Online Art Board Supplies Comic art for the major US companies such as Marvel or DC is drawn on special art board that includes 'blue line' indicators so the artists draw to the correct size proprotional to the final US comic book art size. Artists contracted to the companies are provided with this board, although I am not sure if this is still supplied gratis, as it was in Paul Neary's day as Editorial Director at Marvel UK, or if they have to pay for it. Page measurements apparently vary slightly from company to company, so using ordinary Bristol board and a ruler may be a better option for the aspiring artist than seeking down this specialised board. 2000AD is now published pro to US comic book size. BlueLine There is a type of Bristol board called BlueLine which features these the official comic page measurments printed on it. It's solicited through Previews and, therefore, most comic shops should be able to order it. Some artists don't like it. Bristol Board • Most art supply shops in Belfast sell Bristol board in A3 20 sheet blocks. Art Supplies • Great Art Supplies Gerstaecker UK Limited / Great Art, Normandy House, 1 Nether Street, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1EA Telephone Order line 0845 601 5772 (Local call rate) Described as Europe's largest and brightest catalogue for art materials, this company says "Whatever your angle - whether you're an art student, leisure painter, art teacher or professional artist - we're sure that you'll find that we are full of all the supplies you need." They publish a variety of catalogues for each country -- one artist I know orders material from their French rather than UK edition. • London Graphics Company 16-18 Shelton Street, Covent Garden London WC2H 9JL Tel: 020 7759 4500 Fax: 020 7759 4585 London Graphic Centre was established in 1973 as a specialist graphic materials supplier to the London Design and Advertising market. Dip Pens • Hans Presto This Swedish (with English translation) site apparently stocks and sells just about every dip pen ever made. It also has sections on Lettering, Comics and Handwriting. (thanks to artist Kev Hopgood for this one)

NEW BRITISH COMICS COLLECTIONS AVAIALBLE NOW... This is the first Dan Dare collection I've edited for Titan Books, comprising work by Frank Hampson, Frank Bellamy and Don Harley. Superb World War 1 strip first published in Battle and another collection edited by me for Titan

Comics Artists F

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Glenn Fabry
• Official: www.glennfabry.co.uk
Glenn, who drew Slaine for 2000AD, has been working on the best-selling DC comic Preacher for the last six years with Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

Ulises Farinas
Official Blog: a-new-elegant-universe.blogspot.com
Ulises was born in New Jersey. He enjoys drawing and his strips include Motro, which appears on Act-I-vate.

Duncan Fegredo
Official: www.fegredo.com and www.cafepress.com/fegredo
To purchase original art by Duncan Fegredo visit: www.splashpageart.com

After completing art studies and briefly contributing to the independent comic Blaam! Duncan broke into British mainstream comics by becoming a regular contributor to Fleetway, initially within its Crisis anthology and then for 2000AD.
One of the original cache of artists chosen to represent DC Comics Vertigo imprint, with Enigma, his credits also include Hellboy, Spider-Man: Tangled Web, Kid Eternity, and as cover artist for titles such as Lucifer and Shade, The Changing Man.
• Read an interview with Duncan on Paul Birch's "Speech Balloons" blog

Michel Fiffe
MySpace: www.myspace.com/michelfiffe
Michel Fiffe is the creator of Panorama and Fut Miso which appear on Act-I-Vate. His work has appeared the mini-series Brawl, frequent issues of Negative Burn, and Fall of Cthulhu for Boom! Studios. Aside from finishing Panorama, he is working on his next Act-i-vate webcomic, Zegas, as well as the graphic novel, Cuba.

Dan Fish
Blog: http://fish1000.blogspot.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fish1000
ComicSpace: http://www.comicspace.com/fish1000/

The Essex-based crator of Fish1000 Comics, Dan also contributes to Bugpowder.com, providing news updates for the UK Small Press Comics scene.

Mike Flanagan
• Official: sensible.screaming.net
• Mike Flanagan on ROK Comics
You'll have seen Mike's cartoons in Focus if you're technologically minded. He does cartoons to illustrate articles and columns, also for advertising and PR. The fee is 55 UK pounds each...or $US 100. All he needs is your text (or concept) to work from and a couple of hours to complete the job. "I first do a rough for your approval then the final goes off to you as a high res jpeg in colour or b/w. Payment by cheque or Paypal, then all rights belong to you."

David Fletcher
• David Fletcher's Page on the New Zealand Cartoonists Site
• David Fletcher's ROK Comics Page
• David Fletcher's Crumb Blog (Blackbirds only)
New Zealand cartoonist David Fletcher claims that for the last twenty years he's been pretending to work from home as a comic strip, drawing a daily strip called The Politician and several weekly strips including The TV Kids which appears in the TV Guide. His cartoons are syndicated to Europe, Britain, Africa, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
People still keep asking him when is he going to get a proper job...
• Read a downthetubes interview with David Fletcher

Maurice Fontentot
Official: ghostpimp.com
Blog: mfont681.blogspot.com/
CafePress: www.cafepress.com/ghostpimpstuff
Born and raised in Southern California, Ghost Pimp creator and now Brooklyn-based Maurice moved to the east coast to attend the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Art. After graduating, he went on to Write, Color and Edit at Valiant Comics. Storyboarding and Design work was his next stop at places like Disney, MTV, Cartoon Network, 4Kids, World Leaders, Scholastic and PSYOP.

Davy Francis
Official: www.geocities.com/davy_francis/index.htm
A contributor to the short-lived but much-missed Oink comic, Davy's been drawing cartoons and comic strips for over 30 years all over the world. His work has appeared in DC Comics, Fantagraphics Books, the BCC and Channel 4. He is also available for live caricature work.

Simon Fraser
Official: simonfraser.net
LiveJournal: simonfraser.livejournal.com
ComicSpace: www.comicspace.com/simonfraser
Wiki Entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Fraser_(comics)
2000AD Bio: www.2000adonline.com/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=SIMONF
Act-I-Vate Comix Collective: act-i-vate.com
Simon Fraser is a Scottish Comics Artist who after many travels and adventures washed up in Brooklyn NY.
He is best known as the Co-Creator of Nikolai Dante ( with Robbie Morrison ) for 2000AD, but also drew Lux & Alby for Writer Martin Millar, Judge Dredd, Shimura, The Family and 'Richard Matheison's Hellhouse among other things.

Frank Frazetta
• The Official Frank Frazetta Art Gallery
Better known today as a much emulated fantasy and science fiction artist, Frazetta's earliest work was in funny animal comics, which he signed as "Fritz". He worked for EC Comics, National Comics (including the superhero feature Shining Knight), Avon and several other comic book companies in the 1950s, often working in collaboration with friends Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel.
Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner comic strip. He was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet, at this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip. In 1961, after nine years with Capp, Frazetta returned to regular comics, although work was hard to find, because comics had changed during his period with Capp and his style was considered antiquated. Eventually he joined Harvey Kurtzman doing the parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine.
His paintings, whose subjects range from Conan the Barbarian to Spider-Man, are highly valued and much sought after. A DVD about his life and work, Frazetta: Playing with Fire, was released in 2003

John Freeman
Web Link: www.polypop.com/comix/freeman
US cartoonist John Freeman (not to be confused with UK cartoonist, comics writer and downthetubes editor John Freeman), aka Uncle Sloppy was born in 1971 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Home of papermills and hatred. In 1973 he moved to Dallas and began a long, fruitful relationship with the field of "art." When he was 11 he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome (The barking, yelling and obscenities disease), this forced him to defend himself against "bullies" with the only weapon at his command: the weapon of love.
At age 12, he began taking acting classes at the local theater slowly being conditioned to be as loud, obnoxious and insecure as possible. This came to a "head" when he attended Arts Magnet High School; a "Fame"-esque place where half the day was filled with regular high school classes and the other half was filed with "art." After graduation he moved to Denton under the pretence of attending the University of North Texas. There he started the first in a seemingly endless series of bands: the main two being the Dooms U.K. and the Dutch Treats. A tentative Belgian tour f ell through forcing Uncle Sloppy to resort to his first love, comix. To become world famous and squelch once and for all that lingering, nagging yet mostly unfounded suspicion that "nobody likes me."
In August 2001, Uncle Sloppy went to New York for a three week vacation. He is still there, feeling very lucky that he once again works in an office that has access to a free photocopier; allowing him to distribute his "art" on a larger scale than ever before. He now divides his time between drawing comix, playing Rock, and making sweet, sweet love to all the ladies he can find...

John Freeman
UK. Writes more than he cartoons these days, and not to be confused with US cartoonist John Freeman, who is far better looking (or at least it looks like he is from his web site). One-time Editor of Doctor Who Magazine he also edited Death's Head II, Warheads, Overkill and other Marvel UK titles, contributing to the brief 'Marvel UK' legend masterminded by Paul Neary with limited series such as Shadow Riders with Brian Williamson, drawn by Ross Dearsley, and Gene Dogs, drawn by Dave Taylor. And, um, this is his site. You can view his full bio here.

Jimmy Friell (1912 - 1997)
Friell worked under the pseudonyn 'Gabriel' because he wanted to herald the end of Capitalism. This is the first exhibition of his work from the Communist Daily Worker and offers a wonderful insight into the attitudes of those on the Left during the Cold War from the late 1940s up until the late 1950s. Billed as"Fleet Street's greatest discovery since David Low", Friell started drawing for the Daily Worker in 1936 railing against the evils of Hitler and Mussolini. In 1956, disillusioned, he left the paper after his cartoon comparing the Russian tanks in Budapest to the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt was rejected. He walked out along with many of the Daily Worker's editorial staff. "I couldn't conceive carrying on cartooning about the evils of capitalism and imperialism," Friell wrote, "and ignoring the acknowledged evils of Russian Communism."
The exhibition will consist of 60 of his best original political cartoons. The exhibition is being organised in association with the British Cartoon Archive and will be opened by the cartoonist's brother Charles Friell.

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