Summer of Sonic '09: Meeting the S.T.C Artists

Dobbyn to the left, Kitching to the right. What a pair of Nigels!

One of the highlights of the event for me had to be meeting two of the artists/writers of Sonic the Comic, Nigel Kitching and Nigel Dobbyn. I grew up on these comics and they had a big influence on how I draw, in particular Kitching's artwork for the Decap Attack comic, who was also the writer for a majority of the entire comics lifespan, everything from the crazy Super Sonic all the way till the comic's last story ark where Johnny Lighfoot died and Robotnik lost his mind They did a Q&A session which I caught on (very wobbly) video, which I might upload later.

A whole folder full of painted goodness. There's nothing quite like seeing the originals.

This one was gone first I think. It was framed and used as a front cover.

For most of the day they were in one of the corners signing things for people and drawing them sketches too. Naturally this was one of the first things at the event I wanted to do, and while in the queue my eyes were drawn over to Dobbyn's portfolios laid out, all featuring the original paintings of the pages we illustrated for the comic. If that wasn't enough just seeing them in the flesh (er...ink?), they were for sale at £20 a page! Apparently he was selling them to fund a independent comic he wants to set up. When he drew you something/signed something, you could take a note, write your name on it and reserve the pages you want, so you could pick them up later in the day.

Take note the pages are much bigger than what they appeared in the comic, many A2 size and on card. Getting the thing home was a game of paranoia as I had nothing to carry it in, so i was holding it all the way home ready to murder anyone that would damage it. It's beautiful though, isn't it? This is one of many reasons why the British comics were much better than the American ones: hand painted art vs computer gradient coloring (well at least until the later years).

When I met Kitching I gave him a piece of artwork of Chuck D.Head I did, and he drew me a sketch, on which I requested an afro on Head noggin for some reason, just to make it unique! What surprised me when I was talking to him was finding out that he is currently illustrating pages for a Decap Attack story on Sonic the Comic online! He had a piece of art of it on his table. Sweet!

When I met Dobbyn he signed a page from one of the comics i brought with me, and I bought a page from his portfolio. I probably should have bought two now I think about, but that would have involved leaving the building to find a ATM and draw more money out. I wasn't expecting there to be anything to buy here, to be honest! One thing that made me squeal like a school girl in my mind was when talking to the pair of them: they both mentioned that they belive they've seen my artwork online before! Gleee! :D