Review:
Brendan McCarthy, comic strip artist and co-creator of “Mad Max – Fury Road” has done a lot since I first blogged about meeting him in 2007 over a coffee or two at the “Bar Italia” in Soho – proof, if nothing else, that the internet can offer connections of a less virtual variety.
Brendan showed me various projects he is hoping to develop into films or TV series having spent a large part of his career developing things for other people, here and in the U.S, including “Mad Max – Fury Road”, which he very casually mentioned that he’d been working on with the director, George Miller, for a decade or so at least, and became a smash-hit reality in 2015.
I remembered his breakthrough comic “Rogan Gosh”, from the early 90s, which didn’t exactly ignite a spark for cross-cultural themes at the time despite hit films like “Bhaji on The Beach” and the music of Asian Dub Foundation etc, but it remains an oddity and an interesting experiment worth seeking out.
Brendan gifted me a signed copy of his book “Swimini Purpose” – now quite rare and up for grabs on Ebay, and some pitch materials for Rogan Gosh, which he would like to develop as a film – and which I’ve totally forgotten about..:)
Brendan grew up in Hanwell, West London and was a close friend and later, associate, of fellow Hanwell-ite, the late (2015) Brett Ewins, with whom he co-founded (with Jamie “Gorillaz” Hewlett) the legendary “Deadline” comic of the 80’s.
Ewins coincidentally attended the same grammar school as me in Hanwell – Drayton Manor Grammar School – and similarly frequented the school Art Room, where we would gawp at his awesome drawing skills.
Rogan Gosh was dreamed up with the writer, Peter Milligan, apparently over a curry at the now vanished Soho curry legend, The Maharani, in Brewer St, and not on a trip to Southall, just down the road from Hanwell – and where I grew up, though Brendan freely admitted that the Indian comics on sale there were a major influence and inspiration for both he and Milligan, when perhaps, they were also chasing a curry in that wild part of West London.
Ravi Swami 2010