Cthulhu Tales

Self-rejected Cthulhu Tales cover from 2008. I redrew it with a different head. Shouldn't have. This version is much better. Oh well.

Bride of the Deep

Another old sketch. Originally an idea for a Cthulhu Tales cover, a mash-up of Aubrey Beardsley and Gustav Klimt.

Obviously far too subtle, so i binned it, but it helped inspire a comic book series; an Edwardian detective horror story, with monsters in the sewers, assassins that kill in dreams, exploding dolls and a painting that bleeds out madness.

Coming sometime this century!

A Whistle for the Deep

Cthulhu Tales #12 IS the final issue. Seems not enuff comic readers enjoy anthology books, and most comic shops don't/won't give em the space, cus DC and Marvel bring in the BIG numbers, and your average comic shop manager couldn't give a toss about the indy guys who don't.

But the final issue is cause for celebration, behind a variant cover my moi, there's a 10 page strip i wrote last year, drawn by the criminally ignored/unknown Dave Hitchcock. It's called A Whistle for the Deep, and in contrast to the strip i wrote for Zombie Tales #7, this is me doing it straight, serious hat on and all, and I'm pretty chuffed with it.

It's beautifully, hauntingly drawn, and hopefully, this tale of a monstrous heritage and a boys dark destiny will leave you a little spooked. It's on the shelves, in any comic shop that offers choice and variety(good luck with that one!). Please go and buy it.

Meanwhile, marvel at Dave' s latest stuff at http://davehitchcock.blogspot.com/

Below is the first page, unlettered and uncensored.

Boom! were concerned that too much bare lady was on show since the book was not labelled 'mature readers'. And it just might end up a target of the stateside overzealous loony 'moral majority'. Mostly these are concerned parents who usually don't blink a righteous eyelid at copious comic book bloodletting and gratuitous punching and shooting. But they exclaim horror at the sight of two consenting adults making/about to make love, since this just might drive young readers to underage sex, rape, general debauchery, and a reckless abandonment of wholesome American family values.

A bible in one hand and a gun in the other, they take this shit seriously; they boycott, and threaten, and they get people arrested for selling 'obscene' material to minors. That's partly why the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund was set up, which you should support; http://www.cbldf.org/ .

So, not wanting to be awkward and provocative, we covered up the rude bits. No matter, not like it's damaged the integrity of the story. And it's a gorgeous page, either way.

PS; the letterer buggered up on the third page, the caption 'three weeks later', should be in the second panel, NOT panel one.. Makes a BIG difference.

Cthulhu No More!

Cover art for Cthulhu Tales#10, and my last for the title since it's getting cancelled/'going on hiatus' - maybe you should've bought a copy?

From Spain with a Double-barrel Boom!!

Not long got back to dear old Blighty, after a leisurely loll-around in Spain. And though it was good to get my pale arse outta my cobwebbed studio and walk in the sun and sea air, i must confess i'm rubbish at relaxing, and do 'nothing' very badly. I'm not a sun-worshipper(though it's preferable to a grey, wet and miserable English summer), i don't like the typical tourist sight-seeing stuff, and i don't drink gallons of lager and stay out whizzing-of-me-tits to German techno.

I suppose i just never really 'switch off', I like to have my brain engaged with something.

And just before we left for our holiday, it was firmly engaged with three very exciting projects. One, which is already scheduled, is a horror-thriller mini-series written by the masterful hand of Alan Grant. Which I'll be starting before the end of the year. Another is a 16-page colour adaption of a story by Louisa May Alcott for Graphic Classics. And the third, just came outta-the-blue. It's a pitch collaboration with an amazing talent from outside the comics industry, it's in it's early stages, but its one of those projects you dream about and fall in love with - and I'm head-over-heels!

More on all, soon. Meantime, a sketch from that pitch and the logo-less covers to Cthulhu Tales #9, and Zombie Tales #8, both out in early November.

Good news for all lovers of naked three-eyed tentacle-headed Lovecraftian she-things...

Cover art to Cthulhu Tales #8 is up for auction over on eBay, five days to go. Spend before the recession leaves you without any pocket money.

From the Hiding Place

Cthulhu Tales #2 has bin on the shelves for nearly three weeks, so i thought it okay to show another coupla pages - if you've read it, let me know your thoughts.

BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

Oakley cover art, coming your way soon...