Comic Cuts — 15 July 2022

I should have the artwork for the first book of my next batch of titles completed today, if all goes to plan. I have scans for the next two already in hand, although the longer job of cleaning up the artwork is still to be done, and all the books need introductions, so I still have quite a lot to do. I'm hoping to pull ahead to give me time to put together another sideline project — a second motorcycling volume from Bear Alley Books. This is another autobiography, similar to And the Wheels Went Round, the biography of TT racer John Chisnall (or Uncle John, as I call him), that I published back in 2019.

I've yet to confirm the job is actually on; I'm simply designing the book, although I'll also publish it through Bear Alley Books, and make it available via Amazon and the like. But I've nothing to do with the writing of it, and I've no idea how far along the author has got. It might be another year before anything happens... I just want to be ready when the text is finished, because the author is a friend of John's and I promised to do the work a couple of years ago.

To be honest, a small break from comics might be nice. Maybe it's the heat, but I struggled a little with this latest batch of artwork as it required hours of solid concentration. The tension was causing pains in my shoulders and neck. I was working with a heat pack draped around my shoulders to try and ease the pain — and this on the hottest days of the year so far. Having back ache didn't help from doing some gardening on Sunday, weeding and mowing and using muscles that don't often get a work out, as I'm not the keenest gardener in the world.

I don't mean to catalogue every ache and pain here. To be honest, I just have an incredibly dull life!

I'm going to dedicate the rest of this column to plugging a book. I'm not reviewing it because I am hugely biased towards anything drawn by David as we have been pals since meeting back in the 1980s and discovering a shared interest in knowing who did what in British comics. We've worked together on listing contents of comics and identifying creators for many years. But more than that, I have been a fan of his artwork for as long, maybe even longer. The first time I spotted his name was probably 1985, inking Mike Collins on Martin Lock's H.M.S. Conqueror, although he came to prominence in the pages of 2000AD with 'Purity's Story' in Progs 558-566 in early 1988. When I had a chance to edit a comic-centric magazine, David was one of the first people I involved, my interview with him appearing in the very first issue of Comic Collector.

I have always appreciated his talent for realism — learned from the best of British, American and Spanish artists — and his ability to draw women is second to none. This is the focus of Artwork: David A. Roach, published by Richmond Press, which David has been promoting at various convention appearances in the past few weeks. Available in both softback and hardback, its 96 pages are filled with illustrations, some published, some privately commissioned, all beautifully drawn. Judge Cassie Anderson of Psi Division and Vampirella feature heavily, but if you want to see what David could make of Venus Bluegenes or Halo Jones or Death or Zatanna, this is your chance to find out.

It's not all scantily-clad girls. It's only mostly scantily-clad girls. There's some Doctor Who and a superhero or two for a breather, and then it's back to some life class drawings.

You need this book. If you buy only one book this summer... well, make it one of mine, but if you buy two, buy Artwork: David A. Roach. You won't regret it. You can then play the "date the artwork by the signature" game, because David's signature — usually just a stylised 'R' — has evolved over the years. And if you can find David at a convention, you can get it signed in person.