Happy Halloween (Kind Of…)

Yep… last year you got a big all singing, all dancing Halloween Ecard that took a few days to put together. This year, it’s a quick sketch from my sketchbook, done while laying in bed in the early hours of the morning, while feeling like crap from the flu. I had decided earlier in the year that there wouldn’t be a Halloween Ecard this year, because I wanted to get as close to finishing Issue #3 as I could by the end of the year. Also I just didn’t have any decent ideas for one, if I’m honest. But here’s something quick and horrible to put you in the Halloween mood. Just a little something ghastly to say I care (just not as much as last year, apparently.)

I hope this sketchbook doodle finds some love out there (I think this is the first thing I’ve posted from my recent sketchbook.) Anyhoo…enjoy and hope you’re having an awesome Halloween.

Bar Scene.

I figured I’d go with a nice, big shot to start off Issue #3. Kick it off in style.

God, I wish I could attend this. That would be a good way to celebrate Halloween. I’m a big fan of Nosferatu. I also love the late 70’s Herzog’s remake. That look is a monster design classic. I might have to pop on my copy at some point this Halloween weekend. It’s not a hard film to come by online, should you want something a bit different then Halloween: Resurrection on Monday night.

Halloween Havoc.

I like to try and enjoy Halloween as much as I can. It’s my kind of holiday. It’s a good excuse to eat pop-corn and watch loads of horror movies (yes… that is pretty much what I try and do all year round, but at Halloween, it’s official.) Had a nasty thought at the weekend that UK TV could be really bad on Halloween. That Halloween night might be a bit of a let down when it comes to good horror movies, and so I did a bit of panic-buying online and ordered a few films. A couple of oldie Universal monster movies, a Amicus classic, and what I hear is a very good modern horror movie from a year or two back, that’s meant to have a terrible, terrible ending (that’s terrible as in not very good.) I then got buyers-remorse at ordering this small pile of DVDs and not trusting my own TV services to take care of me over this spooky season. Knowing my luck, the TV would be red hot with creepy treats this Halloween night and these films will remain unwatched in their boxes. That I had overreacted. When I got my TV guide today, I flicked straight to Halloween night to see if I should start to feel guilty, and what TV another version of me was going to be watching in a parallel universe that night (the version of me that had held his nerve over the weekend.) At first I thought I’d flicked to the wrong night, and quickly rechecked the date, but no. The big Halloween movie this year is Halloween: Resurrection… you know… the one with Busta Rhymes… you know… the worse one of the lot. The really, really bad one. All I’ll say is this, I REGRET NOTHING, and parallel universe me probably feels like he’s just been gut-punched.

How can TV give you Dead Set one year… and then this year, Halloween: Resurrection? For me, watching the first Halloween is a bit like watching It’s A Wonderful Life at Christmas. A nice treat, but only to be done every other year. Sticking on one of its piss-poor sequels (the worse in fact) ain’t the same thing. There’s so many good horror movies out there. Why? It’s lazy programming. You wouldn’t diss Santa like this, would ya TV? I might become a Pagan, just so I can complain and say with this gesture you have insulted my faith. Halloween 2 might have been forgivable… but Resurrection? Someone needs to be burnt in a giant Busta Rhyme’s shaped Wicker-man for this. Can you send Goat’s heads through the post?

I’m just feeling glum because I’ve got the flu. Feels like my lungs are half their normal size. I sneezed earlier today and the force and stress of the sneeze made my legs go and made me need to sit down or I‘d fall. Sad, but true. Feeling soooooooooooooo sorry for myself right about now.

Turn To Page 42.

This will probably be the last of the redrawn panels I’ll post. There’s maybe one or two more, but they give too much of the story away. In fact, this shot probably gives too much away, but too late now, I’ve posted it. Hopefully, the new panel is a lot tenser. It’s drawn better, that’s for sure.

I think next week, it’ll be time to move onto Issue #3.

Does anyone remember those choose your own adventure books? I used to love them as a kid. I only mention it as I came across this today while out shopping. If I was a betting man (which I am), I’d bet they’re coming back into fashion. It’s been long enough for them to be cool again. Truth be told, I love them, but I found them really stressful as a kid. I would take wrong choices really badly. I must have been a very stressed out kid, I guess, ha ha ha. I’d would feel like crap if I turned to the wrong page. I think I gave up playing them because I was such a bad loser. Having it all come down to a roll of the dice was too much for me in those days.

I do wonder how they’ve come on in recent years. The ones I grew up on were from the 80’s and early 90’s. I think I may hunt down some modern ones, if anyone knows any good books or websites, they can recommend. I’d love to have a crack at doing a sequential story in that style one day. I’ve just got this feeling that ‘choose your own adventure’ books done as sequential graphic novels are the next big thing. Sadly I don’t have the time to back that claim up but actually doing one, but… well… anyway… If it was well written and drawn, and the content was more adult, Hell… I’d read it. That said, a massive pain in the arse to put together, I bet. Maybe I’ll try and write one in my spare time and see if I can team up with another artist or something (wait… what spare time?)

On a side-note, I’ve just realized I don’t own a single dice (or should that be die?) For some reason, I found that fact kind of depressing.

Sexy Corpses.

When did Vampires go sexy? I think that’s why I liked the movie adaptation of 30 Days Of Night from a few years back. It’s maybe the only recent Vampire movie I can think of that was scary, with creepy Vampires. That said, I do have a soft spot for True Blood. I know that’s sexy Vampires, but it kind of works well, I think.

Why Halloween Is Better Then Xmas.

I’m not sure if these are real or a hoax, but someone was certainly thinking outside the box when they designed these. (Warning: I wouldn’t say this link was X-rated, but if easily offended, best to give it a miss.)

I’ll be honest, the Bat-lip motif on the Vampire one made me laugh, first time I saw it. It’s how I imagine Vampirella’s undercarriage looks. I feel sorry for whoever had to go out and plaster-cast a Zombie’s wang, however.

Work Hard, Fail Hard.

Just time for another quick ‘Before And After’ shot. To be brutally honest, I’m not crazy about either of these shots, old or new. I was trying a couple of things in the old shot and they didn’t really pan out. Plus the first shot is really off-character (meaning the way he’s drawn doesn’t really match up with how he ended up looking… God knows why I gave him ears like The BFG, for some reason?) I think the new shot is drawn better, even if the angle is a bit more boring. In my head, this character was going to be huge. Not just fat, but massive and grotesque. However, as I started to draw him, that idea kind of slipped away and he just ended up being chubby. The first shot is more of a call back to this original concept, but sticks out because I didn’t keep the idea going. I think the new shot is ok. I probably wouldn’t be posting it if I hadn’t gone to the effort of redrawing, if I’m honest.

It’s harder and harder to find good tunes to stick on my MP3 player as I get older. Of late, I’ve really been getting into Two Steps From Hell. They do all the big, epic music for trailers and things. Well worth hunting down on iTunes. Many songs claim to be epic, but these really are. See>

I’ve just bought a new brand of pencil and I get to try them out for the first time today. I’m looking forward to it wayyyyyyyyy more then I know I should. The last two new brand of pencils I tried out, turned out to be duds. I need these to be winners.

The Devil’s Price.

Spent a good chunk of last week redrawing some older panels. Been drawing these comics for a while now and really thought one or two (actually it was about four) panels were in need of either tarting up or totally being redrawn. I’m not saying the other panels are in anyway perfect, but there was a few that just really stuck out whenever I was flicking through my blue folder of completed pages. I’ve tossed the idea around in my head for a while and then decided it was worth doing. I hope to post a few over the coming week.

I’ll start with this one. This is one where I redrew the figure in the foreground. In the scene, he’s just overheard himself being mocked by the characters in the background and this was meant to be the reaction shot. At first I thought I’d have the character being sad (this is a decision I later regretted.) As drawn, I don’t think the face shows enough of any real emotion. As time passed, I thought maybe this shot was lacking any real punch. I didn’t like the way I had drawn this shot, or felt it worked. I soon realized the reaction should have been angry and more sinister, like something was brewing in the air. The first try just looks like he mildly has the hump. Hopefully the second try indicates big trouble ahead. I have to point out that because the character in the foreground has a lazy right-eye, no matter how I drew it, it always gave the impression he was looking back over his shoulder at them. It’s weird how tricky that felt to work around some times. If I could have drawn in the left-eye on the first panel looking ahead, maybe that shot would have worked better. I’ve just had a similar problem on a recent page I’ve just drawn (Note-to-self: never write in a lazy-eyed character again. They throw up some strange problems when drawing close-ups.)

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I’ll be honest, I totally bought this book based on the title alone (you had me at Vagina.) Just finished reading it this morning. Kind of liked it. A lot better then a book called this should be. They also get extra marks for selling it at the gimmicky price of £6.66 (even if that is a tiny bit over priced for 83 pages of story.) One thing I like about this book is they make skeletons scary again. I’ve gotta give it extra marks for that, too.

It’s Funny Because It’s True.

I think I’m gonna have to check out Community when they finally put it out on DVD in the UK. I want Chevy Chase back in my life. It’s been too long.