It’s been nearly a year since the last update, so maybe it’s time to officially close the door on the Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy. I think websites have a certain lifespan and the Strangeness has run longer than most. But priorities change, life’s road get bumpy and changes in directions you never expected, so time and enthusiasm to run a blog become hard things to find. But the site will remain online as an archive.

Below you'll find the cover to the second and final issue of the Zaucer of Zilk American edition. Zaucer of Zilk issue one will be in stores October 2012 published by IDW.


As Mad Max 4: Fury Road is finally in production lots of Brendan's design have leaked out all over the internet. Here are a couple...

Announced at this year's San Diego Comic Convention: Zaucer of Zilk will get an American reprint courtesy of IDW

You've recently seen Paradax in his fat Elvis years, below is a little seen appearance from his heyday. This 1987 Milligan/McCarthy story appeared in Strip Aids, a charity comic for London Lighthouse (England's first day-care centre for people affected by AIDS)

100 Drawings was a planned book by Brendan. Unfortunately due to a faulty hard drive most of the hi-res scans were lost. Fortunately the artwork that survived will be appearing over the next couple of posts.

I'll be changing the site's RSS feed in the next couple of days. The new address is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/dkwU?format=xml

Feedburner page: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/dkwU

Let me know if you have any problems (my email) or use the comments section below

Brendan: "These two pages are from my issue of SOLO. The original idea for the short story had two teenage wasters dressed as Batman and Superman for a fancy dress party. DC wasn't too keen on seeing their characters - or even other characters dressed as them - using the Worlds Finest title watching old porn videos and drinking beer, so changes were asked for. I was happy to oblige as I had been given a total free hand on the book, which is one of my favourite pieces of work, and it didn't seem like that big a deal."

The final part of Zaucer of Zilk (episode ten) goes on sale today (2000AD prog 1784)

Sketchbook work for Brendan's issue of SOLO

I've never had a great passion for the DC/Marvel characters. Maybe it has to do with childhood nostalgia, before I read The Dark Knight Returns aged eighteen my only other exposure to US comics were a few Jack Kirby stories in an old British annual. Then there's Bizarro... for some reason he is the only superhero character I find interesting maybe because I can't fathom how a character than odd popped into creation in the first place but then goes on to inhabit the world of the DC characters all these years later.

How does this relate to Brendan? Well below is one of my favourite images from his issue of SOLO, (DC's oddest superhero rebooted into an Alan Bennett play) and the next few posts will feature some previously unseen artwork and sketches from Brendan's issue of SOLO. 

Brendan and Brett Ewins. Taken in the late seventies while working on the Dan Dare TV series

2000AD prog 1783 goes on sale tomorrow, featuring the penultimate episode of The Zaucer of Zilk. Below you'll find some of Brendan's early Zaucer sketches/ideas and if you stroll over to the Forbidden Planet Blog (link) you'll find a directory's commentary of the first episode by Brendan and Al Ewing

Some wallpaper I knocked together. They are 1920 x 1080 but if you want a different size or colour let me know in the comments below.