EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 15 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

14 gave me a short prose story he’d written called ‘Violent Cases’—named by Colin Greenland who was at the same writer’s workshop. I liked it, mostly because it was about unreliable memories, and because it was general fiction, no sign of a genre cliché or superhero, and I thought it could work as a graphic novella. Paul Gravett had asked us both to contribute to his ground-breaking Escape magazine. I think he was after something about four pages long. We went back to him and said we have a story, but it’s 48 pages, and Paul was happy to look at publishing it as a stand-alone book. Before it was released, Neil got us an interview with Karen Berger and Dick Giordano in London, and so we ended up working at DC Comics on the strength of those pages.” After Dave and Neil’s first effort with the graphic novel ‘Violent Cases’ (published in 1987 and printed worldwide, and even adapted for the stage), and with a foot firmly set within the comics industry thanks to their contact with two of DC Comics’ editors, they worked together in 1998 on another graphic novel: ‘Black Orchid’. In 1990 they did the series ‘Signal to Noise’ for The Face magazine, and the graphic novel ‘Mr. Punch’ in 1995. These last two Text continued from page 9 ABOVE LEFT: Cover for The Dreaming issue #13 (1997), a spin-off series from The Sandman that ran for 60 issues. “The printed version had her breasts covered. I kept trying to slip a nipple past DC, and it was a game of hide and seek I played with my editor.” Acrylic, photography, collage, digital. ABOVE RIGHT: Cover for Alien Resurrection comic series (1997). Acrylic, photography, digital. FACING PAGE: War page from the four horseman of the apocalypse sequence in 'Signal To Noise' (1990). “Originally published by chapters in The Face , the style magazine of the ’80s. It was 1990 and they wanted something unusual to signal the end of an era. The story was later collected into one volume for the Victor Gollancz short- lived graphic novel line.” Acrylic on collage. Drak Horse Comics DC Comics