Bryan Talbot: Artist Guest Of Honor

An immensely talented artist and writer, Bryan Talbot is familiar to many people from his work on Nemesis the Warlock in 2000AD. He has also worked frequently with Neil Gaiman especially on Sandman. Recently he was concept artist for Return to Love, a film directed by John Sorenson, loosely based on Ramsey Cambpell's Above the World. Negotiations are under way with the BBC. Bryan has spent the last two and a half years completing The Tale of One Bad Rat, the story of Helen Potter, an abuse victim who finds that her life oddly parallels that of her favourite author, Beatrix Potter. Bad Rat is powerful, disturbing and profoundly moving - and it's already causing controversy with the Beatrix Potter Society backing it and the National Trust attacking it. It's on sale now - take a look.

Bryan is probably still best known for The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, a tale of heroism and pacifism set across parallel worlds in a universe threatened by the chaos weapon Firefrost and the disruptors, mysterious stormtroopers in black. In one parallel the Puritans still rule England and Hiram Kowolsky, foreign correspondent for the New Amsterdam Herald, reports from his hideaway on London Bridge... Arkwright fans will be glad to know that Bryan is starting work on the sequel, which may well be finished in time for Evolution.

- Mary Branscombe