10TH BIRTHDAY: NEILL CAMERON

FORMER Rough Cut Comics Marketing Manager Johnny McKie recalls his favourite artist from the company’s 10 year history.

ROUGH CUT COMICS acquired the comic-book rights to Brian Yuzna’s cult horror satire Society in 2002 and produced stories which combined to be an official sequel to the 1989 film.

British artist NEILL CAMERON produced the artwork for the second issue of SOCIETY: PARTY ANIMAL in 2003.

Neill had developed a substantial reputation in the small press of the day. Publisher Ed Murphy was a huge fan of his Dumbass comic label and his work in British Bulldog. The Oxford-born artist, who studied at university in Glasgow, had a style which the team at Rough Cut Comics reckoned was truly dynamic … with potent strains of early Frank Quitely in design and presentation.

For the SOCIETY series, the artist had captured the Dali-esque caricatures of the story’s main protagonists: a race of upper-class deviants who ritualistically devour the poor.  His visualisation of the “Mega-Shunt”  –  the monumental melding of a hundred naked deviants engaged in a sexual orgy while oozing after hero Billy Whitney  – was fantastically grotesque. Thanks Neill.

Neill has since provided the art for the Classic Comics’ award-winning adaptation of Henry V, for which he won a Silver Medal Independent Publisher Book Award in 2008. His webcomic Thumpculture was also shortlisted for an IMAF (International Manga and Anime Festival) award.

He has also provided artwork for such licensed series as Transformers, Doctor Who and Marvel Heroes.

His latest work is Mo-Bot High, a brand new graphic novel series from David Fickling Books in the DFC Library. We are led to believe Neil is currently working on new projects which “combine dinosaurs, pirates and monkeys” for the new children’s comic The Phoenix, launching January 2012.

For more information on Neill, check out www.neillcameron.com. Check out some of Neill’s art from SOCIETY: PARTY ANIMAL on www.roughcut-comics.com  … or on the Facebook page link: www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rough-Cut-Comics/142598199129432. We'll be reproducing more artwork over the next few weeks.