Saturday, April 19, 2008

I'm a sucker for tentacles

I know. Looooooooooooooooooooooooong time, no blog. For weeks, i haven't had a spare moment to post anything, and when i did, my pals Tiscali and BT saw to it that i couldn't, but mostly I've bin mad bastard busy.


One of the projects that had me chained to the drooling board was an 8-page strip, written by Steve Niles. It's for a future issue of Cthulhu Tales, an ongoing monthly anthology inspired by the works and worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - and it's a real corker; a full-page hanging, multiple murders, mutilation, black magic, and, yes, lots of slime and tentacles.


It was a thrill to do, cept the colouring; not just cus it was the first time I've coloured a complete strip, but cus of the ridiculous, almost farcical, near endless list of technical problems i dealt with , day after maddening day.


I cannot begin to list the horrors, but let's say i nearly took a hammer to my computer AND my skull, that i bungee jumped into the abyss, that i nearly threw in the towel. Let's say that Steve cursed the script to test me; and undernourished, teeth-clenched, whisky-soaked and half mad with sleep-deprived delirium, i passed my trial by fire/got thru my initiation. And now I'm a better man.


Although it was a complete nightmare to finish and deliver(thank you for your patience, Mr.Waid - you are a gent!)I'm really chuffed with it, and gotta say it's the best short story I've ever worked on. Ticked all the boxes, pressed all my buttons. And if you have a pulse, i'm sure it'll do something similiar for you.


Can't show too much of the finished strip, but ere's a few panels...






Don't know which issue it's gonna be in, soon as i do, I'll let you know.


2 comments:

paulhd said...

Welcome back! And with some brilliant to art to show. Sorry to hear you've been having a 'mare with it, but the hard work certainly looks worth it.

shane oakley said...

Cheers, Paul! Whatever doesn't kill y, drives y to drink.