Quick on the draw

It's bin a looooooooooong time since i kept a sketchbook, years ago I'd have one with me wherever i went. But when you're chained to the drawing board, seven days a week, without properly sleeping or eating, screaming at the clock to go backwards, well, the last thing you wanna do is draw in your spare time. But I'm not under that pressure anymore, I've a lot more freedom; that's allowed me to keep up this blog, develop a few personal projects and to draw just for the hell of it.

And i forgot how important, how exhilarating it is. Me, 2 pens, an A5 sketchbook and a knee. Love it.

...ideal when stuck in Stansted Airport at five in the morning.





Rain in Spain...

Uggly Monday; Sukkarr

Back in blighty

Bin away on me hols for near a fortnight, so other than Uggly Monday, i tried to stay away from anything 'work-related' and enjoy the scenery, which made a refreshing change. Though i did fill a whole sketchbook with doodles, a big bunch of which I'll be posting on Wednesday.
Meantime, I'd like to share a coupla photo's from my trip to Spain - and before you shudder, I'm not gonna bore you with scenic snaps of sunsets and glorious beaches. I'm probably much like you, having to look thru other folks holiday pics fills me with a crawling, suffocating dread, unless there's a shot or two of alligators eating small children or Bavarian monks skateboarding.

So ere's a creepy-looking doll on sale at the Cadiz flea market(more or less like a car boot sale but with loads of kitsch religious paraphernalia and dog porn)and a knocker resting on a knob. Hasta luego!

Uggly Monday; Gralph

Uggly Monday; Ed Deadly

Frightful Friday!

Two new pics, one of an old school vampire (i do love a stiff collar), and tuther, a creature design for a project in progress.

Uggly Monday; Fido

Because you didn't demand it!

Not that the universe hasn't got anything else to offer other than the shambling, fly-blown, pus-dripping, flesh-ripping, brain-eating hordes of the undead. But let's be straight, you don't want to see delicate watercolour studies of fauna and flora or pencil portraits of cute puppies - you want ZOMBIES!

I aim to please...

Uggly Monday; Grins

Dead agen

Nothing new, bin laid up with a stinkin' cold(just as the hay fever was finishing), so ere's the originals of two zombie pics i coloured up some weeks back.

Brush pen sketches

Mucking about with a new brush pen, which is easier to use than a 'real' brush, but not by much...nerves have bin shot since the 'Nam...

Enter...

If you like your horror comics served up with steaming guts and EC relish, may i direct you to the 1st issue of Gene Simmons House of Horrors. A new quarterly anthology from IDW Publishing. For you money(and it's a lot of bucks at $9.99)you get five stand alone comic strips, each introduced by self-professed 'Rock God' Gene Simmons, who acts as a Crypt Keeper-style host, only uglier.

My good pals, and Albion sparring partners, Leah Moore and John Reppion contribute an eight pager, 'Into the Woods'', a blood-spattered supernatural yarn, drawn by the gore-crazed Jeff Zornow.

Jeff, incidentally, has done the art for a line of horror-themed t-shirts, one of which i received as a birthday gift(June the 6th, for those who want to take note...)from John and Leah. And mighty tasty it is.



Pop over and buy one at; http://www.fright-rags.com/ , and for more of Jeff Zornows gruesome goodness go to; http://www.yourmidnightreader.com/jwzornow/index.html.

Uggly Monday; Ammona

Four new sketches

Barbara Windsor's 70th

She'll need a 'big puff' to blow out all those candles...Happy Birthday Babs!

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1970's Skinhead/Suedehead

Uggly Monday

Every Monday is Uggly Monday.

Monstrous apparel

Two pre-lim designs for a possible line of Monster t-shirts/sweat shirts.

Buncha new sketches

Love drawing faces, mostly ugly ones(though tis in the eye of the beholder), could do it all day and night, if someone payed me per head, I'd be a very rich man. Alas...

and something i doodled in a bad mood(it AND me).

Robots!

New sketches - zombies are soooooo last week...

Zombies, zombies, zombies etc.

I've got some more zombie art out there; a front and back cover, and rough sketch on the inside, in the junior mini-companion to Accent Uk's ZOMBIES book. A limited print run, which means it was as limited to how much ink Dave had in his printer, so i don't know if there's any left for sale - bankrupt the man, demand a reprint!

And another sketch. Anyone sick of zombies yet?

Mr.Slymme and henchman

Coupla new sketches.

Just say no!

More ZOMBIES

Just finished reading ZOMBIES, the latest 'themed' anthology from Accent UK. If you love the 'living dead' genre, then you'll LOVE this book. You get a whopping 168 black and white pages of comic strips and art, sandwiched between a suitably grisly cover from the putrescent pen of Steve Bissette (who in the eighties, along with Alan Moore and John Totleben, worked on an epic run of Swamp Thing - easily the best horror comics that DC have EVER done), and a back cover(and a coupla pics inside)by yers truly.

Zombies is a real labour of love(and death), publishers Dave West and Colin Mathieson have made every effort to rise above their 'small press' origins, and they do, in grave-robbing spades. With it's eclectic mix of artists/writers, both pro' and amateur, striking design work by Andy Bloor(who also draws one of the most chilling stories in the collection)and first rate production values, this book holds it's own among the 'big guns'.

It's not without it's weak points, page numbering would've helped, and some of the stories are very slight, sometimes too-obviously influenced/inspired by Romero's movies and Shaun of the Dead. But most, Gary Crutchley's Job Satisfaction in particular, do it with wit and style. Zombies is far more hit than miss, and for £6, it's a LOT of hit!

To see more of it's contents or to order a copy go to;http://accentukcomics.com/