Stephen King Adapted by Wolves' Wanderer!

The Stand tells the tale of survivors from a man-made plague. It focuses on two distinct groups in search of a new home amidst a post-apocalyptic America. When these opposing forces meet it becomes time for them to make their final stand.

An awful long time has passed since I stood propping up a bar with Michael Perkins, and even longer since I was able to put his name forward to draw an issue of Biker Mice from Mars for Marvel UK.

Mike began drawing for 2000AD around that time too, and then produced a lot of pages for Caliber, and a couple of books for DC in America, while he busked his life between the West Midlands and Poland.

Some time later, an offer came for him to go and work for Crossgen in Florida, inking Ruse. It sounded fantastic, but it wasn't all sweetness and light. The downside of some of those events can be found in a rather revealing interview I did with the artist that can still be found at:
www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=5293

For the last few years Marvel has kept Mike busy, notably on books like Captain America. Now his work's set to become even more profile as he takes on The Stand.

"I'm all wrapped up with my commitment to Captain America and my drawing board is cleared so that I can just concentrate on the adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. Saying that, though, I'm also illustrating some covers for a new House of M mini-series." Mike told me from across the Atlantic last week.

The Stand will prove to be a heavy workload for him, but he's getting psyched ready to draw it.

"The comics are 22 pages per month and I have to attempt to keep up the pace. Luckily, even though thirty issues are planned out, the series will be released in chapters of five-six chunks with a couple of months break in between each arc.

"This will enable me to pull ahead and keep the flow of pencils and inks going. This also means that this will be my sole interior art for the next three years or so, although I would like to keep my fingers in the Marvel superhero universe through the illustration of covers."

That were a number of factors he said he felt that were appealing about this particular story by King.

"The subject matter is extremely visual and highly imaginative with plenty of character interaction. The plot thunders along and keeps the reader enthralled from the very first page. There's a lot to love about the overall story and the personal interactions it provokes.

"It's also a chance to develop something from the ground up; visualising the characters in the novel and sticking with those characters throughout the entirety of the adaptation."

Michael Perkins is a local Midlands lad, a boy from Bushbury, Wolverhampton, who's living out his childhood dream and there are days when he can't believe it himself.

"It's still the biggest dream to do what I do for a living." Mike remarked "I know that I'm extremely privileged to be illustrating comics and I'll never forget that, no matter where I'm living... Although living in Florida is a little more icing on the cake!"

The Stand hits shops this Autumn in the meantime you might want to check out Michael Perkin's official website at: www.mikeperkinsart.com