Get to Know Stephen Martin aka Krent Able – English Artist, Comic Maker, and Musician

Born in the late 1960s, Stephen (Steve) Martin grew up in the Northern England town of Grimsby. Where he spent his youth exploring the local woods, watching Dr. Who, and reading noted anthology comic 2000AD. Going on to discover underground culture in his teens. Such as the music of JG Thirlwell, the writings of Hunter S. Thompson, and films such as ‘Videodrome.’

With Steve spending his 20s and 30s working as a DJ, creating various art, and playing in industrial infused rock band Rancho Diablo. Who released their one and only LP in 1995 via 13h Hour Recordings / Mute; toured with Nitzer Ebb, and gained a lot of buzz before imploding.
Indeed, it was not until his 40s that Steve began to concentrate on art and comics full time. Birthing his doppelganger and nom de guerre, Krent Able, in the process.

With Steve / Krent quickly gaining a foothold in the English and global comic scenes thanks to his talent, humour, unique vision, marvellous caricatures, and ability to create works in a seemingly never ending variety of styles. From cartoons, to highly detailed paintings; and everything in between.
Going on to have his comics and art featured frequently in English Street Press ‘The Stool Pidgeon’, released by people such as Knockabout, and featured in a wide variety of other publications.

Today, Steve continues to create in a variety of mediums and has also branched out into storyboard, concept, and design work.

Wanting to learn more about him; we sent Steve some questions to answer over email.
Get to know the man himself, below…

Getting Acquainted

Name and date of birth?

Krent or Steve, and 1968.

City, state, and country you currently call home?

London, United Kingdom.

City, state, and country you are from?

Grimsby, North East England.

To help us to get to know you – Please share a memory, or two, or more if you wish; from the stages of your life noted below:

* Your childhood:

I cover this in the question about toys, below.

* Your teenage years:

When I was 15, I had one of my comics published in the local newspaper, ‘The Grimsby Evening Telegraph.‘ My first published work!
I then stopped drawing comics for 25 years.

I went to art school next, and started studying painting and sculpture.

* Your 20s:

For my BA Art Degree final show, at Stourbridge Art College, I made this monstrous sculpture (see photo) which was like a huge maggot creature with spikes coming out of it and severed heads impaled on them. I made some loud nightmarish music with my Casio SK5 sampler and had it blasting out to complete the vibe.
At one point of the evening I went to check out my exhibition space, and there was bunch of little kids playing on it and hanging off the spikes, like a super-gory playground. They really added a nice final touch to the art.

* Your 30s:

The birth of my daughter, Macy, when I was 35. They had to pull her out with a big pair of tongs, so she came out with a conehead. It settled down to a normal head shape though, and now she looks just like a normal person.

It really struck me how brutal it is to be born – they just whip you out and stick you straight on a cold metal set of scales to weigh you, all bloody and crying. Brutal.
It’s like ‘Party’s over, motherfucker!’

* Your 40s:

It wasn’t until I was forty that I knuckled down and started making comics properly. I’d kind of mucked around through my thirties, making music, DJing, and doing a bit of art without much focus, but I knew it was time to get serious, as time was running out.

I remember being in art school at 21 and wondering about my future, and thinking, ‘well, if the worst comes to the worst I can always do comics.’ I didn’t really want to do it at that point because I knew it was a lot of work and there was hardly any money in it. Which turned out to be true.
Anyway, when I was 40 I was in a record shop and saw a pile of free magazines in the corner, called ‘The Stool Pigeon.‘ It was a cool, anarchic publication, and it had a nice comics section. Mostly comics about music.
I’d already been toying with a comic idea about a terrible doctor, so I had the brainwave of changing the doctor to Nick Cave. I drew it, called it “Dr. Cave”, sent it into the magazine, they printed it, and that gave me the focus, subject matter, and motivation to keep making comics.
I’d found my groove.

* Your 50s so far:

Doing comics and illustrations led to me getting storyboarding and concept art work. Work that actually pays.

The most high-profile job I’ve done was working on the James Bond film, ’No Time To Die’ with director Danny Boyle. That was quite surreal. He would bounce around the room, acting out scenes, and playing all the different characters.
They wanted a storyboard artist who could treat Mr. Boyle like a ‘normal person’ and not be all over-awed. I lied and told them I could totally manage that.
One time I asked him if he’d done anything nice at the weekend, and he said he’d flown off to some tropical island for the weekend. He asked me what I’d done, and I told him I went for a walk around Finsbury Park and popped into Lidl. Lol.
Nice guy though. And I got to storyboard James Bond being blown up and killed by rockets.

Personal motto(s)?

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

What role did toys play in your childhood?

I mainly remember having some marbles and a big bag of Lego, which I made spaceships out of.
Lego from the 70s was not like fancy modern Lego though – it was just square bricks. That was it.
You really had to use your imagination. Not like today, with your fancy gadgets, fax machines and portable telephones.

…and any favourites you remember?

Cyborg, Muton, and Android. Made by Denys Fisher Toys in the 70s.
They were so cool. They were like sci-fi Action Men.
I loved that they were see-through, and you could see their internal organs, and pull their heads off and touch their brains. Some of them shot rockets. Wish I still had ‘em!

Also, I had quite a decent knife collection. Flicknives etc.
Not for stabbing though, just for whittling and hacking away vegetation when exploring.

Creativity Questions

When and why did you first become interested in art, comics, music, filmmaking, and everything creative?
… and any pivotal moments or influences?

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in that stuff.
I apparently used to sit in my pram clutching one of my dad’s records. That was my toy. Woe betide anyone who tried to pry it from my tiny chubby fingers.
Later, I was the kind of kid who was always in his room drawing, or watching Dr. Who. Either that, or out exploring local woods and swamps and stealing bird’s eggs.

My biggest influence in comics was reading a comic called ‘2000AD‘ when it first came out in the late 70s. I loved the anarchic violence, people getting their heads bitten off by dinosaurs etc.
Brian Bolland’s art had a big effect on me, it was just so beautifully drawn.

Then later, in my 30’s, Dan Clowes was a big influence, especially his book ’Eightball’.
I also love the cartoon work of Ralph Steadman, Charles Addams, and Edward Gorey.

With music, I was into The Specials and Human League when I was at school, then stuff like Talking Heads and Pere Ubu when I was around 15.
Then, when I was about 17, I got into the albums ‘Nail’ & ‘Hole’ by Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel. That was the first time I’d heard something that REALLY spoke to me, like it was made for me. It was so complete, from the sleeve art to the music – A fully rendered world. Sick, funny, cinematic and immaculately-crafted, with a lot of energy, and all created by one person.
This then led to stuff like the band Coil, and reading William Burroughs, George Bataille, Lautréamont, Hunter S. Thompson, Bukowski, etc. The usual suspects.

With film, it’s hard to say. I’m just mad about film in general, from Horror to art films. Anything that looks cool and has a good script and characters, or just a really nice atmosphere.
Films that I remember making a big impression on me when I was young are ‘Jaws’, ‘Jason And The Argonauts’, ‘Alien’, ‘Taxi Driver‘, and ‘Videodrome’.
I also particularly remember the film ‘The Conversation’ having an odd effect on me. After watching it, I would lie in bed replaying the whole thing in my mind, trying to wrap my head around it and figure it out. Made my brain itch.
I also find the work of Italian director Mario Bava to be very inspiring for my comics work. Bava was a genius at creating atmospheric and stunningly beautiful dream-worlds with just a few polystyrene rocks, some dry ice, and some coloured lights. Check out his film ‘Hercules In The Haunted World’ to see what I mean.

If you had to explain your creative endeavours to some recently crash-landed aliens…
What would you tell them?

Yikes.
I guess I make comics that are dumb but clever; funny and sick and surreal, but also beautiful intricate and nice to look at. Upbeat and fun.
I try and aim slightly beyond my abilities and keep challenging myself by not doing the same thing over and over.

Who are some of your favourite artists, filmmakers, musicians, and comic makers?
…and what is it about their works that inspire and move you?

I barely read any comics these days, although I will usually buy any new book by Charles Burns or Dan Clowes. I’m mostly influenced by films and books.

With contemporary film, I really like Panos Cosmatos stuff. He’s the guy who did ‘Mandy’.
My favourite film from last year was ‘The Substance’.

The last albums I bought were Tyler The Creator’s ‘Igor’, ’Norther’ by Ex Easter Island Head, and Blood Incantation’s ‘Absolute Elsewhere’.
Tyler is probably my favourite modern musician. He’s like a really annoying genius.

Please share with us some tales from your time in 1990s industrial infused rock band Rancho Diablo – from dodgy promoters, to record label shenanigans, groupies, band fights, etc.

Ha, well most of the band fights happened onstage, usually between the two guitarists, Adrian and Adam. It was good entertainment though, and added to the overall car-crash vibe. I think they were fighting because they didn’t think the other one was playing correctly. Sticklers for perfection.
I figured the fighting distracted the audience from the fact that we didn’t really have proper songs.

One of the guitarists left the band midway through a tour, so I had to play guitar myself for half the shows (as well as singing). The only problem was I couldn’t play guitar – I just knew some powerchords that the bass player out of Saxon taught me.
It’s like something out of a bad dream, being onstage in front of a big roomful of people, and just twanging away, hoping no-one will notice how shit you are. Hoping the distortion will cover it up.

As for groupies – we all had girlfriends, so any dalliances with rock n’ roll floozies and good-time gals would have been highly irregular and inappropriate.

The record label were ok. I think they had to put up with a lot.
We were quite a handful, to say the least. I think we thought we were Guns N Roses.

So, here’s my touring story…
We went on a European tour with a band called Nitzer Ebb, and there was no tour bus, just a little car that we all squished into, and an inept tour manager who often didn’t arrange a hotel for us, so we would just keep driving to the next venue through the night. And we drank like fishes.
I had diarrhoea because of all the booze, and fell out of a moving car at border control in Budapest. I was unconscious for a while, had a big cut on my head, and my bandmates thought I was a goner. I remember us all staggering around this little medieval looking village in the middle of nowhere, trying to find a hotel that would take us in. My head was bandaged up and I was dressed head to toe in leather, and needed to be propped up to walk.
The locals looked at us like we had just beamed down from Planet Satan.
When we eventually found an inn that would take us, I had to share a tiny bed with another band member, and I crapped the bed. What can I say? I was ill.

Do you know what the old members of RD have gotten up to since the band dissolved?

I’ve lost touch with most of them, probably because I was a total megalomaniac at the time. I insisted on TOTAL and COMPLETE CONTROL. I’m fine now though – completely different.

The last I heard, one of the guitarists became a farmer, and the other one runs an arts and music venue in London. We went through two bass players – one I have no idea about, the other was a lovely Scottish guy called Shez Cross who sadly passed away in 2023.

If people wanted to check out your stuff, work with you, or buy some of your wares – Where should they visit and how should they get in touch?

Just go to my website, krentable.com.
It’s all there.

Any news, upcoming projects, or releases to share?

I don’t have any comics coming out in the immediate future, but I do the occasional illustration here and there, mostly for French publishers.
I illustrated a book about the occult in 80’s Britain, called ‘Delinquent Elementals’, published by Strange Attractor Press – which came out at the end of January.

I’ve been mostly doing concept art and design work for the last year or two. I do have a bunch of stories for graphic novels that I am working on, on and off, and I hope to find the time to start drawing one of them this year, and maybe some shorter comic strips will be appearing in anthology comics.

Odds & Ends

If you could live in any place, during any historical era – When and where would that be?
… and why would you choose that time and place?

The dinosaur time.
I’d love to fuck a baby stegosaurus.

What are the top 3 items you own?
… and what is it about each of them that you so love?

Puffy the puffer fish.
I just like Puffy because he’s so adorable and he has a winning smile. When I was a teenager I used to work in a Shell Shop in a seaside town called Cleethorpes, selling dried-up starfish, cute animals made out of shells, and tat for tourists. Puffy came from there. He’s like my Life Companion.

Maggot Baby.
It’s a prop from the short film, ‘Deep Clean‘, which I worked on in 2017. It’s got tentacles with penises on the end.
The film is online somewhere to watch for free. It’s like if Mike Leigh made a comedy/horror/sci-fi film.

My Chester Brown framed original art.
Chester did a comic book called ‘Ed The Happy Clown’, which has always been one of my faves. My friend and fellow comic artist Julian Hanshaw met Chester at a comic con in the US and managed to persuade him to draw this for me. Quite generous of Chester I think.

In a fight between the following English musicians: Ginger Wildheart Vs. The Spice Girls – Who would win?
…and why?
[Please also create some art depicting the battle!]

Er… I guess the Spice Girls would win, just by overwhelming force of numbers..?
But, sorry, I’m not drawing them. I have zero interest in the Spice Girls or Ginger Wildheart.

If you had to sum up your home-country, England, in one object – What would it be?

A football.

Why did you choose it?
… and how does it represent England to you?

Because that’s British culture – football, pubs, chips, and (the tv show) ‘Love Island.’

Please describe your last dream in detail…

I have the ability, when I can remember in my dream that I have it, to fly around. I do it quite often. It’s more like upright floating than flying. It takes a bit of willpower to get really high – you have to control your breathing and stay calm and steady to maintain the height.
The last time I did it, I got off a bus, but decided to float upwards instead of alighting on the pavement as usual. I was showing off really, getting quite high, putting on a bit of a show for bystanders. As I flew up over the tops of some trees, I flew past some windows, and inside one was a Chinese family, eating dinner. They all waved at me.
It was a real nice dream. And diverse too.

What does God mean to you?

It means nothing to me, in the usual religious sense.
I don’t believe in God, the Devil, angels or any of that. That’s crazy talk.
I’m mainly into Bigfoot.

Of everything you have done so far, what would you most like to be remembered for?

I’m quite fond of my first book ‘Krent Able’s Big Book Of Mischief’, and also the last one I did, ‘Kane & Able’, a collaboration with fellow comic artist Shaky Kane for Image comics in 2021. But I think all of my work is fairly consistent in quality.
Every so often I dig out one of my books and sit down and laugh my ass off.
I’m not too bothered about ‘legacy’ or being remembered – I just want to do work that I get enjoyment out of while I’m alive.

With music, I still find one Rancho Diablo track bearable – a B Side of a single, called ‘Chicken Stomp’.
I also still like all the music I did under the name El Destructo on the albums ‘Big Kahuna Kicks Vol 1 & 2’. It’s kind of industrial Big Beat and some Eno-ish stuff.

Mostly though, I’d like to be remembered for being quite tall, and kind to animals.

Links

• Krent Able – Website
• Krent Able – Online Store
• Krent Able – Instagram
• Krent Able – Facebook
• Krent Able – YouTube
• Krent Able – Link to Watch 2016 Krent Able Doco ‘Ink, Cocks, and Rock N Roll’ (via Vimeo)
• Krent Able – GoodReads Entry
• Stephen Martin – Discogs Entry
• Rancho Diablo – Discogs Entry

All images supplied by Stephen or sourced online.