First Showing of “Hot Wheels” Pages from Toontastic Publishing…

A look at the new Hot Wheels comic book with me on the full art chores…

Hi Guys, James Hill Editor-in-Chief and great friend of mine from Toontastic Publishing has given me permission to present here and on the Wizards Keep website a selection of pages from the comic book I have recently completed for them.

It gives a chance to show folks what we have been up to.

The pages here are taken from the first two stories in the latest comic on sale now, today, here in the UK.

I have followed the style of the previous artwork for the characters with these first two stories, although the cars I have made look like the actual Mattel cars. With the second two stories I have moved slightly further away from the previous look of the characters and this will continue over the next few issues. This is to help prevent a glaring jump of styles from one to another, something, which usually goes down a "no-no" with fans if not handled correctly. Let me know what you think guys.

They are entitled: “Drag-Tastic” and “Night Raiders” respectively and the scripts are by Ian Rimmer, my first editor at Marvel UK way back when, in the eighties, and the guy who gave me my first break into the comic industry by following Barry Kitson’s lead and giving me my very first official Marvel UK commissioned work on Zoids.

So for the first time since the late eighties we have the original editor of Transformers, now writing, one of the original writers of Transformers, now editing and one of the original artists on Transformers, me, doing full artwork, including the colours.

The pages on display here are shown prior to any SFX, lettering and Logos are added.

There are larger versions of the pages on the Wizards Keep website.

But to see them in all their glory please go out and buy a copy to see all the pages ON SALE NOW!!!

Anyone unable to purchase them from outside the UK let me know and I'll see if I can get them shipped out to you. Postage will be the same as the postage charge for the Limited Edition Sketch books, as that's how they'll be packed to keep them safe!!!

Look out for the next issue next month with two stories entitled: “Solid Gold” and “Hammer Time”.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon with your comments as always.

Expect more things here and on the Wizards Keep Website too from Hot Wheels and “Worlds End”…

In the meantime I am working away feverishly pencilling the Markosia Project…

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 28th 2007

Birmingham International Comics Show 2007.

Saturday 13th October – Sunday 14th October.

Hi Guys, just a quick reminder that I will be attending this year's Birmingham International Comics Convention on Saturday the 13th October.

The convention takes place over the weekend, but due to my manic deadline commitments at the moment for Hot Wheels, my Markosia Project, my “Worlds End” graphic novel, and running Wizards Keep, I can only attend on the Saturday.

I am going along on the Friday night to the Markosia sponsored Launch party, so anyone going along there will have an opportunity to speak to me then as well.

I am going to be taking along some of my latest Hot Wheels pages, my "Worlds End" graphic novel pages and some other stuff too.

I am really looking forward to meeting everyone again.

So remember please don’t be shy, come over and have a chat!!!

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 25th 2007

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus Volume 2…

Jack's Back...Again!!!

I thought that I would open this Blog with a series of Jack's covers starting with the Omnibus cover and also I have added the opening splash to the New Gods issue 6 story, "The Glory Boat".

Well the second volume of this wonderful series arrived a few days ago and once more it’s just like being a kid all over again. The Art is dynamic, powerful and full of energy. The epic, cosmic stories are massive in scope, engaging and full of wonder. The evidence of the limitless imagination of Jack Kirby is self-evident here. The ideas packed into each and every story would keep most guys in the comic business busy for years, in Jack Kirby’s case, however, he throws new ideas and concepts into almost ever panel.

The book again contains stories from all four “Fourth World” books:

Superman’s Pal – The “New” Jimmy Olsen
The Forever People
The New Gods
Mister Miracle

This second volume sees the arrival of Mike Royer for the first time inking Jack’s work, following the exodus of Vince Colletta. There is a foreword by Walter Simonson and an afterword by one-time Kirby assistant Mark Evanier. There is also a section at the rear of the book showcasing jack’s original pencils to some of this volume’s work, so you can compare them to the inked versions.

There are some wonderful stories here in this second volume and once more I would advise anyone, who hasn’t yet purchased one to do so.

I for one cannot wait until volume three arrives.

What a collection this is turning into.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 24th 2007

Tellos Colossal Volume 1…

A look at the wondrous work of Mike Wieringo and Todd Dezago…

I received the massive Tellos Colossal book a few days following Mike’s untimely death. I had ordered the book as soon as it was scheduled for publication. I was hooked on the story from when it was first published in the nineteen nineties and followed all of the consequent adventures in the patchwork worlds of Tellos and its lovable characters.

It isn’t the first time I have re-read the story, but in this wonderfully produced version it is like seeing it all again and the plus for me was having all the covers reproduced and the additional prologue and prelude chapters, which I missed the first time around and the sketch book section.

The production values are fantastic and give credence to my views that comics should first and foremost return to the throw-away mindset of yesteryear, affordable and accessible by all, with a high quality, high end book production of this quality coming along later to celebrate the work in all it’s intended grandeur.

The story is wonderfully written and illustrated throughout and tells the twisting tale of a young boy and his friends. I won’t spoil the story for those that haven’t already seen it, as I hate to spoil things like that, but I will say you will be doing yourselves an enormous favour if you seek a copy out. It is the kind of book every school and library should have on their shelves, and I for one will be promoting it as such on my travels as both an artist/writer and also as an educator.

It is one of those rare instances in a world filled with true horror, evil acts, and fear, whereby we are shown a glowing light to fill our lives with wonder and the thought of “if only” and “what if…?”

For one brief moment this comic work shone like a beacon amongst a sea of quite often depressing tales, with resonances of reality and life at it’s most brutal and savage and heartless worst.

For this reason alone I would strongly suggest that you all go out after reading this Blog and buy or borrow and then buy a copy of your own to have for as long as you live to look at when times seem quite at their worst. There are some quite poignant and incredibly moving phrases that one comes across in the reading of this tome. The tale is after all a heart warming and uplifting one, which shows what can be achieved against the odds, when all seems lost…a true tale of HOPE!

I spoke to Todd a number of times, via email, following Mike’s passing and he told me that Mike had seen an advanced printing of the book before the sad event.

The sad thing about finishing this particular book, just now, is the knowledge there can now, unfortunately, never be a sequel by the same team. There is one thought I would like to add as a last word on this though, and that is, like the characters within the story would say; Mike’s memory will live on forever immortalised by this story and he will for all his family, friends and fans of his work be forever…

“By Thy Side…”

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 11th 2007

Fantasy Art Unlimited…

Fourth year of my highly successful course…

I am running the course out of the new Livesey Children's and All-Ages Centre for 2007 - 2008. There’s lots more room this year and a lot more scope for creating larger pieces of artwork for the students because of this.

Here are a few details for the latest course:

• Duration of FAU course: 30 x weeks
• Duration of sessions: 3 x hours each session
• Evening: Wednesdays
• Course Start Date: Wednesday 26th September 2007
• Cost of course: £100.00
• The deadline for payments is: Wednesday 26th September 2007

Some details about the course content:

The course will cover lots of things from the basics of sketching loosely and confidently, through to inking and painting.

Topics covered include:

• Comic books
• Book Jackets
• Children's Books
• Cartoons
• Storyboards
• Character Designs
• Background designs
• Logo Designs
• Storytelling techniques
  And lots more besides...

The course is geared up to suit each individual student, whilst one student may wish to do comic book styled work someone else may wish to work with storyboarding, and so on. All students learn the same techniques but each employs these techniques with their own subject matter. My experience in the art fields enables the students to draw from a wealth of information, whether it is used for purely leisure or potentially commercial purposes.

During the course other professional illustrators and designers are invited along to act as guest speakers. John Ridgway and Jon Haward have both come down to show how they work and talk a little about the industry. The students are then able to watch as each creator works on an original piece of artwork, thus enabling them to see how different people all work in individual ways to achieve similar goals.

The course is not just about learning to draw and paint, etc, it is also a valuable resource for learning how the industries work and what it entails when looking for a career in the arts fields.

The students receive a special student discount card from me and they can get their materials at discount prices from John and Ann at Portfolio artist's supplies in Simmon Street, Sudell Cross, Blackburn.

The students' work is usually exhibited at Blackburn Museum, at the end of the course.

The students each receive an induction pack, which I have designed and consists of a set of resource lists of recommended artists, reference books, how-to books and websites where they can purchase the books from, etc.

There are ongoing demonstrations, which I do, throughout the course. I show the students how to "loosen up" and "scribble" to sketch quickly and accurately. Students are also introduced to blueline pencilling techniques.

The emphasis on the course is having lots of FUN!!!

We are having a FREE taster session this coming Wednesday 12th of September beginning at 6:00pm and lasting until 9:00pm.

This session is open to the public and gives potential new students a chance to sample the course for themselves.

For further details email me direct at:
mail@wizards-keep.com

So if you live in or around the area feel free to pop along and see what all the fuss is about.

Now back to the drawing board for me and…

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 9th 2007

Devil Dinosaur…

Another Kirby Klassic Komic…

Well after officially launching the brand new Wizards Keep – Believe in Dreams outlet at Botany Bay over this last weekend, I have taken out a little time to read the collected hard cover Devil Dinosaur, before retiring to bed for a few nights, having only been lucky enough to catch issue #1 the first time around when marvel published it in the 70’s.

Again Jack shows us how to tell fun stories with an outlandish concept…a young adolescent, called “Moon-Boy” and his friend, who just happens to be a Dinosaur and a Tyrannosaurus Rex at that, called “Devil”…

Amongst the stories we meet up with many different protagonists for the twosome to thwart, amongst them a Witch, Aliens from outer space, Giant Ants, Killer-Folk, Giant Early-Men, and Giant Spiders, amongst a great host of other Dinosaur types, both large and small.

It fits somewhere in between Jack’s earlier Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth concept for DC comics and his 2001 A Space Odyssey concept for Marvel comics using Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s seminal work on the short story, novel and film respectively.

Only Jack could have pulled this off as he did.

This was Jack’s last work for Marvel comics, before his work in animation began. Jack would return to comics in the eighties for various other comics companies, but not the big two of Marvel and DC.

I feel the stories of Devil Dinosaur and his sidekick Moon-Boy were written and drawn with FUN being the operative word. Inside these tales we see less of the philosophising we see in his works such as the Fourth World series and tales from his Spirit World books like “TOXL– The World Killer”, and many of his other work, where we see evidence of Kirby’s views on philosophy, war, and life in general.

If you haven’t already bought this book…and why not is the question…? If you want a large dose of fun as only the creative mind of Kirby could bring about, then do yourselves a favour and look it up. You’ll be glad you did so.

By the way going back to my initial sentence at the top of this Blog, both Margaret and myself would like to thank all those that took time out to speak to us both on both Saturday and Sunday at Botany Bay.

I will be signing and sketching there again soon.

Now back to the drawing board for me and…

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 5th 2007