Hello guys and gals

2013 is on the horizon so I thought I'd better do a little update. I'll make it a new year's resolution to post more on here...honest. In this post I'll show you a couple of pics (for you dedicated blog readers only). A coupla months back I was asked to produce a few character sketches/designs for comic book writer and all-round good guy RAFAEL NIEVES. He has worked at Marvel and done a slew of his own fine self-published work, along with artist Dan Dougherty. I'll not mention the title of this character through fear of possibly jinxing the whole thing (if indeed it does come my way), but suffice to say it's for a US comicbook company :)

This image is copyright Rafael Nieves.

The other pic is from the Dickens short that I'm illustrating between things. Adapted by Jason Cobley, I hope to get a head of steam up on this and put my neck on the block and say...out 2013 ;)

Have a good few days of 2012...and all the best for the new year.

Hi all

I don't do that many caricatures nowadays. I do two colour cartoons a week for the paper I work at, which I have to do at the weekend, which cuts into any creative time I may have. I was recently asked by a work colleague if I could do a caricature of her husband, for his upcoming 30th birthday. I always ask what their respective hobbies are, what they like, any other specific items which might make the caricature all that much more personal to the recipient. Apparently this chap has a new tattoo which he's very proud of and she wanted him to sat astride a Harley Davidson. She was pleased with it, I think.

Here's a pic of the ref material and the finished caricature. A couple of weeks ago I was busy doing some character drawings for a possible comic gig across the pond, can't say anything about it yet, but I'm pretty excited.

Greetings one and all

Last saturday I accompanied DAVID LLOYD on the ACES WEEKLY stand at a show at the NEC in Birmingham. I was supposed to attend Thought Bubble the week before, I was looking forward to it, but was cruely struck down with a sickness bug a couple of days before it. So I went to memorabilia to make up for it.

Normally I would not try and sell comics at a show like this (I tried it about ten years ago----- the chap on the table next to me took a load of tatty old videos, sold the lot, yet, me, trying to sell a totally original product, lovingly crafted by my own fair hands, sold fuck all) 'never again' I told myself.

However, I'm happy to report that this was not the case this time. They have a small section of the hall called Comic Village, well it was more of a 'comic table' but still, ACES WEEKLY had some great feedback from passersby who we managed to grapple to the ground. We didn't let them back up until they subscribed.... a good way of dealing with folk I think I'll try it for my next endeavour. If you've not subscribed yet Volume Two is about to start this weekend. £6.99 via Paypal gets you 200+ pages of comics by a wide variety of creators from across the globe. You can always access the issues, providing you have a tablet, pc or iPad or other such devices, and there are big plans ahead. To find out more see the ACES WEEKLY Facebook page. The page here is from my strip, PARADISE MECHANISM, coloured by Matt Soffe.

Hi Folks, Well, as I couldn't get to ThoughtBubble I thought I'd best console myself with posting the second of the Paris show pics. It's a month ago already. It was a great privilege to have the main man Biz signing  and sketching on the Aaltair table, and I hope we get chance to do it again as it was a hugely enjoyable weekend, lots of SHJ books signed and sketched. Lots of comic celebs were there, Jock, Sean Murphy, Olivier Coipel, John Higgins, Terry Dodson and loads more, as well as Ian Whyte, who played one of the white skinned aliens in Prometheus, a very nice chap, all seven foot of him. He graciously signed our Art of Prometheus book. 

 Talking of books, I went a little crazy and bought tons of stuff from bookshops near Notre Dame, luckily there didn't seem to be any luggage restriction on eurostar (which was a huge relief).

Once again I'd like to thank Guillaume and Patrick of Aaltair Publishing, the show organiser and everyone who made the weekend so special.

Here's a familiar chap in a bit of a flap.

Penguin

So, it's been a week since Paris already. We had a great time, my wife came with me (first time to a comic show in over 20 years), we did some sightseeing (after the event of course) and Simon was an absolute gent all weekend (at one point we got a bit lost, ended up on the metro, and he carried an old woman's luggage up a flight of stairs... bless the Biz!. Big thanks go to Patrick and Guillaume of Aaltair Publishing, the expo organisers and all the great folk we met along the way. It really was a weekend to remember, I was sketching all weekend, Simon was doing great peices for fans also, here's some pics. I'll be back soon, with more from the show, stay tuned folks.

First of many....

First happy customer for one of the sketches I did prior to the show.

We had this took about three times, this was the least blurry.

Yep, Simon really is that fast.

I like this one.

...and this one.

Dredd marker sketch...and it's BIG! (A3)

Here we are again folks, and thanks for all the kind comments (on here and on facebook), everyone let's me know that my stuff still tickles your fancy. This coming weekend I'll be doing another signing for the French edition of SPRINGHEELED JACK.

This one I'll be with Simon Bisley, who is not only one of my favourite artists, but he produced the cover,endpapers and a special 'ex-libris' edition for Aaltair publications in Paris. I'll have a few things to sell, including these 5 original watercolour drawings, which I produced specially for the event.

Teens Novel

I recently produced this cover/character image for a friend at work who is working on a teen fantasy novel, about a young boy who appears to be the only survivor of a train crash. After searching for days across barren landscapes and dense forests he finally finds civilisation...but it's 'not as we know it captain'.

Enter ogres, witches and all manner of beasties.

I hope you are enjoying PARADISE MECHANISM currently serialised in ACES WEEKLY, it was great fun to work on and the colouring by Matt Soffe sets it apart from all my previous work.

Coming soon...

Hello all

ACES WEEKLY , David Lloyd's new serialised weekly will be hitting computer screens at the end of this very month. Feauturing seven strips in each issue, by the likes of Lew Stringer, Kyle Baker, Mark Wheatley, Phil Hester, Jon McCrea, Steve Bissette, Marc Hempel, me and many more creators still to be annouced. I'm especially excited as this is the first time I've been involved in anything like this, and my story is in glorious colour too by the equally glorious Matt Soffe.

Updates for no reason

Well, it's been a while again, but just come to do a missive and find that everything has changed again----and for some reason there does not seem to be a button to upload an image. Anyone else got this problem?

Hi Folks This neck of the woods has been neglected as usual, sorry for that, but for all you diehard blog viewers (and you alone) here's an exclusive look at a page from PARADISE MECHANISM. This is a story that was plotted by myself and my wife(where all the best ideas come from) for David Lloyd's new digital project. Matt Soffe did such a great job on the colours I wanted to preview a page here---I've used my black and white page, but blended the colors on to show both examples. I'm really looking forward to this story coming out. In the meantime I'm back on Signal Man...more on that in the next posting:) come back again soon. cheers for now.

....Surprise!
I know I've not been around this 'ol blog lately, but things are happening on the drawing board. At the moment The Signal Man project has 'leaves on the track' (US readers may be thinking 'uh?') well, here in the UK if there is a delay in journeys, the railway very often blame 'leaves on the track'... but, there is a good reason for this particular delay. A few weeks ago I got a mail from a huge UK comics icon, who invited me to be part of a new project he was working on.

I said 'Yes' :)

sadly I can't tell you anything else right now, but I can show these bits for your perusal. Check back soon for more details folks!

My contribution to the MOEBIUS charity book has turned out to be a bit colossal. let me explain, first of all it's A2 in size, so it's taking some time to cover that white area. I've made it difficult for myself by attempting to draw it in his unique style, which is a bugger when you come to drawing clouds - his have great depth and form, mine, i'm not so sure. Still, I'm really enjoying the challenge and hopefully I'll finish it this weekend. Though, now, I'm not sure whether I should leave it black and white, or put some colour on it...decisions, decisions.

Back soon folks,

Hello all
Well, a few weeks ago the genius that was MOEBIUS died. My first contact with Moebius's work was in the early 80's Heavy metal issues, it could have been earlier than that, but I think it's safe to say that he has left an indelible mark in many minds. In later years his work never seemed to get translated, but I had managed to get a few Arzach albums, just to look in awe at the incredible imagination which he committed to paper.

Last week I was asked to contribute to a charity book (to be published by the chaps that produced the French version of Springheeled Jack). A few days into the idea and over 100 artists joined up---that surely is a sign of appreciation for the man.

I started my peice last night, attempting to use a 'Moebius-like' line, I'll post a few more development pics soon. I'm quite excited by this opportunity, but I guess he did fire folk's imagination. A little like Jack Kirby did.

Train of Thought: The Diary of the Signal Man No.1
Hello Everyone, thanks for stopping by.

With this tale being an adaptation of a Charles Dickens short ghost story, you would expect to see somewhat large text boxes running throughout. This page is no exception. Here we have my initial A4 roughs and a page just being roughly sketched out, these two panels in particular have a great deal of exposition in them. This is why I always tend to sketch out as much of the copy as possible during the thumbnail stages, it also gives me an idea of exactly how much of the panel will be obscured.

As I get further into this story I realised there is scope to dust off my artistic licence, more of which to come in the next post.

If you'll pardon the pun I'm getting stoked up with this thing folks:) Thanks for asking me onboard Mr Cobley.

Hello all

After I did last week's Signal Man page I got thinking about how it should be printed etc. I plan on possibly gauging interest via this blog and Facebook, then possibly just printing to the initial orders, that way you will have something that will hopefully become a sought after item in 100 years time;) Just as a test I changed this page into sepia, what d'thee reckon? Should it be mono, sepia or actual colour?

Speaking of tests, just as a precursor to actual orders, can anyone WHO MAY BE interested in a copy hit the LIKE button on the FB link. This is just for gauging purposes only. Thanks.

Hello one and all
Just produced page 2 of The Signal Man and it got me thinking that sitting in a signal box can be a very solitary existence, a little like sitting at a drawing board really, so it's good to get feedback on this ere blog. I'm assuming everyone is familiar with this Dickens classic, but just in case you are not... get your ticket and board The Signal Man express. We'll make stops along the way, delving into the production diary, stoking up the imagination as we go.

Last week I was asked to contribute a convention sketch to Club Batman (on facebook), here's the finished pic in case you didn't see it elsewhere.

Greetings blog readers
I spent time recently roughing out the Charles Dickens short story The Signal Man, adapted by Jason Cobley who has written many a fine tale and adapted numerous literary classics such as Dracula,Frankenstein and recently When the Inspector Calls. We are currently not decided upon how or when it will be published but here's the first page to be going on with (sans text, of course). I'll be back with a diary-type/ from-the-drawing-board-development-thing, which will start soon. So make sure you check back here regularly.

I've heard that many of you in the US were unable to purchase either of the Madam Samurai books, through some problem at Diamond distribution, but fear not, as they are both available digitally on GRAPHICLY.com they are well worth checking out, if I do say so myself;)
Here's a few pics to whet your collective appetites.