From Twas The Fight Before Christmas, a Stickleback story by the Ians Edginton & CulbardStickleback © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Stickleback was created by Ian Edginton & Me.
If 2000AD Prog 2009 plopped onto your doormat this morning, you'll notice a one-off Stickleback strip with art by my good mate Ian Culbard. Ian's an animator, illustrator and comic artist I met through his comments on this blog a couple of years ago. We're fellow contributors to the online comics consequences game Who Killed Round Robin?. Ian has collaborated with Ian Edginton on an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray for Eye Classics, and they've now moved on to adapting the whole of Sherlock Holmes together.
It's funny how Ian got the Stickleback job; Ian Edginton rang me to suggest trying to get a Christmas story into Prog 2009 (Stickleback has had a presence in the end-of-year prog ever since it started in 2006). We both knew I was busy on another project for 2000AD (more of which anon), and while I might just have been able to squeeze this job in, I found myself thinking, "this story would suit Ian Culbard a treat, I wonder if Ian would be offended at me suggesting him for the job?" only to have Ian say to me "I know you're busy, would you be offended I suggested Ian Culbard for the job?"
So that was that.
From Twas The Fight Before Christmas, a Stickleback story by the Ians Edginton & Culbard
Stickleback © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Stickleback was created by Ian Edginton & Me.
I'm thrilled at the way the strip has turned out; it's the first time I can think of that someone else has drawn a character of mine for a whole strip like this*. Being an animator, Ian's handled the characterization beautifully, capturing Stickleback's body language perfectly and giving us a fantastic two-fisted Santa Claus on top. He's even slipped a fishpaste reference in there somewhere (I won't spoil your fun by telling where). You can read Ian's own account of drawing the strip here.
An odd little coincidence: this strip, Ian Culbard's first for 2000AD, is called 'Twas The Fight Before Christmas, right? Well my first work for 2000AD, ten years ago, was colouring on a Sinister Dexter Christmas story called... you guessed it, 'Twas The Fight Before Christmas.
For more stuff by and about Ian Culbard, check out his blog, Strange Planet Stories.
As for me, I'll be back at the reins for a new series of Stickleback in 2009. I'll be starting work on it in March, once my current project is completed. And what am I working on right now? Here's a clue (picture, left.)*Cliff Robertson is the only other artist to draw Stickleback, but as a single image on a cover rather than in a strip.
In 1992 there was a Lazarus Churchyard jam strip but no contributor did more than a single splash-page; in 1990 Shane Oakley drew some of the Deadline strip Fatal Charm, but we'd co-created and designed that, so it was "ours" not "mine." In 1995(?) Mark Buckingham drew the Marvel 2099 superhero Metalscream, created by Warren Ellis and myself, but then only for a couple of panels, and only to kill him off.
