One Day To Go.

Yep, just one day to go until Christmas and I’m all set (more or less). I’ve got a nasty cold going on which wasn’t part of the plan, but apart from that Christmas is going pretty well.

I thought I’d post the second full page of Dirge as a kind of Christmas present, you never asked for. I was going to keep it till closer to new year, but since I haven’t been able to post any recent work because it would give to much away so I’ll post it today. It one of the rare pages that doesn’t have any of the main characters on and probably one of my favourite pages from Dirge 2.


Anyway Merry Christmas and hope you’re having (and have) a great one.

These Things Take Time.

You know a videogame going to be good, when in been in development for more then ten years and they’ve only just released a teaser trailer.



Wow I remember playing the first Duke Nukem 3D back in the mid 90’s. It seems hard for a videogame to have a good sense of humour about itself, but there was something very unapologetic about Duke Nukem 3D that I liked. It was differently one of the best videogames when I was growing up. Can’t really tell anything from this trailer about the new Duke Nukem game and no ones actually said Duke Nukem coming out in 2008. I’m also guessing only the strongest, most upgraded PC will be able to play this game when it does come out. Not my shitty laptop PC, which is held together with chewing gum and plasters.

I’m really glad I finished my Christmas shopping today. Things were getting a bit cut throat in the shops over the last couple of days. Yeah I’m pretty set for Xmas by now. Just going spend my time now playing with that long cardboard tube you get at the end when all the wrapping papers gone and pretend it a lightsaber.

Hard Lessons In Life.

I think it widely excepted that Googling your own name is a bit of a dirty habit. Oh sure most people do it but it not to be encouraged. Anyway if nothing more brings home this fact then when I thought I’d try typing my own name in to youtube and came across this video.



I just want to point out that it only namesake going on here. Still a bit of a shock when I saw it come up. {Note} I was going to start making jokes about the only sex crime I’ve committed is not getting enough, but then I decided to take the higher ground and skip it.

Temper, Temper.

Latest panel from Dirge part 2.


Pretty much sum up how I’m feeling at the moment as well in a weird way. It becoming a mad rush to get everything ready for Xmas. Tried to order a new TV online for Christmas and keep getting told it was out of stock. I thought it would never be in stock before Christmas until one morning a couple of days ago when I got an email telling me it was now in stock and I could order one if I followed the link. So after pressing the link and being taken to the ordering page feeling like a weight had been taken off my shoulders, I started to fill in details again, only to be told again that it was out of stock. Wow, what a mean trick to play at Christmas I thought. So the next day I went down to my local store to see if they had any in store and ended up buying one and having to carry it home myself. Problem solved but I think I’ve pulled my arms out of they’re sockets doing it.

Ho, Ho, Ho.

Another year, another Christmas. It more the run up to Christmas I like, with all the ways you plan to treat yourself on the day before these plans go tits up. All the movies you hope will be on TV at Xmas before finding out it all shit films and repeats. All the things you plan to buy before finding out they’ve sold out (a pain I am experiencing at this moment “sob”) or cost too much.

Yeah the run up is in many ways better then the day itself. People are a little nicer (well…a bit…ish). They’re a buzz in the air. And people can stuff they’re faces for a short period, guilt free, which all comes to an end after Christmas. Plus you can mess up a lot more around Xmas and you more likely to be let off.

The downside to Christmas is it tends to exaggerate your mood. If your happy and in a good place your be feeling twice as loved up at this time of year and if your not, your feel twice as shitty. Yeah, it a tricky time Xmas. It also because you know the year is almost run out and you didn’t do half the things you planned. But then saying that if you had a shit year then knowing it was almost over should cheer you up.

I plan to get through this Christmas with a couple of good DVD’s, some Cookie flavoured ice cream and if I can sort it out in time maybe a new TV. But that a bit up in the air at the moment.

Art Show.

When Illustrator James Holcombe isn’t drawing horny old people on days out, his putting together artshow’s. Next week his sharing a show with two other artist. There also a private view going on this Friday. Should be a good night although I work Saturdays so I have to be up early the next morning which means I’ll be running home right after the show (just like Cinderella) so I can get some sleep.

Should be a good night and show and James says your all welcome.

The show runs until the 10th.

More D2.

Couple more panels from Dirge 2. Really making an effort to finish up Dirge as early as I can in 2008. I’d like to think you speed up as you get closer to the end of a comic, but if anything you want to spend more time getting it right. Fingers crossed it should be done around spring…I can feel the jinx setting in as I type these words. More like Christmas 2010 if I’m honest.

The Wacky World Of Halftones.

Some images I forgot to post at the weekend.

Halftones are those little dots in the background if you were wondering. I may well do a whole post on Halftones one day down the line.

Angry Faces (Redux)

Been on the computer the last couple of days adding tone to some pages of Dirge and have the bloodshot eyes to prove it. Hoping to finish up by the weekend so I can get back to pencilling by at least early next week. Wasn’t really looking forward to doing tone and texture this time around and yet I’m really getting into it now. I’ll post some more in the coming days.

False Teeth From Beyond The Stars.

Taking a walk down memory lane last night (i.e. looking up old kids show’s on youtube) when I came across this. False teeth from beyond the stars was a short animation from a kids show in the late 80’s called Around the bend. Presented by a puppet crocodile from a sewer if I remember rightly. These animation were great but they used to freak me out a bit. Being eaten by your own false teeth, hell of a way to go. They had another one as well about a giant banana destroying a city called Attack of the atomic banana.



They’ve got more online plus some episodes of Round the bend.

Speaking of being freaked out, I’m glad by reading the comments on Youtube that I wasn’t the only kid who find the opening to Worzel Gummidge a bit freaky. Watch it again in the dark in the early hours and it still creep me out. This 33 seconds is scarier then most Hollywood movies nowadays.



Come on. That a bit freaky right?

Body Language.

I can’t remember were I read it as I must have been pretty young, but one of the first rules about comic book art work is you should be able to read the story or at least get what going on just from the art before it been lettered. This doesn’t always work out like if two characters are just talking or driving in a car having a chat. But even then you should be able to work out what kind of conversation they’re having through body language and so on. Even to this day I’ll still look at a page and see if it readable with out the text. I always enjoy body language in comics and seeing what artist do with it. Because they’re comics it mostly tends to be over blown stuff but sometimes it’s nice to have some more natural positions going on in your work as well.

This is a shot of The Inspector (still no name) hopefully looking like his saying something witty or making some kind of joke.

Who Knows?

Sometimes when your drawing in your sketchbook, you’re not really sure what you’re going to draw so you just start and see what happens. But saying that I have no idea why I ended up draw a buck tooth Butler. No idea at all.

You ever get those phantom hangovers sometimes? When you’re so tired you figure your just stay in for the night and watch TV instead of going out drinking and be in a better mood in the morning to work, but your body so used to that Sunday hangover you get a phantom hangover anyway. So you walk around with a slight hangover even if you took last night easy and didn't drink anything.

Nicole Was Overjoyed To Receive A Cosby Sweater.

Thought I’d post my first full page from Dirge 2 today. I usually stick to single panels but I thought I’d start with this splash page as a bit of a cheat and then post a page with panels around the end of the year-ish. Not going to give too much away about this shot, like who hand it is or what the hell it got to do with anything in the story but I do like this page.



Yikes, November the 9th already. This year has been going by super fast. I’ve already had to get my ‘Cosby sweaters’ out because it been so cold. Yikes again. I just checked my online urban dictionary to make sure ‘Cosby sweater’ was official and find out ‘Cosby sweater’ has two meanings, so I mean Cosby sweater as in High Fidelity Cosby sweater, as in:

(2) Cosby Sweater.

A: A oversized, hideous looking sweater with ugly patterns and colors, often worn by old men or hipsters with no taste.

B: A sweater a senile colorblind person would pick out.

NOT as in:

(1) Cosby Sweater.

The sexual act of eating Fruit Loops, Fruity Pebbles, Trix, and Boo Berry- or any other 'bright, colorful' breakfast cereals- and then vomitting the tacky, dazzling mixture onto your partners chest. The result should look similar to the incredible sweaters that Bill Cosby wore during his highly successful 1980's sitcom "The Cosby Show". Nicole was overjoyed to receive "a Cosby Sweater" for her birthday.

You learn something new everyday…. And then you spend the rest of the day trying to forget it.

So anyway... beware if anyone offers you a ‘Cosby Sweater’ this Christmas. I love Urban dictionary’s. I might get one for Christmas.

The Greatest Lord Of The Rings Monster That Never Was.

Rounding up my week of dressing up for Halloween are these picture for a last minute Lord of the rings party. I ran into town before the shop’s shut and bought some glue and then stick all the bits of fancy dress I had leftover to make this evil Ringo Starr looking mask. Those movie are so long I’m sure are some point there got to be something that looked something like this in there. To be fair I’ve only seen the first film and that was like five or six years ago at the cinema.



Didn’t get shown much love at the party for my efforts with this mask and I was getting outshined by people wear towels around they’re shoulders (next time I’ll just turn up as a Jedi) plus a nasty cold I’m suffering from at the moment made wearing it a bitch (in fact it made the whole night a bit of a bitch). But I’ve got a soft spot for this look. If they ever want an evil Ringo Starr for a Doctor Who monster I think I’m in with a chance. Anyway I think that pretty much the last of the dressing up for 2007. It two Friday nights in a row I’ve spent gluing stuff together for outfits. I’ll be honest the fact I’ve been getting a lot more hits over this Halloween season has freaked me out a bit. Put a stop to it now before I start dressing up as Liza Minnelli in Cabaret for attention.

Happy Halloween 07.

You know it Halloween time when you spend Friday afternoon looking for fake blood and ghoulish outfits and Friday night putting fake blood on a perfectly good shirt.



Here me on Saturday night dressed for Halloween. Had a pretty good mask considering how cheap it was. I painted on the fake blood to the teeth and chin myself and looking back on it I wished I’d stuck loads more around the mouth now.



My friend came as… well a kind of zombie Panda I guess.





Still a creepy sight. Here me trying it on and getting fake blood over my hands as it wouldn’t dry on the plastic (still got some of it under my nail’s now).



Was watching some old Dr Who last week I’d bought on DVD to relive some of those 80’s childhood memories. I’m pretty sure I was just acting out some repressed childhood dream of playing a Dr Who monster.




And here me picking my latest victim out of my teeth. Some poor cheerleader I came across on the way home? Or just a Kebab? I’ll never tell.



Anyway hope your having a great Halloween.

Tis the season… for murder.

Frame Without A Name.

Here another character from Dirge who I never really gave a name. I just stuck with calling him Inspector. Haven’t had to draw this certain character for about a year now so it felt a bit weird drawing him again. But fun too.



Still getting over a hangover from yesterday, from drinking on Saturday night. The worst thing about hangovers is they change, as you get older. This video explains it way better>



It so true. I woke up feeling great on Sunday. I thought it was going to be a nice day and everything as I lay there in bed. Felt so good yesterday morning but within an hour or two I was laying in a dark room feeling like crap. What happened? What a mean trick. From a great buzz to thinking my head was going to explode. I managed to get some artwork done later that night, but I pretty much spent all of yesterday daytime trying to make a womb like environment were I could suffer in peace.

Fright Night.

Another shot fresh from the drawing board. This guy wasn’t in Dirge part 1 but he’s in part 2 a bit. Haven’t really given this guy a name but he has a few lines. I guess you can find out who he is next year. I’m enjoying drawing his receding hairline look. There more shots of him a couple of posts back on the 17th.


Had a fright the other night on my way home from work. Lost in my own daydream world as I walked home when something dashed in front of me and I nearly tripped over it. It was so big I thought somebody’s dog had got loose and was coming for me when I first saw it out of the corner of my eye. By the time it was in front of me and I was trying not to walk into it I could see it was a massive Badger and I could hear it claws rattling against the pavement as it dashed in front of me. As it ran off into somebody garden I remember thinking that would of been a really stupid way to go. Mowed down by a huge (it was like an Ironing Board with legs) Badger. At least I would have been remembered. That guy that got run down by a massive Badger. Wouldn’t be as bad as the guest found drowned in a pool at a party in LA in 1985. The party was being held by LA lifeguards celebrating they’re first drown free year.

Seems Kind Of Mean To Me.

Having a look at the Halloween masks that are around this year when I came across this one>


Are woman with unwanted facial hair really as bigger monsters as Werewolf’s or Vampires? Seem a bit mean to me. Don’t get me wrong there something creepy about chicks with beards but to have a mask made about it? Surly at some point, some chick fresh from bleaching her upper lip that morning is going to see this and feel like shit.

This is my second outrage of the day after coming across videos people had made were they’d given they’re pet cats LSD and filmed it and put it up on Youtube. What the world coming too? DON’T PICK ON THE HAIRY CHICKS and DON’T FEED YOUR PETS DRUGS. If anything you should give the LSD to the bearded woman so they can get so out of it they forget they’ve got beards.

Their problem solved. All is right with the world for another day. If you need me I’ll be in my Batcave waxing my Batmobile.

More Angry Faces.

Time for another round of pick a panel off the page that doesn’t give too much away. Was in a mood yesterday when I open my new lot of A3 card that I’ve been drawing on for years only to find it now some crap quality stuff more like toilet paper then the glossy card I’d come to know and love over the years. Had to work out if it was worth wasting a day not using it and buying some new stuff today or if I should carry on with the bog paper. Time’s pretty short at the moment but I tested the new low quality stuff first to make sure it handles ink ok. Actually liked the artwork I did yesterday weirdly enough but if anybody knows of any good A3 drawing card that handles ink I’m all ears.

Highlights of my day include stuffing myself with Chinese food at lunchtime. Playing a pub quiz game were if you tried to enter you name as a swear word it changed it to a regular name (Nob became Pat, Cock became Mark etc) also my friend uttering “Let get quizzichical” as we sat down to play. I wondered how long he’d been waiting to use that catchphrase and when he’d thought it up. Just burning away inside waiting until he could say it.

Thought I’d also post up this review of an old video game called Splatter House 2 (save me having email it to a couple of friends). If someone would bring out a PS2 version of The Splatter House games and with save points it’d make my year.

Some Music Videos Of Choice.

Yikes busy times at the moment. Been all work and little play this week, but still at least I should have some new artwork to post in the next day or two. Plus I should be going to see a movie tonight with friends so my plan is to get some work done today and chill out tonight. Like I said I should have some new Dirge work to post very soon and hopefully find sometime to do some sketchbook work as well in the coming days.

Been listening to a lot of music again lately. When I was in college with no TV all I had was CD and books for entertainment. But sadly over the last couple of years the evil of TV has started to creep back into my life (although internet is the new bigger evil now). So I thought I’d post some music vids in this post:

Institutionalised - Suicidal Tendencies:

One of the best tracks off the Repoman soundtrack and the music video has Jack Nance in it. Talking of Jack Nance I heard a rumour that he was going to be the lead in The Graduate. How weird would that have been?



Flathead – The Fratellis:

Actually went out and bought some CD last week and this was one of the best tracks. Been listening to it for days. If I’m feeling lazy I just put this song on.



No Pussy Blues – Grinderman (Live):

Best till last. I still haven’t bought this album yet and I really need to but when it came out earlier this year I was so low on cash I just couldn’t. Probably the best song about not getting laid ever… (or at least from the last few years).

The Heart Break Of Living In The Real World.

The older you get, the more of life’s little wonders are peeled away. Its truly heart breaking that it seem to happen more and more the older you get. Great myths turn to nothing. What you thought to be true was never true to begin with. But this latest revelation was truly heart breaking. If you do not want to share my heartbreak stop reading now.

Like most men when you mention female tennis one thing comes to mind. When you think of women playing tennis, you think of those sexy grunts they give out as they hit the ball. Those high pitch grunts that seem so wrong and yet so right. There can only be one answer for that sound right? That women get uncontrollably horny while playing tennis. Everybody knows this right? Tennis is a sexy game and it just gets to women. Well sadly I believed this to be true all my life until a couple of days ago when I read (STOP READING NOW…. LAST CHANCE….SAVE YOURSELF…ABORT) that in fact female tennis players give out those loud horny sounding grunts to put the other player off how there going to play there next shot. So she goes to hit the ball and gives a really loud grunt like she just smacked it as hard as she can when really she cheekily just tap it over the net or something and put the other player on the wrong foot. Also the loud grunt stops the other player from hearing the sound of the ball hitting the racket so she can’t judge her shot off this sound. So there you go. Long story short, girls don’t get horny playing tennis. Another good thing in life turns out to be false. Something that was sexy and fun just turns out to be more mind games.

I need to get into a pillow fight with a bunch of cheerleaders or have to save an all female volleyball team from killer badgers or something because the world becoming very unsexy and no fun at the moment.

One Man And His A3 Light Box.

Well after one wasted trip to Eastbourne last month and hours of plotting, I finally got my greedy little hands on a Light Box this week. I figured it was worth the £5 delivery charge to order it online as a return train ticket to Eastbourne probably cost about the same and I wasn’t keen on making a second trip. I haven’t been able to use a Light box since my college days and had to fall back on the dreaded technique of scanning and printing off any needed roughs\images and then spending ages shading in the back and drawing over the image.

It kind of weird they sell Light boxes in Argos now. I mean I know they sell everything in Argos now (even Wheelchairs and one day probably Coffins too) but still. They even got an Artograph tracer on the same page. I thought those were things of legends but no, they even sell those. I wouldn’t mind own an Artograph tracer, as I know some comic book artiest swear by them. But at £60 and I’m still not a 100% how they work or what you do with them, so I’ll stick with my new Light box.


Here a double cheeseburger I trace off a McDonalds voucher just to make sure it was in working order (the light box not the voucher).


Also found this vid today. It about lame endings to old computer games. But computer games from the 80’s were usually stupidly hard as I remember so you always did feel cheated with those 8bit endings. Bought a load of those old game anthologies like The Capcom Classic collection. Jesus I forgot how hard old 80’s games were. Has anyone really ever completed Ghost And Ghouls? Also forgot how annoying it was to play games without being able the save. So many things about those old games were annoying, so why do we all still play them?

More New Panels.

Here a couple more finished panels from Dirge 2. Now I’ve finished these pages up I can give my eyes a much needed rest from the computer screen a bit more now and get back to the drawing board. It weird how hard it is to do anything these days without looking at a computer screen.

Me So Sleepy.

What with starting some part time work and trying to get some serious drawing done plus the fact it’s freezing now I’ve been real tired lately. Feel like I wanna go into hibernation or something. At least I’m chewing my way through Dirge 2. Here some panels I finished up on computer yesterday.




It weird, you can draw exploding cars and aliens but sometimes a shot of a podgy stoner rummaging in a cardboard can catch your imagination more.

Human Donkey Kong.

Ever since I was a kid and I used to have Donkey Kong on the Game Boy I always wonder how hard it would be in real life. Weirdly all these years later I found a video that answer this question.



The only down side to this video is the guy in the ape suit. How hard would it of been to train a real gorilla to throw barrels? I bet they would of made that extra bit of effort if this was on Japanese telly.

They should do this at birthday parties. Way more fun then a bouncy castle.

Now In Colour.

Been colouring up some work recently. Haven’t worked in colour since late last year, so I thought I’d be a bit rusty but so far so good. I just tried to keep the colours simple but not to flat. Here the first two panels of the page. I never realised how much I’d missed working in colour until I started to do this page. Been working in grey tones on Dirge for so long it feels weird seeing one of comics in colour.



And here the image without the line work on top. Looks a bit like a cartoon.



For the first time I actually set out the palette I was going to use before I started, so I could get a feel for the mood the colours would make. This worked out well and I’ll probably try and make a habit of doing this. I just open a blank page in Photoshop and then start laying down colours next to each other to see how they looked together.



{Note} For some reason Blogger turned the mauve to a red\orange colour, but you get the idea.

Well If You Ain’t The Granddaddy Of All Liars.

Had a good start to the week when I got the second box set of Ren And Stimpy in the post on Monday morning. Seasons three and a half-ish. It great stuff to put on while you draw and still makes me laugh as it did when I was a kid. Actually watching it again you get to pick up on all those gags you didn’t get as a kid.





School was always kind of boring to me, but one of the high points was watching Ren and Stimpy on Wednesday afternoon. Yep watching Ren and Stimpy, playing violent computer games (when kids were allowed to play violent computer games) and drawing were the high light of those days. Come to think about it that pretty much all I do nowadays as well, but then that my generation. Uninspired, repetitive, But a great DVD collection.



I can honestly say I think the rubber nipples sketch is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It like that voight-kampff machine test in Blade runner. If you don’t laugh there a good chance you’re not human. Actually I had one friend who said it wasn’t funny but then he still swear the Phantom Menace is a good film so I’ve never really trusted his judgement.



Kind of wished I had this box set a couple of weeks ago when I was laid up with the flu. Think I might go out and buy some other box set, stick it in a brown bag and hide it on top of my bookshelf to be opened next time I’m sick.

Joyyyyyyyy.

Limbo.

That limbo as in:

1. (often initial capital letter ) Roman Catholic Theology. a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of infants) and of the righteous who died before the coming of Christ (limbo of the fathers or limbo of the patriarchs).
2. a place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date: My youthful hopes are in the limbo of lost dreams.
3. an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.
4. a place or state of imprisonment or confinement.

NOT limbo as in:

1. a dance from the West Indies, originally for men only, in which the dancer bends backward from the knees and moves with a shuffling step under a horizontal bar that is lowered after each successive pass.

Been a pretty slow summer and maybe could of done with more days out at the beach with friends or just more fun and games in general but what this summer lacked in entertainment I tried to make up for by being productive. I’ve been making a real push to try and make things happen this summer and now I’m waiting to see if a couple of things have worked out as well as I’d hoped. I’m always wary of what’s fate and what kind of fate you could have had if you just tried a little harder. Long story, short failure is painful but the not knowing is the real killer. At least this is the kind of ‘what if?’ were you get answer at some point. Not the really annoying ‘what if?’ like, What if I’d got together with this girl or What if I’d said this instead of that at that moment in time. Those are the real fuckers that will keep you awake at night.

Nothing will flavour this unnecessary rant better then a picture of a man looking pissed off.


This is from the latest page of Dirge (inked today). Over the next few days I’ve got to finish up this page and modify another page and take them to the library for photocopying (but not on a Wednesday as the library closes early on Wednesday). Try and get a haircut before my hair looks any more like a mullet. And at some point I’ve got to take a trip into Eastbourne to buy a much needed A3 light box which after making the trip and fighting my way through the oldies, probably won’t be in stock when I get there. Its all go but I’m hoping there still some fun times ahead before X-mas and 2008.

New Panel.

More Dirge.


Really making a push now to get some serious work done on Dirge. Hoping to finish it up around early 2008.

Technology Sucks.

Just as I’m getting over my flu my laptop power lead gives out so I’ve been Internet free all weekend. Going all weekend without the net made me release how hooked I’d become to the Internet over the last couple of years. At one point I think I even had a dream that I was just looking at websites in my sleep and just strolling down pages (not a good sign). Anyway today I splashed out on a new power lead and will catch up on any and all emails from the last few days.

Now I’m more or less over the flu and computer problems I’ll start posting up new artwork at some point this week. I still managed to get some work done last week in my flu-ridden state so I’m sure I’ll found something to post.

I went for a walk on Friday as I hadn’t been out of the house for days and it was creepy how many people were coughing and looking shitty. Still hopefully that the yearly flu out of the way this winter.

That’ll Learn Ya.

Well that idea really blow up in my face. Instead of laying low for the weekend and starting the week well rested and healthy I just got sicker and sicker as the days wore on until yesterday when I was so ill I had all symptoms on the back of the Beechams tablet packet except the shivers. I keep forgetting that adult flu is very different to the flu you used to get when you were a kid. When you were a kid it was a couple of days at the most off school as you sat on the sofa drinking Lucozade and watching daytime TV and eating chicken nuggets. But when you’re an adult, all bets are off. Colds can stick around for weeks. I look like a love child between a Clown and a wino with my nuclear red nose and pale face. At least I think\hope I’m over the worst of it.

It weird being laid up trying to get my strength back. Luckily I’ve got a pile of books and comics by my bed. I have way too much time to think about stuff to past the time over the last few days like-

· Why have they never remade Westworld and if they did who would play the Yul Brynner role?
· Could I pull off a handlebar moustache and isn’t it about time the straight man took back the handlebar moustache?
· And how can Jaws The Revenge be worse then Jaws 3d? I didn’t think it was possible but with sharks that roar and exploded when boats hit them, they did it. Goddamn em.

Saw this the other day and it made me laugh.

Step On It.

Despite having the flu I’ve still had to be up early the last two days for appointments. One being a job interview for some part time work. Its all been really busy when what I really need is a day or two in bed which I’m planning to get this weekend. But on the bright side I have started to listen to my inner eight year old more and now quite like my new trainers even if they have rub the skin off my little toe on my left foot so now it looks like a prop from hellraiser.

Anyway speaking of footwear here the latest panel from Dirge and pretty much the only shot I can show with out giving the whole page and major plot points away.

Sod’s Law Kicks In.

I’ve been spending the last week or two trying to get all the little boring ‘real life’ things out the way like filling in forms and paper work and so on, so I can put in some serious time at the drawing board. Just as I got it all out the way sod’s law kicks in and now I find I’m coming down with the flu. SHIT. Anyway its rest and telly for me until tonight and then I’ll see about getting some work done.

I went to Brighton yesterday with two goals in mind. (1) Pick up any new copies of Love and rockets and (2) get some new trainers as mine now have holes in the soles and stink when they get wet. Couldn’t find any new issue (or any issue) of Love and rockets but I did managed to pick up the new Tank Girl comic. I also bought some trainers but I can’t help but think it was because I liked the girl serving me more then I actually liked the trainers which are a bit tight and look like trainer an eight year would choose. I’ve got to stop rewarding good-looking sales woman and start thinking more about my poor unhealthy bank account. Now I’m a little bit poorer with tight trainers and the flu. SHIT.

{Note} While trying to post this I found Blogger was down and after a few try’s I gave up and thought I’d leave it for a minute and picked up the TV listening and started flicking through it only to find there showing Jaws the revenge on ITV on Saturday. I’ve been wanting to see that film for ages. I know it meant to be shit but there no way it could be worse then Jaws 3d. Strangely the world seems ok now.

Loose Jaw.

Had an appointment today and as I was waiting the woman that got called up before me had the weirdest last name. Lovegrowth… Mrs Lovegrowth. Which is such a good name. Classic.

Once again couldn’t get any black ink yesterday (yep, still hand gold and white but no black) so I made the trip today to another and way better art shop which is great but in a rough part of town and tucked out of the way. Not only did it actually have black ink it had two kinds of black ink (irony). So I bought both. Ones a “Liquid Indian ink” don’t know what’s different about it apart from its not waterproof. I’ll test it out at some point.

Looking at all the paint and stock in that art shop set my mind back to my early college years when I tried out painting. Which ended when (A) I realized my strength was more in my line work and didn’t translate will into paint and (B) I got a Mac and decided to learn Photoshop. Which was sad, as I had spent loads on Gouache paint, which now just sit in a plastic bag drying out. So I thought I have a quick go at colouring a sketch today. I thought I’d draw a Zombie again as I’d enjoyed doing the Zombie Lake one. I had fun drawing it. The loose jaw and flies buzzing around the brain was my favourite bit.

Before:


After a quick and sloppy paint job. I made him green Zombie lake style. Enjoy.

The Return Of Kevin.

It strange when you come back to drawing a character you haven’t drawn for a while. I don't think it would be giving to much away to say that Kevin (the Goth clown looking room mate from Dirge) isn’t in the first half of the second issue much and so I haven’t had to draw him (apart from one shot of him from behind) since late last year.

Kevin was very loosely based on someone I used to know. In fact so loosely based on him that he’s now nothing at all like him. This guy didn’t look anything like Kevin but he had some of his characteristic. I wanted Kevin to be that guy that just gets in the way. The kind of guy who just worms his way into your life. His a bit of a sub plot to the story really.

Actually I said goth clown but his more of a rocker or punk. In the first issue I used to think of him as Sid Vicious without the charisma. As much as I dislike the Kevin character and everything he stands for his by far the most fun to draw. I tried to give him a real strange look, with his round, fat, split nose and unibrow. And lets not forget his Robert Smith haircut.

Summer Sketch’s.

Working till late last night. I mean much later into the night then I usually do to escape the heat. I guess when your in the mood to draw you don’t want to stop. So I worked into the early hours and then when I finally did get to bed I couldn’t sleep in the heat for another couple of hours. After I’d been asleep for a couple of hours the kid next door started up his latest craze which is repeated bounce a ball off the wall and woke me up. Either that or next doors become a squash court.


Anyway because of this, this is why I make no apologies for these weird sketch’s I did in my sketchbook, which I rested on my tummy while watching Richard and Judy on the telly.


I found the secret to making myself draw when I don’t feel up to it. Just keep a load of paperwork and forms that need filling in around. If it choices between more bloody paper work or forcing myself to draw then drawing is usually the slightly less painful option.

The Old Man And The Wii.

My friends not old (in fact his six months younger then me) but I thought a Hemingway gag would give this blog a bit of much needed class.

Here a video I shot a couple of months ago and forgot to post. It’s a friend playing on an arcade game called Stacker. The basic rule of Stacker is to stack moving lines of blocks on top of each other but the higher you go the less blocks you get and the faster it goes. If you make it to the top you win one of the big prizes. My friends had his heart set on winning a Wii for a few months now and his pretty good at this game. Its probably getting in to double figure’s the amount of times his got to the last line and missed out. I feel bad for the money my friends wasted on this game (probably spent enough to buy a quarter maybe even a third of a Wii if he’d just saved the money.) Saying all this it wouldn’t surprise me if one day he did win one. If nothing else this video proves his the Tim Henman of Stacker.

I called the video Stack Head because I’m hoping that kids all around the world will start getting hooked on this game and then these kids will be called Stack Heads and it will turn into a bit of a pandemic and I’ve always wanted to name a pandemic.

Zombie Lake.

After working for ages yesterday I thought I’d take the last couple of hours off and watch a film. I walk over to the small pile that sits on my scanner of unwatched DVD’s but I knew which one I was going to choose. Ever since I saw the you tube video trailer I’ve been wanting to see Zombie Lake (can’t be arsed to repost trailer so go back my post on June the 19th if you curious.) After reading on my blog about this film a friend said he’d seen it on ebay for cheap, so I thought I’d threat myself.

I can see why people wouldn’t like Zombie Lake. Green faced nazi undead isn’t for everybody (or anybody really) but I have to say I thought it was all right. It is what it is. Sure the effects are terrible with green make up that stop before the collar and the world first (and last) zombie on zombie knife fight (about as action packed as it sounds) but I enjoyed it. Any film were half way through a van full of female basketball players turn up to go skinny-dipping before being dragged off by lime coloured, dead nazis is worth a look.

Like most zombie movies there are some slow bits (weirdly this film has an all right plot) so I kept my sketch’s book next to me (something I should do more often when watching films) and to make up for the sloppy zombies I drew my own. I forgot how much fun it is to draw zombies. No wonder everybody’s doing it.


One thing I forgot to mention in my last post when I was summing up last week was the moment when I was walking pass the Job centre and spotted some guy picking fag butts out of the drain at the front and quickly pocketing them. That was a pretty weird and sad sight. Still now everybody has to smoke out side that guys probably never going have to buy a pack of fags again. The streets, drains and gutters are going to be choked with fag butts.

Saturday Sum Up.

Busy week with a lot of ups and downs this week. I posted off my submission on Tuesday, which was one day later, then I wanted to but one day earlier then I thought I would. I was working till three in the morning and then for some reason couldn’t get to sleep till after 6am and then had to wake up before 9am to walk in to town and post it. It was a weird experience walking around on a really hot sunny day without hardly any sleep the night before. Kind of dream like with both lack of sleep and the heat going on.

Some how through all the kids on holiday and all the student I managed to get tickets to see The Simpsons Movie. It was pretty rough sitting in a cinema full of annoying kids (especially some little fat girl who got bored and just went round trying to get all the boys attention by tapping them on the head and starting conversation when they clearly just wanted to watch the film.) Which is why I probably won’t see Transformers at the cinema. Life to short to spend it in a dark cinema with a load of podgy attention seeking kids and they’re lazy podgy discipline shy parents.

Also in brief this week. Renewing my website (or webs(H)ite as I call it when I’m in a bad mood with it.) Went to see another film at the small (well one small room) art house cinema called, the science of sleep. Went drinking with friends as one of them going on holiday. Vowed to cut down on my drinking when I got home and saw how bloodshot may eyes were. I just seem to spend the whole of Saturday these days in a state of being hung over.

Finally got back to page 13 of Dirge, which I started over a month ago. Apart from a couple things I got to do this weekend I’m hoping to get some serious inking done.

I might of seen The Simpsons film and a Michel Gondry film. But by far the funniest thing I’ve seen this week is this Youtube Vid. Who ever said two wrongs don’t make a right had clearly never seen this.

Ta-Da.

My plans to have my submission ready for tomorrow are no more and pretty much as I thought its looking a lot more likely mid-week. This isn’t the worst thing in the world and hopefully the extra time will pay off. One of the reason for the delay was I wanted to redo the title on one of the pages. This took way more time then I thought but was worth the effort I feel. I have the first page more-or-less finished but they’re a few tricky bits on the second page and lettering takes it time. The problem is just as your finishing up your notice something else wrong. It like that scene it cool hand luke when they keep making him dig and then filling in a hole. Cleaning up and lettering is differently my least favourite part of being a comic book artist. Anyway here a lettered panel to give you an idea of how its looking.

Titleless.

Today (well tonight really) I thought I’d post the first two panels of the second page of an upcoming submission I’m working on at the moment. They look a little bare without type and the first panel still needs to have a title drawn on but you get the idea. Hopefully they should be finished by the end of the weekend, ready for posting on Monday. I’ve got some tricky bits ink wise coming up on the second page, so if all goes well Monday if not mid-week next week.




In the post today I got a letter in regards to my taxes this year. I was pretty sure I got a similar one at the end of last week so I scan through it once and then throw it on my desk never to be looked at again. I’m pretty sure it a plot by the government to throw so much information at you that you can’t take it all in. Not to mention the waste of paper they use just to tell you the same thing over and over again. As I said this letter was looked over once then left on my messy desk to fend for itself and just be forgotten. Never to be reopened and looked at again, but in a quiet moment of later on I figured I’d better give it another scan just to make sure there nothing I had to do or they were asking me for. I scanned over it again and towards the end saw a figure. “Oh shit,” I thought, “don’t tell me I got to pay that?” and read on only to find that I’d been repaid back some money and at the bottom of the page was a cheque. Don’t get me wrong it was a nice surprise but I shudder when I think how close I came to throwing that letter away and if it hadn’t been a slow day today I probably wouldn’t of looked twice at that letter and would never of found that cheque. The cheque would of expired and my money (which I didn’t even know I had coming) would be gone. The envelope it came in looked so cheap and junk mail like, I had no sign that this was an important letter. It was just a bit of good luck I looked twice but it freaked me out to think if this had ever happened before. Maybe really I’m a millionaire and the cheque on my messy desk or rotting in my desk draw and I’d never know.

I’m feeling very paranoid today but slightly richer.

A Coat From Another Blog.

A while ago on my Myspace blog a few months back I was going on about a coat I had my eye on but was to expensive. The plan was to save up slowly until I could afford it. I kept my eye on it and was sure somebody would buy it as it was such a good coat but for some reason no one did. I went in on my weekly check this week hoping it hasn’t been sold or taken off the shelf only to find they’d cut £20 off the price. To be honest there probably wasn’t that many coats in store as its summer (apparently) so I thought I’d better capitalize on this bit of good luck and bought it. I know I’ve been complaining about this poor British summer but now I’m kind of hoping for a bit of rain so I can wear my new coat.

Today I also meet up with friends for a couple of drinks and to kill some time. Part of this time killing was spent checking out the local Pier, which has kind of been reopened after being closed for being unsafe. It basically at the moment just a bar and bingo hall and a few of those claw games. Since we were there and I wasn’t really up for playing bingo (things haven’t got that bad yet) I thought I’d try my luck on one of the claw games. I’d been wanting to win a Homer Simpson for ages when I spotted a machine with the Simpson in it. I had a couple of goes and notice the claw wasn’t bad for once, it had a pretty good grip for a claw game so I had another go. It wasn’t helping that one friend kept repeating “it rigged” and started walking away, but on my last go after a couple of near misses I got my second bit of good luck today and bagged me a Homer who now sitting on my shelf.

Pretty good day apart from the fact I’m now feeling a little sick from eating to many oaty Hobnobs biscuits.