Never the Bride illustration

A full color illustration I just finished of Brenda and Effie as well as some nasty characters they come across in Paul Magrs book Never the Bride. However, not ALL the characters in the background are as wicked as they seem. Or at least as wicked as they have been in the past.

More NEVER THE BRIDE sketches

A first pen and ink attempt at Paul Magrs delightful Brenda and Effie. I've been having a difficult time trying to get out of drawing all my characters looking like railings. This was my second attempt at making Brenda look a bit more plump. But she still doesn't quite have that sewn up from different body parts look to her as she's supposed to.


A third attempt at Brenda. Second in pen and ink. I tried to maker her look a lot more earthy than the previous one. And I made one of her legs and foots noticeably bigger than the other one. I also decided to give her a little patchwork coat to emphasize that found element of the character.

With Brenda's character, you really have to think of a really friendly maiden aunt or great aunt you might have had at one point of your life or another. Or a friend of your Grandparents who had this very large and outgoing personality and appearance. And a smile to match.


I wasn't terribly happy with my first sketch of Alucard. You hardcore Universal Monster Movie fans know what that name is spelled the other way around ;-) When I was sketching the character I had decided to go with the author's favorite Dracula Louis Jourdan rather than my own preference of Christopher Lee. Louis Jourdan had starred as Dracula in a really great and atmospheric BBC adaptation in 1977. I added a mustache to keep in line with the Bram Stoker novel. But unfortunately, I think my first rendering of the character came out too bland sooooo....


...I did a second one. Paul's book is a celebration of the Universal Monster Movies to me, so I'm trying to get that across in a lot of my character sketches. So, this time I decided to go with a cross between Louis Jourdan and John Carradine who played the Count in a couple of the later Universal Monster Movies.


The rather odious Mr. Danby. He's kind of a cross between Mr. Joyboy from The Loved One and Truman Capote (if Capote was an evil Mad Scientist) in my sketch.


And here are a couple extra characters I really liked from Never the Bride.


A quick sketch of Mrs. Claus. The owner of a Christmas inspired hotel and another rather vile character Brenda and Effie come up against.

Brenda and Effie character sketches

A couple sketches I did of the main characters Brenda and Effie from probably one of the best new books I've read Never the Bride.

Brenda is to the left and Effie is to the right in the first sketch. The second sketch I tried to make Brenda look closer to the way B+E author Paul Magrs describes her in the book being plumper, friendlier and a big more bosomy.

What I like about the series is it features a pair of older women having these adventures. Which is refreshing seeing that most stories seem to have younger people as the central characters.

If you're a fan of classic science fiction, Hammer Horror and the Universal Monster movies you will enjoy the Brenda and Effie series!!

Books you should read: Brenda and Effie

I first got into Paul Magrs writing when I read his Doctor Who novel Verdigris. What I really liked about the book is how he captured everything about the Third Doctor era of Doctor Who on television as well as the feel of the 1970's. I could just imagine the fun tatty sets and gloriously over-the-top villains.

I was also very pleased to get to know Paul Magrs through many of the online networking site and do a little book swap.

This brings me to a series of books he has written featuring a pair of characters by the name of Brenda and Effie. I had just finished reading the first book in the series Never the Bride about a month or so ago and now I'm onto the second book Something Borrowed.

I have to say this is probably the best new series I have gotten into for some time now. The first thing I like is Paul makes the lead characters a pair of older women rather than a couple of young girls going on these rather otherworldly adventures.

As a matter of fact Brenda is quite a bite older than most and had a very long and checkered past before she decided to settle down and run her little bed and breakfast in Whitby and finally live a quiet life...

...or so she thought as she and her friend Effie seem to be dragged from one strange adventure to the next.

There are so many things I love about the first novel alone. The first being how Paul Magrs has broken each chapter in the book to read like a separate television episode. The other is how he has taken the best bits of classic science-fiction literature, the Universal Monster Movies of the 30's and 40's and reintroduces them in a very fun and unique way by blending them with a humor quite reminiscent of writers like Evelyn Waugh and Stephen Fry.

The way the characters talk in the book are so much fun to read.

I highly recommend you pick up Never the Bride, Something Borrowed, Conjugal Rites and the recently released Hells Belles on Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com!! You will not be disappointed!!

I should also mention that Paul has also has a series of Doctor Who audio plays out called the Hornets' Nest which star none other than Tom Baker as the Doctor. These plays are great for people who are fans of Doctor Who or Tom Baker. As well as people who are fans of the old Sherlock Holmes radio drama's starring Basil Rathbone. These plays read very much like those radio drama's.

Speaking of the nocturnal dandy Sherlock Holmes, Paul was very kind to write a great introduction for my upcoming graphic novel Sherlock Holmes: The Painful Predicament of Alice Faulkner.