From David Lloyd (yes, that David Lloyd!):
Folks - Wanted to let you all know that Cartoon County is this month hosting a show n' tell with the great John Higgins, the master painter of World Without End, famed colourist of Watchmen, and creator of Razorjack. He'll be showing examples of his work and chatting about it all, and he'll be bringing along the head of Razorjack, too! Amazing thing to see if you haven't been up close and personal to it before... Meeting's on Monday August 23rd, upstairs at The Cricketers, Black Lion St, Brighton from 6 onwards - John from 7.30. All welcome if you want to come along : )

See www.cartooncounty.com (though the site doesn't mention John's show yet).

2000 AD #1674: Judge Dredd - The Talented Mayor Ambrose

Long-time Dredd nemesis PJ Maybe returns in the first part of this new saga, written by Dredd's co-creator John Wagner and illustrated by John Higgins, with colours by John Higgins and SJ Hurst.

In slightly-related news, this brings the number of bibliography entries to a whopping 400! (And I'm still convinced that there's more work out there that John's forgotten about!)

John has just started a Judge Dredd series with John Wagner for 2000AD, which he describes as "a pure joy." John writes: "John W has a way with Dredd that is still as fresh and exhilarating as it ever was. It is set between the Machiavellian machinations in the Justice Department in Mega-City One and the mutant-infected badlands of the Cursed Earth. Classic Dredd. Sally Hurst is picking colour combinations and sorting line holds that gives a dirty, hard feel to the story, just right for this tale of intrigue and murder."

John and Sally are doing a signing with a mass gathering of artists from the latest book from British independent publishers, Com.x. Check out 45 by Andi Ewington and forty-five different artists. Come by and say hi, in FP London, 5 pm onward on the 4th of Feb 2010.

A photo session has been arranged in February for Razorjack, using the incredible prosthetic created by Nigel Booth. John will be doing a full report on this soon.

Finally... Remember September's Postcard from Alternity? Well, the feature should have been accompanied by a nice long letter from John, but, mysteriously, it wasn't (it is now, though - check it out).

John's letter arrived four months after the rest of the postcard's contents. Why this happened, no one knows. Our fifty-strong team of world-class investigators failed to uncover the cause despite their vast knowledge and unparalleled skills and their unlimited budget. It could be that the webmaster screwed up. Or it could be that John forgot to attach it to his e-mail. But most likely it was a one-in-a-billion chance that a freak burst of cosmic rays skipped through the hole in the ozone layer, reflected off a random chunk of decaying satellite debris and struck the internet at just the right point to cause a temporal flux. Probably.

Judge Dredd Megazine #292
John has produced the lead story and the cover for this month's Judge Dredd Megazine (issue #292, dated 05 Jan 2010).

The Dredd story - "What's Another Year?" - is a cracker of a tale written by the always-impressive Al Ewing (who also wrote Tempest in the same issue), with pencils and inks by John, and colours by John and S.J. Hurst.

The issue also features two other strips (Tank Girl and Judge Dredd: The Lost Cases), interviews with Neil Gaiman and John Ridgeway, a feature on Frank Miller's Daredevil, and round-ups of new comics and new movies... Plus a free two-sided Judge Dredd poster and a free comic containing the first half of Dave Gibbons' and Will Simpson's classic Rogue Trooper: War Machine! All this for only £4.99! Go on - treat yourself!

Razorjack's live debut at BICS went better than I could have imagined, the finished head (which we picked up from the sculptor Nigel Booth on the way to Birmingham for our first public presentation) was mind-blowing.

Here was Razorjack in all her rictus grinning glory, her dead-looking, white-fleshed head exuding a sense of menace and evil that was palpable.

Nigel had brought this "thing" alive! Now I like to think of us as the Young Frankenstein brothers: He bought my baby to life! As that great scientist Dr Frederick von Frankenstein (pronounced "Fronkensteen"), once said, "Alive! It's alive! It's alive!"

We had help from other midwives for our monstrous birth, part of Nigel's team: Jonathan Saville (costume builder and prop construction), Helly McGrowther (costume and fabrication) and Kelly Fox - hair specialist.

Lisa was our young and beautiful actress who performed Razorjack, walking in a "slinky and sensuous way" and got many admiring glances, with compliments such as the above, or, "impressive legs", or "oh my god, cover that child's eyes, he'll have nightmares" - the best comments I could have wished for. Her bodyguard Rob dressed as Mr Kahn. And got comments such as "he's tall". A superb job well done.

The Com.x presence was handled perfectly by Sally, a great turnout at our booth, seeing new faces and regulars coming up to say hi. The collected Razorjack graphic novel is still selling like hot cakes, and we are getting positive feedback from everyone who has read it. It was a great show well run, with a real buzz and sense of energy in comics and British comics in particular, with a lot of small press with quality books to show and sell. We talked to the guys from Accent UK and Insomnia Publications, and saw some really impressive portfolios. Small press seems to be alive and well. Check out all their stuff.

Following Saturday's announcement of The Razorjack Project - see Postcards from Alternity - we're excited to announce another new aspect to the approaching Razorjack line: author Michael Carroll will be penning an original Razorjack novel! Carroll is the award-winning author of sixteen published books, including the New Heroes series of Young Adult superhero novels (known as the Quantum Prophecy series in the USA), dozens of short stories, and has had numerous comic strips published in the likes of 2000 AD, Zarjaz, FutureQuake and Solar Wind.

RAZORJACK - Blood Red Sky: our exclusive preview track, "Steam Bitch" by Kevin Jones, is now available as an MP3 file for those users having problems with the .m4a format.
And to make it even easier: we now also have a MySpace page for the Razorjack soundtrack!

Judge Dredd Megazine #287
Meet Darren Dead returns - finally! - in the latest issue of Judge Dredd Megazine with the first part of "Eats, Shoots & Kills", written by Rob Williams and drawn by John, with colours by John and SJ Hurst.

The character first appeared in an introductory tale Judge Dredd Megazine #240 (dated January 2006), but hasn't been seen since - until now!

The issue also contains an article on Com.x which features a nice mention of Razorjack.

World Tour - Additional Australian Date!
John will be giving a talk for art students at the Art College at Queensland University in Brisbane on the Monday August 10th. John describes it as a "talk about the perils of self-publishing and how being a comic artist is the best job in the world."

The up-to-date list of forthcoming events:

More dates to be announced soon!

In other news:
Razorjack continues to make a big impression on the good folks in media-land... Interview / article in Times On-Line. Many thanks to author Michael Scott for the link!

And thanks to John himself, here's a better look at the screenprint and one of the finished paintings for the Foruli Deluxe Box-Set edition of Razorjack...

Razorjack Special Editions
Razorjack fans... Hold onto something secure because this is going to blow you away...!

Standard Edition

A hand-bound 96-page book in a hand-made slipcase, accompanied by a hand-pulled 8-colour screenprint. Each book & print is signed by John Higgins.

• Publication date: 30th June 2009
• ISBN-13: 978-1905792047
• Dimensions: 265 (h) x 175 (w) x 10 (d) mm
• Price £150
• Limited to 45 copies

Deluxe Edition

A hand-bound 96-page book in a hand-made solander case, accompanied by an original painting by John Higgins & a hand-pulled 8-colour screenprint with 24-carat gold leaf. Each book, painting & print signed by John Higgins.

• Publication date: 30th June 2009
• Dimensions: 285 (h) x 190 (w) x 25 (d) mm
• Price £250
• Limited to 15 copies!

The books can be ordered from most good bookstores, or on-line: the Standard Edition is available from Amazon.co.uk but the Deluxe Edition is only available from Foruli Publications.

World Tour Continues: USA, New Zealand, Australia!
John's world signing tour - which started in Orbital Comics in London early 2009 and then took in the Bristol Comic Con - is now heading overseas!

First stop is San Diego Comic Con, July 24th to 28th. John will be signing at the Splash Page Comic Art booth, row 4400.

On Saturday August 1st, John will be signing at Heroes For Sale, 277 Karangahape Rd, Auckland, New Zealand, from 10:00am.

Then on to Australia the following week, with a signing at Ace Comics & Games, Level 2, 121 Queen Street, Brisbane, on Sunday 9th August starting at 12.00 midday.

John says that he is very much looking forward to seeing all who turn up to say hi - remember to mention to him that you read the news here first!

Judge Dredd Megazine #285
Bagged with this month's issue is Judge Dredd: The John Higgins Collection, featuring four Dredd tales - three of which have never before been reprinted!

Orbital Signing
The signing in Orbital Comics on 18th of April was very well attended: John wishes to thank everyone for their patience in what ended up as a long but enjoyable afternoon for him and promises to ensure he sees everyone who attends any signings no matter how long it takes.

Bristol Comic Convention
Early in May, John attended his first Bristol comic convention in far too long and found it had changed - for the better, in his opinion - to a very friendly and enjoyable gathering of like-minded people: "The attendees have an enthusiasm and appreciation of comics that was impressive and they were all - without exception - young, good-looking and clean-shaven individuals; except for the ones with beards." John's signing at Com.X's table for the weekend was very well attended: "To sit with the Com.X crew was a joy, a very professional and friendly company to work with, look out for the com x gang at future gatherings and say hi to them."

Razorjack: Reviews and Interviews
John reports he is getting a little tired of talking about himself...! Since the launch of the collected Razorjack in May he has immersed himself in a round of promotion for this, his most personal project to date, and jokes that he has done "not as many interviews as I would like!" Of course, having kept quiet for most of his career, John has found a lot to talk about. The book has received a number of very favorable reviews, one of which from Craig Taylor in The Guardian has given John a new Tee shirt to wear...

All of the interviews have been personal and individual to each interviewer... John says "the erudite and completely different questions have given me an opportunity to explore different aspects of Razorjack and my career to date. My answers have surprised me at times... Even the Watchmen questions and subsequent answers have been enlightening!" Consider that Watchmen has been talked about and dissected over the last two decades by some of the best commentators in the business, but rarely by John who was actually involved in its creation!

Since 2005, and because of his involvement with the digital "remastering" of the colour for the Absolute Watchmen, John has had a personal and creative interest in Watchmen that he felt had eluded him up till that time, as he says in detail in these and up-coming interviews. So check them out. (If there are any links you think we're missing, please let us know.)

For John 2009 is the Year of Razorjack: there are a number of projects related to the comic that he is excited about and we will keep you informed as they unfold. So "Look to the skies!" (or this website) for more details!

Upcoming...
John's next convention will be San Diego Comic Con in July: come along and say hi, he is looking forward to seeing you there!

Thoughts on Razorjack:
"John Higgins sickens me. He can write, pencil, ink and colour all seemingly effortlessly. Had he just performed neuro-surgery on a young child this morning too, I would not be at all surprised."
-- Mark Millar Writer of The Authority, Wanted, The Ultimates, Civil War, Kick-Ass.

And speaking of Greysuit: only four episodes in and already the strip has featured on two covers of 2000 AD - both drawn by John himself!

John Higgins - with Sally Hurst - has designed logos and character illustrations for a film proposal called DEMENTAMANIA by Anis Shlewet (the name was changed after the designs were completed). It is a twisted and horrific modern-day parable about a worker drone who listens to that dark voice inside...

The long-awaited trailer for Watchmen is now on-line!

Also, the movie's website has been given a huge update, complete with new pics!

On Saturday July 5th John will be in Methven's Bookshop, Worthing, West Sussex.

John will be signing copies of Watchmen, The Hills Have Eyes, Razorjack and one of the multitude of titles he has done in his career. A great opportunity to find hard-to-come-by back issues of his work, Worthing is also hosting the 2008 International Birdman Festival that weekend: a fun family day at the sea - and comics - check it out!

Methven's Bookshop
22-26, South St, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 3AA
11.00 - 15.00, Saturday 5th of July 2008

Newsarama.com has just posted an interview with John about his upcoming work on DC's Jonah Hex (written by John's Hills Have Eyes collaborators Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti).

John also managed to find time to give me advance notice on some of his upcoming work - more details to follow when the time is right!

The visit to Inverness produced one of those strange, almost unearthly coincidences.... I arrived in Inverness early on Friday afternoon and decided to explore the city. The first shop I entered was a charity shop (such a place is always a good port-of-call for the seasoned book-hunter), where I spotted a Mission Galactica Annual from around 1980.

I was already the proud owner of the Battlestar Galactica Annual that's packed with comic strips drawn by John, but I'd never seen the Mission Galactica Annual before - I didn't even know it existed - so I picked it up "just in case"... Within seconds I was gibbering like an idiot: Like its predecessor, the MG annual is full of illustrations by a certain Mister John B. Higgins!

The relevant data has, of course, now been added to the ever-growing Bibliography. We're at a staggering 378 different entries now, but I'm sure that there are even more great discoveries waiting in the wings!

A note from the webmaster: The Bibliography has just undergone a complete overhaul. Among other features, we've now added something that was sorely missing from the previous version: a Search function!

As always, the bibliography is an on-going project. John's produced an incredible amount of work over the past thirty-two years and as you can imagine there are things even he's forgotten about; if you can help to fill in any of the missing details please get in touch!

Technical note: some of the beta-testers using the Safari web-browser have reported problems with the 'Back' button when using the bibliography. Unfortunately this is an inherent problem with Safari and not the bibliography itself. We're currently trying to find a solution to the problem; as soon as we do, we'll let you know.

Fox Atomic's website has an excellent 13-minute "making of" video featuring interviews with writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, colourist Dennis Calero and, of course, our very own John Higgins...

Update 2007 11 16: For those who are having trouble accessing Fox Atomic's website, the video is also available on MySpaceTV.

We've just added a useful new function to the Bibliography: a list of the other creators with whom John has worked. Selecting a name from the list will display all of projects on which they've collaborated.

Visit the Studio Shop for your chance to own the original artwork for the acclaimed comic-book prequel to the hit movie!

Also available in the Shop:

John is currently working on a Jonah Hex one-off for DC comics, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, with whom John also worked on the recent The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning graphic novel. Jon writes: "Jimmy and Justin are a pleasure to work with. The script has the same confident visual breakdown as The Hills, on which I really enjoy working, and dialogue that echoes the 'otherwordly-ness' of the HBO award-winning Deadwood series. It gives this classic DC character a maturity that I find exciting and adds a depth to Hex's twisted version of 'Western Justice'." No publication date confirmed yet, but more news when we have it.

On the subject of The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning: John talks about the book on the UKSF Book News website.

Dan Dare

John has just painted a cover for issue 2 of Virgin Comics' up-coming Dan Dare comic book series, written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Gary Erskine with regular covers by Garry Leach. "Garth has written a mature Dare being asked once again to save the Earth. Each issue will have an alternative cover. Garth told me, 'Do the painting you've always wanted to do of Dare.' This took me back to my collection of original Eagles to a classic Frank Hampson story called Rogue Planet, from which I plundered the wonderful Hampson designs." Publication date to be confirmed.

John will be attending the 5th Belgrade International Comics Showroom convention from the 25th to 30th of September 2007. Previous guests have included Brian Bolland, Jean-Marc Thevenet (ex-director of Angouleme International Comics Festival), Adrian Smith and Olivier Ledroit (both of whom have worked with Pat Mills for French publishers). This year, the guests will be Igor Kordej (Kordey) and John Higgins.

John hopes to meet many new friends and to discover the state of comics in this part of Europe that has been more or less closed to the rest of Europe for the last part of the Twentieth century.

For more information, see the convention's website.

The Studio Shop is currently off-line, pending some updates and additions! Please check back soon - we promise it'll be worth your while!

"A Delta-class assassin, John Blake is a governmental agent - a Greysuit - conditioned by his masters to have augmented speed and strength. But could a glitch in his programming make him remember who he was?
"Not a slave. Not a living weapon. Not government property. A human being..."

Over on the Features page you'll find links to an interview with John about his days as an illustrator for gamebooks, and an article about Watchmen that John wrote for an Italian tribute book.

If you're a fan of the cult horror movie The Hills Have Eyes, then check the Gallery to see some samples of John's artwork for the upcoming graphic novel, The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

We have a limited number of very rare Watchmen Portfolios, signed by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins.

Also available are the three issues of John's Razorjack series, complete with concept drawings, comments and articles.

More items will be available soon, including original artwork! Keep watching...

Greysuit: starting in April 2007 in 2000 AD, Greysuit is a new strip written by Pat Mills and drawn by John Higgins. Interviewed on the always-informative 2000AD Review website, Mills says, "A Greysuit is the authentic name used to describe a British 'Man in Black'. Very moody and sinister." Later on the same site: "It was and is a joy to work on for John, making a complete change from aliens, mutants and superheroes which he still loves to work on, but a change is as good as a rest, so they say."

The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning: Inspired by the forthcoming sequel to the remake of the classic movie, this is a graphic novel written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. John writes: "I am up to my eyeballs in The Hills Have Eyes graphic novel for Fox Atomic, I have thankfully always worked hard - as in 'a six-and-a-half relaxed days a week' week - but on this it is a serious seven days a week with no relaxation, no nights on the beer."

Meet Darren Dead: John is hoping to get back to the story of Darren Dead (the opening episode of which was printed in Judge Dredd Megazine #240 (January 2006). The series was due to be published in 2006 but writer Rob Williams was, according to 2000 AD Review, "distracted by becoming a father". Congratulations to Rob from all here at JBH Towers, and here's hoping you get a chance to put fingers to keyboard in the near future!

More information on these and other works coming soon... And for those who have been waiting: this site's Studio Shop will be up-and-running in a matter of days!