Swashbuckling Simon Fraser!

Today the blog looks at a real comic aficionado, the wonderful Simon Fraser. This passionately creative artist is not only responsible for co-creating one of 2000AD's most popular characters (Nikolai Dante) but is the creator, writer and artist on Act-i-vate's Lilly MacKenzie. The popularity of the latter strip led to it being picked up by the Judge Dredd Megazine.

Simon is very busy, often juggling strip work with covers and his various blogs. In fact, it was on his blog in October last year when he announced he had a gap in his schedule and was open for commissions. I, and fellow fan James Stacey, jumped at the chance!

James' amazing commission can be seen above, He says "Here's my Dante / Lilly commission Simon did for me. I asked for a Frazetta inspired piece with Dante's bio blade in one hand, wine in the other and Ms MacKenzie taking the place of adoring eye candy. I think he's done it proud!"

I asked for two commissions from Simon. Firstly, I needed a Dredd in MegaCity One! I absolutely adore Simon's architecture, especially his futuristic buildings so simply had to see his take on Pete Wells Block.

A day after I contacted him, he came up with the brilliant image below! Simply sunning design work with wonderful framing, I was a very happy customer!
Naturally, I also asked for a Nikolai Dante pic, how could I not from the character's daddy? I asked for a swashbuckling Dante swinging from the page and the day after Si had sent the Dredd image I was delighted to receive the Dante one below! Superb.
Below are are a couple of other commissions taken from Simon's site. Of the artist's strong points, I feel that Si draws really 'believable' women which seems to add strength to their character. Below we have Cassandra Anderson and the beautiful but deadly Lulu Romanov.


The aim of this blog is to try to give an indication of what the artists are like to work with. Hand on heart I can say that Simon was a joy - his prices are very reasonable (if anything a little too reasonable) and he is super, super quick! As a result of Simon's speed, there are no WIP sketches to show in this post but when dealing with someone with such formidable the design skills, you know you can trust the artist to come up with something amazing. Finally, communication with the artist was also superb with prompt and cheerful replies to all emails.

So, next time Simon has a gap in his schedule, get in there quick!

Thanks to James for getting in touch with his cool Dante pic and Mr Fraser for the cool commissions!