Phil Elliott

Phil Elliott (1960-) is a comic book creator who was published in "Escape Magazine". He was part of the British small press comics scene in the 80's.

Career

After contributing spot illustrations to comic fanzines such as Bemusing and The Panelologist in the mid 70's, Phil decided to try his hand at publishing his own fanzine and, with the help of Ian Wieczorek and Paul Chester released "Blitzine", followed by "Delapsus Resurgam". In 1977 Phil, with co-editor, Ian Wieczorek published the comic fanzine, "Elipse". "Elipse" ran for three issues and printed early strips by Kev F Sutherland, Mike Matthews and Dave Hine as well as Phil himself. Elipse was a unique fanzine at the time, featuring solely comic strips.

In the early 1980s Phil was re-acquainted with an old comic collecting friend, Paul Gravett who was working on "Pssst!" magazine. Unable to get his worked published in "Pssst!", Phil decided to return to self-publishing and, with Ian Wieczorek again, released the "Fast Fiction" comic, which took its name from the Fast Fiction comics distribution service.

One of the artists Phil chose to publish in "Fast Fiction" was Eddie Campbell. Phil collaborated with Eddie Campbell between 1984 and 1986 on various comic strips that ran in the music paper, "Sounds" and drew the first issue of Eddie's "Lucifer". Phil was also responsible for colouring many of the covers of Eddie's comics for Harrier Comics.

Phil also formed a strong creative partnership with Glenn Dakin which has resulted in comics such as "Greenhouse Warriors", "Mr Night" and "The Man from Cancer".

Phil was a regular contributor to the influential UK comic magazine, "Escape", and in 1985 "Escape" published his "Doc Chaos" comic. "Doc Chaos" was written by Dave Thorpe and Lawrence Gray.

In 1985 Phil began drawing "The Suttons" for his local newspaper, "The Maidstone Star". This comic strip ran for 3 years.

After handing over the editorship of "Fast Fiction" to Ed Pinsent, Phil began editing "!GAG!" for Harrier Comics. Harrier Comics also published Phil and Paul Duncan's 4-issue "Second City" comic as well as two collections of Phil's "A Tale from Gimbley" stories, "Some Tales From Gimbley" and "More Tales From Gimbley".

Phil has worked in some capacity for most of the major comic publishers in the USA and UK. His comic "Blite" was published by Fantagraphics. He was an artist on "The Real Ghostbusters" comic for Marvel UK and was the colourist on the first 7 issues of Paul Grist's superhero comic book, "Jack Staff". Other work has appeared in "Punch", "Knockabout", "Fox Comics" and "Power Rangers".

Influences

Phil's early influences were mainly US comicbook artists, including Bernie Wrightson, Barry Smith and Jeff Jones. Phil was later influenced by the European ligne clair, or clear line, artists such as Hergé and Joost Swarte. Eddie Campbell, along with Glenn Dakin and Ed Pinsent have also had a major influence on Phil's work and outlook.

Recent Work

Phil's most recent work is a a quirky under-18 thriller entitled Contraband. Set for an early 2008 release, this will be a unique illustrated book revealling how privacy-invading camera phone use fuels the multi-billion dollar spy-cam industry. Other graphic novels include "TUPELO" and "Absent Friends" for Slave Labor Graphics and "Illegal Alien" for Dark Horse Comics

External links

* [http://www.elliott-design.com http://www.elliott-design.com] - Phil Elliott's website