Shots from Cadiz, Conil and Gibraltar

I Suck Dracula

One thing the Cadiz Good Food Guide failed to mention...

Malaga

Sun. Sea. Sand. Script

Not long back from a trip to Spain. I know that sounds bad, me sunning it abroad when i should be chained to the drooling board finishing Channel Evil #2.

But i really, really, really needed to get away for a spell, and we payed for coach, planes and train months back in a more optimistic time, before i knew i was struck with some deadline-buggering 'weird ear' disorder/ailment and not just a shitty head cold.

Besides, i took script and art tools with with me and spent hours in sea-view cafes, gulping my Fanta Limon(Hardcore!), eating twice my body weight in olives and laying out most of #3, along with sorting a few 'problem panels' on #2.

Fun was had, work woz done and Suzanne got to see her Mum, paddle in the ocean, fondle a chameleon, and get bitten by bugs.

Odd thing, other than the first two days, i suffered no unpleasant symptoms(nausea, ringing/buzzing in ears, dizziness, etc.), then after a day back in Stoke i had a juggernaut driving around my skull and an attack of the wobblies. Mebbe I'm living in a 'sick town?'

Right now I'm on the tail end of pencilling #2, due to start the inks next week. Will post some previews along the way.

Work is getting faster, and I'm feeling on top, I'm grateful for your patience and understanding, and touched by all the well-wishes, especially from No;1 fan, Justin Gillett.

Onward and upward!

Warm-up sketches from June and July

Channel Evil #2 - Warrior on horseback

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!

Squig

Old character design from a story yet to be told.

Pencil, grey marker and a little photoshop colour.

Sketches drawn sitting in gloomy hospital corridor during a one hour and forty-odd minute wait with nothing but a yellowing wall to stare at

Bucky does Ba'al

You've heard of Mark Buckingham, right?

Y'know, the fella who drew Marvelman and Batman and Spiderman, and just about every other major character in the Marvel and DC universe.

Rich, succesful, talented Mark buckingham who's kept Fables at the top of the Vertigo sales charts for centuries, the fella who editors name their children after, the fella with graphite and rotring ink spliced into his genes, the fella who can't seem to put a foot wrong with his adoring legion of fans, who helps old ladies across the road, sings Xmas carols, cries at christenings, buys everyone drinks at conventions(even Kev Sutherland); the fella who chuckles and smiles like Jimmy Stewart playing Jiminy Cricket, the fella who is always sweet and polite and gentle and charming, who, in the middle of deadline pressures, guesting at shows, playing host to visiting family, doing the washing and walking the dogs, manages to paint a gorgeous variant cover for Channel Evil# 2 just cus i asked him to, well, you wanna know summat?


He eats with his mouth open.

Channel Evil #2

Getting there!

September

The Long Road to Blackpool

I'm late.

Channel Evil#2 should be at the printers by now, but I'm less than half way through it. My apologies to the readers, to Alan Grant, and to my editor, Alexander Finbow, who has patience that's beyond any Saint I've ever heard of.

Everything seemed to be on track back in May, then what i thought was the sound of a distant generator of early bird workmen, turned out to be in my HEAD.

And the noise got louder, and my ears hurt and had a peculiar sensation of pins and needles, like you'd spent an hour trying to blow up those long corkscrew-like balloons.

It went away, and i put it down to a bad cold I'd just finished with. Then it came back with a vengeance, along with rumbling, buzzing, headaches and hearing loss, and an overall feeling that my head was under water. And it got progressively worse, and then the dizzy spells arrived, with horrid vertigo sensations and a seasick nausea. Like when you've had far too many ales and the bed is trying to spin you into orbit - but without the pleasure of getting shitfaced first.

Was it a virus or damage to my ear or Meniere's disease or Labyrinthitis, or something more sinister? The docs/specialists ticked boxes and moved onto the next.

And it's still a mystery, but luckily, due to my own initiative in seeking releif with alternative medicine, and discovering that one of my prescribed drugs was actually making my symptoms worse, well, I've now managed to get myself feeling more like normal agen. Still lose me some sleep, but I've let go of the bed and can sit at the drawing board without feeling i need a safety belt.

Hard at work getting #2 completed, hopefully to see print next month.

Agen, my apologies for the delay.

Sketches from May

Tune in

For those who need more convincing you can read the first 16 pages for free, just a click away.

Channel Evil #1 - Anytime Now!

Got my comps of the first issue. Always a nervous sharp intake of breath/slight puckering of a-hole, when you open a comic you've drawn, you're never too sure how it's gonna look; mebbe the printer had a long liquid lunch that day, pressed the wrong buttons and it printed backwards/upside down/inside out.

But, i think it's looking pretty good. I'm a proud father. Chuffed. Excuse me if i don't have enuff cigars to go around.

Now, all you've gotta do is BUY IT!

Fine fella and my boss, Alexander Finbow, tells me it's out in the UK from tomorrow(next week at the latest). For some reason that only Dotty Diamond Distributors know, American readers won't see it until June 3rd. It you have problems finding it, bug your comic store-like-hell, or buy direct from Berserker. Hope it hits the spot.

Another unlettered page for a taster.

Zombie Tales #12

Final cover i did for the final issue. Though, last i heard, BOOM! are planning to do a mini-series or a bumper-sized one-off in the near future, same for Cthulhu Tales, but don't quote me.

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.