Hard Graft

Hard Graft is an Anglo-Argentine comic about the adventures of uncompromising tough guy Alan Corbett and his friends as they bump into each other at random places on earth. It is written by Peter Vine and is illustrated by Germán Erramouspe.

The Cast

Alan Cortbett

Age: Early 30s

Place of birth: The UK.

Occupation: “No comment.”

Current mood: “bloody annoyed, my bottle opening sandals broke..”

First introduced in: Issue one, page seven.

Not one to be fazed by events, Alan Corbett is the go to man of the comic. His aggressive yet calm, well thought out approach to solving problems gets results but clashes with the people he works with. Alan is multi-lingual, a keen observer of local customs and traditions and a dab hand at killing people. He is trained in the use of both NATO and Warsaw Pact weaponry. He can be guilty of being slightly unhinged as he uses his calm and well thought out approach to killing people in ever inventive ways as well as getting himself out of sticky situations or navigating through desert wastelands.

His past currently is showded in mystery. I mean, poor Kathy doesn’t even know his name yet! And yet we all do! Isn’t that crazy? Huh? Huh?!

Kathy Easter

Age: Mid-twenties

Place of Birth: Baltimore, MD

Occupation: Freelance photojournalist.

Current mood: “I haven’t had a shower in two weeks, what do you think my mood is?”

First introduced in: Issue one, page one.

Kathy has a tough time of it usually as a photojournalist but approaches it with a degree of professionalism, bullish optimism with a note of hysterical resignation when things go south. Currently working freelance covering news in parts of the world where news media wouldn’t dare risk their better known and more valuable reporters for, she tends to run the risk of kidnapping, serious injury and even death. She knows full well that photographers and photojournalists had high casualty rates in conflicts such as Vietnam and beyond but she takes that risk because she wants to further her career, she wants to see the world and she wants to make a difference by showing the world what she sees first hand.

She does tend to be bolshy but she does have a habit of going crazy with fear. Kathy is a testament to the fact that we are all scared sometimes.

Bernadette Montez

Age: Early-thirties

Place of birth: Derry, Ireland.

Occupation: “professional feckin’ nutter”

Current mood: “I punched Alan today so, yeah, pretty good..”

First introduced in: Issue one, Page 22.

Bernadette is a phenomenal talent yet sometimes unstable bordering on the insane. Her attitude has been moulded by her family’s past which she is very protective about, not even telling Alan the full facts about her upbringing. Her laissez-fare attitude is matched only by her per-chant for violence. Qualified in various weapons she is also experienced in CQB (her favourite) although she does like to pick bad guys off from a distance, paying homage to the marauder of bandit country in the process.

More Characters to come..

The team behind Hard Graft.

Peter Vine lives some where just outside of zone one in London. He works as a network admin over several locations. He spends a lot of his time reading, writing and hanging about with his flatmates. The last authors he read were Fred Kaplan, Tony Benn, Jeremy Clarkson and one of the Bronte sisters. He started writing what would eventually become Hard-Graft back when he was at University in 2004. He is the 2008 winner of Otakubooty.com’s “Most British Guy” award. Find out more about Pete’s interests here.

Germán Erramouspe is an artist born in Argentina. He lives in the city of Brandsen, in Buenos Aires. German has been an artist since his childhood when he began to read a LOT of comics!

His work is published in Bastion Comix, an anthology magazine of new artists in Argentina. There he worked on the graphic novel, Primordial Man, soon to be published in the US, Italy and France. He began working for several publishers and freelancers in the US. He is now working with the English writer Peter Vine, on the acclaimed web-series Hard Graft and he is working for Avatar Press in an upcoming new book by British writer Si Spurrier.

Guest Artists

Occasionally, Prestwick asks other artists to produce stuff for Hard Graft in the form of side stories.

Jules Rivera originally comes from Florida but moved to San Diego where she now resides, enjoying the sun and working on her webcomic masterpiece Marsh Rocket. Fans of her work will be pleased to know she was tapped to produce the first side story which can be found here.

Other contributors

Bill Boy combines the dashing good looks of James May with the gritty reality of East London. A man with the finger on the pulse, he is currently advising on material for future storylines most likely for books 2 & 3.

The coach is a mysterious figure of which little is known. He/She draws a successful webcomic, had recently attended the San Diego Comic Con and has an interest in gardening. As advisor to Hard Graft, he/she has been helping Peter dodge the pitfalls of webcomics.

Rose Loughran is the creator of the webcomic Red Moon Rising and acts as an occasional colourist for whatever odd page Pete and German wish to have coloured.