MENACE OF THE CORRUPTING SEX-FEAST SHAME-CULT BITING INTO OUR YOUTH – THE LYSERGIC SUPER-MEN POISED TO ENSLAVE OUR VERY SOULS. By Al Ewing.
“ANGELS BEAT MY HEAD OPEN WITH A BIG ROCK… THEIR WINGS WERE MADE OF HUMAN FACES AND CHARLES FORT WAS THERE…” ANGRY YOUNG MAN ON VOYAGE OF DARKNESS AND STRANGE BEAUTY – WILL YOUR CHILD FALL UNDER HIS EVIL MENTO-SPELL???
Bastion paper of This Island Nation, THE FREAKY TRIGGER, can at least Reveal the Mind-Bending Atomic Terror of the BEAT-NIK and his Filthy Ways. We have the facts and can tell you exactly how many Young Minds have been irredeemably Warped by the terrifying FRAZER IRVING and his sinister Cult Of Personality – and the answer is “too many to count enow!” This modern-day Rasputin’s shameless yet shameful Influence is felt among the Youth People the world over – SEE THEM SHAKE TO THE HYPNOTIC BEAT OF HIS TOM-TOMS in a SPECIAL PHOTO COLOUR SUPPLEMENT – NOT FOR THOSE OF A GENTLE DISPOSITION it can be yours for a mere two and six. HURRY HURRY. Do not wait. THE BEAST IRVING inspires raptures akin to Bacchus with his ‘op-art wood-cuts’ AS YOU MAY SEE. “His art has no equal” say those under his Spell while they divest themselves of their garments BY FIRELIGHT. Anger him not for his rage burns like A HOT TORCH as was noted by Our Reporters during an Audience with the Awesome Figure.
Even now his Wicked Genius may be found within the pages of Teen-Age Periodical THE 2000AD, but shield the eyes of your Daughters and Sons from it lest they become Shrieking Maenads. Only those of an Iron Decency could abide his latest Art-Work, ‘FROM GRACE’, without tearing their clothes away and dancing around a standing stone, while his ‘JUDGE DEATH’ work for THE MEGA-ZINE is used in Bedlam to put a Righteous Fear into those poor souls imprison therein for reasons of immodest temper.
NOW READ ON.
‘Underworld’: an upcoming film about a love affair between a werewolf and a vampire who represent warring clans. Coincidence or conspiracy?
Coincidence…?… No such thing. This is all I will say on the matter.
When it comes to writers, you’ve worked with the cream of a crop of cream. Who’s been your favourite?
Gordon Rennie mainly, tho working with demon-child Si Spurrier has opened my inky eyes to a new generation of weirdness.
What works best for you in a script and what don’t you like seeing?
What works best for me is a good story, told succinctly. I like some good solid dialogue (but not too much otherwise it cramps the pix) and a story that has an actual structure as opposed to just scene after scene of linear action and boring old shite. What I hate seeing is where the script tells me what to draw. Camera angles, colours and composition are welcome at all times as long as they are relevant to the storytelling, but when it’s a pretty open panel/page and I get these dumb directions it makes my blood boil. I also hate reading boring stories. Something has to happen every page or I get tired and fall asleep whilst drawing it.
Is there a single episode of anything that you’d like on your headstone?
I care not for any writing on my tombstone, as I plan to be incinerated anyway.
I’ve just read the first episode of From Grace, which made its debut in 2000AD this week, and it’s top. Is there anything about this latest series that you’re particularly proud of?
The fact that I did it all in Photoshop. Way back in 1996 I was a technophobe, one who hated the idea of machinery taking over from real artists, and I was deeply threatened by anything that wasn’t paint or pencil. Since then I’ve changed tho, and now I’ve turned completely to the dark side and I am soooo proud of the fact that I can create anything I want with a Mac and a Wacom tablet. They said it couldn’t be done. A few years ago.
While we’re about it – by the time this sees print, Necronauts will have in all likelihood come out in easy-to-buy-and-devour trade form, but I am weak > from unwrapping a Quality Street and have not the strength to plug it. Can you do me a favour and do so?
The Necronauts is a Lovecraft-esque adventure starring Houdini, Lovecraft, Charles Fort and Arthur Conan Doyle. It tells the hidden truth behind the fate of Houdini and of a sinister alliance between mortals and the unspeakable ones. It’s all drawn in glorious black and white with a section at the back with sketches and things, is priced £7.99 and should be available in all good bookshops, online or in the real world. It’s a rollickingly spooky read with some cracking art.
Real-life Necronauts available here. Lil’ Billy wants to be a comic artist. What advice can you give him?
Hmmm. I hate this question. With a passion. If I get asked one more time I’m gonna start answering with some real venom, like “swallow razor blades” or “drink urine and sacrifice your grandmother” etc. Don’t ask me again. Or suffer the consequences.
Where do you see UK comics going in the future?
I really dunno. I reckon their merry path thru modern culture is faaaar from over and it’s gonna be interesting, but I am no fortune teller so I cannot predict any folly such as these questions demand.
How can somebody survive and prosper in the event of an invasion of mutants with scorpion DNA?
By sucking razor blades and drinking urine whilst sacrificing their grandmothers to spider goddesses. In Dagenham.
If you could eat the still-beating heart of any comics professional and so gain their strength, who would it be? And would you feel pleasure in the act?
Alan Moore, but I’d feel no pleasure as I am in the process of giving up red meat.
If you were marooned on a desert island and could purposefully exile any musician or band to your lonely hell and force them to live out their joyless existences playing music for you, their despotic tyrant, who would you pick? And would you keep them in tiny cages or just on a big leash tied to a stake?
Well whoever it is they’d get shit after they hit a certain age. This is the unwritten law of musicians. But at the moment I’d pick The White Stripes cos A) I just got the latest collection of tunes and B) because if I got really bored I’d force them into some incestuous porno act. And I’d probably not use cages or leases but a huge ring of fire.
What are your influences outside the comics field?
Another annoying question. I like art of many types like “impressionism”, “abstract expressionism” and I also like art nouvea/deco and I like music and movies and thinking weird things.
What’s coming up in the future of Frazer Irving?
Well this is another annoying question, as my path through life seems to be quite a mercurial one at the moment. Hmmm. A lightbulb in my living room just conked out. And then it just flickered. Is this a sign? I have no idea what will be next for my arty skills, as I’ve just this day finished From Grace for 2000AD and am still working on Judge Death for the Megazine, and I have to take a few days out to gather my wits and consider what I’d like to do next. I have a 5 page Terror Tale in Prog 2004 of 2000AD, but beyond that nothing is set in stone yet.
But in the immediate future; sleep. After a Dr Who dvd. And tea.