Welcome to New Wark. It’s 1940 and times are tough. Crime is on the up and the police are understaffed. The streets are full of robbery, murder and violence. Got a problem? Need a cold case solved? You better ring Hell and Back.

The characters and stories in these books are fantastic and I spent many days reading these books as a child. However, although the stories were great, it was in fact the illustrations that really caught my attention. The books were filled with drawings of the professor’s crazy inventions.

Different artists illustrated the books, however I believe the best drawings were those of W. Heath Robinson who was known for drawing fantastic rickety contraptions. In fact, The original book contained seventy-six illustrations by W. Heath Robinson.

I wish I had kept a full set of these novels, just so I could look back upon the great illustrations of contraptions and inventions. Other artists who illustrated the Professor Branestawm books, that I am aware of, were James Arnold, George Worsley Adamson and Derek Cousins.

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Not only is his drawing very good but the colour work, shading and perspectives are all great too. The story line that is evolving is quite intriguing and there is plenty of action. Nelson does not confine himself to standard layout either but uses unique border shapes to add interest to his comic.

What is it about I hear you ask? The rugged and disciplined Sergeant Aloysius Ackerby and the unconventional professor Skeary Winslow are strangers to each other until they find themselves lost together in an alien dimension and caught up in action, adventure and intrigue.

I fully recommed you checking out his work at:
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/imagikraft/the_sergeant_and_skeary_winslow/series.php

You will not be dissapointed.

Set To Sea by Drew Weing

What is great about this comic is the artist’s ability to convey feeling and empathy without much written word. Drew has fabulous skills with black and white art, and it appears that there is nothing he cannot draw in detail. The drawings he has done of sailing ships and old buildings, of reflections in the water and large icebergs are absolutely brilliant.

His comic is updated regularly and I look forward to seeing where the story takes us next.

An example of Drew’s brilliant black and white drawings.

John’s comic is a breath of fresh in the current quagmire of online comic strip clutter. It steers away from the typical aggressive/biffo/no brainer style cartoon and focuses more on character interplay and plot development. John has his own style of drawing and has rendered his artwork in a different style for each episode, although I believe he is looking to formalise the style at some stage. Sunrise, which is nearing the end of its third episode, is an adventure comic which runs at least once a week.  Its storyline is divided into separate “issues” which are 20 plus pages long.

The comic follows the adventures of the crew of the airship RAS Akhenaten. John’s strip has been running since February 2008 and in John’s words ‘It draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Herge’s Adventures of Tintin and Star Trek.’ On reading Sunrise it becomes evident that John spends a lot of time researching before he puts pen to paper.

The artwork for Sunrise covers are all in full colour and each of the pages is drawn in high quality black and white. Below are some sample pages of John’s fantastic black and white art. Each of the first three issues of Sunrise was accomplished with a different style of rendering - testimony to John’s versatility and creative abilities. Issue 1 rendering is on the right, issue 2 on the left and issue 3 in the centre.

John promotes and welcomes feedback on his comics which are also available for purchase in harcopy at Lulu. He also provides informative accompanying material on his site such as the a Dramatis Personae, a Behind The Scenes page and more.

Sunrise is a great read for those who prefer an intelligent adventure comic which minimises the  hundrum biffo and puts plenty of energy back into the character development.

Paul J Duffield.

Wormy was written and drawn by Dave Trampier. To this day I have never seen anything like it. The comic strip was pure genius. David’s drawings of ogres and trolls were brilliant and the characters each had plenty of personality. His colouring was earthy and realistic and his elaborate rune drawings were mesmerizing. The one scene that stands out in my mind was the tavern scene were trolls and all sorts of creatures were drinking and playing poker. Take note of the woody rustic hues that David used. His colouring was extraordinary considering that it was done by hand in time before computer aided graphics were available.

There has been much hearsay about David and what he is up to now-a-days. I hope at some stage David’s Wormy cartoon is published as a hardcover book. Below is an example of his brilliant rune art.

I sure wish I had kept many of those Dragon magazines, purely for the artwork sake.

Paul J Duffield.