Help identify an artist.

OpusAndBill · 04 July, 2009, 03:53:44 PM

Hi folks,

any idea who the Invasion artist below is? The story appeared in the 1979 2000 AD annual. Any idea who wrote it?

The second image contains the name Beeton. It looks like a sig to me, but the name doesn't ring any bells. Does anyone have any more info on the mysterious Beeton?

Cheers, Gordon.

[attachment=1:2hr57aqy]Invasion1979a (435x640).jpg[/attachment:2hr57aqy]

[attachment=0:2hr57aqy]Beeton (492x640).jpg[/attachment:2hr57aqy]

Eric Plumrose · 04 July, 2009, 06:08:11 PM

That third frame profile of Bill Savage isn't untypical of Ian Kennedy. It's possible he may have done the pencils and been inked by someone else.

pauljholden · 04 July, 2009, 06:40:01 PM

There's a lot of the rendering suggests Ian Kennedy, but if it is him it's REALLY early (but more likely it's someone who's influenced by him ... or, possibly, told to draw like him...)

-pj

Trout · 04 July, 2009, 07:48:18 PM

It doesn't look like Ian Kennedy to me. Even by 1978, he'd been drawing a long time and was better than this.

- Trout

Emperor · 04 July, 2009, 08:21:07 PM

This is the one that had me scratching my head when the topic of who did what in the 1979 annual, as the style didn't ring any bells. It might be early art from someone who returned with a different style later, or it may be an artist who worked in a different style elsewhere who was drafted in for this.

There doesn't seem to be a well-known British comics artist called Beeton but the name seems significant somehow.

Would the records for this be somewhere in the company archives?

Leigh S · 04 July, 2009, 09:02:05 PM

Dunno who he is, but he is the same guy who drew the Dan Dare story in the same annual, and you can see he's named one of the crew "Beeton" too (penultimate page, the "Chaarrrge!" panel), so I'd say that leans towards the theory that his surname is almost certainly Beeton.

M.I.K. · 04 July, 2009, 09:50:00 PM

Or indeed her surname. There's always the possibility it was drawn by a girly.

Eric Plumrose · 04 July, 2009, 09:54:06 PM

A girl? In a boy's comic? Isabella would've been far too busy in the kitchen.

As I said, if indeed Ian was involved, I'd be more inclined to think it was pencils only. It's definitely not Ian by himself (of course, this might have been that crap phase he went through. Oh, you don't remember it? Probably 'cos it never happened), certainly if you compare it to his work on, say, SKID SOLO in whatever Tiger Annual I own; or, for that matter, the strip he did for the 1979(?) DAN DARE Annual.

Seeing the full story might help. Ian did a few episodes of INVASION!, as well as contributing a couple to MACH 1 (one of which someone else inked his pencils, IIRC).

Emperor · 05 July, 2009, 05:14:06 AM

Quote from: "Eric Plumrose"As I said, if indeed Ian was involved, I'd be more inclined to think it was pencils only. It's definitely not Ian by himself (of course, this might have been that crap phase he went through. Oh, you don't remember it? Probably 'cos it never happened), certainly if you compare it to his work on, say, SKID SOLO in whatever Tiger Annual I own; or, for that matter, the strip he did for the 1979(?) DAN DARE Annual.

Seeing the full story might help. Ian did a few episodes of INVASION!, as well as contributing a couple to MACH 1 (one of which someone else inked his pencils, IIRC).

I just compared them side-by-side with the two Invasions and one Mach 1 from the progs and there is the occasional profile shot and it can't be him, unless it was a really bad day (a day in which he had to churn both stories out

). Especially when you compare the Dan Dare from the 1979 2000AD Annual with the one from the 1979 Dan Dare Annual, the latter is a thing of beauty.

Eric Plumrose · 05 July, 2009, 08:39:45 AM

Heh. Which is why I've been saying it isn't Ian by himself, assuming he's involved at all. Don't have the Progs to hand or, for that matter, the Eagle reprints but I seem to remember there being an early episode of MACH 1 in which he gets a co-credit for the art, despite it not being immediately recognizable that he had anything to do with it.

I'm thinking it might even have been the debut strip, alongside possibly two other artists. The second episode was definitely Ian, once Probe's on the aeroplane.

OpusAndBill · 05 July, 2009, 11:32:27 AM

It doesn't look like Ian Kennedy's work at all to me. I hadn't spotted the Beeton reference in the Dan Dare story, so good spot on that one Leigh.

So I think the question now is who is Beeton? Could it be an unknown who simply drifted away from comics? Or perhaps a pseudonym for someone more well known. Or perhaps the name is an amalgam of two different artists (not really sold on that one though)?

The work was so heavily rendered that it suggests it wasn't a rush job. Perhaps the work of a student or beginner keen to impress with his pecilling skills? Surely a more experienced penciller would simply have banged out basic pencils for the inker to follow, as in the Mach 1 story in the same annual?

OpusAndBill · 07 August, 2009, 01:34:39 PM

Well, I think I've finally ided the artist. Adrian D. Beeton, listed here:

http://www.2000ad.nu/termight/artists.html#B

Useful resource. Does the name ring any more bells now, and does anyone know how I could get in touch with Julia Hayden as I'd like to compare notes?

Here's the artwork yet again, as the first version hasn't survived the forum change.