Violent! Usual Suspects

Usual Suspects

Zakarya Anwar can usually be found lurking about Lancashire, where he likes to spend his time brooding, stroking his beard, wandering by lone sea breakers and sitting by desolate streams. Unlike most writers, he does not live with a large number of pets.

Chris Askham was the last test pilot in the doomed Hyperion Project. Hushed up by the government, he returned to Earth changed by his experience. Don't ask, because he doesn't like to talk about it. Oh, and try not to stare, point or run away. It's rude, you know. On the plus side, the extra arms come in handy for his freelance illustration work at http://www.chris-askham.co.uk. He is the second artist on KNUCKLES to have taken on the assignment, only to have a child shortly thereafter. Must be the testosterone or something.

Andy "Doodles" Baker is a graduate of the West Midlands Hi8us project Stripsearch. Self-employed, he teaches cartooning to kids, runs Dynamic Drawing life sessions and is working on his own comic. He is the proud recipient of the Violent! Cross for bravery in the face of ridiculously short deadlines, and truly deserves the title Fastest Pencil in the West...Midlands.

Shaun Bryan

Simon Bucher-Jones is far more normal and mild mannered than this story may suggest. However, his imagination isn't, and any suggestion that THINGS TO DO IN PORNUTOPIA WHEN YOU'RE DEAD results from a trial run of his grand experiment to fuse the genetic code of every great comics writer into a single body, by use of left-over teleportation pod technology from Doctor Seth Brundle, a bundle of suspicious rags stolen from Warren Ellis's hotel room, and a trained gibbon (what, you thought he'd get in the machine without animal experimentation?) will be met with a large number of virtual lawyer emulations running Expert Litigant 49. He'd also like to state how much the story would be as the merest technologically confused and jizz-rag draped monkey without the brilliance of the artist.

Jim Campbell

Andrew Cheverton lives in the South of England with his wife and two kids (who appreciate being mentioned first, rather than last like in the previous bio). He is currently working on full length comics with Justine Shaw and Tim Keable, which are published via Angry Candy. The Sea Monkeys are still pre-resurrection.

Aries is the pseudonym of a Spanish comic designer/illustrator who has been working in comics, cartoons and illustration since 1974. First published in the magazine EL CRONOCOPIA and editorial in ANTARES MEXICO. In 1978, he was awarded first prize at the Gijon's comic contest. Seek him out at www.bdsmaries.com

Fraser Campbell, as well as being part of Glasgow sketch comedy group YOU OWE ME GLUE, tries hard to write wholesome comics for all the family. They just come out all wrong. Fraser spends the remainder of his time trying to retain the rapidly waning respect of his child.

Chow

Kelvin Cox is marooned in the unexplained phenomenon known as the RUGBY WARP, where the year 1994 never went away. The internet is something that heppened to other people. If any travellers to Warwickshire happen across him, please send him home.

Mike Donaldson

Darren Douglas was sent to prison by a military court in 1972 for a crime he didn't commit. He promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives as a soldier of fortune and if you have a problem, if... oh wait, that's Faceman. Darren's the guy who's spent every spare minute of his life unconscious on the couch, drolling beer and Tesco Cheese Balls down his expensive, ill-fitting Supergirl outfit, dreaming of pole-dancing midget Ernest Borgnines in matching powder blue tutus.

Jay Eales is a born again Civil Servant. His comic strips have appeared in VIOLENT!, ZARJAZ, THE GIRLY COMIC, Norwegian Teen comic BADDIS and the UK DVD edition of the movie AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and his prose in PERFECT TIMING 2, MISSING PIECES and WALKING IN ETERNITY. He was NEws Features Editor for the award-winning comics magazine BORDERLINE. New works are to appear in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW MANGA and NEGATIVE BURN later in 2006.

Nelson Evergreen lives on the south coast of the Uk with his partner and their imaginary cat. Nelson Evergreen is a comic artist, illustrator and general all-round doodler of whatever rubbish appears in his head, exhaustive evidence of which can be found at www.nelson-evergreen.com and nelson-evergreenblogspot.com.

Paul Ferry writes the letter O clockwise, which is apparently quite unusual for a right-handed person. He owns sixty four t-shirts, or so he's been told. Paul is best known for his writing/ acting with the Doctor Who fan video group Timebase (www.mediarats.com/Timebase/) and sundry other projects. Paul puts the 'civil' into the Civil Service.

Toby Ford is a happily married, dog owning, truck driving, burrito eating, 2D/3D video artist in the week and an avid believer in retail therapy, equestrianism, and rocking the set at the weekend in his band "Hey Pablo!" for which he provides "noises" as he was sadly born without the singing gene, www.myspace.com/heypablo. He is also officially the world's worst breakdancer and world's biggest fan of "My Two Dads". In between preaching the merits of defunct US sitcoms and spinning on your head, he finds some time to draw comics (slowly). Always interested in new projects, Toby can be reached at toby.ford@blueyonder.co.uk

Simon Fraser produced the excellent cover art for THE GIRLY COMIC #1and KISSKISSBANGBANG #1. He co-created the popular 2000AD strip NIKOLAI DANTE with Robbie Morrison, soon to be collected in a series of book editions at last! Early work includes LUX AND ALBY with author Martin Millar, with whom he produced GOOD FAIRIES OF NEW YORK which can be found in THE GIRLY COMIC #2.His website is: www.simonfraser.net/

Stuart Giddings

Simon Gurr

Paul Harmon is the writer/artist of MORA, and currently working on SEA OF RED, both published by Image Comics. He lives in Los Angeles and loves the city all up! He works at home battling dementia, and stir craziness daily. He does various freelance work but prefers the harsh back-breaking art of the graphic narrative. His desk is peppered by the best toys Bandai and Medicom can conjure up. He recently married an I-pod Nano that is expecting to give birth to the best little bundle of indie rock and all around great music at any time now. If you are in Westwood you can probably find him at his "home-away-from-home" the Starbucks right next to the Fox Theater.

David Hailwood

Paul Harrison: By the time you read this Paul Harrison will be over 30. In this great length of time he has actually written and drawn some comics! First a couple of 'real life' type things and then THE BIG3 for his own Fun Comics. In between this massive work load he's managed to produce a couple of BULLDOG strips, THE FLATWORM for VIOLENT!, POISON PEN PAL for THE GIRLY COMIC and some other stuff that he'd really rather not talk about. Paul does some other things, like read and stuff. His skills as a biographer are unsurpassed.

Allan Harvey was born in Morriston, South Wales in 1967. For the last 20 years he has lived and worked in London. His work has been published in 80's cyberpunk fanzine THE HARDCORE, and various projects for THE COMICS CREATORS GUILD, among others. Wearing his writer's hat, Allan recently authored an article on the Harry Potter phenomenon for George Beahm's book MUGGLES AND MAGIC. He has also written for BACK ISSUE.

PJ Holden

Frazer Irving

H Janus

Mike Juniper is the artist of DOCTOR SORROW for Charaydis Comics, and illustrated ALL GOOD FUN (UNTIL SOMEBODY LOSES AN EYE) for VIOLENT! #9. When not arranging ink in intricate patterns upon the flayed hide of lesser artists trampled underfoot by editors heading for the convention bar, he can be found working for The Man.

Tim Keable is the one true International Man of Mystery. Disappearing for large periods of time on "secret missions" for Queen & Country, he resurfaces clutching pages of beautiful art bearing the codename "Keable", with little recollection as to where he obtained them. Any memories he has of actually producing them himself are simply false implants, put there to lend credence to his cover identity. Allegedly.

Adrian "Ady" Kermode sadly died at the ridicously young age of 45 in May 2009. Ady published comics under the CHARAYDIS PRESS imprint, and was te creator of DR SORROW, DEADMAN & HYDE, and the writer of National Comics Award-winning PETRA ETCETERA. DOCTOR LOVEMONKEY AND THE MISERY MACHINE appeared in THE GIRLY COMIC #3/KISSKISS BANGBANG #2 flipbook, and DR SORROW AND THE HAND OF GLORY was in KISSKISS BANGBANG #2.

James Kircough has illustrated strips for a number of small press titles over the last few years: ZARJAZ, FUTUREQUAKE, SOLAR WIND, THE END IS NIGH, DOGBREATH, and most recently VIOLENT! Spends his working life making coffee for fools, his spare time with 2 sprogs, wife, games, comics or a drawing tablet. Has an addition to pointless bits of technology. One day he's gonna be a professional illustrator living in New Zealand. Probably. Thank you, that will be all.

Iain Laurie is an Edinburgh based artist, and splits his time between working on his childish scribbles and bribing Fraser's child to mock and disrespect her father. His work can be found at http://iainlauriedrawsstuff.blogspot.com. He likes people to comment. It makes him feel like a big man.

Andrew Lewis

Colin MacNeil
Paul McCaffrey is a professional illustrator and comic artist. He's also a member of the Phase 4. You can see more of Paul's work at www.coroflot.com/paul_mccaffrey
Brian McCusker (AKA Ricardo Cabeza) is pretty much a regular ordinary guy who likes to create, write and make up stories. It started early for Brian, for even as a baby he was sent away by his parents to this distant planet called Earth. Though he had alien mutant DNA, he still grew up an average kid in a plain little farm town in California. There he was exposed to gamma rays, subjected to secret government serums and oh, yeah... bitten by this radioactive spider. But other than that, he has lived a rather uneventful existence. Brian now lives near San Francisco with his family as he writes stories and continues to wait for his super powers to one day, manifest.

Jim Mortimore has written DOCTOR WHO, CRACKER and FARSCAPE novels, and much other stuff. He makes music and pretty pictures too. Is there no end to his talents?
Douglas Noble was born in the heart of a collapsing star, and his long quest to become fictional reached it's triumphant conclusion in this very biography. His comic Strip For Me and it's companion website www.strip-for-me.com have helped lay the foundations for an intergalactic peace which will last for a thousand years. Ironically, it will be one of Noble's own descendants who will undo this peace, thrusting the universe once more into the darkness of chaos and confusion. In the meantime though, you really should check out that website.
Phil Nixon

Patrick O'Connor

Caroline Parkinson was born in 1981 and graduated from Loughborough university with a BA in Illustration. She has animated, written and directed a short film THE CLOUD FACTORY, which has been shown at BREIF ENCOUNTERS FILM FESTIVAL, Nottingham and the BURNING MAN Festival, Arizona. She has also self published several short comics, and been features in recent issues of THE GIRLY COMIC. She would be delighted to show you her portfolio.

Mark Pexton, or more properly the liminal Chimera referred to simply as "Pexton" exists mainly in the plane of existence known as Yorkshire; dividing its time between chewing cardboard, voodoo mathematics, contemplating the mysteries of the universe (or belly buttons, whichever has more mystique) and perfecting Leo Sayer. Occasionally the rarely seen creature can be observed venturing out of its hovel to chair the bi-annual David Bellamy gargle-athon. Excelsior!

Stephen Prestwood was raised by the infamous PG Tips chimps after being swapped by his real parents for a bag of KP Nuts. Fed on a constant diet of tea and banana sandwiches, his perception of reality is so warped that he thinks EVERYTHING is just all made up. He is now attempting to conquer the world by telling stories via the medium of sequential art. So far, he has taken Milton Keynes.

Peet! Clack, having an artistic bent from an early age, PeeT! has honed his talent for using various drawing implements to produce certain things...Until now, at last he is poised to unleash his plans for world domination through the amazing power of comics. His credits so far include strips for CAOF PRESENTS ., THE GIRLY COMIC, VIOLENT! and ZARJAZ. He currently resides in Wiltshire with his wife, 2 sons, cat, fish and a small piece of wood named Gerald.
Jay Rainford-Nash was told in art school that there was no place for illustrators. It was at university where his tutors pushed him to do more narrative material, where they felt his strengths lay. His influences include artists such as Norman Rockwell, Phil Hale and Ed Hopper. You can contact him at corrandark26@hotmail.com or his webpage www.corrandark.deviantart.com
Graeme Neil Reid is a freelance illustrator. His comics work includes strips for MEANWHILE, NEGATIVE BURN and ZARJAZ. See http://www.gnreid.co.uk for examples of his work.

Paulo Rivas was born in Peru, as a poet said, on a day when God was sick. The survivor of 3 or 4 major third-world class economic crises, a common dysfunctional family and four attempts at brain washing (why do people keep calling it education?), he found himself liberated through the art of drawing his inner crap onto paper. After winning first prize in a national comic contest in Peru in the 90's and being published internationally, he's been trying to control his overgrown ego. He still can't stop writing his biographies in third person.

Ben Roman is probably best known as the artist for I LUV HALLOWEEN for ToyoPop. THE CRYPTICS from Image Comics, and his new webcomic MOTORFACE. he draws. Yup, that's about it. You cna find him online at http://www.myspace.com/benjaminr

Alex Smithhas always loved to draw as far back as he can remember. When he was twelve he handed in a Maths project full of movie statistics. He spent the majority of time illustrating the cover - it was a kick-ass image of Robocop! He was told he would never make a mathematician. However, in the world of comics, it's possible he could! Perhaps that's why he loves comics so much. His misspent youth, staring into space, can finally be put to use. He has contributed to a number of independent publications, including VIOLENT!, NUCOMIX and ZARJAZ. he also writes and illustrates his own anthology, LONER. He is currently living a transient lifestyle, much like that of a gypsy. He'll be the one asking where the toilets are! alexsmith365@hotmail.com

Dale Smith (www.dalesmithonline.com) & kissthewitch (http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/) both live in Manchester. Dale is a playwright and author, while kissthewitch is a writer, diarist and editor of the literary e-zine Sein und Werden This is a double first for them: first collaboration with each other, and first comic story. They both seem to be describing themselves purely through weblinks, and trying desperately to think of something funny to say instead.
Dirk Smith is a founding member of the Wu Tang Clan, and was David Lynch's inspiration for Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks. He is currently writing his obituary in graphic novel form.
Mike Sivier is the father of VIOLENT! Currently operating undercover in Wales, he still manages to keep a beady eye on each issue as it progresses, in an Eye of Sauron manner, while dreaming up new strips such as HARD-BOILED HITLER.

Mark Staffordis the former owner of a set of fully-functional dreadlocks, released into the wild to make a new life for itself. BOTULISM BANQUET is one of his recent releases, along with the cover to Rich Johnston's CIVIL WARDROBE and a current project with Bryan Talbot for Dark Horse Comics. THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH UNCLE SPANGLEY is one of my favourite Stark strips and I'm chuffed as buggery that Mark let me run it in VIOLENT!

Matt Timson is a freelance illustrator and is represented worldwide by Three in a Box Inc. You can view his work here: http://homepage.mac.com/matt.timson/ When not drawing for pay, Matt can be found breathing, moving house and making sandwiches, though not necessarily in that order.

Ed Traquino adores British independent comics (he can't bring himself to call it small press, it's a Macho thing). His work can be found in numerous titles. Check out www.edtraquino.com for his folio and details. EVIL EYES was released in May 2005. This excites him a lot, possibly too much.

Gary Wilkinson

Darren Winter currently has various projects on the go, which he says are secret. He talks of them in a whispering conspiratorial kind of way, as if they are going to be ground-breaking moments in publishing. When not suffering from delusions of grandeur, Darren pumps iron and listens to heavy rock as inspiration for his artistic endeavours, which are, of course, secret. When asked which comics character he would most like to illustrate, Darren replied "Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you!" For some reason, the subject of Marilyn Monroe creeps into the conversation, to which Darren says "Yeah, I 'ad 'er, mate!"