As mentioned in the previous posting, the reprints of Garth which began this week in the Daily Mirror have the addition of colour for a new audience. The work is being done by Martin Baines, who is an accomplished artist in his own right. Martin kindly agreed to my request for a brief interview about Garth and his other work...
LS: Could you give me a brief rundown of your career? Comics you've worked on, and projects you have coming up?
MB: By trade I work as a visualising and storyboard artist drawing my own work and colouring others for TV commercials. Some stuff I have done recently are for Walkers crisps, Clarks shoes and British Gas. What I like about it is that you never know what you're going to get and got in initially through Sydney Jordan.
My comic work includes a six month gig on Match of the Day, drawing Commandos, painting for People's Friend, colouring Titan's Wallace and Gromit and being the back up colourist for Scorer in the Mirror. I also drew the Dan Dare Project Pluto in the early issues of Spaceship Away which I even got away with killing Dan off in the last episode...
LS: How did the Garth gig come about?MB: To be honest I was a bit lucky... For 5 years I was the back up colourist on Scorer when David Pugh was on holiday and was out of the blue asked by the cartoon editor was I interested. Incidentally I learnt a lot from the guys on Scorer and wish them well. I know the editor knew i was a a huge fan of Garth an actually was in the running to draw him when there was a plan to launch the strip in 2008. You can see some of the sample work here...
LS: Were you a fan of Bellamy's work before this job?
MB: Frank Bellamy is in opinion my favourite artist and I actually collect his work. I am hoping that Heros the Spartan gets reprinted one day.
LS: Technical stuff. What software do you use for colouring? Does the Mirror send you a batch of TIFFS?
MB: I use Photoshop CS and the Mirror supply me with a story at a time...
LS: The colours are subtle and enhance the line, which is a benefit now that Garth is reprinted in a slightly smaller size than it was originally intended. Did you choose the colour palette?
MB: The cartoon editor supplied me with a rough sample of what they were looking for so as an good commercial artist you do as you're told... The palette I have developed from that one. I must admit I have started to look at Fraser of Africa to try to make it Bellamy like in terms of colour.
LS: How far ahead are you with The Angels of Hell's Gap? Any idea what we can expect after that story ends?
MB: I am 30 days ahead...I will let you know what story will come next.
LS: Thanks for your time and best wishes for the future.
You can see more of Martin's work at this website:
http://www.smudgepencil.co.uk/portfolio/martin-b/
Garth runs in the Daily Mirror every Monday to Saturday. The strip can also be viewed online at the Daily Mirror website:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/fun-games/cartoons/
