Steve Whitaker

Fan
Name:	Steve Whitaker
Alias(es):	stickismyfriend
Type:	fanartist, zine editor, professional artist
Fandoms:	comics
Communities:	British Amateur Press Association
Other:
URL:	Steve Whitaker, Livejournal, CV from Jellytown
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Steve Whitaker was a fanartist and editor of Chain Reaction. He went on to become a professional comics colourist, best known for his work in the colour reprint of V for Vendetta. He passed away in 2008.

Whitaker was part of the editorial team of Hassan Yusuf and Frank Plowright for Chain Reaction, providing much of the interior art as well as some of the writing. He originated the "Comic Whoopsies", a regular piece showcasing just weird or incomprehensible moments from comics. He also provided art and articles for various other fanzines and small press comics in the 1980s and 1990s, and worked as a colourist for a number of companies, including Marvel Comics, Marvel UK, DC Comics and 2000 AD.

Aside from his comics work, he also wrote The Encyclopedia of Cartooning Techniques which was published in 1994.

My name is Steve. Grew up in early 60s Kent (Swanley) and London. Attended secondary school in late 60s Northampton. Foundation in Bedford. BA Hons Degree in Painting at Chelsea 1975-78. Did lot of odd jobs including gardening, working in a toot shop, specialist decoration. Collaborated on a couple of art magazines in the 80s (Cipher and Atlas). Worked as colourist for Marvel UK, Oberon BV (Holland), DC, Fleetway, Tundra, Valiant/Acclaim. Awards for colour work on V For Vendetta and Adolph Hitler. Committee member and Vice Chair at the Society of Strip Illustrators in the 80s and early 90s. Comics obituaries fo Guardian and Independent. Taught at London Cartoon Centre, East Ham College, Central School of Art in the 90s and Noughties. Wrote the Encyclopedia Of Cartoon Techniques in 1993. Have been my father's carer since 1999.

Profile - stickismyfriend - Livejournal account

Notable Fanworks

Fanart

• 

  Chain Reaction #1, front cover with Neocleous (1982/1983)

• 

  Chain Reaction, Issue #4 front cover (1984)

Tributes

I never worked out how Steve knew so much about comics. He wasn’t one of those people who had filled his head with one thing to the exclusion of all else, but he knew more than seemed possible. Once we interviewed Will Eisner, soon after The Dreamer, his roman a clef about his early days in comics, had come out. Steve wanted to check his deductions of who the people were and ask about the two, I think it was, who he hadn’t identified. Steve was saying things like “Obviously this printer is…” and “I assume the woman in this panel is…” and Eisner was literally agape with amazement. I remember him saying “I thought I was the only person in the whole world who would have any idea who that was” and the like. The two he hadn’t identified turned out to be characters in a panel or two for a function, not based on anyone.

But really, it wasn’t factual knowledge that affected me so much. We’d talk about comic writing and art, and Steve’s understanding of these was incomparably more sophisticated and advanced than mine. Than mine is now, come to that, let alone nearly thirty years ago. He’d explain why some things worked and some didn’t, what he loved about Ditko (his favourite) and many others. He expanded my ways of reading and thinking about comics, and kept doing it.

 

His most famous work is his colouring on Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta, but Steve’s influence reached much further than his published credits, which included Marvel (UK & US), DC Comics, Fleetway, Tundra, and Valiant.

His achievements as an illustrator remain largely unknown, owing to his self-critical perfectionism (when I shared a flat with him in the 1990s, I regularly rescued discarded sketches from under the coffee table!) and his, shall we say, unorthodox attitudes to deadlines. He never prioritised the business of making a living; he was always too busy living.

He was one of the most formidable repositories of comics knowledge in the world, and I’m also very proud that he was one of my closest friends. Whenever I’m asked a question I can’t answer about comics, my first thought is still “I bet Steve will know that” – forgetting, momentarily, that I won’t be in a position to ask him for a while…

 

My friend and colleague, Steve Whitaker, one of the two great colourists who gave so much talent and skill to bringing V For Vendetta to life, died suddenly on Friday morning.

He was not only one of the finest colourists Britain has ever produced, but a great artist, a scholar of the comics medium, and a great teacher, too, who I worked with at The London Cartoon Centre in it's [sic] various incarnations.

There some great tributes to him on Matt Brookers blog at http://disraeli-demon.blogspot.com/2008/02/steve-whitaker-rip.html.

He was a terrific guy - generous to a fault, full of enthusiasm about this medium of ours, and great company over a Guinness or three. He'll be sorely missed by all who knew him.

 

• "In Memoriam: Comic Artist and Colourist Steve Whitaker" by John Freeman, downthetubes.net, February 24, 2008.
• "Steve Whitaker RIP" by Matt Bokker, D'Blog of 'Israeli, February 22, 2008.
• "Steve Whitaker (1955-2008)" by Steve, Bear Alley, February 26, 2008.
• "Steve Whitaker, 1955-2008" by unknown, The Comics Reporter, February 25, 2008.
• "Jellytown", tribute Livejournal community.
• "Steemol", tribute Flickr account.

Archives/Zines/Collections/Communities

Zines

As Editor

• Chain Reaction - co-editor (1981 - 1984)
• Really? - BAPA zine

As Contributor

• Chain Reaction
  • Direct Current Issue #1 - "The Hawk and the Dove" - article and art; extra interior art [1981]
  • Issue #1 - front cover with Neocleous; "Decline of an Annual Tradition" Marvel Comics' Annuals art; "GI Wombat" comic strip
  • Issue #2 - editorial, plus art; 1982 Edited Highlights co-written with Frank Plowright and Hassan Yusuf - article about the best of comics, 1982; "The Return of the Tough Kid Squad" by Steve Whitaker - article on the New Mutants and the history of "kid teams" in comics; "All Our Yesterdays: November 1966" - article on Marvel and DC news; interior art [1983]
  • Issue #3 - editorial plus art; "GI Wombat" comic strip; interior art [1983]
  • Issue #4 - front cover and interior art; "GI Wombat" [1984]
  • Issue #5 - editorial, plus art; interior art; "Euro Comics or What I Did On My Holidays" [1984]
  • Issue #6 - interior art; "Do It Right! Hawkman"; "Whatever Happened to GI Wombat?"; "1984 In Focus" co-written with Frank Plowright and Hassan Yusuf [1984/1985]
  • Issue #7 - interior art; Comics Whoopsies; review, Garth, Book One: The Cloud of Balthus. [1986]

• Fantasy Advertiser
  • Issue #92 - front cover art [1985]
  • Issue #97 - article on Steve Ditko [1986]