Kevin O'Neill, unique comics artist supreme, will be one of the guests at this year's Bristol International Comic Expo across the weekend of 9th - 10th May 2009. Kev was a regular face at the old UKCAC (UK Comic Art Conventions) in the 1980s but this will be his first British comic con appearance for many years.
Kevin will be there to promote Century: 1910 the latest book in the saga of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which he's illustrated from Alan Moore's script. Here's the promo from the publisher's website:
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (VOL III): CENTURY: 1910 by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill Co-Published By Top Shelf Productions & Knockabout. Top Shelf is proud to announce the all-new installment in the breathtaking series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill! In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III): Century #1 ("1910"), our familiar cast of Victorian literary characters enters the brave new world of the 20th century! CHAPTER ONE is set against a backdrop of London, 1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion and nine years since England put a man upon the moon. In the bowels of the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create something called a Moonchild, while on London's dockside the most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has returned to carry on his grisly trade. Working for Mycroft Holmes' British Intelligence alongside a rejuvenated Allan Quatermain, the reformed thief Anthony Raffles and the eternal warrior Orlando, Miss Murray is drawn into a brutal opera acted out upon the waterfront by players that include the furiously angry Pirate Jenny and the charismatic butcher known as Mac the Knife. This one is not to be missed! This book will be the first of three deluxe, 80-page, full-color, perfect-bound graphic novellas, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill -- with lettering by Todd Klein, and colors by Ben Dimagmaliw. Each self-contained narrative takes place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own twenty-first century. -- An 80-Page Full-Color Graphic Novel, 6 5/8" x 10 1/8", Mature (16+), Diamond: FEB09-4465, ISBN 978-1-60309-000-1, $7.95
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Kev O'Neill is an artist I would definitely count as a favourite of mine, and Kev himself was a good pal back in the 1980s, giving me lots of advice and encouragement when I was starting out in the business. He even contributed a cover to my fanzine, Fantasy Express, in 1983, - and what a fantastic cover it was; a spectacular wraparound featuring Nemesis the Warlock, and Kev was kind enough to design the logo too! (I interviewed Kevin for that issue y'see.) Here's a scan taken from the original artwork. It's been proudly displayed on my wall for a couple of decades but I notice it's starting to fade in parts now so it's time to safely file it away out of the light.
Kev O'Neill was also a contributor to my 1986 Brickman comic, turning in two fantastic pages for the story's climax set in the depths of Hell. The strip was reprinted in the collection Brickman Begins published by Active Images.
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The Bristol International Comic Expo features a host of other guests too, including myself, family commitments permitting. Hope to see you all there!
Visit the official Comic Expo website HERE:
http://www.fantasyevents.org/index2.html
Website of Top Shelf Productions:
http://www.topshelfcomix.com/
kevin o' neill is a true original no one else draws like him or has his amazing imagination to me he's up there with ditko and kirby ive enjoyed everything he's drawn from nemisis to marshal law to the league can't wait for 1910.
ReplyDeleteOoh, blimey, I think I used to have a copy of that issue of Fantasy Express. Was there another issue with an Alan Davis cover of Alan Moore as Marvel/Miracleman? Or was that some other 'zine?
ReplyDeleteOh, the (possibly inaccurate) memories...
That's correct Dave. Issue 5 carried the Alan Davis cover of Alan Moore as Miracleman. The zine featured one of the first interviews with Alan Moore. (I recall him saying his first interview was in an X-Men zine, although I'm not sure which one was published first.)
ReplyDeleteWow! You own that piece of O'Neill art. You are a very lucky man.
ReplyDeleteRather worryingly I remember that Moore/ Miracleman cover, not because I owned a copy but 'cos I spent hours as a kid staring at a repro in (a pause while he digs out said issue) The Mighty World of Marvel No.8. Shares a page with the cover of an issue of Speakeasy, a magazine about 4 or 5 years later I would start to buy.
Those fanzine reviews were written by Alan Moore. I can't remember if he reviewed that issue or not, but he did reviews when the feature was in The Daredevils, prior to it merging with MWOM.
ReplyDeleteKev also did a great Torquemada head shot for the back cover of Fantasy Express No.4. I should dig that out and show it here one day too.