Dark Dominion Part 05...

A further look at the comic and Jim Shooter’s Defiant Comics…

Hi Guys

I awoke to my last full day in New York early, excited and keen to fill the day with as much as possible. I wanted to savour the air, hear every sound, and feel the excitement of that great city as much as possible before returning home to England.

Tomorrow would be a quick morning in the office before leaving for JFK airport once more in the limousine that had first picked me up.

I went downstairs once more to the hotel breakfast restaurant and found I was really early with hardly any other guests sitting at the tables.

By now I had sussed out where the cups of tea came from and helped myself to one, despite thinking that honestly the one thing I could not get in New York seemed to be a great cup of tea, coffee, certainly, but the tea wasn’t like home, but it was a fair price to pay for everything else that came with the city.

I chatted once more with the hotel waiter, still insisting I did not personally know the Queen or any of the royal family, honest. Two hundred and odd miles may be a short distance to Americans, but to us Brits, it wasn’t just around the corner, so no, we were not neighbours. The guy laughed and said, “Why back home we would be next door neighbours at that distance.”

I once more crossed Madison Avenue and walked around the block to 37th Street and the offices, looking at the immensity of the buildings surrounding me like a series of canyons. I remembered one of the first things Joe had said to me about folks looking like tourists, being easy targets for muggers, although with zero tolerance this was getting less and less, nowadays.

Inside there was even more buzz than usual and I was greeted like Elvis again as always, which even now I find incredible. The extra buzz this particular morning was we were about to be joined later that day by Alan Weiss, artist on War Dancer. Now Alan’s work had first blown me away on two particular comics, one was an issue of Captain America, which contained a werewolf theme to the story and a black and white story in an issue of Savage Sword of Conan, with another Robert E Howard character, Solomon Kane, which contained vampires.

Today was going to be even better then I had thought, with my meeting Alan later in the day, how could it possibly get any better than this? I would learn soon enough.

I sat down and began work on page three of Dark Dominion, which the office were beginning to pass positive comments on, which was great for me to hear. Bob Downs had come into the office and sat at the drawing board beside mine. In fact as the morning went on we were joined by a veritable horde of creative folks, perhaps all making it in today to meet Alan.

Dave Hillman was there as was George Roberts, Ben Jung, Joe, Janet, Jim and all the office staff and around about ten o’clock we were joined by a newcomer, Su McTeigue, who, like Ben Jung was there to train up as a Defiant colourist. Su was already hand colouring or separating for Marvel Comics at the time. There was a world of difference though, as she traded codes and marker pens for brushes and coloured watercolour dyes.

Below: Page Three of Dark Dominion:

Well as I worked on page three, the noise in the office hit crescendo and was the busiest I had ever seen it. Part way through the morning I was chatting with a few of the guys out on the veranda and we took some photos of me, as it might be the last chance to do so, before I flew back home tomorrow afternoon.

Lunchtime arrived and this time I was treated to a trip downstairs below the office, in the street and an Italian Deli/takeaway, which would become a familiar haunt of ours. Joe had said he was going downstairs for lunch and this first time we ate in and once sat down I realised why Joe had wanted to sit in and eat, as he wanted me to witness, what would become a ritual for us to observe each time we paid a visit.

The two main sandwiches, if the world war two torpedo-sized sticks could be called that, were Chicken Parmesan and Meatball Parmesan, and both were equally delicious. Both came if you wanted with cheese and Bolognese sauce and extra cheese if you wanted it.

We sat down across from the long serving counter and began to eat out lunch. More and more folks came into the restaurant and as they did the atmosphere and main guys behind the counter became more and more frenetic. A smile began to develop on both our faces as we saw the main guy, who had seemed a very warm and reasonable man, develop a Hyde-like manifestation to his demeanour and becoming more and more agitated as the customer queue grew in size until it was outside the deli/restaurant.

The way the service worked was quite simple with one guy sorting the (what seemed like three foot long) bread sticks, whilst another put on the chicken, and another the meatballs, depending which you wanted, whilst the last guy before the guy taken your money served the cheese and sauce.

You had one chance to answer and the answer had to be delivered quickly and concisely too, if you didn’t want physically threatening with the meal. Whoa betide any and all that dared risk his wrath. Those chatting in the queue and not hearing his first request where greeted with a screaming Banshee, shrieking out in a New York Italian accent, straight out of the best gangster movies, “Cheese Y Sauce!

As we continued to try to devour our lunchtime repast one guy still didn’t respond to this shrieking voice, so he lent over the counter and bellowed the same three words again twice, each time getting louder, at which point (and you had to be there to understand) until the guy was almost face-to-face with his customer, giving the said customer a coronary. I never saw him again after that day.

Below: Me on the Defiant veranda, ready for leaving the next day:

Following lunch Joe and I went along to the village once more and checked out a couple of comic shops again, one of them being possibly the best comic shop I have ever been in, and somewhere I would visit a lot during my time in the states, Jim Hanley’s, on West 33rd Street. After browsing and picking up some new books we left and headed back to the offices, via Manhattan Mall on 6th Avenue and 33rd Street, where I picked up a couple of presents for Joanne and Simon and then one for Margaret.

By the time we returned to the offices Alan Weiss and his wife Pauline had joined us. He was introduced to everyone before going to speak to Jim again in his office and then the three left along with Defiant Publisher, Winston Fowkes to get lunch.

When they returned to the bullpen, Jim and Alan went into Jim’s office, whilst Pauline joined Janet in her office/studio. A short while later Alan came over to me and quietly spoken said his rough southern drawl how much he loved what I had done with page one of Dark Dominion and that he would love me to colour up one of his upcoming War Dancer comics at some point. I had hardly spoken to the guy and he wanted to work with me…this had to be a long dream and I was going to eventually wake up and realise it wasn’t real.

I was so over the moon, it felt incredible. Here was a guy I held in such high esteem and here he was praising my work…could it get any better?

Around four o’clock, or so, Deborah Purcell came over to my drawing board where I was now putting the last touches to page three. She smiled and complimented me on the page, asking me how I was going on and finding things? I told her everything had been brilliant and that I had enjoyed my time there and thanks for everything.

She then said Jim had organised a meal for himself, Joe, Janet, Deborah, Alan and his wife, Pauline, Debbie Fix, Winston and me. We were going to be setting off for the restaurant around seven o’clock, would that be okay? I mentioned I only had t-shirts and jeans with me for the trip, but Deborah said not to worry that was fine.

Well as soon as I finished page three I went over to the hotel, packed the stuff for leaving tomorrow, showered and got changed into my next to final t-shirt and jeans, which I had brought over for the trip, before going around to the office again to meet the others. When I got there Joe was wearing a jacket and trousers and Janet was wearing a nice dress, I was there in my t-shirt and jeans, oh well Deborah had said it was not that swanky a do, so…

On arriving at the restaurant, I realised it had all the trappings of a very swanky place. We walked inside and we were shown to a large dining room full of large swish thick heavy curtains, large circular tables and a grand piano in a corner of the room. As we waked through past the other tables for what seemed like an age, I glanced around the tables and saw everyone dressed to the nines, in tuxedoes, suits and dinner jackets and me in a t-shirt and jeans.

I can safely say I was receiving glances at every turn and I would have been embarrassed, had I not been with the others. The guys at the table all stood to receive us and then I was sat between Deborah and Joe. The evening was fantastic, with a lovely meal. I had a fresh salmon starter and a steak for the main course, followed by the most exquisite sweet. I was aware all of the time though of the glances and staring from around the room, at the scruffy one at the table over there.

When I mentioned this to Deborah, she just turned to me and smiled and said, “No they aren’t looking at you thinking you are scruffy, this restaurant is well known for celebrities visiting it. They are just wondering who you are. You must be famous, as you have got in without a dinner suit on.” I later found out that Jim and Winston both knew the owners and had said they were bringing along a guest from England, which was why I was allowed in, dressed as I was.

I didn’t sign any autographs there, but I did feel a little under-dressed. With the meal finished I noticed Jim, Deborah, Janet and Winston all speaking to each other in a huddle around the table. Deborah turned to me and asked me if there was any possibility in my staying longer. I could not believe my luck.

I explained I was flying back home then would travel through the night down to London to appear as a guest at the convention this coming weekend and then going on holiday as soon as I got back from it, with my family. She asked if I would ask my wife if I could come back then for a couple of weeks to help get the books on track with their deadlines, once all that was done?

I said I didn’t think Margaret would mind, but that I would call her tomorrow to confirm with her, but explained that I had Margaret’s total support and there would not be a problem.

That said she turned to Jim and they chatted for a while before Jim stood up and asked everyone to “Raise their glasses and share a toast to the Brit from across the sea whose powers they could harness for good!”

The room really was looking at the table now and I reckon I could have shrunk and hid under the table, had I not been so excited that yes I was going home, but that in a weeks time I would be returning to the city where Spider-Man swings and super-heroes aplenty keep vigil over its inhabitants.

Below: Jim Hanley's Comic Shop:

The rest of that night was a blur of excitement and anticipation as I prepared mentally to go to the convention then switch to Husband and Dad to go on holiday and then return here to continue working on the Defiant Universe of books.
By the time I reached the hotel my mind was overactive, as I fought to go to sleep, tomorrow I was flying again.

But I’ll share that in my next Blog.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…

May 20th 2009

Dark Dominion Part 04...

A further look at the comic and Jim Shooter’s Defiant Comics…

Hi Guys

That morning I awoke to the obligatory sunshine, which, as someone from the North of England will always attest, is something of a rarity in that neck of the woods (I can fully understand the melancholy mood of the Conan books set as they are in the fictitious mist shrouded hills of Cimmeria. Which is a funny thing to think of as I write these words as that morning I had turned on the TV in my hotel room to find myself watching the new Conan kids cartoon, which had not yet started to air in the UK by then.

I remember seeing how the US cartoons and in general TV shows differed I the way they were surrounded by the ads. Thinking the show had finished I had just gone to have a shower at what I thought was the end of the cartoon when low and behold back on it came, but only for the titles. Now here in the UK we have the titles following the epilogue of a show to tie up looses ends, so that when the break happens we see more adverts, but then the start of another show.

After Breakfast I returned once more to the office, with the infectious end soundtrack of Conan going through my mind. I was getting quite used to my working here by now. I sat at the board and began to finish off the War Dancer pages. They didn’t take long and were finished before Lunchtime. Janet had worked on some parts of the pages and it was my job to ghost her style so as to make anyone reading it believe one person had done the painting, that way there are no jarring effects to the storytelling.

Lunchtime came and this time the office was ordering from a deli, having had pizzas the day before. I remember receiving a wonderful Caesar salad and sitting out on the terrace with Greg, Grey, Janet and some of the other office staff.

I looked across at the Empire State Building as I ate my lunch and began to put it all into perspective…I was in New York living and working amongst other comic creators…I was eating my lunch on a terrace fourteen floors up in the shadow of one of the tallest and certainly most well known buildings in the world, working on comics…life didn’t get much better.

Six months earlier I had no idea I would be in the States working on some terrific new comic books for a new company formed by Jim Shooter and working with some of the best guys in the business.

During lunch the folks on the terrace asked all sorts of questions, about what I had worked on, my then young family, the UK and particularly the part of England I was from. I found out lots about them too, as I asked similar questions. Things were becoming much more relaxed for me, as I continued to settle into the groove that was the New York comic scene.

After lunch I left some of the guys on the terrace still discussing things and returned to the drawing board and Dark Dominion. Page two was the first sequential page and was the first to see Joe leaving out details, which we had already discussed and which I would paint in without any pencils. I was able to add more steam from the manhole cover in panel one, reflections to the windows, Times Square buildings, signage and folks passing by the windows, all fully realised in colour. This meant Joe and I had to work closely together on the pages with discussions as Joe pencilled the book, with me over looking his shoulder and getting Joe to leave out that detail and that one there, as he progressed on each page, until it became second nature to us both, with Joe knowing what to leave out and me knowing what to add.

It helped as well because before the pencils had begun there had been an inordinate amount of photographs of New York above and below ground taken. The ones underground in the well known under-city dwelling area frequented by an entire part of society in New York for real had been taken with special security along whilst the photos were taken, for fear of attack from the folks living below. It sound like something out of a film, but it was true.

The process Joe and I were using of us working very closely together brought to mind the way John Buscema, Ruby Nebres and Peter Ledger worked on the Warriors of the Shadow Realm books with writer Doug Moench in 1979 and here we were working in a similar vein and much different than the process of producing the artwork on the other books, which seemed, once the books were published, to be picked up by the fans, whose letters sang high praise of the unique look we were achieving.

I have recently looked at the originals and compared this particular page to the comic and have found the printing to be a little off. Quite a bit of the detail has been lost on the page, but then the technology we are using nowadays is so much more superior that I sometimes forget we are quite spoilt in the reproduction values we get back now.

That said the look of the book was totally different and back then it just looked so significantly different that folks seemed to latch onto the book. It was helped enormously by the inking of Mike Barreiro, Bob Downs, and Charles Yoakum the latter two of whom, as time went on, became great company to me, when burning the mid-night oil again and again. It also helped that the story was written by the legendary Len Wein (of whom I will speak in a later Blog in this series) and brilliantly lettered by George Roberts, whose mannerisms and speech always reminded me of Huggy Bear of Starsky and Hutch fame.

Below: Page two of Dark Dominion Issue one:

As the afternoon closed on the office I rang home and spoke to Margaret and the children again, wishing them a goodnight, before their Mum tucked them in. I finished the page and was joined by Janet and Joe, pretty much as I was doing so and they said they were going to take me down to the South Street Sea Port for a meal at one of the nearby restaurants.

By the time we arrived having gone via a couple of shops on the way, before catching a ride in a cab, my first ride of any distance in one, the light from the sun was dimming a little as it began to sink beneath the horizon. A myriad little white lights twinkled and reflected off the water of the Hudson River as it lapped against the moorings and water’s edge. We stood on the jetty and stared out across the river somewhere over there was the UK and home.

It was a beautiful balmy evening and we sat down to eat in a fantastic nearby Japanese restaurant. I had never had Japanese food, but I have always loved trying anything, so I was keen to go along when they asked if I like their food.

The restaurant was beautifully decorated in traditional Japanese designs and sculptures. There was a lot of black I remember and we sat below the table in little recessed trench like seats, having taken our shoes off at the entrance.

What was served amazed me. I had become accustomed in my short stay in New York to the large servings of everything, but the starter was humongous and had just about every type of sushi going.

It was finger food, so there was no problem, but then it came time for the main courses and of course the traditional and obligatory chop sticks…and I had ordered Teriyaki Chicken and Boiled Rice…what was I thinking?

I guess that was one way to learn fast, how to use them, as I realised both Joe and Janet could use them and despite the fact the starters had been a large portion I was looking at crumbs, so to speak, if I didn’t get my act together and quick.

Joe and Janet persevered with me until I was quite the oriental whiz kid with them and was not only able to eat the chicken, but also the rice, and not a grain at a time, as I had been trying to do. By the time we had all stopped laughing at my efforts, the remaining food was cold, but still delicious.

We walked a little to walk off the enormous oriental meal, before catching a cab back to the hotel where Joe and Janet then went their separate ways into the New York night and I returned to my hotel room.

Below: South Street Sea Port at night:

It had been another great day and I realised there was one full day tomorrow, before I would be flying back to the UK once more. I was preparing for a rather busy return too, with me attending UKCAC 93 (UK Comic Art Convention) in London over the weekend and going on holiday with Margaret and the kids from Monday onwards for a week in a little cottage in North Wales.

I read a couple of comic books I had bought, watched a little TV and then retired to bed. I wondered what tomorrow would bring and felt extremely lucky that I had been able to work here in New York, just like I had dreamed of doing so many years ago, when I was a young boy, when I first realised I wanted to be a comic artist.

Joe had mentioned about going into the village again tomorrow to check out some more comic books and a place near the Empire State Building called Jim Hanley’s.

But I’ll share that in my next Blog.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May 18th 2009

Dark Dominion Part 03...

A further look at the comic and Jim Shooter’s Defiant Comics…

Hi Guys,

Well that night I felt great, I had successfully worked on the first piece of artwork in New York on the legendary Steve Ditko’s cover for the Dark Dominion Card Set Issue "0" Folder cover and received recognition of the fact from those in the Defiant offices and tomorrow I would begin work on the actual first issue.

I had rang home and told everyone what the reaction had been to my first piece of work for them and how it had been Steve Ditko’s cover, my wife didn’t seem to get that, but then she doesn’t read comics after all. I decided to watch a little TV and then retired to bed in the hotel.

The next morning began as the previous, with me going down for breakfast before going over to the Defiant offices. The guy who served me breakfast asked me if my visit was business or pleasure I told it what I was doing there, which seemed to fascinate him and we had quite a lengthy conversation whilst he served folks, as well as me and I ate breakfast.

I walked over to the offices, I had left my portfolio and art materials in there the previous night, so it was a simple stroll across the street to the next block and around the corner. Once inside, I was greeted with the same enthusiasm I had received the day previous. I was introduced to new guys that had come in that day to work on the books; either pencilling inking, colouring, or lettering them.

It was this day that I met letter, George Roberts for the first time, inker, Hector, future Defiant colourist, Ben Jung, all rounder, Dave Hillman and pencillers, Grey and Greg Boone and an intern called Paul. So now as I looked around the offices I was seeing the growing numbers within the actual working Defiant bullpen. The day previous had seemed pretty quiet, but today was different with lots of buzz in the air and lots of folks milling about and settling in at various drawing boards to work.

Below: A photo of the view from one of my Hotel windows.

I was presented with the first of Joe James’ pages for Dark Dominion issue one, which was a splash page showing the lead character Michael Alexander sitting in a McDonald's on Times Square, which I was to visit for real later that lunchtime with Joe, to show me the authenticity of the books content.

Set in New York the trip was the perfect accompaniment to the production of the artwork. After all I was a Brit and the stories were all set in the USA and my book was set in NYC, so it was perfect for me to not only have photographic reference provided, but also to go out onto the streets and see the places for real.

The spread was quite a detailed page and was a shot looking into the McDonalds restaurant with Michael sitting in the front window, whilst the New York folks are going about their daily routines, with customers sat upstairs and on the ground level eating, drinking and discussing things whilst others n the far background are waiting to be served, whilst others walk past the large picture windows and one guy does card tricks for two others.

Add to that the McDonalds logos a couple of street sign a New York Taxi, a parked car a fire hydrant , bunting, a bag of rubbish, and a manhole cover on the road beside the sidewalk and the picture Joe had drawn was pretty busy to say the least.

My job was not just to colour the books as most of the comic books of the time were still being done (this was still pretty much pre-computer colouring time wise), but to paint the pages, something I had been doing for a number of years here in the UK for comics like Transformers and 2000AD, for book publishers like World International, and also over my own artwork too.

So I set about the first page. By lunchtime I had pretty much finished the page, much to everyone’s amazement, which surprised me again, as I was expecting to be slow in comparison to the US artists – I have to admit I was feeling better for this though and was becoming more at ease. I added the reflections to the windows, with the top window panes showing the New York skyline reflected in it’s glass and airbrushed some steam coming up from the sewers below the manhole cover, something I had seen the previous day and that morning, as I walked into the offices.

Below: Page 1 of Issue 1 of Dark Dominion:

It was this page that was to set out my stall within the bullpen. Joe and Janet were over the moon with the page and I heard some nice things from the other artists in there that day. I was ready for my next page, but that was to wait as the office ordered lunch in. Joe then took me into Greenwich Village, or the village, as they call it in New York, via a couple of comics shops and the McDonald’s which I had been painting earlier, one of the comic shops being the NYC Forbidden Planet shop. We spent an hour or so looking around the comics and Joe showed me some other sights that were in the first issue, for my reference.

Back in the offices I began to work on page two of issue one and was beginning to feel my feet at last. Janet came over from here office opposite my drawing board and asked me to have a chat with her inside. We had a coffee and she asked me how things were going, was I still fine working away from the family and if I knew any other artists who could play a part in the Defiant plan. I asked if it would be okay to make a few extra phone calls later when I called home to ask a few folks I knew in the UK. She said Jim had meant any calls not just home so it would be fine.

During the conversation she also asked whether I would like to colour some War Dancer pages with her, as she was getting a little behind with them. She was, after all, acting as colour editor and was pretty much hands on with all other aspects of the company too, which meant she was spread a little thinly.

Below: A photograph of the actual McDonald's in Times Square NYC.

Of course I never hesitated and I said I would love to. It would mean switching from painting in acrylic paints, which is what I was using for Dark Dominion to Doctor Martin’s watercolour dyes, which wasn’t a problem as I had used them on Judge Dredd over John Ridgway’s artwork, on some Marvel UK covers and some other stuff too, before switching to acrylics.

I helped Janet on War Dancer for the rest of the day and would continue to do so on the third day too. I ghosted her style, so as to blend my work with hers as much as possible, so as to not be jarring to the reader when viewing the artwork in the comics.

Later in the afternoon I rang home and spoke to everyone there and then we ordered some food into the offices as a few of us, Joe included where working late. After we had eaten and down a little more work, Joe asked me to accompany him on a trip out to the music store, so off we went, stopping off at a local deli for a soft drink.

We spent a while looking around the HMV music store and I couldn’t believe the prices compared to the UK, it was hugely cheaper. Joe bought his CDs and then we walked back towards the offices. Joe did a little more pencilling and then left for the evening. Everyone had gone and the bullpen was empty except for me. I turned Joe’s Ghetto Blaster up a little and proceeded back to work on the War Dancer pages.

By the time I looked at the clock again it was around 2:30 am, so I decided it was almost time to call the UK and check the folks availability for work with us at Defiant. I had finished most of the work for Janet on War Dancer and would be completely done that morning, when I would then return to work on Dark Dominion once more too.

Below: War Dancer: Page 6 Issue 1:

I rang John Ridgway and mentioned the set-up to him, but he was busy at the time with other work, but he asked me to get in touch again when I got back to the UK and he would see if he was available then. I also spoke to two illustrator friends of mine, who couldn’t believe I was calling them from NYC at 3:00 am in the morning. I asked them to submit some stuff to Defiant as quickly as they could, as they were looking for other artists. Unfortunately of the three calls that morning only John was to find work with them.

I replaced the receiver for the final time that night, stepped out onto the veranda looked at the Empire State Building lit up in all its majestic glory and decided it was time for bed…I was about to walk around the block in the most dangerous city in the world at just gone three in the morning. My friends and family thought I was insane. I stepped out into the New York air and walked the short distance to the Hotel. I have to admit all the talk from the family and my friends about what the media say about the city was at the forefront of my mind, with each step I took on the way back, but that feeling was soon to go.

My head hit the pillow and I was away…until the following morning at seven.

But I’ll share that in my next Blog.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May 16th 2009

GRANDVILLE

Video Trailer…

Hi Guys

Just a quick nod of the head to my good friend and colleague, Bryan Talbot and his latest graphic novel due for release in October this year, Grandville.

Check out the Trailer below to see some of the magnificent artwork!!!

I for one cannot wait to get hold of it.

More from my Defiant Days tomorrow…

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May14th 2009

Dark Dominion Part 02...

Another look at Jim Shooter’s Defiant Comics…

Hi Guys

It was late afternoon when the aircraft I was travelling in came in over JFK airport. The weather had been fine when I left England, something of a rarity over here and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon when we touched down on the other side of the Atlantic.

I went through customs; the first time ever I had travelled by plane on my own before, and was greeted by an Indian gentleman bearing a small plaque sign with my name upon it. His accent was such, as to make me wonder had I fallen asleep for too long and arrived back in the UK.

I was taken to a rather smart looking limousine and driven into Manhattan from JFK airport entering the city via the Queens Midtown Tunnel. When we arrived on the other side I was amazed at how tall the building looked. It appeared that we were travelling along man-made canyons.

Once on the Manhattan side of things it was only a matter of a few minutes before arriving at the front doors of the Defiant office building on 37th street, between Madison and 5th avenue.

I had decided to go straight to the offices rather than the hotel. The weather, now I was out of the limo, was incredibly hot, even for late afternoon, early evening; it was around six o’clock by this time. I was totally overwhelmed by the sounds and smells as I stood on the sidewalk; it was incredible. I was promptly helped out with my luggage of suitcase, hand luggage, containing my art materials, and my Portfolio into the lift, or elevator, as I soon found myself adapting to the language and saying.

We went up to the 14th floor and the Defiant offices, where I was greeted by Janet Jackson. No not the singer sister of Michael, but the colourist/editor of Marvel comics fame, who had left the hallowed Marvel halls along with Jim Shooter to help set up the Valiant comics studios three years earlier. Here she was again helping Jim to set up the latest venture, Defiant comics/Enlightened Entertainment.

The first thing she did was offer me a cold drink, which I was certainly ready for. She then asked if I was ready for something to eat and if I had even been up the Empire State Building? The answer to the first was sure and the second was no I had never been to the USA before. She took me outside onto the veranda where I saw we were overlooked by the most incredible sight of the imposing Empire State Building, as it loomed high above us. We were fourteen floors up and there it was, in all its majesty towering way above us…a quarter of a mile above us to be exact.

She asked if I had rang home from the airport and I told her I had not had time to do so. So she told me Jim had said that I could call home anytime, for as long as I wanted, as long as I was there, working for them, which was really nice of him. I made the call and excitedly told my wife, Margaret and my children (nowadays, now all grown up of course) Joanne and Simon all about the trip and what New York was like, or at least the little I had seen of it, if the wonderful city can ever be called little. I bid them goodnight as it was now late in the evening and told them I would call again tomorrow.

Below: The crest above the door to the Defiant Building on 37th Street.

With that I was promptly whisked off out of the offices, leaving my stuff inside, down the elevator, and outside into the hot New York evening air. The sounds and smells, just like when I had first got out of the limo, were overwhelming. We walked over the three blocks to the Empire State Building. Going inside we were greeted by a wall of gold with the embossed image of the mighty building behind the Information desk and the words from the receptionist, "Welcome to The Empire State Building! How may I help you?" We went into an elevator, which took us part way up the building. We then got into a second elevator and were whisked once more up to the 102nd floor observatory.

Once outside the view was magnificent and Janet was quick to point out our offices, way below. The people, milling around in the streets below, looked like ants and it felt great to be so high up and on the same building as used in the King Kong film. We stayed and watched the sun setting and then went down to the milling streets once more where Janet took me to a restaurant, which served Southern food.

On the way my eyes saw something move across the sidewalk with incredible speed and for a second I thought I had seen a small rat, or at least a mouse, when I looked again I saw it was the biggest cockroach, orangey-brown in colour, I had ever seen in my life. It was humongous with muscles on its eyebrows and looking like it worked out with Arnold. Janet saw my averted gaze and said, “Oh they are all over the island.”

I guess it must have scurrying home to the family after a hard day down at the office.

Being from Texas, Janet was keen to have me served up some southern styled chicken, so ordered me the most humongous high-piled plate of chicken I had ever seen in my life. There was every kind of chicken you could think of and it was delicious, my mouth is watering as I write these words, thinking of the marvellous first feast I was privy to in NYC, washed down by a huge glass of coke.

Following this we returned to the offices and I then went around the corner to the hotel I was staying at, the Jolly Madison Towers Hotel and checked in. I was shown to my room and I settled in watching for the first time American TV. The air-conditioning was on, but I opened the windows to hear the sounds below. I was in a corner room and so had a double view of the city. From one set of windows I could see Madison Avenue and out of the others I could see the Met-Life building, all of which was lit up in all their glory.

I unpacked and prepared my stuff to take along to the offices the following morning and retired to bed. It was around three o’clock that I was awoken by loud banging sounds below in the street and the sounds of a large vehicle. I got out of bed and looked below to see what all the commotion was about and saw the refuge collectors and their wagon in the streets below. I soon learned how the waste was disposed of in NYC.

The morning came and I found myself downstairs at breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It was another sunny day, the first of many, and I soon found myself speaking to the staff, explaining whereabouts in England I came from and that, no I did not know the Queen personally. With a hearty breakfast eaten, but a strange cup of tea, which they called English Breakfast inside me, I went back to my room, picked up my portfolio and art materials and made my way over to the offices of the Defiant Bullpen for my first day of work there…yes it was daunting.

As I walked across Madison from around the blocks of 38th and 37th street I wondered what lay ahead for me. I was a little nervous, feeling I was now walking the streets of and working in the capital of the comics I had grown up on. Was I up to the job and could I hold my own amongst my new peers? I would know soon enough.

I entered the building on 37th street and was greeted by the always smiling and jolly elevator attendant, who took me up to the 14th floor. The early morning Manhattan sunlight slipped in through the blinds of the front windows of the office near the reception. I walked up the guys there and introduced myself. I was greeted by all the folks inside the office and felt a little like Elvis had entered the building. I was unsure what had been said before my arrival at the offices, but I felt like everyone was expecting great things from me…now I really was worried.

I was taken to Janet’s office again and then shown my drawing board, which was mine for the week. I was then taken to see Jim in his office and then to the editor-in-chief, Deborah Purcell’s office, where I was met by her and Editor Ed Polgardy.

I was shown around the offices and introduced to everyone formally, folks like Rob LaQuinta, Zach Lynch, Peter Lukic, Brady Darvin, Clark Smith, and the guys at reception and shown where I could obtain cold drinks and snacks from the kitchen fridges.

The formalities done I was shown back to the drawing board, where I sat with Janet for a short while. Back in the UK, whilst working on the card series Steve Ditko had quit the book I had been hired to work on, Dark Dominion. Another artist was due to take over the book, but again he at the last minute had backed out of the book, so the reins had been passed over to the new artist, whose work I had painted the colours for on the cards, along with Steve Ditko’s; Joe James.

Below: The view of the Empire State Building from the Defiant Veranda.

I was then given the first assignment; colour the cover to the card set, the penciller was Steve Ditko. Now I felt the test was truly starting for me. I remember getting a cold drink, pouring some water into a small container for me to use to clean my brushes, sitting at my board and putting the first marks on the background of the cover…Steve Ditko’s cover.

As the morning progressed and folks came and looked over my shoulders, passing very complimentary comments about my work on it, I began to relax a little, but still wondered if the comments were purely just to do that and not the true viewpoint of the folks there, as they just tried to be nice to me…the Brit from across the pond.

Just before lunchtime, with the cover almost finished and folks commenting on how quick I had been (remember, I had taken my time to do the cover, feeling daunted by the task) I began to wonder why they thought I was quick. I would later find out and show them what quick was, as much to my amazement as theirs.

Below: The Issue Zero Card Set Cover.

It was around this time Janet walked over to me and introduced me to Joe James the penciller on the book now and I was asked to accompany them on the veranda, where lunch was ordered and we chatted to break the ice as the new creative team on the book. I had been told my expenses were being paid, so lunch was free for me, which was great. We discussed Joe’s take on the book and what he wanted to do and I explained in pre-computer wizardry terms how we could make this book unique with some painted trickery.

Later that day I finished the cover and took it long to Janet, who then took it into Jim’s office to show him. He looked at the cover and then Janet, then back to the cover and then me, smiled his wide grin and said aloud, “You know, Janet, I really do think we can harness this guy’s powers for good!”

I figured I had passed my first test; they liked the cover for real. I have never heard whether Steve Ditko liked the colours on his cover, but I hope he has seen it and he did.

That day sticks in my mind as a turning point for me in my career, as folks from US comics spoke very complimentary about my work. I was about to make my mark in that company with my next assignment; page one of issue one of the comic book, Dark Dominion.

But I’ll leave that until my next Blog.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…

May12th 2009

Defiant & Dark Dominion Part 01...

A look at Jim Shooter’s Comics Company and the comic…


Hi Guys,

This time around, I thought I would share my memories of a very important time for me in my comic book career. I have often been asked about this since it occurred and thought it was about time I came clean and told of all the things that happened to me, whilst I was out there in New York back in the mid-nineties. I still feel that some of my best work was produced out there at the time.

So much happened to me whilst I was out there that I feel the only way of doing the company that was Defiant and all its owners, editors, and creative folks justice is to write my thoughts of back then over several Blogs and I mean several rather lengthy Blogs too.

Back in March of 1993 I was busy working for Warner Bros on their Tiny Toons comic in the US, Paul Neary at Marvel UK, on a number of his titles there and producing what was to be my last work for 2000AD on a future shock entitled “The way we Whirr”. It was at this time I found myself at GLASCAC the Scottish version of UKCAC, which was, at the time, the yearly British Comics Convention.

I had not been in the convention hall for more than five minutes on the Saturday morning before I received a script off Andrew Helfer one of DC comics’ editors for his Big Book of Death book, or at least I was told I would be receiving it on the Sunday – which I did.

On the Sunday I met with the Tiny Toons, Katie Main, editor and received more scripts from which to draw the strips, but it was later on the same Sunday afternoon that I was to be given the chance of a lifetime.

I was almost ready for setting off back home and was awaiting my friend’s friend who had come along to Glasgow with us to visit a girlfriend. We were having a brew in the Convention Restaurant area with a cup of tea in one hand and my portfolio in the other, feeling good that I was going home with more comic book work to add to my list of stuff already on the go.

The weather was muggy, although it had kept fine throughout the convention weekend to be honest and as the weather turned for the worst a face I recognised sat on the table across from me with a young woman and a guy with a portfolio. The guy was Jim Shooter and the woman was Janet Jackson – no not that JJ, which is why Janet chose to be called JayJay by her friends, but the Janet Jackson of Marvel and Valiant fame.

Well I suddenly changed my mind about leaving and decided to stay a little longer to speak to Jim, who I had met and worked for early on in my career at Marvel UK, back in the eighties.

It was to prove a very wise move on my behalf. Occasionally something of a very serendipitous event will occur in ones life and this was one of those very special moments.

When the guys had left Jim and Janet, I waited a moment and then walked across and introduced myself. Jim recognised me and introduced me as one of his Marvel UK artists. He asked how I was and what I was doing and in the course of something like a twenty-minute conversation we discussed all that happened between our meeting on London in 1987 and this Scottish Comics Convention in 1993.

I was about to leave when Jim said if I ever wanted to show him my portfolio send some stuff over the offices in New York, where he and Janet would look them over. Well never one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, I told him that I had my portfolio on the table across and could show them my work now, if they liked.

They were looking for artists and especially colourists/painters, and looked at my Chopper pages, and my Shadows pages, amongst others and my pencilled and inked pages, but it was not the 2000 AD pages, which finally got me the work, it was “The Little House in the Woods” watercolour painting, which clinched things for me that Sunday afternoon. Not a comic book page or character, in fact nothing to do with a comic and in fact is a children’s book illustration produced way back in 1981.

That piece is probably the most commercially successful illustration I have produced to date, as far as obtaining further work from it for me, from new clients. It is the oldest piece still shown in my portfolio as I tend to drop pages quite soon after they are produced in lieu of newer and hopefully much better pieces.

It is also a firm favourite, along with “Christmas in the Woods”, amongst those collecting my limited edition Giclée prints, so it still continues to enchant folks in the same way it did Janet back then. I would love to know exactly what it is about that illustration, because I would love to be able to repeat its success.

Jim turned to Janet and asked what she thought, as he looked at the pages of Shadows drawn by my good buddy Richard Elson’s over which I painted the acrylic colours and pointed to a particularly moody purple and green set of panels. She turned the sleeves in the portfolio back to “The Little House in the Woods” watercolour painting and said “This is the one that does it for me,” adding, “I like this one best.”

Jim looked at her again and said the immortal words, “I think we can harness this guy’s powers for good!” This was something I heard him say only a small number of times to other folks when he saw what it was he was after, but when he said it there was a sense of excitement about the air following it.

He smiled and told me I would receive the first package off them, which would be for a limited edition card set for a new book they were working on called Dark Dominion. The book was being pencilled and inked by the legendary Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.

Jim then asked me what my rate was for colouring and I told him and he said fine. I later found out I was the most expensive colourist/painters on their books and was earning nearly as much as the guys pencilling.

Anyway we said our goodbyes and the journey home seemed to last only minutes as I pondered this new phase of my comics career, whilst I drove home with my friend and his friend too. True to his word only a matter of two or three weeks later the first cards arrived, some drawn by Steve Ditko and some by newcomer Joe James. Steve Ditko, most folks in the comics business would kill to work with such a fantastic legend and here I was in my UK studio, doing just that.

Below one of the original cards scanned from the original artwork and then four of the cards as they appeared in the set:

The artwork was being printed via Xerox machine onto Saunders, Waterford, Hot Press 90lb watercolour paper, which coincidentally was exactly the same process I had been using here in the UK on the work for London Editions, 2000AD and the other publishers.

I had decided to try this technique following some work I had done for Marvel, 2000AD and the Scoop children’s Newspaper on Twins of Elvedon. My first work on the Twins story was done on Kentmere paper, but this was a very expensive process and so looking for a cheaper alternative for my other colour work I experimented with watercolour paper and it worked, on certain Xerox machines and at 90lb paper weight. So when I saw that Defiant was using exactly the same process I knew how to approach the work.

I sent the first batch of cards over to the New York offices via Fed-Ex, which received a great response and these were followed a few days later by a second batch. I repeated this process a number of times and then received a phone call from the then editorial director Deborah Purcell.

She asked if I would like to go out to the New York offices on an all-expenses paid trip for a week. I was over the moon. Deborah asked if I wanted to discuss this with my wife Margaret, who had come into the studio and overheard the conversation, giving me the thumbs up. I told Deborah it would be a pleasure and she said to expect the tickets via Fed-Ex in a couple of days.

Well the thought of going out to New York and working in the Defiant Bullpen was a dream come true for me and I couldn’t believe my luck. I had worked so hard to get into US comics and here I was about to walk the same streets as all the great American comics artists.

A couple of days later the tickets arrived and I was only days away from making a dream come true. My bags packed for a week and my wife and small children in tow, we set off for Manchester airport. It was quite an emotional scene as we parted ways and I went through customs, leaving the family to wave from the balcony as my plane set off.

I could have burst as I sat down in my seat and prepared for take-off. A movie played and meals were served and I can neither remember what the film was nor what we ate, I was so excited, but I knew that in eight hours I would be walking in the capital city of comics and then it hit home, would I be good enough to rub shoulders with these guys? It was daunting, I tell you, I would have to watch my self and ensure I did a bang up job to impress them, but again could I do so…?

But I’ll share that in my next Blog.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May 10th 2009

Bristol International Comics Expo 2009

Good Luck!!!


Hi Guys,

I would just like to say Good Luck to Mike Allwood and the other organisers and to all the visitors have a great time this weekend down at the Bristol International Comics Expo and Small Press Expo.

Also to all the fans and my fellow professionals - enjoy the weekend I hope to see you guys very soon.

The Worlds End graphic novel is coming along at a great pace now and I will be posting some new work soon!

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May 7th 2009