I'm delighted honoured and flattered to have been asked to produce the drawings that are projected as part of The Flame Haired Dynamo, Hull Truck's brand new Christmas play, opening tonight in Hull. It's a cracking comedy by Mick Martin, directed by Nick Lane, which features at the heart of the story the football comics of the 1970s.
Which is why, for the last month, I've had my nose buried in piles of Scorcher and Roy Of The Rovers comics, of which I happen to have a few, trying to emulate the style, and the hairstyles, of those fascinating comics. I've tweaked the colouring in a Lichtensteinian pastiche style, and the lettering is big enough for you to read, but at its heart the art is a homage to that genre of comics.
I inherited a boxload of Scorcher comics years ago, from a neighbour in Kibworth I think, dating from 1972 to 1974, and looking at them now I find they have a range of storytelling that I don't think I really appreciated as a kid. Well, I didn't read football comics, I was busier reading funny books and then Marvel comics. So I missed out on tales like Raven On The Wing - a gypsy boy ostracised by society who is redeemed by his ability to play football, Hot Shot Hamish an oversized Scottish farm hand ostracised by society who is redeemed by his ability to play football, Legs Eleven a team of ex-prisoners ostracised by society who are redeemed by... well, you get the picture.
The Flame Haired Dynamo, with pictures in the background by Kev F (and co-starring Dave McCready, as seen in The Manchester Sitcom Trials), is on at Hull Truck Theatre until the New Year. Book now - make it your GOAALLLL!!!!
"Ingenious and ambitious" - a 4 star review for the Flame Haired Dynamo, with a mention for me, in What's On Stage.
"A lovely nod to the transforming power of fiction" - another good review, and namecheck, in The Stage.
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