Olivia's delivery service

Been so busy lately it seems like ages since I had a chance to draw. My little girl was obsessed with Kiki's Delivery Service for a while, and struck a flying pose with a balloon on a stick. Seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.

One that got away

I recently pitched a comic called MCPD Blue (that's Monster City Police Department). Sadly the editor liked it, but didn't feel it was right. After a brief moment of panic where I thought all ideas had dried up and I'd never do anything, or find time for anything again, I came up with an idea that takes a lot of what I liked about MCPD Blue but hopefully presses the right buttons for the editor.
In the meantime, here's a couple of the MCPD Blue illustrations. Who knows, maybe I'll come back to it sometime.

Nelson

Have you heard about Nelson yet? It was finally announced a few days ago, and is, frankly, amazing. I know this, because I've seen a lot of it. I've seen a lot of it, because I'm in it.
As an anthology it's pretty unusual, I think the tagline pretty much sums it up - 'Fifty Creators, Forty Three years, One narrative'. That's right, a whole lot of people all working on one story. But, thanks to the hard work of Rob Davis, Woodrow Phoenix and Kayla Hillier, not only is it cohesive, it adds up to far more than the sum of it's parts. And what 'parts' they are, not matter what kind of comics you read, I guarantee you'll have heard of some of the people involved. I'm still pinching myself that my contribution sits in their with the work of so many people I hugely admire.
Read more about it here.
As soon as I'm able to show something, I will.... but only a little bit!

The Octonauts

The Octonauts is brilliant. Couldn't resist turning my daughter into Captain Barnacles.

Tom Hickathrift

Poor Tom. Jason and I worked really hard to produce something we hoped publishers would appreciate. Sadly, so far, despite some lovely feedback it hasn't happened yet. We hope Tom will find a chance to rise, and take his place next to Asterix, or Bone, but we need a publisher for that. If anyone wants to contact us, please do. In the meantime, here's the first 10 pages and a cover.

Big Lebowski/Sesame Street

Here's the pic I'll be giving to my wife for her birthday tomorrow.

Judge Death

You know who this guy is, right?

'cover'

Throwaway comment in a conversation and a friends asking for a picture combined in this picture.

Frankenfunnies

This was an itch that needed scratching. I first came up with the idea for this strip almost five years ago, and posted a couple designs. Since then it's just sat in a dusty drawer in my brain.
As I never forgot the idea, I thought it deserved to be put to paper. The paper itself is pretty big, almost A2 as I saw this looking like a Sunday Comics page and wanted to try and capture some of that feel.
I had another idea for a second strip, hopefully it won't take five years this time.

Merry Christmas!

Here's the Christmas card I did for my wife, now I share it with all you out there. Merry Christmas!

Scooterdog

Me and my four year old daughter too our dog, Boo, for a walk recently, and my little girl told me a story about Scooterdog. It involved penguins and a knitted jumper.
I couldn't resist drawing Scooterdog, and it will soon be on my daughter's wall.
No idea if there'll be any more Scooterdog, but there will be some more collaborations with my daughter. Keep watching.

stateboarding

There's a story to go with this picture, based on a childhood memory.
There's a few memories I've considered turning into comics. I don't think they'll be rewarding reads, it's really just for me.
This, never really happened, of course, but it does try and capture a feeling I had about skateboarding, even if the actually skateboarding didn't work out so well.
I'm happy with the colour version, but think the b&w one might be more successful, so I'm posted it too.

Slaine & Judge Dredd

Here's two quick sketches I did to get a feel for how I'd like to draw both characters.Dredd is fairly standard, but I've gone for the skinny menacing look rather than the steroid version that crept in during the late 80s. Not sure about the Eagle, here. My main problem is balancing simplifying parts and keeping the detail of others.Slaine is based on the look of his first year. Despite the skill of the people involved, I don't care for the more heavy metal Slaine.

Bits

Here's the complete 'Bits' featuring Hugo (tangentially) I love his sad sack gormlessnesss, but it's even better when he reverts to type.
If you like this, why not have a look at the book it appears in here

The Return of Hugo

Hugo the zombie, last seen in Zombie of the Great Unwashed, returns in 'Bits'. Sadly, he doesn't return on this page, and I can't really show the other pages because they're a bit spoiler-y, so you'll have to wait:) Or maybe you could just buy a copy of the comic it'll appear in when fine writer Jason Cobley puts it out.

Influence Map Meme

For the sake of honesty I've lied on my map. Brian Bolland and Curt Swan should feature as I spent a lot of time as a kid copying their work. I haven't cared for Bolland since I was about 13, but has his influence has been erased?

There should be a lot more artists, TV shows, films etc. I realised I was equally inspired by 'waves' of creators, so I picked one - Walt Holcombe is an example of this, I could've just as easily picked Goodbye Chunky Rice era Craig Thompson, James Kochalka or Tom Hart. I did the same with British artists, it was a toss up between Paul Neary and Steve Parkhouse. Including McMahon was a given, but that kept out Kevin O'Neill and Ian Gibson.
Herge or Uderzo could've easily gone on the list, but Chaland and Trondheim scratches similar itches for me.
Does Richard Sala look like DavidB? Sort of, maybe, but putting B in seemed superfluous with Sala.
Feels disingenuous to only have David Law on the list, why not Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale or many other great UK kid's comic artist? It's the energy of Law's work that made me pick him.
It's not exactly accurate to put Matisse, or Van Gogh, but Expressionism/Fauvism/Impressionism is something I find interesting and needed to represent some of that.
It was quite hard for me not putting Rumiko Takeashi on the list, and there's not a similar artist on the list, but I left her out as much of her appeal, for me, lies in her writing.
Not having the Los Bros Hernandez, Peter Bagge, Dan Clowes etc seems criminal, but I love their work as a reader, and greatly admire their incredible skill and talent, and that's not the same as being influenced. There's quite a few creators who fall into that category.

New page

This is the 2nd page of pitch art for Daversham Rex, with Mr Rex actually appearing on it.
Anachronisms are appearing now, with outfits and vehicles from whatever time I like. This is intentional. Honest. As well as using vague likenesses for the cast I decided to pick whatever reference felt right, whether accurate or not. Hopefully it'll achieve an internal consistency.

Daversham Rex page 1

Here's page one of a pitch I'm working on with David Hailwood called Daversham Rex. It's a fairly 'raw' scan as I've not done much correcting - I'm leaving that for when all the pages are inked.
Like the stuff I've been doing recently it's brush work on watercolour paper, and I've been thinking of adding a light wash, not so much for tones, but to try and bring out the texture of the paper.
Don't know if it's easy to make out, but that's the Kraken from the original Clash of The Titans as a water fountain.

Revealed!

Seeing as Jason Cobley, my partner in crime, has given me the go ahead, here's the super secret project we've been working on. Tom is based on a character from folklore, and Jason's script pushed so many buttons for me I tried to raise my game with the artwork.

Eleventh Doctor

Ah, the pleasure of drawing for fun. Fast loose inking on watercolour paper is lots of fun, and it was nice to not worry if the end results worked. Fretting over artwork is what saps all the fun from drawing.

Tease

Here's a non-spoiler panel from the pitch I've been working on with top fella Jason Cobley.

why no pictures?

Sorry for the lack of art. I recently finished a book cover and am close to finishing a pitch with Jason Cobley, but nothing else worth posting. In all honesty I'm a bit burnt out on blogging.
It's my own fault, after getting a few things published I started to think all wrong about what I drew. I tried to force myself into doing things in a manner that just wasn't me. So I drew less and was unsatisfied with what I did.
Comics only pay great if you do a certain kind, and I'm not interested, or maybe even good enough for those. Truth is I have a limited amount of time (I work full time and my wife works full time. Days off work are most likely spent looking after my daughter, or it's a rare family day) any drawing I do should be self indulgent, not tampered with in the hope for a bit of cash. So, no more looking for a paying gig. If something comes up that I like, great. If not, I'll be pleasing myself.
I've no idea if this means less drawing as I focus on other things, or more as I rediscover what I like.
I came to this after feeling quite low, but once I decided to pull back from things I felt pretty good. That seems like a good sign.

Team Toxic redesigns

This is artwork from a year or so ago. These were asked for by Egmont after I did two strips for the Toxic Free Comic. Egmont were considering revamping the characters and asked anyone who'd shown interest if they'd like to have a go. So I did.

Good Dog, Bad Dog

Couldn't sleep so I decided to do some fan art for Dave Shelton's wonderful 'Good Dog, Bad Dog', collected from dear departed DFC, but resurrected in The DFC Library.

Dredd Head

This is probably way to rough to post as it's nothing more than a quick doodle, but what the hell, might as well shown some drawings. Despite it's dodginess, this Dredd pic makes me wonder if I should do a sample. My only contact with Tharg made me suspect that I'm not right for (his) 2000ad and probably never will be. But, I have that nagging feeling a lot of readers my age probably have of wanting to have had a proper go at being in 2000ad. I've never drawn the Dredd I see in my head, but this is getting closer.

Medium Flake

These were scripted by David Hailwood for an open sub thing Mad Magazine had a couple of years ago. It's early on in my days of photoshop, and I was shocked to see some weird laborious techniques. One page had to be relettered because of a mistake. David also sent them to Wasted, Alan Grant thought they were funny, but not 'adult' enough, he did say he liked the artwork though. Which is nice.

This was painful.
I roughed it out fairly quickly and blundered into the final pencils. Then realised I'd done a terrible job.
So I started again, got as far as colouring and as the page was nearly done when my laptop went dark. The battery doesn't work and I'd accidentally pulled the power supply out. In my haste to make up for lost time I hadn't saved any of the colour work. Deciding that the day was a dud I figured I should go to bed, emailed the other Huzzah guys.... then decided to block in some colour, and that blocking in led to finishing it up. Thankfully.

New Year post

This is the 3rd go at writing, the previous two were too negative. 2009 was a pain in the arse for many reasons, but I have done stuff. I spent time with my family, I drew, and I honestly think I got better.
So, 2009 was a sod, but I won, I beat you '09, screw you!
Here's what I'll be doing in 2010.
1. Getting off my fattening arse. I've just moved into 36inch waist jeans and am none too happy about it. The day's of 32inch are gone, and I can't be arse with them, but 34 sounds about right.
2. Super secret project with Jason Cobley. I think the plan is to keep it under wraps and see if any publishers bite. If they don't we'll release it ourselves. It's awesome!
3. Astro Dog. This poor fella has sat around since the untimely demise of The DFC, I had some lovely feedback when I posted about him earlier, but nothing much seems to have come of that. The plan now is to turn it into a fresher pitch and send it out again.
4. My webcomic. This one probably won't start until April. It's too early to say much about it, but I will be looking at a weekly updated self contained story, that'll run to book length. I'll post more about this as it gets closer.
5. Odds n sods. I'll still be contributing to the two Huzzah strips. I've sat on a few bits of samples I intend to send off soon, and there's a couple of other commitments.
6. Keep up that family time.
7. Less internet. I've slowed down posting, and I've cut down tweeting, but I still spend a lot of time looking at nonsense online. Best to knock a lot of that on the head. I'll still be about, but in a more worthwhile less time sapping way.
And that's it, hope you all have a fantastic New Year!