Hi, I'm Russ.
I'm a freelance Illustrator and because I work from home I need stimulus to stop me going a bit mad!
I love watching movies while I work and started buying the big 50 movie box sets to keep me entertained, without breaking the bank!
Back in 1981,
when I was 9, my mum took me to see " Clash of the Titans" and
I spent the rest of the summer pretending to be Perseus. As an adult I've
always loved the great myths of ancient Greece but it wasn't until I bought
a huge box set of old Peplums (60s Sword and Sandal films) that my imagination
really started firing off!
My cartoons and
illustrations are often influenced by old movies.
These great, but
often overlooked films were big in the early-mid 1960s. They were mainly
produced in Italy with stars
like Steve Reeves, Reg Park and Mark
Forest.
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| Steve Reeves in Hercules Unleashed |
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| Reg Park in Hercules in the Haunted World |
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| Mark Forest |
A good time to be
a bodybuilder who could swing a rubber club or throw a polystyrene rock.
These films
display an all together different charm to the CGI drenched "epics"
of recent years.
So it was from
the enjoyment of watching these old movies that I came up with the idea of
presenting the classic adventures of ancient Greece in a punchy/cartoony comic
book for kids. Back in 2008 I formulated the concept of "Mini
Myths", short, concise adventures geared towards the modern children's
book market.
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| 2008 Promotional Art |
I wrote and
illustrated two stories, "Perseus and Medusa" and "Theseus
and the Minotaur". I was happy with them but they needed something
else. They were a bit flat. Work got busy and I placed this project on hold for
a while, concentrating on earning a living instead.
Fast forward to
the beginning of 2011, my day job got hectic. I had numerous large projects
with similar deadlines. I sacrificed my social life and worked seven days a
week for 4-5 months. My reward at the end of all this craziness was four
allotted months off from paid work to concentrate on my passion, "Mini
Myths"!
So
from October 2011 to March 2012 I beavered away at revamping my pet project. My
enthusiasm was immense! Most of the characters were given an overhaul, the
stories made more fluid and fun. But the biggest new element was the role
of Zeus and the other Gods of Mount Olympus who were
to become more pivotal. They were the glue that bound the stories together.
Now
"Mini Myths 1: Heroic Beginnings" is almost ready to publish
as an eBook. This is, hopefully the first book in a series of four. The stories
in book one are "Perseus and Medusa", "Perseus and
Andromeda" and "Theseus and the Minotaur".
These
stories are produced for boys and girls aged 9 and above.
Hopefully
people will enjoy reading "Mini Myths 1: Heroic Beginnings" as
much as I enjoyed producing it.
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