With only a few days left before the release date Philip rang me and gave me the title. I had the artwork finished without a title waiting to hear from Philip while the record company were screaming for the artwork. This is my favorite Lizzy poster – I got it right and it works. I loved the use of silver and we had to fight for it as an extra print run though the record company were up for it anyway so it got through. The influence of another great American comic book artist we both loved, Neal Adams, is all over this one. Together we worked on the imaginary story of ‘The Warrior’ that Philip had in his mind and I reworked the roughs to reflect this idea until it all held together. Myself and Philip were both very influenced by H.G.Wells ‘War of the Worlds’ and American Marvel comics Philip wanted something that reflected these influences and this artwork was the result. I was always proud of the ‘Jailbreak’ cover art but the poster was even better – it combined the front and back artwork very effectively and gave added emphasis and meaning to the whole futuristic ‘warlord’ theme that myself and Philip came up with for the album. THIN LIZZY JAILBREAK POSTER Link to print Anyway they took my name off the cover which annoyed me so eff them. We would have had a real job of explaining that one to the record company!. What no one knows -up until right now –was that the black panther was a silent tribute by both of us to great African Americans like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Bobby Smith and John Carlos, Black Power and the Black Panther movement. It was intended as an almost subliminal political statement.

Both of us knew what we wanted and Philip was very sure of the direction he wanted to go, hence the sullen, moody, almost threatening cover.

The cover for Nightlife was a slightly odd one: I was very influenced by Roger Dean at the time (I still love his artwork) and it shows in the lettering, the rest is a photo montage influenced by the collages of comic book artists like Jim Steranko and Jack Kirby which were appearing in Marvel comics -and myself and Philip were huge fans. THIN LIZZY NIGHTLIFE ALBUM COVER Link to print ‘Vagabonds’ has so many happy memories for me and I wish Philip was still around to share them one last time. The logo was based of Tim Booth’s design –I just glossed it up a little –and the Marvel comics influence is very much in evidence. He loved the gatefold rough I prepared but the record company knocked it on the head so we went for the best part of the design and worked it up. I was absolutely delighted when Philip asked me to do the cover and poster for the upcoming ‘Vagabonds’ album and I had a couple of roughs over to him in London the following week. We had a love of American comic books, poetry, Ireland and all things Irish and a shared fatherless upbringing.

My very first Thin Lizzy artwork! Philip’s best friend and tour manager Frank Murray introduced me to Philip in Neary’s pub in Dublin and we hit it off straight away. VAGABONDS OF THE WESTERN WORLD ALBUM COVER Link to print

Best thin lizzy albums