Saturday, August 25, 2012

Before Mudman...


Before Mudman, before Jack Staff and Kane, and around the time of the controversial St.Swithin's Day comic with Grant Morrison, comic artist Paul Grist was illustrating strips for DC Thomson's girls comic Nikki. 

 He even became the regular cover artist for a while. Here's a few examples from 1989...




As you can see, Paul's pleasant style and his great sense of composition and balance of black and white was evident even then. He also drew a semi-regular strip called I Love Dave about an infatuated teenager. Here are three of those strips...




There's a good interview with Paul about his career on the FPI website here. 

 Website dedicated to Paul's work: http://www.weisshahn.de/kane/
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15 comments:

  1. Sean PhillipsSaturday, 25 August 2012 at 17:58:00 BST

    I used to love Paul's work in Nikki. I was drawing for that and Judy and other DC Thomson comics back then too, and it was great to see something so modern in there. Paul's latest comic, Mudman, is great fun too.

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  2. Lew StringerSaturday, 25 August 2012 at 18:28:00 BST

    Interesting stuff, Sean. My knowledge of girls comics is very minimal although I have bought a few issues of Diana, Tammy, and some others recently.

    Were you in those particular issues of Nikki? I didn't recognize your style although I imagine it's evolved quite a bit since then.

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  3. BobSaturday, 25 August 2012 at 18:58:00 BST

    Haha, is "Hero of the Beach" a reference to the old Charles Atlas ads from 50's American comics? (I don't think that specific one was used in British comics, though the one about the lumberjack was on the back of the Sexton Blake Library regularly).

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  4. Lew StringerSunday, 26 August 2012 at 00:58:00 BST

    Those ads also appeared in the back of some 1960s/70s UK comics that reprinted US material I think, and in other magazines, so they were fairly well known in Britain. Not sure if many girls in 1989 would get the connection though!

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  5. AnonymousSunday, 26 August 2012 at 13:51:00 BST

    Thanks for posting those, Lew. Beautiful.

    Thanks also for linking to my interview with Paul at the FPI blog.

    Your blog is ace.

    Keep up the good work!

    Matt Badham

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  6. AnonymousSunday, 26 August 2012 at 15:28:00 BST

    Thanks Lew! 1989, and I see I'm still using the same jokes (issue 7 of Mudman has the same Hero of the Beach slogan). Should I mention issue 5 will be on sale this week?

    Paul Grist

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  7. Lew StringerSunday, 26 August 2012 at 23:24:00 BST

    Good comics are always worth a mention Paul.

    Buy MUDMAN No.5 this week folks! On sale in comic shops from Thursday (due to Bank Holiday).

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  8. Sean PhillipsMonday, 27 August 2012 at 10:44:00 BST

    Lew, don't have the original issues to hand and don't recognize any of those covers. My work appeared in Nikki from 1987 onwards for a few years. Stories included "I'll `Stand By You" and "The School Trip" and assorted shorts. I didn't always buy the actual issues and never knew when my stories would see print. I worked up to a couple of years in advance...

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  9. Lew StringerMonday, 27 August 2012 at 11:13:00 BST

    Thanks Sean. The issues shown are the only ones I have so it doesn't look like you're in those unfortunately. All interesting stuff though, so thanks for the info.

    For the few of you out there who might not know, Sean Phillips is one of the best comic artists in the business. Check out his work on 'Criminal', 'Incognito', and 'Fatale' to name but a few of his triumphs. All available from bookshops and online at Amazon:

    Fatale Book 1

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  10. Marc JacksonTuesday, 28 August 2012 at 13:32:00 BST

    I came late to Paul’s work, through MudMan but I’m enjoying catching up with all the work he’s done up to this point. Great stuff and plus, free Crocodile Dundee II videos? Fantastic!! :O)

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  11. PhoenixWednesday, 29 August 2012 at 19:08:00 BST

    Sean Phillips might be interested to learn that 'I'll Stand By You' was in Nikki 170 (May 21 1988) - 177 (July 9 1988). 'The School Trip' appeared in 204 (January 14 1989) - 210 (February 25 1989).

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  12. Lew StringerWednesday, 29 August 2012 at 21:16:00 BST

    Thanks Phoenix. That's really useful info.

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  13. Sean PhillipsWednesday, 29 August 2012 at 21:48:00 BST

    Thanks, Phoenix!

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  14. Sean PhillipsWednesday, 13 March 2013 at 15:02:00 GMT

    Got a stack of old Nikki comics last week. I'm in that issue 222, Lew. A three pager called "Too Shy" that I don't even remember drawing. My last serial for Nikki started in the next issue, an eight parter called "We Both Love Ben!" about twin sisters who both fancied the same boy.

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  15. Lew StringerSunday, 31 March 2013 at 21:40:00 BST

    Thanks for the extra info, Sean!

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