The Series That Never Was!
Now, I have show low res scans of the Sad Lads Pad idea sent to TV companies and then I found the set colour scheme but I have a hefty correspondence file with the artist.Yes, Paul Ashley Brown may be better known these days for Browner Knowle but back in the day...well a few years actually back in the 1980s...he was the artist struggling with over-written scripts for a comic that attracted the attention of many top UK comic creators (no, it was not porn)...Vigilante Vulture!
There were a few forays after that but the comics industry is full of crooks as Mr Brown discovered -though he did take legal action and get his money (but not work) back off one UK publisher.
Now, unless you know him (not in the "Biblical sense") you will know that he can produce some great humour work -drawing Peter Lallys Donald Hamilton for instance. There is, if I can ever scan it, a comic strip telling of the Southbank TV show special on my career, presented by Melvyn Bragg. And much more.
You see, when he doesn't put a lot of thought into comics designed to drive people to despair, Mr Brown has a quick cartoon style that he can turn to some very funny strips. In that sense he has never explored the idea of turning these into a comic which is a great pity.
Mr Brown was also inspired by my classic 1983-84 mini series Outlaws Of The Urban Forest and in..2008(??) he set to work on a follow-up which, sadly, never got completed and I really did like the art/story and as everyone knows I never ever allow people to work on things I started unless I like what I see.
I have some of those pages but here is a cover mock-up -the black and white version and the vibrantly coloured version.
Great stuff and I'd like to see more of this type of thing from him. He has the ability and style and CAN do it.
In case he reads this, he never does, I'd like to point out I've been ill so I probably never ever said anything kind about him.
Outlaws of the Urban Forest ? I've never seen that ..... put up a few scan pages and an 'available from' on the blog,Terry - some people might be interested in that zine ( I am !) Paul's cover art looked great - as did/do the Sad Lads Pad work. Paul's got it all, hasn't he ? Great black and white balance, good sense of spacing, dynamic, emotional art style, and a nice humourous ( slightly manic ) line. He should be famous - all kidding aside. Why doesn't he try out for that 'Phoenix' comic ? Or do a 'mixed' book for himself - some humour work,some poetry and some serious work ? Anyway. Time to get back to it.
ReplyDeleteoh, you HAVE seen Outlaws! A3 done in nib and ink. No, no, no, no, no. It MAY be redrawn one day and I might copy a couple pages to send you! I keep telling old Browners this but....he will not listen. I just did not raise that boy right.
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