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Whatever happened to SIMON HARRISON?

Started by Mogster, 13 April, 2004, 12:46:33 AM

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Mogster

Anybody out there got any idea what happened to 2000AD Artist Simon Harrison? His work - while not too everyones taste it seems - was some of my favourite in the history of the comic, particulalry on REVERE and STRONTIUM DOGS - THE FINAL SOLUTION, but does anybody know what he's doing now?

The Amstor Computer

No idea, I'm afraid. I'm a BIG fan of his black & white artwork, and I'd love to know what he's up to now, and where I could find more of his work.

Richmond Clements

I never liked his SD stuff at the time, but I was looking at some back issues recently, and by god, he did some great work on that strip.

Don't know where he is now, though.

+rufus+

haven't seen Simon in a few years, but he was painting these mental Giger paintings within paintings and doing lots of Karate. Oh, an' workin for Warhammer for a while.
I'll track him down an find out!
Rufus

Oddboy

Can I just again admit that it was only last year I realized that Mark Harrison *isn't* Simon Harrison.
I just thought he'd changed style, but no! he's someone else!

Foolish Oddboy.
Better set your phaser to stun.

Patrick

He's done a self-defence book called "Kung Fu For Girls" - saw it in the "humour" section in Waterstones the other week, presumably because it's got cartoons in it.

robozo


Dandontdare

Rufus doesn't post here any more - he had a bit of a huff about negative comments towards Tank Girl and hasn't been seen since.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Dandontdare on 10 May, 2011, 12:17:14 PM
Rufus doesn't post here any more - he had a bit of a huff about negative comments towards Tank Girl fairly understandable mardy when someone described his art as looking like 'someone had puked on the page' and hasn't been seen since.

Fixed that for you.

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

TordelBack

#9
Also, reading this board isn't compulsory: it's supposed to be fun.  It's possible to simply not enjoy what you're reading day in and day out and just stop.  If (only) I had a strip running that received regular abuse (even if it was justified, which IMO in TG's case it was not) I might take the decision to spare myself the grief and make a quick exit.  It's a bit like meeting a regular crowd down the pub and having half of them pass unkind remarks about your girlfriend - you might laugh it off a few times, call them on it a few times, then think about beating their heads in, but eventually you'll probably mutter 'fuck right off' and take your pint down the other end of the bar.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 10 May, 2011, 12:50:54 PMfairly understandable mardy when someone described his art as looking like 'someone had puked on the page'
Bwuh? Really? Good grief. I can't say I was a fan of the Meg's Tank Girl run per se, but the art was pretty good throughout—a nice 'update' of Hewlett's style.

BPP

#11
Simon is a 'serious' artist now (I don't mean that sneeringly in any way - just gets across the point) - not too sure how he fares in that field but good luck to him.
If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

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Dandontdare

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 10 May, 2011, 12:50:54 PM
Quote from: Dandontdare on 10 May, 2011, 12:17:14 PM
Rufus doesn't post here any more - he had a bit of a huff about negative comments towards Tank Girl fairly understandable mardy when someone described his art as looking like 'someone had puked on the page' and hasn't been seen since.

Fixed that for you.

Cheers

Jim

To be fair, that phrase was only used as an extreme hypothetical example when we were discsusing it AFTER the event:
Quoteyou have to bear in mind that you are as close to discussing things in the same room as the creator as you are likely to get (this side of Wednesday's chat). So if you tell them their work is shite or it looks like someone puked on the page then you might expect a punch in the eye or get told to stuck your opinions up your hairy arse or for them to walk out

I can't find any posts that actually said that about Rufus' art (though a search did bring up (no pun intended) plenty of nasty puke-related anecdotes  :-\). maybe I missed that one or it's been deleted. The actual comments that provoked his hissy fit were much milder and less offensive, and certainly didn't merit his characterisation of this forum:

Quote2000ad's Message board in the last few years has sunk to some pretty diabolical lows, as a small hard core whom mistakenly feel they are 2000ad's only 'true' readership spew venom, scorn and mockery on anything that falls outside their narrow expectations.

Only trying to be helpful to robozo, please let's not start the whole debate again - there's pages of it in this thread if you want to go there.

Emperor

#13
I agree this is not best thread to rake over all that business (if it was desirable at all) - as you mention, there is already one on this, so anyone wanting to follow that should go there ;)

Anyway Simon Harrison...

QuoteSimon Harrison is a fully qualified martial arts coach and trainer. He runs a series of classes in Notting Hill which emphasize the efficiency of technique in overcoming brute force, making them ideal for women and people of small stature. He has been graded by Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong and master Kim S Han of the Nan Shaolin Wuzu Quan Association and is currently second-degree black belt in Shaolin Ngor Chor Kung Fu. Simon has worked extensively as a graphic artist, illustrating for magazines such as 2000AD, Games Workshop and the NME.

www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/author.htm?authorID=4695

His Kung Fu For Girls, not sure if these are different editions of the same book:
www.amazon.co.uk/Kung-Fu-Girls-Simon-Harrison/dp/0091891698/r
www.amazon.co.uk/Kung-Fu-Girls-Self-Defense-Style/dp/1931686939/

Review:
www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4190226/How-to-bring-out-the-Lara-Croft-in-you.html

He is still producing art but not of the sequential variety, like this from 2006:
http://magazine.saatchionline.com/magazine-articles/artnews/emerging_artist_of_the_week_si

At the end of last year he had an exhibition of photographs taken with Carolin Becker (who took the photographs he reworked):
www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/review-23885356-street-life-captured-in-colour-and-light-by-becker-harrison.do

This is almost definitely the same Simon Harrison, although he is described as a graffiti artist there but there are clear elements of that in the work at that Saatchi link:

QuoteCaroline Becker and Simon Harrison took a trip to India together back in 2008, and while they were there Becker photographed people in the main square in Jaipur. Five hours after the photographer had snapped the locals a terrorist bomb went off in the square, and suddenly the photographs took on a whole different meaning, one which the graffiti artist Simon Harrison was able to help bring to the fore. The two creatives work together as BeckerHarrison to produce what could, to the uninformed eye, be the work of one person: Becker's photographs are worked on by Harrison, who adds surreal depth and meaning to the already great images

The clincher is this:

QuoteDD: How did you begin working together?

Simon Harrison: I was teaching Caroline Kung Fu, and at the time she was taking pictures of homeless people. When she told me I said, "Let me get this straight... You are walking around dodgy areas with a £5,000 camera on your own taking pictures of people who could potentially rip you off?" I didn't think that was a great idea so i said I would come with her, and it developed from there.

www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/8506/1/what-a-difference-a-day-makes

And I found this interview in London Street Design magazine, which also explains the graffiti link and how everything comes together here (he actually uses spray cans and airbrushes on the photos):

QuoteCan you tell us a little about your respective backgrounds and how you came together

Simon: Artistically speaking, I was heavily  involved with graphic design and working on comics and animation and the two of us met through my teaching Carolin martial arts.

...

You had a spray paint and graffiti background too didn't you Simon?

Simon .Yes. I spent a good few years in Zurich working with some graffiti artists out
there, who were also part of a band called Primal Lyrics. It's got to be said, they were a little naive, but they really were talented musicians and great artists, although they were endlessly hamstrung by the huge fines the Swiss imposed for illegal graffiti work and the chunks of community service they were constantly being obliged to do. So while I was doing a lot of can work with them, I was also getting into airbrush painting which is a similar process – just finer and then began to combine the two, where they would paint with the cans and I would airbrush the pieces afterwards to throw an extra dimension into the mix.

...

Bearing in mind that you're taking a spray can to a photo, what size prints are we talking about?

Simon. Large. The average is about 2m x 1.5m. And it did come down to a mixture of straight up spray and an airbrush, because there were lines and angles that demanded a delicacy that becomes simply impossible with a spray can. And don't forget, they don't come cheap!! Carolin handed me a print and said 'Go for it' and I'm thinking to myself – that's 300 quids' worth of photograph. Not exactly much margin for error here! I can't blow it! I would just sit there looking at them while Carolin was ringing up asking how it was going, and I'd just be saying...'erm...I'm in the zone, getting there!' until I finally felt confident enough to take a crack at them, and now I'm totally at my ease with it.

www.scribd.com/doc/31360782/LSD-Magazine-Issue-4-Unauthorised-Heroes

If you look around you find a lot more on his recent work:

www.faultmagazine.com/2010/09/fault-featured-beckerharrison/

Here is their web site:

www.beckerharrison.com

So there you are - that's what he is doing.

If people would like I can always drop him a line via that site and see if he'd keep us updated on his current work as there is still interest in what he is up to (I did a quick search and there are half a dozen threads specifically asking about him).
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

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Bolt-01

The image on the Saatchi link is fantastic- and I speak as someone who doesn't like much of Simon's 2000 AD work.