Friday, 22 April 2011

The British Bat-Man and Robin: Knight and Squire

We have seen the end to the wonderful 6 part series Knight and Squire written by Paul Cornell, artist; Jimmy Broxton and cover art by Yanick Paquette.



What made this comic so good for me was it is set in Real Britain.
For every British comic reader I’m sure it gave off the same feel… It was grey skies, Sunday afternoons kicking a football, the gritty working class cities that sit along the backdrop of hundreds of years of history and mythology amongst green and pleasant land, the vibrant counter cultures of each city which don the pubs and cobbled back streets every night.
This comic apart from being fantastic within itself was homage to the classic British publications, Beano, Dandy, 2000 AD, and of course the adult humour and double en-tendre of VIZ.
The TV shows and personalities we were brought up on, the nostalgia of The Goodies, Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks.
TV hosts of the day having guest appearances and known comic fan Jonathan Ross. It was such a refreshing change to see rather than the dear chaps, wot wot, cheerio crap that still in 2011 emerges from time to time.

 The Knight Cyril Sheldrake lives in Sheldrake Castle, Great Worden, Wordenshire, which has the extravagance of the batcave.
The Knight's current motorcycle is named Anastasia, after British comic Dan Dares’ spaceship. Anastasia has a chemical tracking system built into her "nose" which is designed as a horse’s head.
We get the impression that the Knight is the father figure to other British superheroes.  We see Captain Cornwall who will inherit Merlin’s power.
 He is also on good terms with some "villains" such as Jarvis Poker, the British Joker. Who I imagine is based on Stephen Fry.
In #5 we see a surprised guest villain who rocks Britain’s hero and villain scene, and the ending was poignant, comical and of course a 'fast show' reference.
All in all this was a great mini-series whether you are feeling the loss of some the Great from Britain or you read it as a British superhero book and by far one of the best comics of 2011…
So after reading the final issue my customising gene was kicking in.
 I couldn’t resist in trying to create Knight and Squire.
The base figure for Squire was the DCD Lois Lane from the Superman/Lois two pack.
With some simple sculpting to recreate the waist from the cut away jacket she made an excellent base as her hair and hat leant itself to the shape of Squires hat.

This was created with two part epoxy and Citadel paints.



Knight on the other hand, I couldn’t get quite right…  I have re-done him a good few times trying to build texture to his all grey costume.
1st attempt!

BUT he looked shite… WHY? I don’t think my brain was working quite right from looking at the image to it being transferred to my head and translated to hand… my visa was just nothing like.
After that he was better but it still didn’t look right…

I HAD CUT HIS EARS THE WRONG WAY ROUND!!..

He is made from fimo, epoxy and flat plastic with Tamiya paints.
The base was the DCD Silverage Batman from the Batman and Robin two pack.
So now he stands with corrected ears, but what happened this afternoon? One of my cats took a dislike to him and took off one of his ears.
So just to add with the battle damage and an adventure with a giant cat!  His ear was super glued back on.

If you have not read this series, go go go!! Head to your LCS and pick it up and enjoy!!

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