"Recently, John Freeman asked me if I’d be up for drawing the cover for the second issue of the soon to be launched comic book, STRIP Magazine," he exaplains.
"Best of all…. The cover was of Hookjaw, from Action, the 70s most mischievous comic book, and certainly the bloodiest thing to ever see print in mainstream UK Comics!
"Ramon Sola is one of my
absolute heroes, and he drew Hookjaw in Action weekly.. so I was very
excited about drawing this cover!
"I originally wanted to show the whole
of HookJaw," he explains, "and thought I’d try the old 70s technique of putting another
panel within his shape… so the Screaming diver is ‘reflected’ in
HookJaw’s body… but I thought it looked kinda messy.
"So I tried it with the diver
superimposed inside HookJaw’s mouth.. to suggest what was about to
happen to him… but again… I thought it looked kinda confusing, and was
a bit too busy.. no breathing space, so I abandonned that one too!
"Eventually, I went for a real 70s comic
book approach…. The diver almost reaching the surface, and HookJaw
looming over him. This also meant I could emphasize the ocean, and
blood!
"This is probably as close to drawing my childhood comics as I’ll get… I can’t wait to see it in print!"
Needless to say, we think the cover's absolutely amazing and we're really chuffed Rufus, who's very busy with Tank Girl and more, found the time to draw it.
Issue 2 featuring this cover is on sale 17th November 2011.
Originally written by Ken Armstrong, who now lives in Australia, and drawn by Ramon Sola, Hookjaw is being remastered for STRIP Magazine in sparkling new colour, with no script edits (there will be no
Greedo shot first type nonsense!)
• You can see the other stages of this cover's development on Rufus' blog: http://rufusdayglo.blogspot.com/2011/09/death-from-below.html
• STRIP Magazine PREVIEWS Code for Issue 1 (on sale 20th October) is Code is JUL117915
HookJaw © 2011 Egmont UK
