Williams and he gave me advice and guidance on how to improve, he also gave me artwork both original and photocopies to practice with. From that help I got a try-out with Marvel but unfortunately I rushed it because I was moving house at the time and didn’t get picked up. I worked briefly with Paul J Holden who now is a very successful artist.  By this time I had met David Morris and we had started collaborating on bits and pieces.  We had always wanted to get our own stuff out there. David was already published with Force 10 and we collaborated with other creators with varying degrees of success. With the introduction of digital printing we could move forward with our own ideas. We started this with Baker Street Irregulars and with your good self and Tim now involved our range of titles has grown with more in the wings. We are now looking for more artists. It’s a great position to be in but a frustrating one because we want them all out. We agreed from the start that we want a very high standard in all of our books, quality in both the script art and overall presentation was imperative. Independent comic’s standards have grown over the years and the market is very competitive. I believe we have achieved this with the titles we have now out. We want to be different from other peer titles, great stories and great visuals.

Who are your influences?

Artists wise it would have to be Alan Davis, John Byrne, the Buscemas , the Romitas, Steve Dillon the list would be endless, Frank Hampton from even earlier great art and craft and of course David. Inking wise it would be Mark Farmer, Andy Lanning, Scott Hanna, Art Thilbert and again many more. I love all their attention to detail and always wish I could have half of their talent. I like mainstream creators just as much as indie. In recent years I have been reading French books from Cinebooks which have great stories and art and are influencing our approach to our titles.

What are you working on at the moment?

Currently both David and I are working on getting BSI 2 out over the next few months. I am trying to also polish up on my pencilling and will maybe take a stab at something in the future. David is the busiest man working  on your very own baby CO2 towards publishing the first issue next year and the first issue of Dee for Detective later next year both 48 pages apiece.  

What’s coming up?

For me I have written a BSI story arc and have a new character I have written which will hopefully see the light of day sometime next year, I have been also inking BSI 2 and hopefully Dee for Detective in the coming months.

Character or plot, which comes first?

It can vary, the new character I have been fleshing out I came up with the character and the plot simultaneously. But usually for me it is character first and then find an environment in which to place the character and mess up their lives. I like the idea of having the characters and fleshing them out through the story line rather than having the character fully formed before the story.

In the film of your life who would play you?

Richard Dreyfuss, my favourite actor. He is far better looking however he now has my hair colouring and hairline. That’s the sum total of our similarities.

Thanks Pat, as you say BSI 2 is coming our way soon and I for one can’t wait to read it. I know it’s going to be a great read. 

GEORGINA GREVES: SIX QUESTIONS

This week it is my great pleasure to be interviewing the latest addition to the House of Corvus, the prodigiously talented and charming Georgina Greves. Those of you who have been  wise enough to get hold of a copy of Victoriana will know what I mean, here ideas explode from every frame of the book. George was recruited by our steampunk whizz kid, Tim Hart, to render his script into the thing of beauty that is Victoriana. But enough from me let's hear some words of wisdom from the artist herself.

1. Tell us how you made the wold of Victoriana come alive:

Victoriana is Tim's brainchild, but I love the steampunk genre! There's a lot of extr thought that goes into creating the "weird era" that is the world of Victoriana. Things like the steam powered machinery and small bits of technology are complex but fun to design. I used to make and modify things to make them steampunk- one of my favourites was a steampunk pencil and a matching steampunk setchbook!

2. Who are your influences?

I grew up reading all types of comics and still play far too many video games, so I have a very graphic style. I love the work of Sean Gordon Murphy - his ink lines have so much character! And Zack Gorman, his games based comics always crack me up! There are so  many other things and people that influence me but those are the most current.

3. How did you and Tim find each other?

I'm pretty inexperienced as far as drawing comics professionally goes. Someone had posted an ad at university asking for a comic artist, and when I applied they said  already got someone but knew another person who needed an artist...and I was put in touch with Tim! Although Saskia drew the original artwork I've worked hard to make them my own.

4. What comes first characters or plot?

Characters or plot? That's a hard one. In my case it's the characters, though I let Tim worry about the plot! I think with visual mediums like comics it's necessary to have cool, interesting characters. Even if the plot is great if it's boring I find it hard to get in to.

5. What's next then?

I'm still at university doing an illustration course so I have lots of work to do before I graduate! I'm always trying to improve my work so that Victoriana is the best it can be!

6. In a film of your life who would play you?

Natalie Portman is cool, or maybe Jessie Eisenberg.

Thanks George for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to talk to us. We wait for the first issue of Victoriana  with baited breath.

PORTRAITS

There is an old cliché about writers being painters in words, yes, I know hoary and hackneyed, but I want to use this metaphor to introduce the work of Joel , whom you have encountered as the talented editor of the long running Tripwire (http://www.tripwire-magazine.com/). You may know that Joel Meadows deals in words, he is a respected journalist and has two exciting projects bubbling away as I write, one is an intriguing policer and the other is none other than Dee For Detective, which Corvus will be publishing in the near future.

However, what I am trumpeting today is his work as a photographer (just how talented can one man be). Joel has not one, but two new collections of his photographs out, both show how skilled he is at composition, the use of black and white as a photographic medium and are well worth a look.

I suspect like me you will get lost amongst the faces that stare back at you from every page of Portraits Joel’s pictures of famous authors. I shall let Mike Carey sum up the appeal of this book: “Time and again Joel Meadows uses his portraits not just to present his subjects but to explore and interrogate them. A beautiful and thought provoking book.” I especially found the photos of Alan Moore, taken over a number of years to be very powerful. He uses this time lapse photography to great effect with his studies of Michael Moorcock and Christopher Fowler as well. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

Joel has also produced Spooked, A London Gothic. This volume really highlights Joel’s skill at capturing the spirit of a place. As you look into the photographs you will realise that Old London has never gone away and that the city you know is built on something far older and more beautiful. That’s all I’m going to say, as I want to go and loose myself in that gothic London which is never very far away.

You can order both of these book and more from Joel’s blog (http://joelm1-joelmead.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/joel-meadows-photography-at-last-my.html ). Don’t delay, they are that good.

BRISTOL EXPO PHOTOS

A big thanks to all those people who went to the Bristol Expo and took such trouble with their costumes. It was good to see you all.

VICTORIANA LAUNCHED!

It was smiles all around last Saturday as our latest title, the steam punk sensation that is Victoriana was launched at the Bristol Comic Expo. The author Tim Hart introduced his two short films and gave an informative speech about the world of Victoriana,

It was good to see some familiar faces and to make some new acquaintances as well. I was particularly taken with Luke Foster’s on line cartoon Moon Freight 3 (http://moonfreight3.com/). I shall review a couple of books that caught the attention of us here at Corvus next week. 

STEAMPUNK SATURDAY!

Yes, the Bristol Comic Expo (http://www.bristolexpo.co.uk/) is this weekend and we at Corvus are ready to celebrate the launch of our new steampunk title Victoriana which will be unveiled at the show. As well as premiering two short steampunk films about Victoriana, and the chance to meet not only the author Tim Hart, our in-house steampunk wunderkind and the artist, the wonderful Georgina Greaves, there will also be a raffle for an original piece of artwork! How much more excitement can a body stand?

There is much of interest at the Expo this year including the first UK visit by the sensational IDW Publishing, the people who are responsible for the Star Trek/ Dr Who cross over series. This is truly a landmark in publishing, the meeting of two unique, long running, fully realised universes. Miss this at your peril.

When the excitement has got too much, and you feel the need to touch base with reality once more, why not wander over to our stall? We will be there all weekend and we would really like to talk to you. Not only about our peerless stable of titles but about anything and everything. And if you are coming in costume then we really would like to see you so we can post your photo on this very website next week.

So don’t be as green as a treen, come and see us this weekend in Bristol.

VICTORIANA APPROACHES!

We are launching the preview of our new steampunk series in ten days time! Yes, the Bristol Comic Expo (http://www.bristolexpo.co.uk/) is nearly upon us! I must stop writing with exclamation marks!

Victoriana is special in a number of ways, firstly because it is a unique vision of an alternate world, a world that is both familiar and very different. Secondly it is the first Corvus launch that is tied in with not one, but two short film premieres (I want to use exclamation marks here but I’ve used the week’s supply already). Thirdly it is the first work of Tim Hart, our young steampunk wunderkind, to be unveiled-but not the last.   

This story has legs, so many legs it could win a marathon. Tim has taken the conventions of steampunk, invented a memorable world that is peopled with believable characters involved in cliffhanging adventures and woven this into the jewel that is Victoriana. Miss the launch at your peril.