I'm reading reports that prolific comic artist, John M. Burns sadly passed away on December 29th.
Born in 1938, John began working as an illustrator in the early sixties.
Anderson comic fans will remember his distinctive artwork in Lady Penelope illustrating the Space Family Robinson strip.
He worked on several strips in TV Century 21, including Catch or Kill and Front Page.
Many will recall his work in Countdown comic on the titular Countdown strip, which used spaceship and spacesuit designs from the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey .
When Countdown became TV Action, John worked on the UFO strip.
In Look In, John drew the SPACE: 1999 strip
Other notable works for me are the Tomorrow People Strip in Look -In, and a Dan Dare strip in the New Eagle comic, although, ironically by his own admission Burns didn't enjoy working on Science Fiction, in particular Judge Dredd, which he worked on during the nineties.
He announced his retirement in October, 2023.
Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
A memorable comic artist with a distinctive style and dynamic use of line.
ReplyDeleteI copied his work as a teenager for school projects.
Good to hear he had some influence on you, Mish. As you say, his dynamic action packed style was perfect for sequential comic art.
DeleteI particularly remember that Countdown page from my childhood. In this new age where marks on paper are being superceded by taps on keyboards, his foemidable skills will be missed.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Lewis. Sadly, there's not many of the original artists left from TV21. I can only think of Gerry Embleton, and Martin Asbury. I'm not sure how many original proper artists from Countdown are still with us, not many I'll bet.
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