Spotlight On An Artist: Steve Beckett

I'm starting a new series of posts (not a regular thing, just every now and then), where I basically take a comic creator and write a biography about them. This time, it's Steve Beckett.

Steve first got into comics back in 2004, when he launched Sam119 - a four issue series about a group of people in an abandoned city. He worked with Simon James on the project and the comic was launched at the Bristol Comics Expo, where he shared a table with The Etherington Brothers! They were also launching their first comic - Malcolm Magic.

After Sam119 finished, he featured in FutureQuake and DogBreath fanzines, in which he hopes to return to one day. He mostly freelanced for a big multimedia broadcaster and recently drew a book called Tough Guy for Mohawk Media(not the best name for a character though??).

In 2010, Steve sent off a few page Billy the Cat story to the Beano ed, and recieved a reply the very next day! The ed was very pleased with the sketches and offered him a slot in the 2011 Beano annual, and s Steve got the chance to draw General Jumbo!

Then he moved to The Dandy. Before it revamped in 2010, he was asked (because of his contribution to The Beano annual) to draw a comic strip for the 'Strictly Come Laughing' series. He sent off Daredevil Dad, and the series was completed and pitched before the comic revamped. Although his first comic strip appeared in #3534, his first Dandy doodle appeared the previous week in the 'Next Week' page - Dandy issue #3523, dated Feburary 26th 2011.

Since then, he has drawn many strips for The Dandy, including Sea Dogs, Ray Fears and Frosty! His second story for the comic appeared in the 2012 annual, where Steve brought back a much loved classic character - Brain Duane! He currently draws Blundercats, a weekly full-pager.

You can visit Steve's website here:
http://sjbeckettdesign.wordpress.com/

Or follow him on Twitter, his name is: @sjbeckettdesign