Battle Action Force artist John Cooper passes

[The Baron]

Rest in Peace, John Cooper.

http://downthetubes.net/?p=20091
http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/

BFTB would be nothing without you.

[action-figure-supplies]

Agreed, he was by far my favourite artist for many years. I still love his work.

[Chopper]

Not a good week for deaths, RIP JC.

[Quickfire]

RIP



The Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union may have been lost in the post, but Herr Cooper will forever live on in our hearts.

ZA RODINU!

[The Baron]

I can't actually find the words, John Cooper's artwork was a HUGE part of my childhood - and the reason I decided to scan the comics that created BFTB. I'm going to work on a tribute towards him, any input would be welcome.

[buddusky]

A great talent.

Here's a couple of my favourite pieces I was so lucky to find:

[Quickfire]

Awesome, thanks for sharing the artwork Buddusky!

I can't actually find the words, John Cooper's artwork was a HUGE part of my childhood - and the reason I decided to scan the comics that created BFTB. I'm going to work on a tribute towards him, any input would be welcome.

A tribute would be a great idea, visited the thread again to post the link below from 2000AD commemorating Coops's Joe Dredd work.

John Cooper: Ace Art Droid: A Tribute (1942-2015).
It’s been a terrible year for UK comic artists, with the untimely death of 2000AD great, Brett Ewins, and the passing last week of another legend of British comics, John Cooper.
John really made his name on British boys comic, Valiant, on One-Eyed Jack, a popular strip that followed him to the edgier war comic, Battle (later Battle Picture Weekly).

Whilst at BPW, Cooper also worked on his most famous character, Johnny Red, taking over from Charley’s War artist, Joe Colquhoun, virtually making it his own - a young, working-class Liverpudlian R.A.F. pilot, who is dishonourably discharged from the service for accidentally striking an officer. Finding work on a merchant naval vessel, Johnny rescues a downed plane when his ship is hit, piloting the craft onto Russian soil where he finds himself enlisted into the Falcon Squadron, eventually leading the disparate bunch of ragtag misfits.

However, you may not know that John also drew the very first Judge Dredd strip, unfortunately this strip didn’t get published until Prog 19: Mugger’s Moon (2Jul’77), robbing Cooper of the kudos and historical record that comes with debuting such an iconic strip.

http://2000adonline.tumblr.com/post/112 ... QVomdLF-So

[Hopper]

Absolutely gutted when I read this.
I'm with you Jim, his art was such a huge part of my childhood - his, Esquerra and Colquhoun.

But Cooper really did, almost single-handedly, give form to Action Force.

Some nice prints you have there, Buddusky. Very jealous.
I have a a Hunters Battle print somewhere - can't remember the artist (not Cooper, sadly.)

Some sort of tribute would be great - but what and how?