IRON, and what I'm trying to do...

I thought I'd take some time to spell out some of my influences for IRON. I'm not sure how interesting it is, but I'm doing it anyway!

My influences for this are pretty varied, and include Frank Bellamy, Francis Prior, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Dale Mettam, Dave Elliot and Valia Kapadai amongst many others.

Frank Bellamy really influences all my work, and I suspect all the work I shall ever do. A brilliant draughtsman and a wonderful storyteller, he's also the reason I draw. Through Dan Dare, Heros the Spartan, Thunderbirds and Garth, Bellamy drew real people in fantastical situations.

Francis Prior is an archaeologist, specialising in the Bronze Age, who is I suppose best known for his appearances on Time Team. I find his approach to looking at the ordinary people of history inspiring, and despite the shift in time period to the Dark Ages, IRON is heavily influenced by that desire to examine the ordinary wonders of the everyday in history. He used a fantastic phrase for the scatter of finds people come across while field-walking; "The background noise of history". That's really what IRON tries to be, the background noise of the big stories. pryorfrancis.wordpress.com/

Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol were two of the leading lights in European New Wave cinema. Their revolutionary framing, pacing and storytelling transformed film making, and their influences are still felt today, in everything from blockbusters to art-house. I think it's interesting to look at their work through a sequential narrative lens, and try to take their lessons on board. That's certainly what I'm trying to do, but as to whether or not I have anything approaching the skill to so so, that's a different question.

Dale Mettam writes great stuff, is very funny and after briefly working with him on Jael has transformed how I look at comics, especially the writing. He's a nice chap too. dalemettam.com/

As is Dave Elliot, co-founder of Atomeka Press, head honcho, writer and editor on A1, and a ton of other stuff, including being heavily involved in deviantArt these days. When I was falling out of love with the medium his work rekindled it. He has been very kind about my doodling and, more importantly, knows who The Steel Claw was. deevelliott.deviantart.com/

Valia Kapadai is perhaps the nicest person I know who draws comics. Annoyingly she's also perhaps the most talented. Seeing Valia's work always makes me burn with envy, and force myself to try harder and practice more! neurotic-elf.deviantart.com/

There are a string of others: Marc Laming and his lovely linework, Gail Simone's wonderful work on Red Sonja, Ian Struckhoff for suggesting I draw his comics an age ago when I was more pants than now, The British Museum for having such great stuff to inspire and on and on.

I wanted to do something I'd be proud of, which is why I'm spending so much time drawing each page. It's only going to be a short strip - around six pages, so the same length as the previous two IRON stories, but at least it'll hopefully be something that's the best I can do at this time.