I'd been ghosting for The Dandy for a while when I finally got the chance to ghost for The Beano in 1997 thanks to the late Ken Cummings , a young scriptwriter who gave me a try out on those Pocket Size libraries.
A Ghost artist is someone who draws in the style of another cartoonist, and the comics used to be full of us! Here are some of my 'Ghost Jobs' from my early days at The Beano. 1. ROGER THE DODGER
This was my first published work in The Beano! Not too bad, a fair representation of Bob Nixon.
2. TIM TRAVELLER
An obscure strip, and I only ever did one, which I liked doing a lot.
3.MINNIE the MINX
I've ghosted Ken Harrison and Tam Paterson's versions of Minnie, but this one is a fair mimicking of Jim Petrie
4. EVEN STEVEN
An even MORE obscure strip, and again the only time I ever drew it. 5. BASH STREET KIDS
I first drew The Bash Street Kids by mistake in 1984 (long story!) But from 1988 I drew them occasionaly. This one, from April 3rd 1999, was the first one I felt totally happy with, feeling that I'd got a good handle on the late Leo Baxendale/early David
Sutherland feel. As with most of these ghost jobs, the colouring was done in-house at DC Thomson.
6. LES PRETEND
Hand coloured by me, I must have done a dozen 'Fun Size's but only one weekly. It's not a very close match for John Sherwood, but I was busy drawing other strips, most in my own style.
7. THE GERMS with ILL WILL
Again, coloured by me, by hand. I did three of these, and there was going to be a fourth, but somehow wasn't! Again, the style was supposed to be David Sutherland or Vic Neill, but ended up more like me. Not surprising!
4 comments:
"Late Leo Baxendale..."? You had me worried there for a moment 'til I realized what you meant. Nice artwork.
Some nice ghosting..you must learn a bit from each style you do..
like the Minnie...with the tongues licking and the running dog legs..
the bash Street kids in the dustbins remind me of the Banana Bunch Leo Baxendale logo..
Ah, yes, I remember that Les Pretend - the script was an almost complete copy of a strip which had been printed a year or two earlier, but the art was different. Whatever was the story behind that?
Nice work as usual. On most of the strips I can spot your style but for the Bash Street Kids you've kept yourself well hidden!!! :)
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