Solipsistic Pop sneak peak

Have I mentioned that I'm contribution to the excellent anthology Solipsistic Pop? well, I am, a two page strip for issue 4.
All the SP books are beautifully designed and SP4 will be on cream paper with an addition green tone.
The theme for this issue is 'maps', and I must admit I stretched that theme to fit my strip. But as it's the story that popped into my head after thinking of the theme I figure it's fair enough.
As SP is so beautifully designed I decided to attempt something I rarely do nowadays, which is the 'fancy-pants layout'. As much as I admire the likes of Chris Ware, when it comes to my own stuff that kind of layout just isn't for me.
The panel here probably gives a clue as to how I decided to tackle the layout, and really, it's not all that fancy - in fact, I went to a lot of effort to make sure actually looks as straightforward as possible.
One interesting thing, for me at least, is that it's almost a companion piece to my Nelson contribution, but in this instance I've not masked the autobiography with a fictional character and I've recalled something more specific to me.

Nelson

As many of you may be aware Blank Slate will be publishing Nelson in November. Nelson is the brainchild of Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix. It's one story created Exquisite Corpse style by 54 creators. I've seen quite a bit of it, and it's amazing.
Nelson's mix of an amazing variety of talented creators not only manages to be cohesive, it shows us that one style is not 'better' than another, it shows us all are valid, and value of those styles is what they reveal about the creator. Nelson really is something far greater than the sum of it's individually incredible parts.
It's probably best if I don't say anything about the content of even my own contribution for now. I'll just say that I used nostalgia to attempt to tap into something that I hope many can relate. You shouldn't have to wait to long to see if I succeeded!
In the meantime here's two random panels, one of which will allow the eagle eyed 2000ad fan to pinpoint almost exactly when my contribution is set.

Cycling

My daughter recently started cycling without stabilizers, and I was amazed how well she took to it. So I drew this.

Dr Seuss' House of Horrors!

Oh, I may go to hell for these. Still, I absolutely adore Seuss, but, really, isn't the whole uninvited guest forces his way into a kid's house and causes chaos a wee bit.... odd? Also, shame on their folks for leaving them on their own. And.... and.... okay, I've run out of excuses.

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.