SexGoreMutants - Interview

Just got back from a far too short trip to Paris. Realised, in my usual suitcase-packing, 'list-of-things-to-remember' runaround haze that I'd forgot to mention an interview i did for SexGoreMutants.

Dim bulb i is.

SexGoreMutants is one of my favourite places to visit for horror/grindhouse/exploitation movie reviews/news, and often guides my bloodshot eyes to the more delirious and deranged DVD delights that my bad brain craves.

It was conducted by Alan Simpson, monster-mad site master, nice bloke and bloody black belt gorehound.

If you can put up with me 'going on' at some length, mostly about art and movies, please click. There's also an as-ever-entertaining chinwag with Channel Evil writer Alan Grant.


Plenty of pictures for those with a short attention span.

Channel Evil - Preview Pages

The first issue of Channel Evil is about to be released across the land. Should be in comic stores next week, well, if your comic store has ordered copies. It's not an easy sell; a new book from an Indy publisher, in black and white, without any superheroes or vigilantes, even with Alan Grant writing. But I'm optimistic that enough readers will spread the word.

 

Artists aren't really supposed to blow their own trumpet (last time i tried i put my back out) but i feel comfortable in saying that this is the most pleased I've EVER felt about my art. It's the closest I've got to realising the 'look' i have in my head, still not exact, but not far off.

Wasn't easy, I suffered a plague of technical gremlins, crippling doubts and an OCD mania. So bad i was close to jacking comics in for good.

 

It was mostly due to my obsessive quest for the 'right line' and the 'right shape'. I don't do all that photo-realistic stuff, or lots of flashy feathering and crosshatching, and my art might look simplistic to many. But i spend a LOT of time planning a page, before and during drawing. It's very measured and carefully constructed. Choosing what to leave out is equally as straining as all that detailed realism or complex penwork. It is to me, anyway.

 

With Channel Evil I'm trying to stew it all down even more, trying to draw comics that have an immediate effect on the senses, art that adds more depth to the story, in a style that 'bends' the form to maximum effect - with the most minimum of fuss.

 

I'm not gonna win any new fans with this series, cus i don't do comics how most comics are done, my 'cartoony' art alienates as many as it attracts. But I'm fine with that, doing 'house style' or pandering to fads and trends is something i gave up with acne and bondage trousers.

I'll shut up now, let you look at some pictures.

Channel Evil

I want your money! Well, not literally, what i want is for you to go to your local comics store and order the first issue(or all four!) of Channel Evil , it's the new comic I'm working on with Alan Grant, and #1 is due at the end of March.

I'm having a ball drawing it, and it's a thrill and pleasure finally getting to work with Alan, who, if you didn't already know, is something of a 'living legend' in these parts, especially for his early 2000AD work, fan-fave fragger Lobo, and Batman and Judge Dredd crossover(co-writing with John Wagner) Judgement In Gotham. And currently, along with Simon Bisley and Glen Fabry, he's knocking readers for a six with the zombie epic The Dead;Kingdom of Flies, have a look over at http://www.thedeadcomic.com/

I know right now, times are hard for a lot of folk, and money is tight, and there's a helluva lot of product on the shelves, and comics ain't cheap. And the worse thing is Marvel and DC choke out the smaller guys when the economy is fucked, the 'independents' don't get much of a chance. But, if you want to show your support for the NEW, if you're not hooked on mutants, if you fancy something a little different, if you like your horror - horror with wit and bloody relish, or just like seeing me draw some spooky freaky shit(and lots of it!)then put in that order now!

I thank you in advance.

I'll be showing and sharing plenty of art along the way, meantime learn/see more over at http://www.renegadeartsentertainment.com/

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.