SPECIAL BIRTHDAY FINALE GUEST: LEE SULLIVAN. ARTIST

I have been privileged to work on various comic strips related to things I loved in my childhood (and well beyond). In addition to a recurring stint on Doctor Who, I worked on a Thunderbirds strip for Redan from 2000 – 2005. 

I was fully aware, having grown up with the gorgeous work in the TV21 comic, of what had been done by my predecessors, in particular Frank Bellamy, Jennings, Ron Turner; Ron Embleton and - my own particular favourite artist - Mike Noble, on Dalek and Anderson strips in that title. 

There were commercial and demographic reasons why my strips were drawn in a much more simplified way, but I always regretted that I hadn’t done work on Thunderbirds that could try to approach the excellence of the 1960s strips.

More recently, I’ve been lucky enough to redress the balance somewhat with full colour covers for the Signum Century 21 and Eaglemoss TV21 reprints, and latterly with the Big Chief Studios range of Anderson action-figures’ box artworks and prints. 

Even more fortunately, I struck up a friendship with Mike Noble, and we have used the opportunity to work together three times now, once on the Big Chief Captain Scarlet box and also on a poster for the Network release of the Captain Scarlet blu-rays. 

But the first thing we worked on together was a poster of Zero-X, which Mike had drawn in a long series of brilliant comic strips in TV21. Mike was interested to see if his artwork could be combined with my digital painting, a technology I was surprised to find he was fascinated by. 

He supplied a full-colour traditionally-painted image of the craft, which I then (under his strict supervision) set into my digital painting of a stellar nursery.

Happily, we both liked the results and issued it as a poster a few years ago. Working with Mike has been an unexpected career highlight for me; he is one of the greats of the comics world, as well as being a true gentleman. 

Since I was asked to contribute to this blog, I have managed to add to my (long, long) list of wonderful 1960s SpaceX and Century 21 toys (and many other genre-related items) ... 

something which has been a bit of a Holy Grail for me since I saw the red and black illustration (and strangely brief description) of it in the old Project Sword catalogue: the Century 21 Zero-X. So the surprises keep coming . . .

Lee Sullivan

UK

MIKE NOBLE RETURNING TO ANDERCON

I'm pleased to hear that prolific comic artist Mike Noble is another returning guest to Andercon, 

Some of my earliest memories are seeing Mike's excellent renditions of Fireball XL5 in TV Century 21. in 1965.

His style is instantly recognizable, as can be seen on this 1967 annual, and his talent shows no sign of diminishing as this painting shows from the 2009 Network DVD Fireball XL5 release.

Here's a limited run B&W print signed by Mike Noble that was released by Fanderson in the eighties.

When I saw Mike at last year's event, he and fellow artist Lee Sullivan had collaborated on another limited print featuring Mike's Zero X art, with Lee providing the computer generated background.

As Lee is attending as well, I look forward to seeing them both again, and wondering what they might have planned this time.

LEE SULLIVAN AND MIKE NOBLE ZERO-X PRINT

Further to Scoop's post about artist Lee Sullivan, check out this beautiful painting of Zero-X Lee has done along with the legend himself, Mike Noble. It sort of reminds me of what a US Tarheel box might have looked like for a Zero-X toy! To see this picture properly and more then check out Lee's website.

LEE SULLIVAN ON BOARD FIRESTORM

I was pleased to hear that artist Lee Sullivan has joined the Firestorm design team and is producing a limited edition comic strip edition as part of a backers reward.

Read more about  it here  http://downthetubes.net/?p=17885

This shows  Lee's design work  for 'Ocean Storm' for the Firestorm project.

Lee, as many of you will know did the excellent front cover artwork for the Eaglemoss Gerry Anderson Comic Collection which sadly stalled at volume 5.

I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Lee, along with legendary TV21 artist Mike Noble at Andercon this year. Best of luck with your new project, Lee.