The Art of Stephen Prestwood R.I.P.

As I have mentioned before on the blog... Last year artist and small press genius, Stephen Prestwood, passed away long before he should have done. I worked with him a few times and was a big fan of his fantastic artwork. In 2003 he drew issue seven of my 'Armageddon Patrol' series and provided me with a cover to use. Only one problem, at the time neither he or I knew how to colour stuff and to be distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors the cover of our comic had to be in colour even if the inside was in black and white. Another fantastic small press artist, Chris Askham, ended up doing the cover as he knew how to produce full colour artwork. Much as I love what Chris did... I don't really approve of comics which have a different artist on the cover to the one inside... On the one hand it seems like a snub to the interior artist and on the other hand it seems like a con on the readers who might think they are getting one thing, but are really getting something else. However, at the time we didn't have much choice. After Stephen sadly died last year I chanced upon his black and white cover for AP7 and realised that I now had the skill to colour it in photoshop and bring it back to the world. This is my small tribute to a great artist and a really nice bloke. First a version done up with the logos and lettering on and after that a version where the artwork can be seen 'clean'.

You can still buy his issue of 'Armageddon Patrol' in the five-issue-pack in the column to your right.