There's a small but dedicated group of us on the interweb who think that Brendan McCarthy is the best damn comic book artist the UK ever produced. Definitely the best with a paintbrush. Certainly, the guy's talent was too damn prodigious for the field to hold on to, and he moved into design work for animation and cinema. The last anyone heard, he's been a regular collaborator and visualist for Mad Max/Babe legend (and cinema's foremost scholar of the works of Joseph Campbell - in yer face, Lucas!) George Miller.
As anyone who has checked out his fansite in the 2000AD webcircle probably knows, Brendan has spent the last six months trying to find a publisher for a big-assed retrospective artbook to be called Swimini Purpoise. Every month, since hearing of this tantalizing new project last summer, I check PREVIEWS inside and out to see if this thing has been scheduled by a publisher yet.
Anyway, disturbed by the lack of progress, I did a bit of Google detective work, found Brendan's email address, and inquired about its progress. I probably scared him a little, a crazed fan e-mailing him out of the blue, though I think he warmed to me when he found out I was a crazed Irish fan.
Turns out its proving to be a lot more time consuming to get the book out there than it initially seemed, and the company with the current option is dragging its heels a little. As well as the trapped in development hell Mad Max:Fury Road, he's set to direct an animated movie, Fur Brigade, which he describes as "The Dirty Dozen with teddy bears". Now, if there's one thing more exciting than an e-mail showing up from a childhood hero showing up in your inbox, its when that early idol of yours sends you an attachment with a piece of gorgeous preview art for his upcoming book!
So ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, Swimini Purpoise, and it's, in the words of the great man himself, coming soon!
*Excuse me for dipping into a little Cole Porter there. "Well, did you evah", to be precise. It seemed appropriate. As definitively essayed by Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry. Or Frank and Bing maybe. Dammit, make yer mind up, Cardwell!