Saturday 19 August 2017

STICKIN' IT TO YA!



Stick It To 'Em!” formerly “Suckerpunch”, a book that lay unfinished for a decade is almost ready for release. This is the story behind the motivation and design processes that got it done...Finally!

Be advised, unlike most books I produce this definately is not a book for children!




It's fair to say that back in 2004 I was totally immersed in anything and everything kitsch and retro from the late sixties to the mid/late seventies. I still do but it has taken a bit of a back seat to modern living (whatever that means!!) I just loved that whole vibe. The films, fashion, music and art from this period was like my catnip. I could not get enough! I got to the point where I actually wanted to be Starsky! But I live in Cambridge, England and was then starting a new career as a fledgling freelance illustrator instead! 

 


I would seek out and purchase endless DVDs of films and TV shows from my very early childhood and then whilst searching for those I would be distracted by another, lesser known film or show. Like Alice tumbling through an endless rabbit hole I indulged. B-movies made way for schlock movies. Some were great fun some were absolutely awful, but I didn't care I was in a groove and all these images and sounds were feeding my creative “id”!

Looking back I think the biggest influences that leaked into "Stick It To 'Em!" were, in no particular order:



Jack Hill films (predominantly “The Big Doll House” and “Switchblade Sisters” and a smattering of “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown”. Pam Grier bewitched me during this period.





Roger Corman classics like “Death Race 2000” and “Death Sport






Al Adamson's “Satan's Sadists” and “Angels' Wild Women”










Ralph Bakshi animated films




VanishingPoint” .You gotta love the 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T and Barry Newman is just the personification of cool in it!





Crazy Harry, DirtyMary” Totally nuts movie. Peter Fonda has some great lines in it.




Danger: Diabolik” and “Five Dolls For An August Moon”. I absolutely love Mario Bava movies. His superb compositions and lighting!





Soylent Green” 



Looking back at my sketchbooks of this period shows vividly how all this was being computed. These Biro sketches needed to be channelled somehow, figures became characters and quite quickly “Suckerpunch” started to take shape.


Early biker/hippie babes on the road to becoming "Gretchen" the main female lead in "Suckerpunch"



Very early sketch of Taylor and sidekick!
 


I wanted to write and draw a slightly anarchic comic book, not a polished super hero yarn but a gritty, off the cuff effort! I wanted it to rattle along like a Ralph Bakshi cartoon not a slick Hollywood remake. My aim wasn't for perfection, the drawings weren't stifled by endless corrections, instead I opted for the Chinese cooking approach. If it takes more than five minutes then it's ruined!



No Photoshop either just marker pens and Bristol board for this opus! My commercial illustration work was already digital at this point but I wanted to go back in time and get my hands dirty. A quandary I still wrestle with today but for some reason the Wacom tablet always seems to win!



I wanted to encapsulate as many of these influences as I could in one roller coaster ride of a story. I knew that I wanted a dystopian city scape inhabited by chemically subdued citizens ruled by a malevolent super class of administrators. An anti hero who is sent out side of this city in search of an escaped official who seeks to start a revolution with the help of mysterious denizens of this wild land, abandoned and forgotten for so long. I wanted gun toting harridans, man eating beatniks and new-age cults. All with a backdrop of the decaying remnants of twentieth century consumerism and it's glorious analogue technology...



It was an exercise in unrestrained creativity and to a large degree uncensored in it's rendering. I went with it, not trying to please anyone but myself as I drew and drew and drew! There is a generous peppering of bad language and innuendo but nothing too shocking. It is a red blooded romp for sure, unapologetically so!




Taylor as he appears in the book.



I beavered a way, every spare moment I dedicated to thgis project. I published  a weekly section on Myspace for a while. I managed a colossal 140-ish pages before fatigue set in. I had more commitments from my paying work and the rta race was gripping me ever tighter.  Progress slowed until it eventually ground to a halt. It stagnated and was put in a box for nearly ten years!

In 2015 I moved house and whist packing and unpacking I sat and re-read what I had done. I fell back in love with the characters, the story and the style. "I should finish this!  Even if no one wants to read it at least give it a chance." I thought to myself. Again, it has been a slow process as I do have a lot of other commitments. Drawing is my job and my passion and if someone is paying me for artwork then that has to come before my personal projects no matter how desperate I am to finish them and get them out there!

So as I write this "Suckerpunch" has changed to "Stick It To 'Em!" and will be released before the end of 2017. Along time coming but hopefully worth all the toil and trouble!

In upcoming posts I will show how the look of "Suckerpunch" developed and changed drastically over a very short period back in 2004.

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