Brett Ewins 1955-2015

[Bolt-01]

I actually spoke to Brett on the 'phone about 5 years ago. He was looking into doing a smallp ress run of some of his oldest works. Nothing came of it that I'm aware of but I was really pleased to see that 'punk' ethic I always associated with Ewins/mcCarthy/Milligan was still there.

Really shocked to hear this news and it's taken me a while to actually put my thoughts into form.

[Richmond Clements]

I actually spoke to Brett on the 'phone about 5 years ago. He was looking into doing a smallp ress run of some of his oldest works. Nothing came of it that I'm aware of but I was really pleased to see that 'punk' ethic I always associated with Ewins/mcCarthy/Milligan was still there.

Really shocked to hear this news and it's taken me a while to actually put my thoughts into form.

Yeah, that's what's being going thorugh my head, too. That lovely guy I spoke to on the phone isn't here any more... Can't quite get my head around it.

[Bat King]

Last year I was talking to someone about Brett and said I would like to interview him at some point. We were talking about how we hipped he might be drawing again and might at least do some covers. The person I was taking to, I won't confirm our dny who it was, gave me a phone number. I never used it as it seemed too intrusive.

Yeah, I managed to make myself feel sadder now that I have shared that fact with you all.

[ZenArcade]

Nothing to feel bad about Bat: Brett was a big part of a lot of comic readers lives and the fact that we will never see him grace the prog with his wonderful talent again is a sore blow. Z

[shaolin_monkey]

Yeah, I managed to make myself feel sadder now that I have shared that fact with you all.

I know what you mean Bat King.  The thing that has been going around in my head was what happened when I met him at Earls Court.

We had a lovely chat, and one of the things he showed me was his compilation book of stuff he'd done throughout his career.  He had several copies available, only a tenner, and it was a cracking retrospective.  he was clearly very happy to share it.

I'd found him at the con quite late, and all I had left in my pocket was a tenner, which I'd kept back for food on the way back to Cardiff.  While I was chatting to him I was thinking 'He'd be really chuffed if I bought this book, and I'd get this fantastic thing, and maybe autographed too.  Do I go hungry and get this now? Or buy it from his website when I next get paid?'

Unfortunately, and to my great regret and sadness, my stomach won out.  I've just been left thinking I had an opportunity to give this great guy a bit of extra fan love by buying it from him at the time, and now that chance, that moment, has forever gone. 

So yeah, I've been feeling sad too.

[radiator]

Very sad indeed.

An amazing talent - his work on Bad Company is burned into my brain.

RIP.

[Judge Nutmeg]

very sad news , such a fantastic artist. Bad Company is such a 2000ad classic, please check out skreemer if you haven't a great underrated piece of work.

[o1s1n]

seeing the sketch signed 'Brett Ewins 2014' was incredibly heartening...

Ah Jesus, that actually brought a tear to my eye. 

So long Brett, your art was seriously such an important part of my childhood. And well, my adulthood too.

[Dunk!]

Been collecting my thoughts on this and have to state Brett was one of the major influences on me and my art at an early age. He's part of a small group of classic 2000ad artists who came along in childhood when I was a sponge for artistic input and longed for something more that wasn't dull 70's Kent as I saw it.

They weren't the artists I admired in the comic, they went further, they were the ones I aspired to be.

Luck, and a little self determination, allowed me to meet him during the early Deadline days and he was a charming, funny, intense guy welcoming to a star struck teenager who thought Deadline was the greatest thing since sliced sex.

Though I don't create comics for a living I'd be proud, and quite chuffed, if his influence shone through in my occasional small press work.

Cheers Brett, rest easy.

And thank you.

Dunk!

[Tjm86]

This thread reminds me of everything that is great about tooth.

Amazing artwork and stories from dedicated professionals to be sure, but the appreciation that the audience has for their endeavours.

Probably why it is still going strong after nearly 40 years.

A sad day, but at least we have Mr Ewins' output as a fitting memorial.

[AlexF]

Just saw the sad news on yesterday's thrill-mail. Great to see a freebie of Anderson: Gargarax, one of the first 2000AD stories I encountered and still a favourite.

Ewins was one of those artists I spent long and happy times copying as a youth - such a distinctive and accessible style; I can still remember working out the straps on Thrax's trenchoat. And those extra-chunky shoe soles!

Really devastated that we won't see new work from him. Condolences to all who knew him personally.

[TordelBack]

Brett was the Rogue Trooper artist when I started reading 2000AD, and while I later came to also appreciate the brilliant work of Kennedy, Wilson and Gibbons, his is my 'original' version, not least for the brilliant debuts of Venus Bluegenes and Major Magnum.  The heavy black skies, the striking full figures, the resolutely chunky SF weaponry: it was all brilliantly crisp and clear, despite the ruined world of the setting.  I also have a huge soft spot for his work with Pat Mills (?) for Games Workshop for the same reason.

As many others have said, Haunting of Sector House 9 and Wally Squad were just sublime world-building stories (the various unfortunate citizens in the Sector House halls of the former every bit as important as the haunting itself), but it's the later Hottie U and What if the Judges Did the Ads? that are my favourite of his Dredds, at a time when his art had really matured around the poles of strong caricature and lively design.  I have the Mongoose minis of cultists and demons based on The Possessed sitting on the shelf above my computer, and even in 28mm and sculpted by another's hand you can tell they're Brett's work.

But it was really his work on Bad Company with J. McCarthy that made me realise what a genius he really was.  Everything was a perfect evocation of a world, just everything from the splash-page designs to the use of resized photocopies to the parade of instantly memorable characters, walk-on characters who were otherwise barely more than a punning name but who I can remember perfectly a quarter-century later.  A phenomenal achievement.

As a total non-artist, I'm fascinated to read here how many people copied his art as kids - he's probably the only 2000AD artist that I ever really copied, his stuff was just so attractive, so strong, each panel so complete.  Even the Dredd profiles that were my default copybook doodle throughout school were apeing Brett's.  Very hard to believe he's gone, and so soon.

[robert_ellis]

Brett Ewins was an exceptional artist. Any chance of reprinting his "New Masters" pin up of Rogue Dredd & Anderson - recoloured as a tribute?

[mejustnow]

I've heard this news and felt moved to acknowledge that it was one of Brett's covers that caught my young eye in W H Smith many (many) years ago.

I was an Eagle reader at the time, but the colour, vibrancy and all out lunacy of that cover really caught my attention, and I've been a weekly consumer of thrill power ever since.

Thank you Brett, you honestly changed my life for the better.

[Bubba Zebill]

I think I first saw his work Cal (?) ...but he was around even before that, It's easy to forget that his work goes back pretty much to the beginning of this thing. 59 is too young.