Stuff to look at and read

It seems like it's been ages since I mentioned other people's work. So here's a brief list -
I'm two thirds through Gus and His Gang by Chris Blain and thoroughly enjoying it, perhaps more than Isaac the Pirate.
I reread Ian Edginton and D'Israeli's Stickleback recently in collected form and got more out of it. Reading it in 2000ad was fine, and I liked it, but felt it didn't match the creative teams previous work (Leviathan and the War of the Worlds trilogy, or even Kingdom of the Wicked), turns out I was wrong, it's a fine addition, and I'm looking forward to the plot thickening and the mystery deepening.
Also from 2000ad I picked up the collection of Judge Dredd: The Pit. Rock solid Dredd story, and when he's done well, usually by Wagner, he's great.
On a Wagner kick I'm also reread The Bogie Man, surely this title is due another collection.
By the time I came to Scalped it was already up to two collections, this was fine as it meant I got to read a big chunk and not wait too long for the third collection. I do like a good crime comic, and that's what Scalped is, the grimness is a little too constant it's pretty compelling stuff.
Northlanders was a title I figured I'd wait too see collected (Vertigo have a policy of cheaply priced first collections, which seems like a smart move) and pick it up when I was in mood. I'm glad I did.

Online I recently discovered Rip Haywire, which is still in it's early days, and a great throwback to classic US adventure strips like Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy and Steve Canyon for the Dilbert generation.

The wonderful Phantom Skull's been going for a few months now and is up to episode 13, it's a lot of fun.

Tom Spurgeon, I think, mentioned Covered a few weeks ago, and it's utter genius. Simple premise, artists redraw old comic covers. Rene french draws Wolverine!?! Stepehen Wiessman draw Hulk!?! See? Genius.

One of the best covereds sadly isn't on there, Chris "Elio" Elopoulos , inspired by the blog, did his version of X-Men, and it's awesome. I'm gonna redraw some covers for fun for sure.

More Huzzah

Feeling bold I decided to do two 'plates' for my turn at Huzzah. An interesting one this time round, I made a lot of mistakes drawing these, but found it to be such a positive experience that I'm not sure 'mistakes' is fair. So, here they are - don't forget to look at the strip so far.

Groovy

My book project revealed, it's the UK edition of Bruce Campbell's autobiography 'If Chins Could Kill'! There's a new intro by Mr Campbell for this edition, and here's the full wraparound cover I drew for it.

Dumb luck that I got the chance to do this, and nothing like my original idea, but the chance to do it even if it was a very definite brief was too hard to pass up.
Art style was done as requested, the look is supposed to somehow be a cross between the classic EC sensibility and a more modern take a la Bryan Hitch.
The book is being published by Aurum and will be available fairly soon at Amazon, Waterstones and Bookdepository and loads of places, even ones on streets.
And for anyone interested, here's my first idea, it's rough, and based on a fairly recognisable Evil Dead still, but my take was to make the cover look like an issue of Famous Monsters.

Huzzah!

Just finished and posted my first contribution to Huzzah, if you want to see the story so far, and you really should, go here.
In the meantime here's the finished pencils and final colour version. I've been wanting to skip the inking stage for a while, as much as I like chunky fluid brush lines I've always felt my stuff loses something in the process.

Big Jobs!

and those jobs are......
1. Book cover. Pencils are finished. It's a very 'kewl' thing, I hope to share something soon..
2. Comic strip that I've sort of kept secret, well, ok, I blabbed whenever I could, but I didn't mention it on this blog. Ok, maybe once or twice. Pencils are waiting on approval and hopefully it'll be finished in the next few months.
3. I've also got a chance to do 2 short strips, I'll post the when and where as soon as I can.
4. Daversham Rex, written by David Hailwood. I've had the script for a while and the plan is to draw a few pages, do a few pin ups and see if we can drum up some interest. I posted some art for it here, I plan to get the pitch ready over the next few months.
5. Jellybean. Not the full title, another script from David. This one hasn't been stewing for as long as Daversham, but I'm really excited by the possibilities for it and have done some scribbling, I'll be posting some designs soon.
6. A few personal strips. I've got three ideas I'd like to get down on paper this year, no idea how long they'll be.
7. Late, and very welcome edition, is my inclusion in Huzzah!, the follow up to the frankly fantastic Who Killed Round Robin? I'm really chuffed to be part of this, and as soon as I get no 1 in the list done will be chipping in. Until then gaze upon it's wonderfulness here.... before I eff it up:)
8. Who knows what else, but definitely more.