Comic Cuts: Banksy & the art of dissent

Our recent art trail trip into town was inspired by the announcement of a Banksy exhibition at The Minories gallery in Colchester. I believe this has been the most successful exhibition the gallery has ever held. The gallery is supported by also being a popular cafe. But with no sign of tea and cakes this time, they've had to charge an entrance fee for (I believe) the first time.

We had to book in advance and choose one of the hour-long slots in which to pay our visit. Arriving just ahead of our slot, there were already a few people milling around the entrance, but it was only a couple of minutes before we were allowed in, divested ourselves of various bags and coats in the cloakroom, and were let loose in the first of a number of rooms.

Although Banksy had garnered all the advance publicity, there were dozens of other artists on display, most in the same street/urban art category, mostly aimed at highlighting social inequalities and injustices in one way or another, from graphical slogans on canvas to political dissent stenciled on walls. (And two of the pieces actually were sprayed on walls that had to be wheeled carefully in cradles into the Minories garden!)

The pictures here have been straightened but you might find reflections and other light pollution. Thankfully, Mel picked up the catalogue that went with the exhibition, although it didn't feature all of the displayed artwork, so I'm pleased I spent some time snapping photos. 

These are all Banksy pieces. I'll so another post featuring some of the other artists.

Comic Cuts: James Cook

James Cook is a British artist who has been creating artwork using vintage typewriters since 2014. What began as a school art project has developed into a distinctive artistic practice that has taken his work and his typewriters around the world.

James was initially inspired by the story of Paul Smith, an American artist born with cerebral palsy, who was give n a typewriter at an early age. Unable to express himself easily through traditional artistic tools, Smith discovered that the mechanical precision of the typewriter allowed him to create extraordinarily detailed pictures. His story introduced James to the long-forgotten history of typewriter art, a practice stretching back as far as the Victorian era.

Over the past 12 years, James has produced more than 350 typewriter artworks. Each picture is created entirely from letters, numbers and punctuation marks, leading James to describe his work as "a picture worth a thousand words."

His typewriters have travelled with him around the world, from Las Vegas, Amsterdam and Taiwan to New York, where he created artwork from the top of Rockefeller Center. Closer to home, James has worked at some of Britain's best-known landmarks, including the Royal Albert Hall, Battersea Power Station and The Ritz. In the summer of 2026, he was invited to Wimbledon to type on Centre Court ahead of the men's final.

Today, more than one million people follow James's work on Instagram, watching as these mechanical machines, originally designed for writing, are transformed into tools for drawing.

His latest project, Authors in Type, brings together 50 typewritten portraits created over three years and will be released on 27 October 2026. The book can be ordered online through James's website.

Comic Cuts: The Connor Brothers

The first thing to say about American artists Franklyn and Brendan Connor, commonly known as the Connor Brothers is that they are neither brothers, nor named Connor. They're not even American.

Rather, James Golding and Mike Snelle are British, although the show the influence of American paperbacks in most of the artwork that was recently on display at the Out of Line exhibition. You can see the likes of Robert McGinnis in their work, although I've yet to discover whether they've actually done a Lichtenstein and based their work directly on old covers. Most are accompanied by a quote, at least one of which was by Mae West, although others seem to be original.

UPDATE: Steve Chibnall tells me: "The Connor Brothers do not paint in the style of old paperbacks, they copy the work of the original artists without crediting them. I can identify the source of almost all of their paintings that I have seen from the books in my American paperback collection. We have seen this before with pop artists in the 1960s, turning honest and functional illustration into pricey gallery 'art works'. I think we should know better now."

I've now found an example, which repurposes the original Gold Medal artwork of James Meese:

I love this kind of artwork on old books, so I'm biased towards it. I can imagine a few of these appearing on old Shell Scott novels! [Turns out I'm not far wrong!] 

The pics. below are photographs, so I've straightened and tidied them up a little, but you may still find they have reflections and imperfections. The last three images are posters.

Comic Cuts — 23 October 2026

As I mentioned last week, I'm on holiday for a few days. I'll try to post something later today or over the weekend to let you see a couple of things we've been up to.

• 22 Oct. Busy Dan Abnett talks to Comics Beat about 2000AD's, Bulletopia, Azimuth and much, much more. "I don’t know how many millions of pages I’ve written, but I think I’m in the top 20 of most prolific writers in the American comic book industry of all time. I write loads of things at the same time. Whenever I get stuck on something, I’ll just go and do another job. I’ve got multiple jobs on the go at one time. So, I never stay in one place so long that I get bored of it or stuck. I go, “Oh, that’ll fix itself if I go and do something else.” I think it’s 73 novels now, most of which are Warhammer novels."
• 21 Oct. Grant Morrison discusses the history of Marvel Boy, the unrealised plans for its trilogy, and his original vision for Ultimate Fantastic Four. (video, 21m)
• 13 Oct. Whatever happened to Mark Millar's War Heroes, which ran to 3 issues 20 years ago and then stopped. Rich Johnson has the story. "I kind of wrote myself into a corner and I was kind of like, I don't really know what to do. And it actually spooked me."
• 9 Oct. As part of downthetubes' celebration of Commando's 6,000th issue, Jeremy Briggs has interviewed some of the creators of the series, beginning with editor Kate McAuliffe and continuing with interviews with Graeme Neil Reid, Ferg Handley, Keith Burns and Bill Graham. McAuliffe: "During my first week at DC Thomson, I was tasked with writing the press release for the 5000th issue — a special celebration with a trifecta of amazing creators: Ferg Handley, Carlos Pino and Ian Kennedy. So, the pressure was on to match that offering. Luckily, there was plenty of time for us to plan and prep for this landmark issue."
• 6 Oct. Forbidden Planet TV's Andrew Sumner interviews Liam Sharp about Book Two of his amazing and deeply-personal cosmic creator-owned project Starhenge. (video, 15m)
• 5 Oct. An interview with Salvador Larroca, a Spanish artist who worked for Marvel UK before switching to Marvel US. "Marvel UK served as a training ground for a remarkable number of talents, producing both unusual projects and small gems that helped launch numerous writers and artists who would go on to become international stars."
• 2 Oct. John McCrea on horror and Hitman's return. (video, 1h 6m) 
• 2 Oct. Frank Quitely announced as winner of the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art.

Commando 6003-6006

Something wicked this way comes in Commando issues 6003-6006 out today, Thursday 22nd October! Commando does Halloween in four spooky comics, featuring everything from haunted aircraft to Soviet cannibals! Don’t miss out!

6003: H-FOR-HAUNTED

Flak, Luftwaffe Night Fighters, mechanical failures… The Lancaster crews of the 281 Pathfinder Squadron had more than enough to contend with without adding a haunted bomber into the mix. After one of their number crashes, strange things begin happening on bombing missions. Flight Lieutenant Tim Shaw and his crew must overcome their fears and uncover the truth at the heart of the haunting before it’s too late!
    A creepy Commando spookfest is featured in No. 6003 courtesy of horrifying writer Richard Estep. Manuel Benet lends his monstrous brush to the cover and interior artwork for the issue, making this comic one that will HAUNT you if you miss it!

Story: Richard Estep
Internal Art: Manuel Benet
Cover Art: Manuel Benet

6004: FOREST OF FEAR

Big Mitch Connor and his Canadians swaggered down the troopship gangway and stood sniffing the air of Hong Kong. 
    Then they gaped in amazement at the British troops drilling smartly, saluting, doing fatigues — as if the island was a million miles from trouble.
    Didn’t these guys know that the Japanese were only a few thousand yards away?
    Mitch knew it, his tough guys knew it, but the British hadn’t wakened up yet! A smart kick in the pants was obviously needed.
    The Canadians would have to let them know there was a war on, show them how to fight like men. 
That was how Mitch’s troubles started…
    A classic Commando is our second spooky offering this Halloween, but there’s nothing scary about Clegg’s tale of derring-do and the amazing artwork on offer from Biesla and Chaco… unless you count it being SCARY GOOD!

Story: Clegg
Internal Art: Bielsa
Cover Art: Chaco
Originally printed as No.101 in 1964

6005: HUNGER

Stalingrad, winter, 1942. As grim, urban warfare drags on, something strange is happening in the ruins of the city — strange sounds coming from the carcasses of buildings, mysterious figures prowling the streets, missing supplies, and now even men are vanishing.
    Medic Josef Seubert soon finds himself caught up in the mystery, forced to confront the gruesome truth: there are wild men living in the cracks of Stalingrad, and they are on the hunt.
    Shiver running up your spine? That’s just the chilling atmosphere of Issue 6005 by N A Breakenridge, who is fast proving himself a maestro of the macabre! With interior artwork by spooktacular Paolo Ongaro and cover by the gruesome Marco Bianchini — this is a Commando to sink your TEETH into! 

Story: N A Breakenridge
Internal Art: Paolo Ongaro
Cover Art: Marco Bianchini 

6006: THE HAUNTED TANK

Do you believe in ghosts? No? Well, neither did Sid Raleigh. That is, until he joined the crew of a Churchill tank called “Firebrand”. That tank was haunted all right — and the ghost even had a sense of humour!
    A never-before-reprinted Commando has escaped the haunted vaults at DC Thomson, and it’s bagged itself a brand-new cover by the terribly talented Neil Roberts! 

Story: Staff
Internal Art: Ibanez
Cover Art: Neil Roberts
Originally printed as No.2050 in 1986

Rebellion Releases — 21 October 2026

The first UK screening of Rogue Trooper took place at the British Film Institute (BFI) as part of the BFI London Film Festival, bringing together an incredible mix of cast, creatives and die-hard 2000 AD fans for a very special evening!
 
Among those in attendance were members of the cast, including the brilliant Aneurin Barnard, Reece Shearsmith, Alice Lowe, Asa Butterfield, Rob Delaney, Al Murray and Peter Serafinowicz, alongside director Duncan jones and the legendary creative talents behind Rogue Trooper, Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons.
 
Rebellion was also proudly represented on the red carpet by our CEO and co-founder, Jason Kingsley CBE, CTO and co-founder Chris Kingsley, CBE, and Head of TV & Film Ben Smith.
 
The immediate reaction to the movie was certainly positive. Here's a taste from Voice Magazine which is a good sample: "What you can see is a real passion for the source material bleeding through which, even as someone unaware of it, is lovely to see. From the moment it starts with this title sequence of artwork ripped straight from the comics - which you should actually stick through the credits to see because it's genuinely beautiful - it's clear that if anyone was going to take a stab at bringing this to the screen, Duncan Jones was absolutely the right man."

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2505
Cover: Simon Davis.

JUDGE DREDD // THE NEW FUTURE by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (w) Henry Flint (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
AZIMUTH // HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DAGON by Dan Abnett (w) Tazio Bettin (a) Matt Soffe (c) Rob Steen (l)
DURHAM RED // HUNGRY CITY by Alec Worley (w) Ben Willsher (a) Simon Bowland (l)
GHOSTED // BOOK TWO by Guy Adams (w) Megan Huang (a) Simon Bowland (l)
HERNE & SHUCK // STORMING THE STONE by David Barnett (w) Lee Milmore (a) Quinton Winter (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Judge Dredd Megazine #497
Cover: Steven Austin.

JUDGE DREDD // ROJIMBO by Geoffrey D. Wessel (w) Nick Roche (a) Pippa Bowland (c) Simon Bowland (l)
STORM WARNING // SLAUGHTER HOUSE by John Reppion (w) Lee Carter (a) Rob Steen (l)
MEGA-CITY 2099 // FATHER'S DAY by Ken Niemand (w) Conor Boyle (a) Rob Steen (l)
ROGUE TROOPER // AN ITERATION OF ALLIES by Andi Ewington (w) Sinu Senan (a) Jim Boswell (c) Simon Bowland (l)
LAWLESS // THE NEW BRUTALISTS by Dan Abnett (w) Phil Winslade (a) Simon Bowland (l)

Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 51 by John Wagner, Al Ewing, Mike Carroll, Gordon Rennie, Rob Williams, Alan Grant (w) Ben Willsher, Karl Richardson, Brendan McCarthy, Mike Collins, Paul Marshall, John Higgins, Cliff Robinson, Leigh Gallagher, Henry Flint, Peter Doherty, Jon Davis-Hunt, Bryan Talbot, Colin MacNeil, Lee Carter (a)
Rebellion, 21 October 2026, 320pp, £24.99. Available via Amazon.

DEFINITELY PJ MAYBE!
PJ Maybe - Mega-City One's most elusive serial killer - returns in a bid to seize power in the Big Meg while murdering as many people as possible.
    If he can break himself out of prison, he'll be free to let chaos reign once more as the series that collects The Law in order reaches the epic storyline - Day of Chaos.
    Only one man stands in the path of the hell that is to be unleashed - Judge Dredd!