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Table of Contents

Forward by Paul Neary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Part One: “It’s the Only Thing He’s Any Good At” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Interlude One: Under the Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Part Two: Captain Britain and a New Career in Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Interlude Two: Paul Neary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Part Three: Becoming a Big Fish from across a Big Pond . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Interlude Three: Mark Farmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Part Four: Storytelling and the Creative Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Afterword by Mark Farmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Modern Masters Volume One:

ALAN DAVIS

MODERN MASTERS: Where were you born?

ALAN DAVIS: I was born in England. I never name thetown, because it’s a small town and I still live aboutthree minutes’ walk from where I was born, in what youwould call an apartment block. My father still livesacross the road in the house where I grew up.

MM: When did you develop an interest in art?

ALAN: I don’t know. The easy answer would be, it wasalways there. But I have given the matter more consider-ation than might be healthy—because I’m regularlyquestioned about it—I believe that it was never the art,in and of itself. I was more interested in fantasy and stories and the art sort of came along with that.

MM: Did you watch a lot of moviesas a child? Did you read books a lot?

ALAN: I watched lots of movies—and still do—but I was also encour-

aged to read. My mom washighly educated and very lit-erate. My dad is extremely

well read and hadalso drawn and

painted

when he was younger—and returned to art when heretired—and, as an Irish man, he has the Celtic abilityfor storytelling.

MM: So when you started drawing, were you focusedon the storytelling aspect rather than on just drawingpin-ups like most artists start out doing?

ALAN: I wasn’t focused. I didn’t have any plan or ambi-tion. In retrospect, the thing I think was most significantis I have four brothers and a sister. And my older brother,Gary, is really smart—a real whiz at math and science—and I followed along behind him at school. I was justnowhere near capable of what he was academically. Theonly thing I could do better than him was draw. Anotherfactor might be that I get hay fever, so I didn’t do muchfield sports. I was alright with gym and swimming andbadminton—all solitary pursuits—but field sports wereout. Being a loner gave me plenty of time to hone aminor talent into a major obsession. [laughter]

MM: Were there other artists in your family or justyour father?

ALAN: My brother Gary was never too interested inart. My next brother Damian is very good at portraitureand did help me with some comic work in the earlydays. When deadlines were tight he would help me withbackgrounds, inking, and coloring. My next brotherMark is a sportsman. My sister Janice is creative but hasno interest in comics. My brother Noel, who’s theyoungest—there’s nine years between us—did help outwith the art as well, and he is also fairly accomplished.But like Damian, his interest is more towards fine art.

MM: So your brothers and sisters live in the area aswell? Do they live nearby?

ALAN: I can walk to their houses within fifteen totwenty minutes. So I’ve never learned to drive; Iwalk everywhere.

MM: You said you read a lot as akid; what sort of things were youreading? You were attracted to

fantasy...

ALAN: I think that when you’re very

6

Part 1: “It’s the Only Thing He’s Any Good At”

7

young, books are bought for you andyou’re encouraged to read a certain type ofbook. I was fortunate that my parents didn’tmind my reading comics—in fact, theytook an interest in what I read so theyknew I enjoyed fantasy in general andmythological fantasy in particular. I canremember having The Iliad, an abridgedversion for children. I think I was maybeeleven. I’m pretty sure it was given to mebecause I was enthralled by a strip in TheEagle comic called, “Heros the Spartan.” Idon’t know if you’ve ever heard of it.

MM: No, I don’t believe I have.

ALAN: It was set in Roman times, but the stories included a lot of the fantasyelements that are common nowadays butat the time seemed very original. Obviouslythere were also a lot of science-fictionstrips, too. “Dan Dare” is one you mayknow.

MM: Yeah, I’ve read some of those.

ALAN: When I was old enough to startbuying my own books I discovered all ofthe usual fantasy and sci-fi classics. RobertE. Howard, Moorcock, and Clark AshtonSmith had a big impact, but Edgar RiceBurroughs’ Mars novels and E.E. Doc

Smith’s Lensman series were, and are, particular favorites.

MM: You read mostly European books—mainly British, I assume. Did you see muchAmerican work?

ALAN: The comics that were producedfor children in Britain were The Dandy andThe Beano and that type of thing. They weremostly cartoon strips—one or two pageslong. They would be equivalent to theDisney comics or the Harvey comicsin style. There were many others,

Previous Page: Thisimage was done in Alan’searly teens.Top: Alan: “I madenumerous dioramas frommy early to mid-teens. Iused everything fromplasticine and papier-maché to store-boughttoys that I customizedand painted. For thisscene, from one of mychildhood stories, I used2” tall plastic figures anda self-assembly kitdinosaur. Photo by IanHuxtable.Below: Of this bust Alansays, “Sculpture is myfavorite art form, so itwas logical to sculpt the weird and alien characters I was drawingin an attempt to get anunderstanding of theirthree-dimensional form.This model is clay andwas about 15" or 16" tall. I was about 21 whenI made it. Photos byDamian Davis.

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like The Toffer, Beezer, Buster,Whizzer and Chips, andWhoopee, but most, if not all,are gone. The Dandy and TheBeano became establishmentsin Britain and are still onsale now. They were thesorts of comics parentsbought for kids. The Eagle—which carried “Dan Dare,”“Heros the Spartan,” and thelike—was aimed at a slightlyolder audience. So too wereThe Victor, Hotspur, Valiant, and Lion—all

were anthologies, with a mix of war,western, sci-fi, and general adventure

strips. These were the comics I wasmost familiar with in my childhoodto mid-teens. 2000 A.D. didn’tappear until I was 20.

MM: So when did you startseeing American comics?

ALAN: I was always awareof them, but my town had a very

sporadic circulation. I’ve heard all sortsof rationales, but none of them ever really

made sense. Sometimes I would get acomic that was months old, other times Iwould get a comic that was years old—andthey would be delivered to the shop onthe same day. So I was seeing oddAmerican comics, but not a regular flow.

MM: So they would come to a localbookstore?

ALAN: Market stalls and news agents. Butlike I say, there was no regularity to theirdistribution.

MM: When did you start picking out dif-ferent artists? When did certain artists startmaking an impression?

ALAN: I think that was quite late, becausea lot of the early comics didn’t have creditson them. And even if there were, I don’tthink I would have taken much notice,because I was more interested in the characters and the stories. I tended to, Isuppose, look on comics as somethingwhich were captured by the artist andwriter, but not actually created by them. Iwas totally focused on the characters.

MM: With the British comics, it wasmuch more science-fiction and fantasythan super-heroes....

ALAN: There were some costumed super-heroes, but the majority were classicadventures in fantasy, historic, or sci-fi scenarios. For instance, in “Kelly’s Eye,”Tim Kelly finds a gem, The Eye of Zoltec,which imparts invulnerability to its wearer.The usual cliffhanger was Tim, in peril, losing The Eye. Other stories were not soformulaic. Some were weird, like “TheHouse of Dolmann,” which was about apuppeteer who built an army of mini-robots, each one with a special power. Thereal twist was the puppeteer supplied thespeech and personality for each of thepuppets through ventriloquism.

MM: So you’ve got a guy with multiplepersonality disorder saving the world.

ALAN: Exactly, but at the time I read thestories I didn’t analyze them too deeply.That’s why I say a lot of these observationsare retrospective. I must say, despite thesupposed improvement in production values, the quality of the early British comicshas never been bettered. My personalfavorite is “The Steel Claw,” which wasdrawn by Jesus Blasco. In this, LouisCrandell lost his hand in a laboratory acci-dent. He was given a prosthetic steel clawwhich had the bizarre side effect that a joltof electricity made Crandell invisible—except for the claw. He was basically asecret agent who went around fightingweird scientists and aliens. The artworkwas absolutely incredible and made theabsurd plausible.

MM: Yeah, Blasco has done some work

Right: A panel fromJesus Blasco’s “The SteelClaw,” one of Alan’s all-time favorite Britishseries. Below: This lovely figure was done in hislate teens to early 20s as a text illustration. Next Page: A title page text-surround.

Steel Claw ™ and ©2003respective owner.

Over the years I have been asked to contributeto various “How to Draw...” books. I have alwaysdeclined because I am still trying to figure outhow to do it myself. I never had any formal arteducation, but the term “self-taught” simply isn’taccurate because I learned by studying and imitating everything I saw. I agreed to do thisbook on the condition that I could credit the creators who inspired me. Many of them workedwhen the comics form was in its infancy and created the vocabulary of the medium. In realitythere are far too many to mention in this limitedspace, so I have chosen those who created themost indelible memories or whose influence is stillevident in my work.

—Alan Davis

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Interlude 1: Under theInfluence

“Heros the Spartan” (1962-65) drawn byFrank Bellamy and “Wrath of the Gods”(1963-64) and “Trigan Empire” (1965-76) by Don Lawrence: “Heros theSpartan” was an historical epic set in theRoman Empire. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to even hint at the quality of the“Heros” art with a spot illustration. The artwas fully painted color and each installmentconsisted of a double page spread at thecenter of the Eagle comic. There was anaverage of 16 panels across the two pages,each page measuring 13-1/2 x 10-1/4 inches.There were panels within the spread thatcould stand alone as gems of Bellamy art,but the real power of the strip was in thedynamic layouts and interconnection of the panels which were always read across the entirespread. Sadly, this work has never been collectedand I don’t believe film of the originals still exists.Paul Holder is currently tracking down all of theoriginal art, which has found its way into privatecollections, and is making high quality copies in

the hope that one day, at the very least, qualitysamples of “Heros” will be widely available, if notan entire collection.

“Wrath of the Gods” was a mythological epicset in ancient Greece. “Trigan Empire” told the history of an alien world with a culture that was amix of ancient Earth-like civilizations and super-science.

Trigan Empire ™ and ©2003 respective owner.

“Dan Dare” (1960-69) by Frank Hampson: Dan Dare, Pilot of theFuture. The stories might seem dated, but the art and design (especiallyof aliens and alien worlds) will never be surpassed.

TV21 (1965-69): This magazinehad a number of strips based onthe Gerry Anderson TV series.As a kid, “Fireball XL5” hadalways been a favorite, butFrank Bellamy’s rendition of“Thunderbirds” made it unde-niably the most successful.

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Thunderbirds ™ and ©2003 respective owner.

Dan Dare ™ and ©2003 respective owner.

Fireball XL5 ™

and ©2003 respective ow

ner.

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MM: How did you get involved with comics then? Yougot involved with the British fanzines....

ALAN: I never even knew of the existence of fanzines orcomic conventions until shortly

before I began to work incomics. There were so

many other thingsgoing on in my lifethat comics werereally only a minorinterest. I was mar-ried when I was 21,and thinking aboutstarting a family—working in comicswas something otherpeople did that Icould appreciate,but it didn’t seem tobe something that I would ever becapable of doing.

MM: So you basically sort ofstumbled intocomics rather thanseeking it out.

ALAN: That’s right.I sent away to acompany called TheEdge of Forever,which was run byMike Conroy—wholater became afriend—to orderHow to Draw Comicsthe Marvel Way. I hadseen it advertisedand thought itwould be interestingjust to know howthe professionals doit. Mike phoned tosay he didn’t have

the book in stock, so he could either refund my moneyor I could wait for the book. I said I’d wait. When thebook eventually came, Mike sent some free comics ascompensation for the delay. I wrote a note to thankMike, but a simple “thank you” looked inadequate againstMike’s letter—his notepad had a fantastic watermarkdesign of all of the “Hammer Horror” characters drawnby the excellent British artist, Brian Lewis. So, purely tofill up space on my note, I drew a design, then I sent itoff and thought no more about it. A couple of days laterI got a phone call from Mike asking where I had gottenthe notepaper. When I told him I’d drawn it he said, “I’dlike to get the original.” And I said to him, “You’re holdingthe original.” [laughter] It was very neatly drawn. Then heasked me if I’d like to contribute to his fanzine, FantasyForum, which was really just a mail order sheet with a fewlittle news items and a couple of fan sketches. LesChester, who worked with Mike, had his own fanzinecalled Mea Culpa, which I also contributed to, andthrough Les I met Gary Millidge, who does Strangehavennow, but at the time had a fanzine, Amon Spek.

MM: What kind of things were you contributing?Looking over the art you sent me there’s a charactercalled Monkey. What is that?

ALAN: Monkey is a character from Asian mythology.He is hugely popular in China and Japan—and, thanksto a Japanese TV series, has a cult following in England.There was actually something made in America quiterecently called The Hidden Kingdom.

MM: That sounds familiar. When did you first becomeaware of it? In your teens?

ALAN: It would have been my late teens. I was alreadyinto the pre-Bruce Lee flood of Chinese and Japanesemartial arts movies. So anything that appeared on TV,like The Water Margin and Monkey, was compulsory view-ing. Monkey had a complexity and depth that piqued mycuriosity and I started to search for information to itssources. I was amazed at the diversity of material I eventually found. There are books and comics for allages, as well as movies ranging from children’s cartoonsto traditional Chinese opera. The original stories, whichweave together much older myths and stories, werewritten by Wu Ch’êng-ên in the 16th Century. The only

Part 2: Captain Britain and aNew Career in Comics

Englishtranslation

I have beenable to find, which

is unfortunately onlypartial, was writtenby Arthur Waleyin the 1940s. Ithink the nearest

Western equivalentto the story content might be Orwell’sAnimal Farm.

MM: Oh, really? How so?

ALAN: The story escapes simple genreclassification and can be read on a varietyof levels. Superficially, as simplistic yarnspeppered with fortune cookie philosophyor as a satirical commentary on Chinesepolitics and religion with occasionalnuggets of genuine insight. I don’t pretendto get half the satire, because it is culturallyspecific, but even so it is a good read.

MM: There are also some fanzine illustra-tions you did with celebrities costumed asvarious super-heroes. Did you use stillphotos when drawing those?

ALAN: I used photographs, definitely.

MM: Were those just actors you liked orwas there another reason for those?

ALAN: They were for Mike Conroy’sFantasy Forum. I can’t remember if it wasMike or Les who came up with the idea ofputting in movie and TV personalities assuper-heroes. They both suggested nameson occasion. I did quite a lot of them.

MM: So how did you get from thefanzines into doing professional work?

ALAN: Les Chester and I correspondedquite a lot, and Les really, really encouragedme. He was one of the most enthusiastic

forces in pushing me to workin comics. Les convinced meto go down to London for a

comic convention so I couldmeet Paul Neary, who was the editor-

in-chief at Marvel UK at that time. I wastotally unprepared for what I found. WhenI was queuing up to meet Paul there wereart students all around with their big, pro-fessional portfolios, and I had a plastic bagwith some drawings stuffed into it. [laugh-ter] I thought, “I really shouldn’t be here,”but my brothers, Damian and Noel, werethere saying, “No, no. Go on, go on.You’re here now, you might as well go thewhole hog.” One guy in front of me haddrawn a brilliant pornographic version of“Dan Dare” in Frank Hampson’s art style.On the other side of me was a guy who’dpainted a Conan story in the style of FrankFrazetta. So I felt really ridiculous when Igot out my felt tip drawings and handedthem to Paul. But Paul said they wereexactly what he was looking for. The colored stuff, though fantastically accom-plished, was just too expensive to reproduce. Paul wanted artists who coulddraw in black-and-white. To cut a longstory short, I was eventually asked to do“Captain Britain,” and that was it.

MM: So had you built up your namein the local fan scene?

ALAN: No, no, there was noname—

MM: Your work in the fanzinesdidn’t have your name?

ALAN: Oh,it had my name,what I meant was I hadno reputation to speakof. My break intocomics was dueentirely to PaulNeary seeing apoten-tial inme

Previous Page: The stationery illustrationAlan sent to MikeConroy as part of athank you note.Top: A panel from“Rough Justice,”Daredevils #7.Below: This image is of the TV version ofMonkey—a Japanese production dubbed intoEnglish—the hero of aChinese folk tale and afavorite of Alan’s. It wasdrawn for a fanzine.

Captain Britain ™ and ©2003Marvel Characters, Inc. Monkey™ and ©2003 respective owner.

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ALAN: Yeah, and I was really coming from the oldschool comics, where I wanted to do something thatwas safe and aimed at children. Dave wanted to dosomething radical and sensationalistic.

MM: Of course he gets replaced by Alan Moore whodoes that same kind of thing.

ALAN: Not really. Dave was into political satire.Although Alan was heavily into the Stephen Kingstyle—dark themes—his stories were always entertain-ing and never got bogged down with social relevanceand political commentary.

MM: And Alan actually wrote the last page of thatstory? Was that unusual?

ALAN: Yes. I don’t really know how it came about. Theimpression I was given was that Alan asked for it. Hedidn’t want to have to tie up the loose ends of Dave’srun in his story. He wanted to change the status quo,but not in what he saw as his stories.

MM: Since “Friends & Neighbours” was so close todeadline, did Alan writing a page help speed things up?

ALAN: Bernie had asked me to write a fill-in, “TheBinary Beings,” to avoid further deadline crises. So thesecond part of “Friends & Neighbours” should have beenon a better deadline, but I don’t think it actually was.

MM: Were you doing other things for Marvel UK orwere you strictly focused on “Captain Britain”?

ALAN: Primarily I was working for Marvel UK, but Idid try to get work from 2000 A.D. At the time there wasno Warrior; it hadn’t started up. There wasn’t really anyother venues for me to get work from other than 2000A.D. But I was quite happy just doing “Captain Britain,”because at that time I had a regular full-time job and the“Captain Britain” was just a bit of extra money I madeover the weekend.

MM: So Paul Neary was replaced by Bernie Jaye. Whatwas she like? People know who Paul Neary is, but theyprobably don’t know Bernie’s name.

ALAN: Oh, Bernie was great. I don’t think she hadbeen a comic fan, but she really cared about quality anddid her best to improve production values and toincrease our rates. She was always really straight and,unlike many editors of the time, she didn’t see the job as a way into writing. Bernie just wanted to be a goodeditor, and she was.

MM: How many people worked at the Marvel UKoffices? It was a pretty small operation?

ALAN: Yeah, I honestly couldn’t say how many. I rarelywent down to London, but it was a very small operation.

MM: And even though there were now original features,they were still mostly repackaging the older US comicsas reprints?

ALAN: Yes. There was the Doctor Who magazine whichhad a Doctor Who strip. I think Paul had a number ofother series in mind. I remember Mick Austin—whomight be best known for the excellent Warrior covers hepainted—also started a strip for Marvel UK, but itfailed. Captain Britain was the only thing that continued.

MM: How did the work for Quality and Warrior comeabout?

ALAN: Garry Leach was finding it difficult to meet thedeadlines on “Marvelman.” Garry was a real perfectionistand he poured his heart and soul into every page hedrew. I was asked to do a couple of fill-ins and giveGarry a break. It was flattering to be asked but also verynerve-wracking. I would be happy to draw two pages ofpencils and inks a day and Garry would take two orthree weeks on a single page. I wasn’t really sure about

45

is a capable writer, but I don’t think he had any interestin the super-hero genre. More Clive Barker than RoyThomas. I hoped things would improve in time. Jamiewas in an impossible situation because he was the juniorpartner and having to prove himself every step of theway. There were certain stories I wanted to do. So in thebeginning I would outline a plot and he would thenwrite the full script. If it deviated from my plot I wouldchange it back to what I thought it should be.

In my defense I should explain that Tim had acceptedJamie partly on my recommendation and I had givenTim a verbal description ofwhat to expect in thelong story. It was avery awkward situa-tion. I know I gaveJamie a hard time.

MM: When Jamiecomes on “CaptainBritain” isrelaunched in itsown title as the leadfeature—

ALAN: This is why Isay that sales weren’tan issue. “CaptainBritain” had been doingbetter than it ever had.

MM: You did the coversfor the new series. Iassume you coloredthem yourself?

ALAN: Yes.

MM: Was that a nicechance for you toexperiment a bit? Didthey take a long timeto do?

ALAN: I’d painted someposters previously, dread-ful things. I’d never hadany training in how to usecolor or the materials. Dr.Martin’s dyes, gouache, andwatercolor board was the standard then. I experimented,learning on the job. I didn’t really want anyone else todo them, because I was very protective about doing anything with Captain Britain. Just the fear of someonebetter coming along and stealing the gig. [laughter]

MM: You can see a real development in your style atthis point with the new monthly. Were you puttingforth a renewed effort or were things just really comingtogether?

ALAN: Things were coming together. Producing 36pages a month taught me a lot. Also the page ratesincreased so I could afford to do less. It’s a common mistake to assume that all the episodes, all the pageswere drawn with the same amount of time and dedicationand at the same level of stress. One might be rushedbecause the plot or script is late or it might be that

you’re heading into Christmas so the book has to bein early and you’ve got less time to produce it.

MM: I really liked the way the character Meggandeveloped over that storyline. Was that moreyour doing or Jamie’s?

ALAN: I thought Captain Britain needed a loveinterest but I wantedto come up withsomething a bit different. Brian andMeggan’s relationshipwas one of the subplots I began in the three issues Iwrote after Alan quit.

MM: Now those“Captain Britain”stories you did afterthe relaunch wereactually the first

ones I saw. Marvelreprinted them in a

trade paperback in 1988.I assume they only didthose because they couldn’t

reprint “The Jasper Saga” atthat point.

ALAN: That’s correct. Alan Moorewithheld his permission.... Maybe I should

explain since I am regularly asked aboutthis. The “Captain Britain” strip was originally

supposed to be printed in conjunction withDave Gibbons’ “Doctor Who” as part of the Marvel Premieretitle in 1984. It seemed like a big deal at the time becauseit would be the first time of seeing my work in a “properAmerican comic.” At the eleventh hour, Alan objectedand blocked the reprint, without telling me. Spin andmyth aside, I know what was really going on and Ithought it was daft. Comics are a commercial businessand I didn’t have DC work lined up, so I needed the

MM: You started working professionallyat a very young age, and for an Americanpublisher no less. Just how old were youand how were you able to break in?

PAUL NEARY: My first real contact withthe comics world as at the first UKComics Con in Birmingham, England, in1969. It was there that I was introduced toJohn Mansfield, who was a Canadian bigname fan. He was instrumental to mybreaking into comics. John showed interestin my fanzine work and showed my maga-zines to Jim Warren, who was publisher ofa small line of black-and-white magazines,including Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. Johneven sold a sample 3-pager to Monster Timeswho eventually published it in issue #9,

dated May1972. I was,

by then,

the ripe old age of 22, but the work wasdone much earlier.

In the summer of 1970, I took samplesto New York to show Jim Warren... all thison an assurance from John that he hadshown Jim my work and that Jim wouldlook at the new samples. I called Jim whenI reached the US and he told me to callround the next day, which I did.

Jim was very lively and liked to asksearching questions, such as, “Why shouldI hire you when I have people like Maroto,Fernandez, and José Gonzalez (his hot-shot Spanish artists) working for me?” Healso showed me these sayings that he hadstuck on the walls about the place that saidthings like, “O.K., so you’re a nice guy, butnice guys come second.” We must havebantered away for a couple of hours or so,with him arguing the point of being a successful publisher overloaded with estab-lished talent—which he was—and me putting the case for youth, inexperience,

and low page-rate. During the exchangehe received a call from Bernie

Wrightson, with whom he spokelearnedly about the ins and outs

of original art ownership—publisher or artist—and when

he came back to me, he told meI was a little young to be anygood yet. Game over? Not quite.Jim produced an 8-page scriptand told me that although hethought my samples were uselesshe had quite enjoyed the chat... sosend back pencils, no guarantees,

15 bucks a page.

MM: Your early work wasbeing shown alongside

the likes of Alex Toth,Bernie Wrightson, and

Esteban Maroto,among others.

Was that exciting for

Interlude 2: PaulNeary

Left: “Paul was onlyinvolved with CaptainBritain for a very shorttime, but the strip—andmy career in comics—sprang directly from the seeds he had sown.”When Paul left his position at Marvel UK,he began a long run ofpenciling Captain America.This drawing was donefor the UKCAC. Inks byPaul Neary.

Captain America, Captain Britain™ and ©2003 their MarvelCharacters, Inc.

53

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you or more intimidating?

PAUL: Neither—I never thought about itin terms of appearing with them. I knewhow good they were and it inspired me totry and do better. Maroto especially fasci-nated me. I was lucky enough to have AlWilliamson take me under his wing, so wespoke about artwork, and even he admiredMaroto. Thinking about it... it confusedme stylistically more than anything. Youcan talk with friends about Toth, look atthe pages... yep, he’s the best. Then youlook at some Wood... yep, he’s the greatest.Then the Williamson pages... yep, nodoubt about it. And on it goes.

What it does tell you is that there’smore than one way to skin a cat... no,make that more than ten... no, 20....

MM: In Eerie #69 you even got an issueshowcasing your work on the “Hunter”strip. Not many artists got that treatment.

Was that a special thrill for you?

PAUL: I’d like to say it was... but I can’t. Iwas back in England by this time and I wasworking in a vacuum. I was not connectedto the British comics fraternity and therewas no communal buzz about things likethis. I was probably disappointed to find Iwasn’t getting paid for the thing.

MM: Originally Marvel UK was strictly a reprint house. Were they originating any new material before you came on aseditor?

PAUL: Dez Skinn’s arrival—monthsbefore me—signalled the upgrade fromreprint house to a publisher with origina-tion capability. When I arrived, Dez hadbegun to publish weekly black-and-whiteself-cover comics of Hulk and Spider-Man.The original idea was to have the pagesdrawn by British artists like Gibbons,Bolland, Lloyd, Dillon, Bolton, and Stokes.

Above: Paul Neary inkedthis piece of promotional art for the“Mutant Massacre” storyline that ranthrough the X-titles inlate 1986 and early 1987.Next Page: Paul inkedExcalibur during Alan’sfirst run over the courseof the first 24 issues.Here’s the cover to issue#6, one of the few timesExcalibur crossed overwith the “serious” X-titles.

Excalibur, X-Men ™ and ©2003Marvel Characters, Inc.

60

MM: How long did it take from when you started submitting to DC and Marvel before you got responsesback?

ALAN: Well, I only put one submission in to MarvelUS, and that went through Marvel UK and was rejected.It was quite early on in my career and I wasn’t reallyvery good. It was just a try-out page on Spider-Man and,like I said, it really wasn’t very good.

I never sent any samples to DC. They had alreadybegun coming to Britain to look for artists. As I said earlier, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, and Kevin O’Neillhad already gone over to DC which left a space for meto get into 2000 A.D. It was during one of their headhunting visits that I met Dick Giordano and he

eventually offered me the Aquaman mini-series.

MM: So did Dick actually come to England to meetwith you?

ALAN: It wasn’t to meet with just me. DC invited afairly large group of creators to a meal at the Savoy inLondon as a sort of high-powered introduction. Therewere quite a few creators from 2000 A.D. and Warrior atthe event like Ian Gibson, Jim Baikie, Cam Kennedy,John Wagner, Alan Grant, Steve Parkhouse, AlanMoore, and David Lloyd—they were big names overhere at the time. I sort of fell in there somewhere, but Iwasn’t one of the main ones DC was eager to hire.

MM: They offered you this Aquaman mini-series—wasthat the series with the camouflage costume thatCraig Hamilton drew?

ALAN: Yeah, that’s right. I think it was actuallyNeal Potzner’s design. The new Aquaman lookwas based on some ballet costume that he’d seen.

MM: So you were given the design—was thescript already done?

ALAN: There was a full script and DickGiordano also sent me a volume of Time-Life thathad reference of whales and squid and things likethat. It was really nice; Dick Giordano was alwaysincredibly considerate. I hammered out the firstissue in about two weeks to prove I was reliable. Iwas still doing pencil breakdowns because I wouldhave inked myself at that point.

MM: So were they basically looking to see whatyou could do first before they went ahead withthe project?

ALAN: No, I’d been given the project, but Ithink that Aquaman was considered to be of lowimportance which was why I’d been given it inthe first place. DC knew that I could do super-hero artwork from having seen “Captain Britain”and “Marvelman.” I had seen it as being importantbecause I love the Aquaman character.

MM: He’s always been one of my favorites, aswell.

Part 3: Becoming a Big Fishfrom across a Big Pond

ALAN: And if I had been given a choiceof any character to do at DC, I would haveasked for Aquaman.

MM: That’s a little odd. Aquaman’s probablynot that high on many people’s lists.

ALAN: Well, when I was a kid I couldswim—I really enjoyed swimming and stillswim now. You can fantasize about beingAquaman swimming because you’ve gotthat freedom of movement in water.Whereas you can’t fly, so you’re notSuperman. Aquaman is the easier hero toimitate.

MM: I did the same thing. My familywent to the beach a lot—we lived near theocean—and I did the same kind of thing. I noticed in your Afterword for The Nailtrade paperback collection that you men-tioned a lot of the odd, secondary charactersthat you enjoyed more than many of themain characters, and I see Aquaman aswalking that line between the two. So, foryou, this was as good a first assignment asyou could get.

ALAN: Yeah, it was fantastic! I wasn’t onthe top of the list of people DC was lookingfor, but I was given the Aquaman which isexactly what I would have asked for.

MM: You said you enjoy Aparo’s art andAquaman had some of his best work, so...

ALAN: Oh yeah, Aparo’s art was a hugeinfluence on me. Partly because of thepoor distribution over here, I tended to get a lot more of the Aparo stuff—The Brave& the Bold, “The Spectre,” the Aquaman weremore available than most of the high profile titles.

MM: Following him on Batman & TheOutsiders, did you—

ALAN: I didn’t follow him, I was a fill-in!What happened there was DC wanted toput the Batman & The Outsiders book out inthe two formats.

MM: Right, the Baxter format.

ALAN: Yes, and for a year they wouldhave two books coming out in one month.One—the direct edition, on Baxterpaper—would only be sold in comic shopsand the other would be sold on newsstands.The direct one would be reprinted as anewsstand edition the following year. Sothey needed someone to fill in for JimAparo for a year on the newsprint version.

MM: What made them choose you to dothat over the Aquaman project?

ALAN: All I can tell you is that I had aphone call from Dick Giordano and hesaid, “We’ve got the Aquaman, we love it,but we don’t want you to do it now. We

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Alan’s very first USassignment was to be anAquaman mini-series thatwas instead later given toCraig Hamilton. Theseare some of the designshe worked up for theseries for editor DickGiordano: (l. to r.)Aquaman, Ocean Master,Nuada Silverhand, andMera.

Aquaman, Mera, NuadaSilverhand, Mera ™ and ©2003DC Comics.

Below: Batman & theOutsiders #28, page 17.Of Katana, Alan says, “Ididn’t regard my flat-chested, muscular andshaggy-haired version ofKatana as a redesign, justmaking the most of thecharacter, but it didcause a few waves andthere was initially talk ofredrawing the pages.”Next Page: Splash pagefrom Detective #574,written by one of Alan’sfavorite writers to workwith, Mike W. Barr. Inksby Paul Neary.

Batman, Katana ™ and ©2003DC Comics.

want you to do Batman & the Outsiders.” Andhe explained how they planned to publishparallel Batman & the Outsiders books. I said,“Well, I’d like to finish the Aquaman first.”And he said, “We need you to start onBatman & the Outsiders right away.” I said, “Ican’t really manage both of them. I want tostay with the Aquaman.” He said, “Well it’s amuch more sensible career move if youtook on the Batman & the Outsiders. It’s verysuccessful and it’s very high profile.” I even-tually agreed but only after Dick promisedme that I’d still get to do the Aquamanbook. But within about a month-and-a-half,the Aquaman book had been given to some-one else. Having said that, what Dick toldme was true. Going on to Batman & theOutsiders was a smart career move.

MM: Were you disappointed, though?Did you come to enjoy Batman & theOutsiders as much as you might haveenjoyed Aquaman?

ALAN: I think in all things there’s goodand bad. I missed doing the Aquaman,although I think Craig Hamilton did agreat job on it. I don’t think I’d have doneanywhere near the sophisticated job thathe did. It also served me well to go on toBatman & the Outsiders because I met MikeBarr and Mike was really great to workwith. I learned a tremendous amount fromMike Barr.

MM: How was working with Mike Barr?You still work with him occasionally. Infact, you just did a black-&-white Batmanshort story with him not too long ago.

ALAN: I think that Mike’s a vastly under-estimated writer. He’s the most visualwriter I’ve ever worked with. If hedescribes a panel, you know the panel willwork the way that he describes it. A lot ofwriters tend to write cinematically wherethey describe a sequence of movements ina panel and it just doesn’t work as a singleimage. Or they’ll ask for some complicatedimage where you’ve got something in theforeground, middle ground, and the back-ground, all at the same time. Silly stuff likethat. But Mike is incredibly visual and hereally understands pacing. I thought he didsome great stories, too. Detective #571, forinstance, is brilliant.

He was also a good editor. Remember,at the time, he was also editing Batman & theOutsiders.

MM: Were you nervous taking over such ahigh-profile book as your first job for DC?

ALAN: Well, yeah, because my workwould be sandwiched in between JimAparo’s issues and I was only going to bethere for twelve issues. I was treadingwater; I couldn’t really change anything,because everything had been plotted outfor twelve months. I think the reason I waschosen is because my work is influencedby and comparable with Jim Aparo’s.

MM: I can see some parallels: you bothhave a strong sense of anatomy and you

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65

MM: And all this time Chris Claremont is bugging youto come work with him?

ALAN: Well, not bugging me; I was very flatteredabout it.

MM: He kept at it though. Was Excalibur his ultimateworm to tempt you over?

ALAN: I don’t know. I’ve never really asked Chris aboutthis. I wonder if, after saying no to the X-Men a fewtimes, he thought I just didn’t want to do X-Men. I wasvery intimidated about following the stellar cast ofartists on the X-Men.There had never beena mediocre artist onthe X-Men. I didn’twant to be the guythat comes onto it andthe sales just dropthrough the floorbecause I’m so bad.The first I knew ofExcalibur was whenChris phoned andinstead of asking, did I want to draw the X-Men, said Marvel isdoing another X-bookand it’s going to be setin England andCaptain Britain is in it.Now Chris was one ofthe creators of CaptainBritain so he obviouslyhad an interest in him.So I don’t knowwhether CaptainBritain was included inthe group to encourageme. I’d said my good-byes to Captain Britainwhen I did that finalissue. Having said that,I don’t regret the factthat Captain Britainwas in Excalibur—Ithink it made the bookwork.

MM: It was kind of odd though that he and Megganwere included even though neither was a mutant.

ALAN: I didn’t think she should have been a mutant,but I think she became one in the end.

MM: So Chris had the Excalibur idea pretty well estab-lished before you came on board. He developed whatdirection the book would take?

ALAN: It wasn’t something that concerned me.Working with familiar characters was a safety blanket.

MM: Was it Excalibur that pulled you away from Detectiveor was your run coming to an end anyway?

ALAN: I actually left Detective early. There were lots ofproblems with deadlines. It got really stupid so I justhad to get free of it.

MM: You left in the middle of the “Year Two”storyline, right?

ALAN: I did the firstissue and penciled abouthalf of the second issue.

MM: Well it must havebeen fairly bad for you toleave in the middle of animportant storyline.

ALAN: It was. I felt like I was being treated verybadly. But when I com-plained or attempted tochange things, I wasignored or placated withempty promises. As soonas I quit, everyone wantedto get things sorted out.Dick Giordano had saidsomething to me when Ifirst started working onBatman & the Outsiders,which was that because Iwas professional andalways met my deadlines,I would have a veryunhappy time with editors. He said, “Editorsonly take notice of problems—they’re fire-fighters. If you deliverwork on time and you’re

reliable, the editors will never speak to you.” And this iswhat happened, because I was turning the work in early,I was in limbo. Essentially, Mike Barr and I were workingtogether without any editorial interaction. Whichwouldn’t have been a problem—except that things startedto go wrong!

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MM: Were you talking with Mike aboutthe situation? Did he try to intercede onyour behalf?

ALAN: He did, but he was just the writerand had his own problems. There wasnever a single major problem; it was theaccumulation of petty stuff. The last strawwas when my art was changed. In “YearTwo” Batman decides to use a gun—JoeChill’s gun—because Robin had beeninjured and Batman believed he couldn’tfight crime without leveling the playingfield. The problem was, because of the sizeof Batman—in super-hero proportions—heneeded a big gun. Mike had asked for aMauser—the same as Manhunter. So, obvi-ously, Joe Chill used a Mauser when BruceWayne’s parents were killed. However, in“Year One” there’s a small shot drawn byDavid Mazzuchelli were you can clearlysee Joe Chill doesn’t use a Mauser. Ratherthan change that one panel from “YearOne,” all of the artwork I’d drawn for “YearTwo” was changed, including the cover. It

just seemed so ridiculous. I was given theopportunity to redraw the pages myself,but I thought it was wrong on so manylevels and declined. I should point out thatI had been sent copies of “Year One” earlyand pointed out the discrepancy betweenthe guns and since I was told to proceed,assumed the problem had been solved.Dick Giordano made the art changes tomy work by replacing the gun throughout.He did a good job, but that wasn’t the realissue. It was the loss of trust. That’s thething that really annoys me, realizing I wasworking with people who really didn’t givea damn about what I was doing, I just didn’twant to work with them.

MM: I think it’s a shame when the conti-nuity police get in the way of a good storyand take away good story elements.

ALAN: I have no problem with maintainingcontinuity. It’s the politics and deceit. As acreator you lose all control of your workwhen it arrives on the editor’s desk. You

Above: Pages 30 and 31of Uncanny X-Men Annual#11, some of Alan’s firstwork for Marvel US.Next Page: Alan feels thispage from Excalibur #15“sums up what Excaliburwas all about.” Inks byPaul Neary.

Excalibur, Wolverine ™ and©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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MM: The first job you worked on with Alan was thelast “Captain Britain” story, correct?

MARK FARMER: Yes, February 1986.

MM: Do you remember how you got that job?

MARK: I think Alan had grown tired of inking his ownstuff. I don’t think Paul was available at the time. I thinkAlan must have seen my early stuff in some fanzinesomewhere. I may have had a little bit of professionalwork, not a great deal, for 2000 A.D. and Marvel UK atthat time. Maybe he saw some potential there. [laughter]

We didn’t get off to a great start. I don’t think he wastoo pleased with what I did on that job. I look at that jobin horror now and I’m surprised Alan even spoke to meagain, let alone allowed me to touch his pencils.But he took the time to point out where he feltthere was room for improvement—itwas a looong conversation—and I’msure his advice helped me tobecome a better inker, not only onhis stuff, naturally, but on otherpencilers as well.

MM: What he said was that hegave you very loose breakdownsthinking you’d easily interpretwhat his squiggles meant.

MARK: I think he was beingoverly generous. [laughter] If I remember correctly, his pencils were pretty tight andI just didn’t do a very goodjob on them. I was verynervous, as you can probablyappreciate.

MM: So at that stage ofyour career, that was a pretty high profile job?

MARK: I think so, yeah, ’cause I was well aware ofAlan’s work and talent. As an inker you look for the pencilers you think you might be able to compliment,and just keep an open mind—you may work with thesepeople one day, you may not. Then if the opportunity

arises, try not to upset that penciler’s intentions. At thesame time, there are many pencilers who just fill thepages with “stuff” with no forethought as to the story-telling, pacing, how one panel/page relates to another,or how the eye may be moved across the page. By thesame token, I’m certain there are many pencilers outthere who feel that my inking would not complementtheir work at all. My stuff’s always had that polish to it,that slickness as it’s called. And I’d always felt, with thearrogance of youth, that I could do Alan’s pencils justice—that I was the one who could help him out in what Ithought was his weakest area. Alan asks that I pay atten-tion to the hands and faces—keep strictly to his pencils.And though I’ve got plenty of leeway in backgroundsand such, to be honest there’s no need, his pencils are so

finished. If I was to add anything to them it wouldjust be making work for myself and busying things

up unnecessarily.

MM: Had you started inking GreenLantern by then?

MARK: My first work forAmerican comics was inking DaveGibbons on a couple of issues ofGreen Lantern, in October ’87.

MM: Right.

MARK: And of course thatwas very exciting, ’cause I wasa fan of Dave’s stuff and DCwere the comics I read as achild and Green Lanternwas always one of myfavorite characters if notmy favorite. So havingthat land in my lap wasexciting and if that resultedin working with Alan for a

few years, all well and good.

MM: Did you meet Alan when you worked together onthat “Captain Britain” job or had you met him before?

MARK: We’d met—we’ve spoken about not being ableto remember the first time we actually met. I think wejust, like, bumped into each other at a venue in London

Interlude 3: MarkFarmer

82

called the Westminster Comic Mart. Professionals used togo over there—budding professionals, lots of fans—it wasvery informal and casual. There was no bumping of egos,we just helped each other out and passed advice on and goteach other work if possible. People always had samples,folders of current work, or samples of what they wanted toget into. We’d usually meet in the pub after the Mart, aboutfive o’clock or so. If friends wanted to go out for a meal anda drink you’d meet downstairs. First Brian Bolland had invitedme downstairs to show him some children’s books I’d illustrated,and that was when Dave Gibbons approached me to do theGreen Lanterns—the first time I’d been invited downstairs wherethe professionals went. [laughter]

One thing led to another, but I know I met Alan in the pubnearby the Mart at some point and we talked. He was probablymost familiar with my work from working with Mike Collinsfor a few years, putting samples together as a penciler/inkerteam, which wasn’t really the done thing in this country. As youknow, in Britain most artists tend to ink themselves. It was veryuncommon before people started working for American comics.Yeah, that’s where we met, but it wasn’t like, “Oh, Alan, I’mpleased to meet you. How do you do?” There wasn’t an actualintroduction like that. We just spoke to each other casually andstruck up a friendship from there.

MM: So you hit it off pretty early then?

MARK: I think so. I think we share some values in comics andlife in general that you don’t always get with other people. Our

tastes in comics are pretty similar. As with a lot of people, we feelthat the comics we grew up with will always be the best. And weget a certain buzz out of working on characters that we like. We’veworked on Fantastic Four and the Justice League, the Silver Surfer—even if it may be only for a couple of panels, just to say you’vedone your version of it. I know Alan does his version and I livevicariously off his excitement. It can backfire sometimes. Whenwe did our short run on Avengers, we were hoping for a chance todraw the “classics”—Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, theVision, etc. However, we ended up drawing a lot of the secondstring characters, not the heroes you automatically associate withthe title, The Avengers, so that was a big disappointment.

MM: How long do you think it was before people said AlanDavis and Mark Farmer in the same breath, as a team?

MARK: Well, Alan worked for a few good years with Paulbefore asking me to help him out. He’s very loyal to the peoplehe works with and he asks for that loyalty in return. As an inker,in the past—the circumstances have changed now that I’ve got ayoung family—I was able to work a bit quicker than Alan, notdoing as much thinking about the work as he does when hedesigns a page and dramatizes a story. So I would take on otherjobs alongside Alan’s stuff. That’s not the case now, unfortunately.I think Alan makes it quite clear to editors that we are a team.If they take on Alan, they generally take Mark Farmer as well,

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MM: When you were doing that lastCaptain Britain story for Marvel UK, youonly drew breakdowns for Mark Farmer toink over.

ALAN: Well, loose pencils.

MM: That was atypical for you, right?That was the first time you had done that?

ALAN: It was the first time I’d had any-one ink my work other than Garry Leach.He’d inked a couple of my “Marvelman”issues, but that was a case of me pencilingit specifically for Garry to ink. With Markit was simply that I didn’t have time to inkit myself and there was a really tight dead-line. It was the first time I’d given unfinishedpencils to anyone. My pencils have gottenmuch tighter over the years.

MM: When you’re inking yourself do youleave it fairly loose or do you pencil tightas you’ve become accustomed to doing?

ALAN: It really depends on what theimage is and what’s being asked for. I canink on top of a very basic breakdown if it’sa sketch—I’ll knock it in very quickly,sometimes with felt tips. If I’m doing acommissioned page I usually do very tightpencils for myself, because people expectmy ink work to look the way it looks whenit’s inked by other people. My own inkstend to be quite crude.

MM: I’ve noticed on some of the jobsyou’ve inked yourself, it looks very similarto the way Mark Farmer inks you. PaulNeary tends to show up in his inks overyour pencils, but Mark seems to be a lotcloser to the way you ink yourself. Do yousee that, too, or do you see more differ-ences?

ALAN: I think Mark might be offended.[laughter] Because he is absolutely the slickest inker—and far, far more adept than

I could ever be.

MM: I mean in terms of approach toshading and line weight and so on. Youseem to ink with the same mindset.

ALAN: The problem with discussing how I work with Mark and Paul is thatthey can both ink far better than I and, likesomeone discussing old girlfriends, a com-pliment to one can sound like a criticismof the other. The reality is you can’t reallycompare. When Paul first inked my work,more than 15 years ago, I was still learningto draw fairly basic things—perspective,musculature, etc.—and there were occasionswhen Paul would fix things in the inks—heis an excellent artist in his own right. Also,Paul had never inked anyone else before,so we were both learning. By the time Istarted working with Mark on a regularbasis, I had a lot more experience and hewas already aseasoned inker.Mark and Ihave nowworked togetherfor consider-ably longerthan I workedwith Paul, sowe areundoubtedlymore in sync,and the waywe worktogether hasevolved tocomplementeach other. Ihave the atten-tion span of abutterfly so myfocus, for wantof a betterword, is on the

Part 4: Storytelling and theCreative Process

Below: Alan drew aseries of gag panels forthe Glasgow Con (thisone is from 1990) depicting a certain disruptive gent—whoshall remain namelesshere—in various degrading situations.

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big picture,thinking about whathappened previouslyand what happensnext, and I oftenmiss importantdetails. Mark is farmore focused andaccurate than I am,which is crucialwith the movetowards more illus-

trative art incomics. Mark is

undoubtedly the slick-est inker in comics, asanyone who has everseen an original inkedpage will know, andthat’s the reason why

he is sought after by thelikes of Adam Hughes

and Adam Kubert.Unfortunately,

because of theunsympathetic

nature of the publishing process, I don’tthink the full quality of what Mark doesever completely survives to the printedpage. He has a control, sensitivity, andattention to detail that is beyond mostinkers, and certainly far beyond me.

My favorite stage of drawing is the initialwild roughs that hold so much energy andpotential. The tightening up and finish ishard work. When Paul and I were work-ing together, meeting a deadline wasalways the priority and the qualityof reproduction was, by modernstandards, very crude. Nowadaysit isn’t uncommon for an artistto spend three days to a weekon a page of pencils. Is thatsensible? It doesn’t matter,that’s the level of competi-tion. The bottom line is, I amvery difficult to work withbecause I will ignore the99.999% of what is right andobsess over some minuscule deficiency. I may be a fanatic but I’m a realist and I know I have beenincredibly lucky that both Mark andPaul put up with me, let alone dedicated

themselves to making the most of my pencils.

MM: Do you feel comfortable workingwith any other inkers?

ALAN: I’ve only really worked with a few.I did something with Dan Green; he inkedover an issue of X-Men which should havegone to Paul, but because of politics itended up with Dan. I didn’t really thinkthat worked very well. I also had a shortstory that Joe Rubinstein inked—a “She-Hulk” short story. It worked a lot better.I’m a great admirer of Joe’s inks. RobinRiggs, of course. Robin did half of the ’96X-Man Annual and he also inked the SilverSurfer piece that we did for the Heroes bookfor Marvel. And recently he inked theissues of Thor and Iron Man. Robin is good.

MM: Is that by design? Do you preferworking with someone you’re accustomedto? Do you request your inkers?

ALAN: Well, I tend to like to work as apartnership with an inker so that we knowwhat we’re trying to achieve. In both caseswith Paul and Mark, we were friends firstand then started to work as a team later. It’sknowing that what I put on the page is

going to be maintainedor enhanced in the

inks.

Above: The sketch forAlan’s contribution toMarvel’s Heroes tributebook. It was later inkedby Robin Riggs.Below: A rare treat! Alanas inked by DaveGibbons in this UKCACdrawing.Next Page: At one pointAlan was tapped to illus-trate the Batman/ JudgeDredd crossover. “Idropped out aftermonths of contractwrangles, but in theinterim I drew a storyentitled, “The BatMugger” for 2000 A.D., asa warm-up on Dredd.”Shown here is the coverand an excerpted panelfrom Alan’s only go atJudge Dredd to date.

Superman ™ and ©2003 DCComics. Silver Surfer, Thor ™and ©2003 Marvel Characters,Inc. Judge Dredd ™ and ©20032000 A.D. Thor/Superman art-work ©2003 Alan Davis & DaveGibbons.

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The inker is in a very powerful position. Their workis what survives onto the printed page; the pencils areerased. So you really want someone who’s being faithfulto the spirit of the pencils. Whether they’re being faithfulto the detail or not isn’t as important as the spirit.

MM: You started out inking Batman & the Outsidersyourself. Is that because you had the time to do itthen? Do you prefer inking yourself?

ALAN: It wasn’t so much that I had the time, butthat I was used to doing it that way. At the time Iwas maybe penciling and inking a page as quicklyas I pencil a page nowadays, maybe even faster.Because the standard of work that was required atthat point was far cruder. Comics were stillnewsprint, and there was no point in puttingdetail into your work because often the lineswould just disappear. When I started working forMarvel I ran into the Flexigraphic process thatthey were experimenting with at the time, andsometimes 25% of my linework would just disap-pear, depending at what point in the print run

you got the comic from. As technology improved theexpected standard of comics rose; it became moreillustrative. When I first started working in comics, acommercial artist—a professional—was someonewho was cheap, reliable, and punctual. I hoped thatonce I was established I would be in a position toimprove the standard and choice of my work.

MM: You started out drawing for black-&-whitecomics, but when you moved on to Americancomics you had to deal with color. Did you have tochange your thinking in any way?

ALAN: I think I should have more than I did.[laughter] When I first started, I thought it wassimply a case of dropping out some of the blackand not putting so much shading in and hopingthe colorist would put more in. But I think thatwas not really the right way to go. I’m still notreally a hundred percent sure how to handle it,because especially the current coloring—

MM: The Photoshop techniques.

ALAN: Yeah, it’s overpowering. You often getthe colorist trying to redraw the artwork. Iwould’ve felt happier if I’d managed to teamup with a colorist—someone who really caredabout what they were doing. I feel I’ve beenpoorly served with a lot of the colorists thatI’ve had over the years. It’s usually people that

are looking at a stopwatch while they’re coloring a pageand trying to get it done as quickly as possible. I dounderstand the commercial practicalities, but it is stilldisappointing.

MM: When you painted the covers for Captain Britain,they were mostly done in muted tones. Was that due tothe printing or is that the type of palette you prefer?

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When you did Wolverine: Bloodlust, Bernie Jaye used thosesame types of muted tones as well.

ALAN: I don’t like bright, garish colors. I think garishcolors fragment the artwork, and I like things to be harmonized. So I like the palette to have a base color thatharmonizes the rest of the colors. It’s a subject that couldfill a book, or many books, because color has so muchpotential to contribute or destroy the artwork—and thestory!

MM: We mentioned the Photoshop techniques andhow they’re doing more shading and things in the coloring. Do you prefer to keep it flatter or do youthink those techniques can be useful?

ALAN: I can see how they can be useful, but I also ammore concerned by how destructive they are. Because ifthe colorist isn’t paying attention to the story—if they’rejust slavishly applying a technique that makes their worklook like a fireworks display—to me that’s destructive.There was one particular issue of X-Men which I’ve

harped on about over the years. The cover had CaptainMarvel, Adam Warlock, and Thunderbird on it. TheCaptain Marvel figure has 38 white highlights on it.Now to get these white highlights, the rest of the colorshad to be dark enough so the highlights would show upas real glows. What that means is the rest of the artworkis rendered so darkly that some of the tones actuallyobscure the black line. It’s an overbearing technique thatmakes the figure look like backlit porcelain.

MM: They block in the line art.

ALAN: Yeah. You’ll sometimes see in a comic where aface is modeled and the black line light source isignored or the expression is ignored, and the coloristredraws the entire face in a color which prints up sodarkly as to contradict the black line. If the colors areprinted up in a muted way they’re less destructive, justas a rule of thumb. The problem is I can’t rely on whatmight happen, so I learned to draw defensively in anattempt to limit what can go wrong.

Alan Davis

Art Gallery

Afterglow ™ and ©2003 respective owner.

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Left: Pencils to the cover of the UK edition of“Batman: Year Two.”Below: UKCAC convention drawings.

Batman, Catwoman, Joker ™ and ©2003 DC Comics.

Artwork ©2003 Alan Davis and Paul Neary.

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Top: This Lance McLane strip served as an inspiration for a panelin Excalibur #61 (shown at left). Alan: “I have occasionally includ-ed little ‘in-jokes/tributes/swipes’ to the creators who inspiredme. The shot of the planet shadow, from Lance McLane hadalways impressed me with its powerful simplicity. Paul Nearylater told me that he and Syd Jordan had worked on this striplate one night holding tennis balls over a desk lamp to figure outhow the planetary shadow would look. This was long before theHubble telescope and high resolution space photography.”Lower Left: Another postcard image Alan sent in reply to fanmail.

Excalibur, Nightcrawler, Phoenix ™ and ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. LanceMcLane ™ and ©2003 respective owner.

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Modern Masters:Alan Davis

In Modern Masters Volume One, weexplore the life and career of AlanDavis, with his longest, most in-depthinterview to date. In 1982, Davis burstonto the British comics scene, earningnumerous awards for his amazing art-work. American success soon followedwith his work on Batman & the Out-siders and Detective Comics, and con-tinues on such recent titles as X-Menand Justice League: the Nail, as well asthe Spider-Man movie adaptation incollaboration with Stan Lee. TodayDavis is recognized as one of the pre-miere comic book artists in the field,not only for his stunning renditions,but for his exquisite storytelling abilities. This book, profusely illustrated with a deluxesketchbook and gallery of rare and previously unpublished artwork, includes a tutorialby Davis on the artists that influenced him, as well as his views on graphic storytelling.Also included are interviews with long-time collaborators Paul Neary (who provides theForeword) and Mark Farmer (who contributes the Afterword). It's the ultimate look atthe work of a true Modern Master: Alan Davis!

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95(Digital Edition) $5.95

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