James Gray Reveals the Secrets of Illustrating Project SWORD!

Before he became a professional comic book artist, James Gray grew up immersed in classic science fiction worlds. His credits as a cover artist and illustrator range from IDW's Star Trek to several independent publishers, including Time Bomb Comics, Hellbound Media and many more.

Having already blasted off into the worlds of Gerry Anderson as the illustrator for Time Bomb Comics' take on Space Precinct from the Spectrum anthology, James is now teaming up with Big Finish writer Lizbeth Myles to reinvent the post-apocalyptic space adventure of Project SWORD, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter! 

We spoke to James about his thrilling mission of bringing the visually explosive world of Project SWORD back to life!

Fred McNamara: You've previously illustrated Space Precinct for Time Bomb’s Spectrum anthology. How did you come to be involved in Project SWORD?

James Gray: I’d like to think it’s because Steve Tanner, the main man at Time Bomb Comics, trusts in my abilities and, hopefully, likes what I do. It probably also helps that I’m pretty quick when producing art for him. We’ve worked together on various titles for a few years now and he always puts together a cracking package. We’re very often on the same page and have similar visons of what we’d like the final product to be. As was the case with Project SWORD and Space Precinct previously, all pages are sent off to Jamie Anderson for approval and so far, (touch wood), everything has come back with a positive nod and the ok continue. To have that final PDF signed off was a great feeling.

Fred McNamara: Project SWORD is famed for its heavy emphasis on fantastic futuristic space vehicles. How does illustrating Project SWORD compare with illustrating the more character-driven Space Precinct?

James Gray: Yeah, Space Precinct is much more of a cops and robbers drama compared to this. It’s more like Captain Scarlet in space, which surely is the perfect ingredients for a great adventure. I’ve wanted to do a space-set strip for a long time, a very long time, as most of my work is adventure, horror and fantasy-based. I grew up on Starblazer and 2000 AD, so this was a fantastic gig to come my way.

Fred McNamara: Project SWORD’s aesthetic was born out of the space race of the 1960s, but this renewed take reimagines SWORD as a more contemporary space-age adventure drama. How would you describe your visual style of this reinvigorated Project SWORD?

James Gray: Although I have my fingers in a lot of genre pots, I keep the same style throughout. It’s the only way I know when producing comic strip artwork. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, a lot of strips were either by or influenced by the great Don Lawrence and Frank Hampson and their contemporaries. A lot of fully painted art that I love, but I prefer a bolder black line art that stands out from the page more, which again, would hark back to the comics of my childhood, especially Starblazer.

Fred McNamara: What was your design process like for designing a whole new fleet of SWORD vehicles for yours and Lizbeth’s different take on the SWORD canon?

James Gray: This was a little different due to the redesign of pretty much everything for the book. Space Precinct’s vehicles, uniforms and environments were pretty much locked in, so that was more of a reference based strip where all was set in stone. I think I only had to design from scratch a couple of cars and a robot for Space Precinct. Project SWORD was more of a world building exercise from day one, way before any page layouts were considered. I love the original designs for the vehicles as seen in the old annual and the toys that were released, however, they all needed a makeover. I put myself in “Mike Trim mode”, my former art tutor back in the early 1990’s, (which I still feel so lucky to have had). I love designing ships and vehicles, often doodling spaceships in my “spare time”, so getting the opportunity to do just that for a Gerry Anderson property was a dream come true.

I love everything about industrial, prop and set design from the 50’s through to the 70’s, from the old black and white Flash Gordon serials through to Thunderbirds and classic Star Trek, so I took that in mind while creating the updated designs for this book. Staying away from sharp corners and straight edges as much as possible, but not making the ships, vehicles and wardrobe too vintage looking. Hopefully I pulled it off. I’m pretty happy with the final products, I especially like the SWORD space suits and my redesign of the Beetle.

Fred McNamara: Can fans expect to see plenty of mecha-driven action with your and Lizbeth's renewed take on Project SWORD?

James Gray: Absolutely they can. There’s ships, futuristic vehicles and environments all over the place. I think you’ll love it!

Fred McNamara: Time Bomb’s Project SWORD fulfilled its crowdfunding target in a matter of days since its launch. What might you attribute its success to be?

James Gray: It was a fantastic start, we actually reached our goal in an incredible 9 ½ hours and it’s still going strong. The key ingredient of course is that this is a Gerry Anderson property, that most people have either forgotten, had no knowledge of or were hoping for years to be resurrected. The Spectrum books did well, but this looks like it’ll surpass them in popularity.

It’s like finding restoring Thunderbirds from the archives and releasing a brand spanking new Blu-Ray release of it. Oh, hang on, you just did that, didn’t you!

Time Bomb Comics' Project SWORD is entering the final stretch of its Kickstarter campaign! Be sure to back this spectacular reimagining of this obscure creation from the pages of TV Century 21 before time runs out!