Welll...end of the year again eh? Where does the time go? It's been a while again, so I thought I'd post my last blog for a year. 2009 - It's been a busy one... consisting of about ten A3 pin-ups, 10 Dark Avengers sketch covers for a retailer in the US, 50+ individual painted sketches for my OBSCURA sketchbook, 81 pages for the gn, 156 rough layouts (again for the gn) and a few other odds and sods along the way...that's not too bad considering I can only hit these things at weekends, though recently I have started trying to do something in the way of sketching in the evening here and there too.

Just finished a page that I really liked, here it is in the ink stage...with an additional panel after the shading stage.

Also managed to snag a pic of one of the dark Avengers covers (after being CCGed).
Hope you all had a great Christmas and here's to a Happy and prosperous New Year to you all.

Hello all,
It's been a pretty busy month, not many pages of the book done, but I have roughed out the whole thing now. I normally do an A4 size rough to help with layout etc and now I've finished those, the book will now be a massive 156 pages long, split into two volumes as I speak.

A few weeks ago I went to the Thought Bubble show in Leeds, met up with my buddy Graeme Neil Reid who was showing me some great work from a TV ad he's been working on...cracking stuff, can't wait to see the finished thing. Also met up with Jeremy Briggs, who contributes to DownTheTubes reviews website, Andy Bloor, Dave West and loads more folk.

The good folk at ORBITAL COMICS in London sent me a pic of my Batman postcard on a section of their display, right next to JH Williams3rd and David Hine contributions, I'm in great company there. See the full gallery over at ebay.co.uk and type in 'capedcrusaid' for the full list of original art postcards.

Hello yet again

These posts are getting far too regular:) Last week I made contact with a fantastic comic shop called ORBITAL COMICS in London, they were having a James Jean signing, I asked if I could pre-order a book and get it signed as I couldn't get there. They were really good and not only did I get it signed but a got a sketch in there to boot...that made my day.
Anyway, I scanned their website and noticed that they have loads of art exhibitions and signings all the time----what? A comic shop actually interested in the medium? Wanting to promote it to the masses? Willing to help and make sure the buyer has a great experience...that's new to me. I then saw that they were running an exhibition of original art for a charity, I contacted them and did the above postcard.

http://www.orbitalcomics.com/ The auction will take place on ebay soon.

Hi Folks Here's another Batman commission, the chap asked for a graveyard scene with Bats at his parents grave, but when I actually got to the headstone a little lightbulb lit up...wouldn't it be cool to put his creator's name there instead?

Last week a good friend of mine from the U.S. managed to get a copy of GOTHIC in front of the legend that is Stan-the man-Lee. It was at Pittsburgh Con and Stan had a list of 900 folk who had paid for a signature ticket...as you can see by the picture they moved things along pretty quickly, and they wanted to rid Stan of the item pretty sharpish by the look of things;)---still I guess that's what happens at the top of the tree, but he still has time for the fans and that's pretty special for a guy of his stature in the biz, I reckon he must have found a way to bottle Jack Kirby's pure Cosmic energy while he was working with him in the 60s.....Kirby himself ran out of it in '94 as we all know, but what kind of queues would he have if he was still around eh? Long Live the King. Thanks a lot, Brian, for jumping in that rather small window to get my stuff in front of the great man.

Other news at Black Boar Towers, the next page I'll be doing on the samurai story, will be no.60, by the looks of things this MAY be the halfway mark---I know I mentioned a month or so back that I'd pretty much hit half way back then, but judging by the amount of script left I've a ways to go yet.

That's all for now folks,

Dave

Hi gang
Just a quick update here, got no graphic novel done this past weekend, but I took the time up with this commission instead. I don't normally get many requests for commissions, but I do have a little backlog building now (so if you have asked in the past, apologies that I've not gotten to it yet). In the meantime check this one out.
cheers for now,
Dave

I recently stuck a few things on that well-known auction site and actually SOLD one of them, yes lady and gentlemen someone was actually looking for my name to crop up. The item in question was one of my sketchbooks. The request was for a Ripper sketch on the cover. It was purchased by a girl...for her MOTHER as a birthday gift!! Apparently her mother has the newsprint edition of WHITECHAPEL FREAK also, she obviously has great taste (if a little unhinged in parts). Anyway, best get back to the drawing board.

talk again soon.

Here's the finished article chaps. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, and it takes a lot to make me happy nowadays.

A MATTER OF GRAVE IMPORTANCE

A good few months back a fellow in the US asked if I'd be interested in doing a commission featuring the world's greatest detectives. I thought that sounded pretty original so I accepted. What with the graphic novel I'm drawing I've had to put any commissions aside just lately, and concentrate on the job at hand. I fancied a change of subject matter so set about the task of planning it out during the week...here's the peice so far. As of this writing it's actually completed, but I'll be updating once I get a flatbed scan of it. I'm pretty pleased with, and today I can get back to the book, so a productive weekend methinks:)

Here's a quick post to let you folks know I've stuck a few things on ebay.co.uk Check em out!

Hello everyone
Last weekend I got to the drawing board, did a few odds and ends, and (nearly) completed one page from the samurai gn--- here it is. The last few panels need finishing off, but you get the picture. This page is a flashback sequence, depicting the end of the Satsuma rebellion and introducing the main character (as a young girl) for the first time. The script called for a ravaged battlefield, with crows swooping for any rich pickings (or finger ends) and the gradual arrival of raindrops, next few panels show peasants foraging for gold or other precious items no longer coveted by the dead.

GRAEME NEIL REID is a hero. Why do I say that? Well, he's just illustrated a best-selling book, which I happened to see on the shelves at ASDA at the weekend http://www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/asda/7066670.product It is a very lush volume by the two authors of the best-selling 'DANGEROUS' series. HEROES through the ages bought to life in superb detail, there's well over 100 pen and ink drawings within this hefty tome. Well worth this £10 tag at the above link, between 10 and 20 notes elsewhere. Go out and get your hands on one today, but beware... it's heavy!

Anyway, in news from Black Boar towers, I've been beavering away on the gn over the past few weekends, as well as doing other stuff. I'll have some stage by stage pics soon...stay tuned.

I've just started work on AccentUk's VICTORIANA cover... featuring my old pal, Jack. Avid blog readers will know that WHITECHAPEL FREAK (a Ripper tale with a twist) was my second self-published work, and this image is a revisit to one of the interior pages. If you didn't know about WHITECHAPEL FREAK (and want to desperately own one)I have a few copies of the colourised version which I picked up at Bristol recently.

Thanks for stopping by...
cheers

Hello everyone
The other week I happened to catch Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame on TV, it has to be one of my favourite animated tales, all those 3d rendered cityscapes and old gothic architecture, beautiful stuff. But not only did it look great, the heart of it was great too... only top animators such as those who work at Disney could evoke emotion in only the tiniest of movements (this example being when Quasimodo takes the hand of Esmeralda, and the prince, and puts them in each others hand, despite the fact that he adores her too) this brought me to thinking I could do a 'Master of Storytelling' article every now and again. I have many, many artists and writers I could go on about.

One such extraordinary talent is the American artist/creator WINSOR MCCAY, he lovingly drew many editorial cartoons, strips and illustrations in the early 20th century. His most famous creation was Little Nemo in Slumberland. This stuff was UNBELIEVABLE for the time period, heck it still blows you away now. How he managed to produce large tabloid sized page every week is beyond me. Which brings me neatly onto this week's illustration by me...my attempt at recreating a dream-type illustration of Nemo...

Here's another small update,folks (just to keep everyone on their toes). Another werewolf drawing, it won't win any awards for being great BUT at least it's looking like what it should;) I've done about 4 werewolves recently and this one is one of the better ones. Gotta get back on the gn this weekend, I'll be back week.

cheers all
Dave

Good day everyone. Here's the Manbat peice, in progress and finished.

BY CROM! Hello all, after a relatively laid back Comic Expo last week I'm back at the drawing board today, here's something different for me, my first CONAN attempt done as a request for a French collector. Strangely enough I'm currently reading R.E.Howard's HORROR tales (superb Greg Staples illustrations dotted throughout) it's a cracker of a book, and it got me thinking it would be great to get the chance to illustrate some of his short stories one day. Are you reading this Dark Horse!!?;)

During the week I finished a ManBat peice for my good friend Brian Jones, his good wife must be driven totally bats by his insatiable hobby:) Aren't they all though eh?

Just one last chance to plug something before the SPExpo in Bristol... Cthulhu Tales issue 12 has my first ever (and quite possibly last) US published story. A 10 pager written by Shane Oakley, I've raved about it previously, I'll have some precious copies with me at the show. Also, I recently fought off the apaches to get my copy of WESTERN...in it I have a six page tale written by John and Leah, I don't have any copies for sale, but my table pals WILL... get 'em signed by numerous contributors at the same time. Talking of John and Leah they very graciously gave me a shot at a 'page test' for Dracula and Sherlock Holmes, very kind of them to put my name forward, but sadly Dynamite didn't like my style. I picked up SHERLOCK HOLMES today, to see what the chosen artist did... and I have to say it's a great job and the story unfolds very nicely indeed...go out and buy it now! Same with the Dracula comic, I checked out the artist...a very talented newcomer CORLTON WORLEY has PAINTED it. Why not order both, you won't be disappointed.

Hopefully I'll be able to get SHANE OAKLEYs (and Alan Grant's) CHANNEL EVIL this weekend at Bristol. Signing off for now.

It's official...I'm as crazy as a coot! Got 30 of these suckers done now, four are sold so far. For all those chaps that have requested I put one aside, I won't be taking all 60 (mainly because I probably won't do any more now, except those direct in front of folk at the show) there will be plenty left to scribble on later, so no worries there. Now I just need to sort out all the stuff I'm taking...

Hi gang
Been busy collating, stapling, trimming and sketching this weekend. So far I've done 21 painted sketches. This year I've decided to do a sketch on EVERY one of the 60 books...I must be insane (either that or just plain crazy). OBSCURA the 2009 sketchbook from Black Boar Press is 40-pages of art which you may not get chance to see. Cover sketch-wise I've done quite a few mainstream characters, Hulk, Batman, Joker, Hellboy, Wolverine as well as a few of my familiar old favourites (SHJ, the Highwayman, Ripper). These normally go pretty quickly, and are a great way to help cover the cost of the weekend at Bristol. I'll be sketching on some of the covers over the weekend of course, so if you are heading to the Small Press Expo next Saturday (May9) make you way to my table sharpish;) I'll be sharing with AccentUK. Sunday I'll be sharing their table at the main event (great idea Mr West). If you cannot attend the show then I can do a custom-made one especially for you, just send an email to me at black_boar1@yahoo.com with your sketch request.

I'VE BEEN FRAMED!

Hello gang
Has it been touted round that I'm paying for 'followers'?..jeez I've got seven. Yay, anyhow here's some news for you seven (thanks, mum). I've recently had the good fortune to get an opportunity to do ten 'sketch covers' for the Comics Guaranty (US spelling)Company, or CGC as we know them. To be precise Sean McCloughlin of NYComics asked me to scrawl on blank covers of DARK AVENGERS No.1. drawing requests ranging from 'Swampthing carrying Cap America' to Christopher Lee's Dracula and Venom, Spidey, Wolverine, Hellboy etc. These will be slabbed and graded by the good folk at CGC. What a coop. I'll post one as soon as I see them in these sealed goodness.

I've done a few commissions also, the image above is the finished custom-framed articles. The guy who asked for them was really pleased with the results (he has no internet access so everything was organised by his work buddy, including sending emails back and forth and choosing the frames, so take a bow Patrick). I loved how the framer got that brickwork effect into both frames, great stuff.

I've also completed a Hellboy commission to be picked up at the Bristol show, some of these images will appear in a sketchbook if I get chance to do one, but this time it will be a very limited run of 50. Again, more on that nearer the time.

Signing off for now,

Dave

Hello..oooooooOOOOOO

Another commission peice from a chap in the US. A companion to the 'Lurker' vampire I did the other week. I'm getting a bit more experience with werewolves just lately. At least this one doesn't look like next door's alsation. A few of you have asked if I'll be at Bristol this year, the answer is yes, but in the small press event held near the main event. I'm thinking about producing a sketchbook, of say, just 50 copies, let me know if you may be interested. I don't know any specifics yet, I'll let you all know when I've collated possible content.
The CTHULHU TALES issue went down well, according to Shane. Hop over to his blog here

http://shaneoakley.blogspot.com/

He has a new comic coming out soon called CHANNEL EVIL, written by grand master, Alan Grant...with pictures by Mr Oakley...this has to be great! Get down to your comic shop (if you have one) and order it right now.

That's it for now gang,

back soon

VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Hello all,
Been busy this weekend, hunched over the drawing board, working into the small hours under the flickering glow of the oil lamp I pulled out all the stops on a couple of vampire peices. Nosferatu's Shadow - I tried to get some of that old Germanic 20s look into it. The dread in the woman's eye's as she realises she is frozen to the spot by the Count in the doorway.
The other peice I've called 'Lurker', due to the ominous figure in the background...he's just a little bit too late for his Miller's Court rendezvous.

Needless to say, I've not done any Madam Samurai this weekend, but I'll be back to it next week, fresh as a daisy. Signing off for now....

It's that time again.
WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN? Well, I have to say 'I got no work done today because' we (wife and I) went to see Zack Snyder's (that doesn't sound right) WATCHMEN. We thought it was a damn near perfect interpretation. Once again, taking Dave Gibbons's panels and converting them to celluloid realism as only he can. I know that Alan Moore does not find his other interpretations 'entirely agreeable', but this one surely rises above anything that has gone before. They've done it proud (in my book, at least) but I don't want to start a war.

There was a down side to going to the pictures (apart from the price), I didn't get to do any sketching on Saturday, so just one page of Madam Samurai this weekend.

...now for something completely different

A few months ago I was asked if I fancied doing a Cursed Earth Dredd commission. I sketched it out and then got involved with the other stuff I've been doing lately. Last night I thought I'd start it proper. The idea is that Dredd is fighting off some mutant cave dwellers. I'd really like to concentrate on the lighting with this one, the main source being the flare from the lawgiver. Here's the first part of inking, I've darkenened it just to try and show the pencil marks.

Also, some of you may notice that blackboar.co.uk does not exist anymore, from now on I'll just be using this blog for any announcements etc (which is pretty much what I've been doing for a while anyways).

Cthulu Tales#12 from Boom Studios came out last week, I'm waiting for my comp copies, hope I get em soon.

That's me done, back soon.

Hi Chaps (and chapesses...possibly) Here's the finished page for all to see. You will notice a few changes here and there, which were not on the initial pencil rough. I try to fill as much of the panel as possible even if I know it may be covered by a speech bubble. I'm going to be putting a load of stuff on ebay over the next few weeks. Under 'David Hitchcock' so try and get over there (sorry, UK only for the ebay stuff)
all the best,

Dave

Hello all

I recently started a fairly lengthy gn for Scar Comics/Bigger Pictures, written by screen writer Gary Young-- with the aim that it will be used as a tool to promote it as a movie. It's called MADAM SAMURAI, the tale is set in victorian London at the time of the notorious Ripper murders. What's the oriental connection you may ask? How the heck should I know, I just draw the pictures ;) No seriously, it's a great tale and one that has a great 'feel' about it.

I plan on doing a bit of a 'diary' type thing, the 'production of a graphic novel' if you will. Let me know if you would be interested in seeing it make progress, and I'll make every effort to update with interesting stuff like sketches, snippets, notes etc which you won't see elsewhere.

On this post I thought it would be good to show the THUMBNAIL---which is done on A4 and gives me the general layout of the page. The A3 size original pencils--- using the thumbnail arrangement I can then adjust various angles, panels to make better use of the page. I'll finish this page tomorrow and post it on Monday. This is, of course, no different from how I imagine any other artist to work (but it gives you a chance to see some scribbling)

For those who never got round to getting a copy of GOTHIC, I posted the first story here.... sorry, you'll have to fill in stuff to view it but it won't take long.

http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=browse&status=ns

Bye for now..

Werewolves/ wolfmen are difficult to draw

Hello all, I've recently realised the above as I've just done a pin-up image for the upcoming Accent UK title Wolfmen2. I take my hat off to Andy Bloor, who has the task of drawing LOADS of em...one was enough for me (well, four actually) see, one slight hair out of place, and your wolf looks like a dog! See first aborted attempt. Finished one shown above
To check out the series go here http://www.accentukcomics.com/

That's me done for now,

Dave

Good day all
Yes, it's been a while, apologies for that. I've been off doing normal stuff, playing computer games and reading comics (sometimes the other way round). I've just heard that the Cthulu Tales story I did is now in issue 12 (not 11 as originally quoted) I'm looking forward to seeing it, and I hope that my comic shop will have one, though I don't hold out much hope as I've not seen one for a few months.

Not done much sketching for a month or so, but just finished this Batman v Scarecrow illo for a very nice chap called Brian Jones---check out his great Batman gallery here
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=5528

That's all for now folks.

Dave