Tripwire Talks To UK Artist John Charles About A Career In Comics And His Latest Sketchbook

Sketching Out A Career

Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul Neal just chatted to UK comic artist John Charles about his plans for the future and his latest sketchbook…

TRIPWIRE: It has been a little while since Tripwire spoke to you… You have a new publication available for comic fans, but can we circle back to that please. What is the status at the time of writing of seeing new Technofreak material?

JOHN CHARLES: A new issue of Technofreak is in production and it should be out around May/June. I’m drawing some of it myself, as is my chum Antonio Valjean and Tom Newell returns, of course. The thing is in chapters and we’re drawing one each.

There will be a new TechnoFreak short, written by me and drawn by Adrian Bamforth coming out before that in my new magazine about comics and related subjects like film, TV and illustration. I’m keeping the magazine’s title under my hat for now. It’ll probably be announced in March when I run a Kickstarter to help launch it. To be honest, work on the new magazine has put the new TechnoFreak back a bit, but it’ll be worth the wait.

TW: How did 2025 treat you as an artist and a colourist? I understand you’re still a regular contributor to 2000AD as a colourist. Are you still available to publishers for that sort of work?

JC: Yeah, I’m still working on 200AD as a colourist. 2025 was good; I coloured all of a regular strip drawn by Steven Austin, Ravilious Pact and at least one Dredd strip. I’m not on a regular strip at present, just doing odd bits. I’m currently awaiting part two of a 3riller, written by Liam Johnson and also drawn by Steven Austin. I do have spare capacity for colouring work, so could fit in work for other publishers if there’s anything going. Feel free to contact me, via my website: www.johncharles.art.

TRIPWIRE NOTE: John Charles was given permission to show one small panel from an upcoming 2000AD 3riller, “Who is Adrian Apollo?”

TW: We spoke in the past about the idea of a TechnoFreak and Dredd crossover. Given your positive relationship with Tharg, is there still a slim chance this could become a reality?

JC: Er, no. I wrote a full script for it and sent it in. It was the usual zero response as I recall. I don’t think they like doing stuff they don’t own. I asked about submitting a series proposal, set in Mega City One and he didn’t even want to read it. I’ll plough my own field.

TW: You have a sketchbook available for fans of your art. Can you describe the art that’s included please? How many pages are involved? Also, how many years of sketches are we looking at? What dates would you put on the earliest to the most recent in this sketchbook?

JC: I do have a sketchbook available – well a greatest hits kind of thing from around 47 years of sketchbooks. I was told at Art School to buy hardback sketchbooks, advice I always pass on. They have held up well over the years and are not only interesting to look at to see my development, but they are also a rich source of ideas, some of which were long forgotten.

The earliest sketch in it is from 1978, when I was eighteen. I found an old self-portrait from when I was at art school, drawn in pencil, and made an updated version of it, with me in a similar pose, and drew it on my iPad.

The collected sketchbook is 36 pages plus covers and features a wide range of images from my career, which takes in work for 2000AD, Marvel UK and other publishers. It’s dominated by unpublished sketchbook stuff though, including developmental sketches from the earliest days of my very own TechnoFreak character.

TW: I understand the sketchbook is available on a Print-On-Demand system. What would you say are the upsides or downsides of using this form of publishing?

JC: It’s great. No stock to store and the printed copies are mailed out directly from the printer to the purchaser. No running to the post office every other day and the print quality is excellent!

TW: It sounds like an interesting way to get your art out to your fans. Can you explain how it works and how people can order a copy?

JC: Sure, and thanks for asking… Go to: https://theshift.store/products/john-charles-sketchbook. There’s a good description of the book there, some sample images and it’s only £15 plus postage.

TW: To the best of your knowledge, how long does it take from a fan ordering it online, through printing their copy (or copies) to arriving in a reader’s hands?

JC: It seems to be about two weeks.

TW: As a teaser, would it be okay if Tripwire shared a small handful of the images from your sketchbook?

JC: It most certainly would. Cheers! Check out Walldude. It’s a good one and totally invented. Lord knows where that one came from.