- The Imagination Comics History -
 

1984. A friend in school told me she had been listening to a radioshow about comics and one of the guests - a professional strip cartoonist - said that the best way to learn how to draw comics is simply by copiing existing comicbooks. So she said: "you are always drawing funny little guys, why don't you draw a comic about them?"... The funny little guys were Leee, Ashley and Errol, the 3 members of my favourite (British)band called IMAGINATION, and the idea of making a real comic about them felt quite interesting. Because i loved and still love reading Franquin's comics about Gaston Lagaffe (or Guust Flater) and the style he used, i decided to copy one of his comicpages but instead of using the original characters i was going to use my little guys.

 
Errol Kennedy • Leee John • Ashley Ingram •• Imagination in 1988
 
 
So, one evening i started working on my very first Imagination-comicpage... but only finished the first illustrationblock not the whole page and somehow my drawingblock landed up in a closet. One year later in 1985 i rediscovered it and finished up the rest of the page and made a second page while i was at it.
 
Shortly after that, i became a member of Imagination's fanclub and when Gina - the fanclubs' secretary - asked me if i had any ideas for the fanclubletter, i sended in one of my comicpages, which i had called "the adventures of Imagination".
She reacted very excited and asked if i could do some more so the comics could become a special feature in the fanclubletters. Ofcourse i liked the idea (mostly because i hoped that this way, i would catch the eye of my favourite artists -which fan doesn't dream about that?- and maybe would even get invited to come to London for a dinner with Leee... which never happened ofcourse) Anyway, so, i began to make more comics, and slowly on i started to use my own stories and my own drawings and through the years developed my own style.
 
Gina covered the walls of her office with the incoming comics so everybody in the building could come in and read them. Apparently there was even somebody popping in every now and then asking if a new one had arrived yet...
It was a fantastic period and Gina's excitement (plus the prezzies) and seeing my work in the fanclubletter was incredible stimulating for me.
 
A few years later the band went through several changes: members were coming and going and eventually leaving leadsinger Leee John on his own and it gave me the feeling that there wasn't much left of "the band Imagination" so for that reason i decided to change the name "the adventures of Imagination" into "ash, leee & company". (i always liked the comiccharacter of Ashley very much (i like his hair), and as Imagination was formed in the beginning by Leee and Ashley anyway, i wanted to keep him as one of the leadingcharacters).
 
In the meantime 17 years had passed by and during that period of time 4 comicbooks were completed. With no longer a fanclubletter to spread these comics to the fans, i decided to give the "ash, leee & company"-comics their own true website.
 
To the visitors of this website i would like to say: i hope you'll enjoy my comics and my other artwork.
 
Pascale Pladys, 2005
 
• For more info about the music of IMAGINATION, you may want to visit: www.ashleyingram.com, www.leeejohn.com or www.imaginationstory.com
 
• SPECIAL THANKS:
To Gina Smith: thank you for your stimulation and support in the early years.
To IMAGINATION: thank you for being a "creative influence" which stimulated me to develop my artistic talent as an illustrator. Two important lessons you taught me are:
1. Don't be afraid to be yourself or to be original! and 2.: Use your imagination!!
• To Leee John: thanx for your support & advice.
To Willy De Groof of www.strips.be thanks for your support and link. (For more info about Belgian comics please visit Willy's site)
To Fulvio Terralavoro: thank you for your incredible support, - you really are special and a GREAT friend!
To other friends: many thanx for your support.
And last but not least: a SPECIAL "THANK YOU" to my other GREAT friend J.P., for all your technical help and support - without you this website would not exist!