D`Israeli

Matt Brooker (aka D'Israeli) is perhaps best known for his collaborations with writer Ian Edginton, in particular Kingdom of the Wicked, the War of the Worlds sequels Scarlet Traces and The Great Game and, more recently, Stickleback for 2000AD. Matt's unique and constantly evolving style makes use of Adobe Illustrator and often features variations on grey or white line with negative space.

I first met Matt and Ian when they visited Cardiff for a Welsh Animation Group evening I helped organise. Despite the embarrassingly poor turnout (seven people!), they did an excellent talk and signed a large number of the books I'd bought. Since then, I've seen them both at the 2007 Bristol and Birmingham conventions and they've been in excellent spirits. I'm really looking forward to seeing Stickleback in collected form!

Wikipedia entry
Personal site
Blog - and excellent read!



Matt and Ian were at the back of the convention, tucked away in a corner. Unlike the last convention, there was a distinct lack of creator-owned stalls and nearly all the other creators were on sponsored tables bought by shops or publishers. There was always a big queue around their stall as usual but I managed to sneak through and get a Leviathan sketch before it was too late! (Birmingham International Comic Show 2008)
 
My final sketch of the convention and it was done right at the last minute by Matt! I'd really enjoyed the Kingdom of the Wicked book that he and Ian had done a few years ago and thought the cover image would be great to fit into the letterbox banner format. Matt's done a great job and you really get that sense of first world war chaos as teddy bears are sacrificed against a terrible enemy. (Bristol International Comics Expo 2008)
 
My second image from Matt over the weekend. I'd already seen images from Stickleback on Matt's blog and really liked his new style - I'm very much looking forward to seeing a collected edition once series two is completed. The shape and design of the titular character suited the frame really well and it made for a very menacing introduction to the zombie banners that followed! (Birmingham International Comic Show 2007)
 
The first of two images I bought from Matt at the 2007 Birmingham convention. I couldn't decide between a War of the Worlds theme or a Stickleback theme so I pitched for both. For this one, I thought it would be fun to show a tripod battling one of the dinosaurs from Matt and Paul Cornell's book XTNCT. What's great about this image is that the whole thing is done with Matt's negative space style. Although I've left the pencil marks visible, it looks great with the contrast increased so that the bold areas of black stand out from the white. (Birmingham International Comic Show 2007)