Charlie Adlard

 Born in Shrewsbury, England, Charlie Adlard is a highly successful comic artist, mostly known for his work in the Walking of the Dead comic where he is the lead artist. Despite never really reading his comics, I have seen his artwork before & I was really impressed with what he has achieved. This lecture was really interesting & it was a massive privilege to have Adlard doing a presentation at the university.

Charlie Adlard

 Prior to his biggest hits he worked in the UK on 2000 AD series, his first professional long term comic being for the Judge Dredd magazine. Around this time he also worked on project such as Armitage & to this day the series Savage.  English pieces weren't the only language he worked in but also he did work comics for a french company too, his first comic for this language being "Breath of the Windigo". Adlards first American work was "Dances with Demons" which was a rip off of the comic "Dances with Wolves".  In New York he worked for Define Comics under Jim Shooter. He also had other interests outside his work as a comic artist for example he actually used to be a drummer in a band called the Cosmic Rays.

The Walking Dead - one of the most famous works illustration by Charlie Adlard

Adlard mainly works in pen & ink which creates strong contrasts making his illustrations really pop off the page. I'm really impressed with his understanding of lighting & shadows as he perfectly adds the right amount of tone despite only working in black  & white. The sense of perspective is incredible which really inspires me to practice mine as I am awful at drawing backgrounds & creating a sense of depth.

Charlie Adlard is a very talented comic artist, even though I wouldn't consider this as a profession for myself, I would like to aim for his level of success & branch out to America. I need to challenge myself to work on backgrounds & perspective.