Category Archives: illustration

BRUTE! Paperback for sale on Amazon.


The first issue of BRUTE! was unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1984. A satirical homage to the hard-boiled pulps of the 30’s and 40’s BRUTE! ‘s strategy was to revive the strident writing of the original texts whilst injecting a savage humor all of its own.
Authors Malcolm Bennett and Aidan Hughes invented an original concept in literature, ‘woodspeak’, which enabled them to concisely edit their stories into brutally short stabs of tabloid-style prose.
Visually
BRUTE! also kept to the classic designs of the pulps but added a epic quality found in illustrated religious pamphlets of the 20’s. Its tiny (A6) format was designed specifically to fit in the pocket (portability equals accessibility). The first three issues achieved a small-scale notoriety until 1986 when they caught the attention of Blitz, a London-based style magazine.
The authors were commissioned to write and illustrate a monthly short story in the
BRUTE! style (a TV series, narrated by actor Jack Klaff, was also broadcast during this period) which led to other related work in radio, TV and advertising.
The media exposure for the release of
BRUTE! 6 attracted Sphere Books who published a compilation paperback which sold out its initial print run.
However, owing to complaints about the nature of its content, the publishers shied off from a second print run and a proposed sequel. Despite healthy sales and a die-hard fan-base, BRUTE! breathed its last in 1988 with issue number 7.

“Masterly.” Literary Review
“One day all books will be written this way”Time Out
“The best experimental novel of the decade” Kazuo Ishiguro

GET IT HERE! http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0722115652/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235049899&sr=1-1

The Pentel Brush Pen


The magnificent Pentel Brush Pen changed the way I worked back in 1981 (when I discovered them by accident in a Chinese store in Amsterdam) and I have been using them (or Berols) ever since.

Initially, I’d use them for a particular stroke but then moved into doing a spiked shading with them, similar to that used by Frans Masereel in his wood-cuts.

Combined with a hard-tipped outlining pen, they far outstrip the peformance of paint brushes and can adapt to detailed work as easily as they do to bolder strokes and calligraphy.

The first publication I used them in was The Claim in 1982 and then used them regularly with rapidographs for the BRUTE series before dispensing with the tech nibs completely in 1984.

The difference is: with the Rotrings, art becomes like surgery. With the brush pens, its more like foreplay.

Draw the BRUTE! way today: http://www.dickblick.com/products/pentel-brush-pens/#photos

ZPC: BRUTE! PC game on Amazon



I made this computer game back in 1996 for Zombie Games in Seattle, Washington.

It has become available on Amazon for a few bucks.
Check it out while they last at: http://www.amazon.com/ZPC-Pc/dp/B0009YN3O2

and see cut clips and animations from the game here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98vuEmgYm9k

GIRLZ!


Every once in a while, it’s refreshing just to draw a pic for the hell of it. Here are two hell-blazing vixens from back when I was working in Seattle in 1996. I think it was the first thing I’d ever coloured in Photoshop and took me a couple of days. I offered it to a few bands at the time but no-one seemed interested so I am selling it as a poster instead http://www.bruteprop.com/v3/shop_poster_girlz.html.