A comic book writer and artist from Highbridge has this week spoken out of his delight at securing a dream job.
Paul Grist, 60, from Highbridge, has spent the past 20 years publishing his own stories and making his dreams a reality.
His stories are to appear in a new Marvel mag called The Union, featuring comic heroes from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Talking to Burnham-On-Sea.com this week, Paul says: “I’m a comic writer/artist, and have worked for most of the major comic companies in the UK and the US.”
“I started out working on a girls comic called Nikki in 1987. Mainly I’ve been writing and drawing my own comics, Kane (police/crime stories), Jack Staff (a UK based superhero with a big stick) and Mudman, a local superhero who lives in ‘Burnbridge on Sea’.”
“Originally, I self published Kane and Jack Staff, but since 2002 my work has been published by Image Comics, which is based in the US and is the third biggest publisher, after Marvel and DC, but it focusses on creator owned comics. Image are the publishers of the original Walking Dead comic.”
“I have written for Marvel comics before back in 1996, writing a three-issue series called the Daily Bugle, featuring characters who work on a newspaper in the Spider-man stories.”
“I also wrote some Superman stories and a few Batman stories, not a lot, but I have done some!”
“Following on from this I contacted Marvel to see if they’d be interested in a series about Union Jack, which I could write, but they never got back to me about that.”
“I developed the idea on my own into what became my ‘Jack Staff’ series. Then, at the end of 2019, an editor at Marvel contacted me to let me know they were planning a new comic featuring Union Jack, and would I be interested in writing it.”
“It was originally intended to be launched last spring, but ended up having to be temporarily shelved when the pandemic ended up closing all the comic book shops in the UK and the US.”
“It was then relaunched in December 2020, with the first issue featuring a bunch of British super-heroes facing off against an alien attack on Brean Down!”
“So far, four issues have been published, the fifth (and final) issue should be out in May and then a collection featuring the complete story will be published in June/July.”
“Currently I’m working on my own Kane comic, which I will be writing and drawing, and will be published by Image Comics later this year.”
