Journal
May 14, 2026
So back in the days of the dinosaur I wrote Firearm for Malibu’s Ultraverse.
He was a British P.I. in a world of superheroes. There was a lot of me in the character. Not that I was ever an ex-Brit secret agent now looking for a quiet life in Pasadena but seemingly fated to encounter superhero drama and danger at each and every turn. No, but I had at least come from the UK and settled in Sierra Madre, a small town nestled in the San Gabriel Mountains next to Pasadena and famous mainly for being where the ending of the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was filmed. As such a lot of Alec Swan’s thoughts about America and life were akin to my own. Anyway…
…When it came time for Alec Swan to be designed, the initial work done by an artist that I’ll refrain from naming came in all wrong. Kinda, sorta “John Wayne meets the Punisher” which might have worked somewhere, but not for my character. And that was when we went to Howard Chaykin, who got who the character was and designed accordingly. He added the scar, too, I think. Maybe that was me. Like I say it was back before the Ice Age.
I found this among my old papers and thought I’d let you all have a look. The other more dramatic image was for the Malibu/Ultraverse trading cards that came later.
Journal
And he's Kevin Matchstick (Mage) with Supes, by my friend, the one and only Matt Wagner (who also gave me my first American work on Grendel Tales: Four Devils One Hell, although not published until years after it was...
I’ve been lucky enough to work with Steve Yeowell a few times, although these was many years back now. He was the artist on my first published American work “67 Seconds” (although it was certainly not my first American...
I used to be pretty good pals with Steve Rude back in the early 90s when we both lived in L.A. That’s why it made perfect sense that he’d be the first artist to do something in my sketchbook. I asked for The Guardian...
