Commission time: McCarthy!

[ming]

Being a huge Brendan McCarthy fan, Sooner or Later (geddit?) I suppose it had to happen.

Anyway, a little while ago Brendan McCarthy agreed to do a commission for me.  He told me that he hardly ever does these, so I was pretty floored by him agreeing to take this on.  I'm fortunate enough to have a few of Brendan's Dredd pages (old and new) so I thought I'd take this piece in another direction, back to some of the most exciting comics I've ever read - Freakwave (originally in Vanguard), Strange Days and Paradax...

I'd mentioned that any of a few of my favourite characters would be great, and that while an ensemble piece would be wonderful, I'd understand if he wanted to take this in another direction.

I got a rough through the other day, and really can't keep this to myself - I'm so amazed by this I can hardly articulate it.  Brendan admitted he got a bit carried away with this, and I think you'll agree it shows.







I'll post up the final inked and coloured piece when it's done.

[johnnystress]

Aaaaw yeah

[Colin_YNWA]

McCarthy is just such wonderful class

[Lee Bates]

That is beautiful.

[Pete Wells]

I KNEW you wouldn't be able to keep it under your hat Ming!

[ming]

What hat?  It blew off, along with the top of my head when I got that...   

Heh, yeah - I've been sooooo excited over this it's stupid.

Anyone not familiar with Strange Days, Paradax et al. should search them out, sharpish - genius at work.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I love it when these arty folks say 'rough'    It looks amazing and I can't wait to see the next stage.

[Emperor]

Awe
Some

Anyone not familiar with Strange Days, Paradax et al. should search them out, sharpish - genius at work.

Agreed - they definitely need reprinting and Brendan mentioned it in his recent interview:

I think it's a criminal state of affairs that none of the work I did with Peter Milligan is in print! I think a collection of our work would be a good idea, bringing together some of the best comics from the '80s, like "Paradax!," "Freakwave," "Rogan Gosh," "Skin," "Sooner or Later" and "Mirkin The Mystic" -- all collected in one pulse-pounding publication. Whoops, I'm channeling Stan Lee!

www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35694

I'd snap that up in a heartbeat, despite having most of the material already. He should follow Rian Hughes example and get someone like Image to print it, which has also worked for Shaky Kane and David Hine - I can't imagine Image turning down a Milligan/McCarthy book, the main hurdle is going to be assembling decent scans of all the pages, making sure all the rights are in the bag and putting the thing together. As he is being kept busy I doubt he can find the time, but it'd be worth it.

[JOE SOAP]

Needs to happen.

[Darren Stephens]

woooooooooooooooooooooow! 

[LARF]

You lucky bastard... the pencils alone are fantastic, can't wait to see the inks and colour - lovely

[Judge Jack]

Hey, congrats on getting (or will be getting..) a commission by Brendan. Not that familiar with the subject matter, but looking good so far. So, how did ya twist his arm then?

[ming]

Hey, congrats on getting (or will be getting..) a commission by Brendan. Not that familiar with the subject matter, but looking good so far. So, how did ya twist his arm then?

Left to right: Mirkin the Mystic, Paradax and Rudcliff & Williams (and Captain Roaring in the floating head in the distance); classic Milligan & McCarthy characters  all.  Try and hunt down the three issues of Strange Days (Milligan, McCarthy, Ewins) and the two issues of Paradax! (Milligan & McCarthy) and if you're keen, the first issues of Vanguard (Pacific Comics) that featured the first run of Freakwave.

My powers of persuasion are legendary... Not too much arm twisting, just gentle prodding. 

Thanks for all the kind comments, folks!  Really over the moon about this one.

[ghostpockets]

Congrats Ming, I am intensely jealous. This is going to be amazifying, I can already taste those McCarthy colours. I originally read Myrkin's speech balloon as saying "it seems the CAPTION is here to join us" and thought he was being all meta and referring to the caption above his head, but the inclusion of the floating hatter head is even more exciting.

I will add my voice to the clarion call for a collected McCarthy/Milligan book. I have almost all of McCarthy's early stuff after hunting for years (my prize possession being the signed copy of Sometime Stories I found on ebay for 90p) but Strange Days issue 3 is proving to be incredibly elusive.

Can't wait to see the next update.

[ming]

ghostpockets - I could have sworn I had a second copy of Strange Days #3 to pass along to you, but after digging around it turned out to be #2 (and Vanguard #3).  Bah!  If I come across a copy at some point I'll give you a shout.