Why make it look like that?

Being a fan of 'Film Noir' and the old Serials, 'Flash Gordon',
'King of the Rocket Men' etc. I tried to make the Graphic style
of the story evoke the feel of those old Black and White Movies.
The page layout therefore derives from 'widescreen' images.

Finished greyscale art of limited tones was also manipulated
to soften, to suggest film grain and 'vignetting'.


All the art was produce from scratch at 500dpi in Photoshop
with a Wacom Intuos tablet and an underpowered old Mac.
Reference consisted primarily of 'Google Images' and a trusty
plastic dinosaur. :-)

The Airlords

The Story

The 'Champion' was a pulp hero somewhere in a late 1930's.
Like his predecessors, he was sworn to protect the City from any
force that threatened it, be it domestic or cosmic. With the aid of
his friends, Betty Furlong and the scientific genius Professor Millard,
the 'Champion' had many thrilling and dangerous encounters
doing exactly that.
Years later, following an Invasion, the City is occupied by a strict
and mysterious regime. It is a darker more cynical time, now there
are no such heroic figures.

If in fact there ever were...




The introductory story is published in the comic anthology
"Afterworks". See the' E-Ville' link for details.

Hi Mum

yes, this was posted on the E-Ville site

But having everything here will save my Mum trawling around
through various pages via a somewhat slower UK connection :-)

Show about nothing

..well, they can't be 'action packed'?
ALL the time can they?..


This is the first page I 'finished', when I thought I had the style down
and the last one I finished when I actually did. :-)

Hang on!..I recognise that...

this image was previously posted on the 'Flight' forum


Sci Fi fans may spot a very deliberate homage to
Frank R. Paul's classic 'Amazing Stories' cover from Aug 1928



That particular issue featured 'Armageddon-2419 AD'
by Philip Fancis Nowlan.The story that introduced the world
to Anthony 'Buck' Rogers. It's amazing how many of Nowlan's
ideas in that story are a reality today.

Here's a page

this is the page that the T Shirt image came from,
though I took the rain off...as it looked kind
of odd when out of context.

The villain's guns are 'Thompsons' of course.
'The Champion' wields a customised 9mm beretta.

T Shirts you say!.. but what about the pages?

yeah..point taken
but I've looked at my pages way more than I've looked at T shirts..
so I needed a change:-)

been cleaning up the chosen Artwork (voted for by Pixar peers)
and spoke to the printer today, these things will cost me a bomb..
but hey, you've gotta have Shirts... right?

and no Mr Funny.. that isn't me 40 pounds ago.. it's from google

Postcard ... maybe

this one is intended as a postcard
whether or not it actually makes it to print.. remains to be seen

You may just make out the Pteranadon in the background
carrying away a woman 'One Million Years B.C.' style.

First piccy

sorry, I swapped things around a bit on the site

This one isn't in the book exactly, though it inspired some stuff.
It was an early test image for some Maya animation I was playing
about with. ( 'The Champion' exists both in 2D and occasional 3D)

Getting up and Running

bloody hell it works, I can fly.....