Thursday 27 December 2012

Bigger On The Inside.

It’s the 27th of December, and I already know what I want for Xmas 2013.



This is one of those awkward posts, where if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, this might be a little lost on you. But this app was too cool not to comment on. Plus it’s the 50th birthday next year. It’s gonna be the year of nerding out on Doctor Who. I thought I’d get an early start. Speaking of nerding out… been checking out the new look Cybermen. Pretty much all new Who Cybermen stories have been a bit below par, for me. I’ve got high hopes for The Last Cyberman.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I’ve eaten so much in the last 72-hours, I don’t think I’m gonna eat again until early Spring.

Monday 24 December 2012

Merry Xmas, Everyone.

Well… I’m officially in Xmas mode now. It’s all sweatpants, hoodie and thick socks (I look quite the handsome gentleman.) Wrapping presents and eating junk food is the order of the day. Then maybe finish watching season 6 of Dexter and somewhat perving over scenes where Debra Morgan’s wearing her police uniform (don’t judge me, I was born in the 80’s where this was playing on TV pretty much 24\7.) Hope everyone’s having an awesome Xmas.

Something I’d like to do before the end of 2012, you say? Find someone else on planet earth who has a Google+ account, maybe?

Thursday 20 December 2012

Death Stare.


Probably the second to last bit of artwork I’ll post before 2013. And if I say so myself, I think that’s a pretty mean death stare going on in this panel. Someone’s in trouble…

Finished my Xmas shopping today, as if the worlds gonna end tomorrow, I’d rather stay home in the dry, you know. I’ve just got to work hard until Saturday night, then I can switch off and go into Xmas mode. About another 48-hours, and then I can crack open my Christmas booze stash and turn my brain off for a few days. Get drunk for the first time in ages and watch some Dexter season 6. I’m pretty low on energy, truth be told, so I could do with some down-time.

I won’t lie, I’ve been thinking more and more I might read Fifty Shades Of Grey at some point. I never get on board with the big books of the moment. Never read The Da Vinci Code, any of the Harry Potter books, or anything from the Twilight series. Be nice to be in the in-crowd for once. Besides…how could you not want to read it after watching this? I’ve read The Butcher and The Story Of O before. I want in on this bloated bandwagon.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

The R-Rated Trailer.



Just one more trailer for this movie, I promise. Just because I think this is the best and most coherent of them so far. It’s still my must see movie of 2013. This and Dracula 3D (even if it has only got 4.3 rating on imdb.) I know the CGI looks bad, and people are already putting Dracula 3D down. But in this age of Twilight and camp-vamps, I’m totally up for a tits-and-blood, trashy vampire pic. I’ve got a lot of love for Dracula movies that try and out Hammer Hammer-horror movies.

Speaking of Dracula… was reading this article earlier. I’m a little torn on this news. I tend to feel forgotten or unpublished work are forgotten\unpublished for a reason. That said, I probably will try and pick up this book at some point in 2013... If the world doesn’t end on Friday, that is. I hope not, I’ve gotta finish my Christmas shopping Friday.

Sunday 16 December 2012

Ho-Ho-Horror.





I’ve already posted these up on my Deviantart page (HERE & HERE), but here’s two full pages from Issue #3. I think they’re two of the strongest pages from this issue, and hopefully give a good indication of the tone and look of this story. I think it’s safe to say, things get very sinister in Issue #3.

Been on a massive Junji Ito craze of late. Been reading the first two Tomie books, called Museum Of Terror, printed by Dark Horse. They are unbelievably creepy and cool. I think the short story Little Finger would have to be in my top ten greatest short, comic horror-stories of all time. I rate it right up there with Jenifer by Jones and Wrightson. I’ve noticed they have a copy up online you can read (I notices lately there’s a lot of Manga up online you can read… Wish more of it was in print.) you can check it out HERE. But, because it’s Manga, you need to remember to read the right page first, then the left. It’s tricky, but worth it for such a good horror story. If this story doesn’t give you the heebie-jeebies, you’re made of stronger stuff than me, buddy. I honestly think this strip is genius.

I’m all set for my Horror Manga Xmas this year. In the end, I went with Hell Baby, Parasytl Vol 1 and Octopus Girl vol 1. I also manage to hunt down a DVD copy of a movie I’ve been wanting to see for years called Wicked City. Wasn’t as cheap as I would have liked, but it’s been my only shot at owning it since… well… ever… So I thought ‘Happy Christmas to me’ and bought it… then saw someone had put a copy up on youtube a few days later… (lets out annoyed grunt.) Still, I hate watching movies on my laptop. I regret nothing. NOTHING!

Thursday 13 December 2012

Ideas I’ll Never End Up Using #1298.


Here’s something I drew in my sketchbook over the weekend, just because eye-patches are cool. Even cooler with flags on them.

Agent Britannia. I saw this idea as a bit like Empowered meets 60’s Ian Fleming’s Bond. Maybe with a little Crepax thrown into the mix, art-style wise. Cute, young Brit spy who travels around the world in the 60’s getting herself into lots of light-hearted, sexy adventures and troubles while being a British secret agent.

Don’t know if I would really have been the right artist to give this idea life, though. This concept may be more suited to an artist with a cuter style. Maybe would make a good web-comic or something.

NOTE: Clearly not scanned on good scanner.

Friday 7 December 2012

Something For The Bloggers.


Here’s something I’ve been meaning to post for a while. Something just for the blog. A fully lettered page, which comes from the second issue. It’s all subplot, so it’s a good non-spoiler page to go with. One of the characters (Ben Plug) is a tubby, nerdy guy who’s obsessed with a UK, Sci-fi TV show called Wonder Star, just to give this scene some context. Here we find Ben making geek pillow-talk (which always ends badly) to a beautiful woman after coitus. Sharing some of his convention photos with his honey (because girls love that.) I think it’s a pretty fun scene. If nothing else, you get some hot boob\moob action in the first frame.

Been slowing my pace, this December. Since Project B.O.B. (the codename I gave this mini-series) will be wrapping up in early…ish 2013, part of me wants to get this last issue done as soon as possible, while part of me wants to make sure it gets done right. I’m currently drawing scenes I’ve had going around in my head for about three years now. It’s that scary point in the whole project where you have to deliver on what it’s all been leading up to. Honestly…? I’m freaking out a tiny bit.

I want to spend the first three quarters of this month doing the strongest artwork I can. Trying to keep the best till last, and do these scenes justices… Then spend the last week of December drunk on Chambord and Cherry-snips, reading and watching some freaky Japanese animation and manga and eating turkey sandwiches with stuffing and mayo.

NOTE: Hopefully you can read this page by just clicking on it, but, if need be, you totally have my permission to ‘save as’ and enlarge on your own computers. Whatever’s easiest for you to read the word balloons.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Modern Christmas.


Nothing kicks off the Christmas period like a close-up of a big, gross, veiny eye. As a man who spends his whole life either drawing or being on a computer, I’m no stranger to dreaded red eye. Often, I’ve got a Christopher Lee, Dracula’s evil-eyes thing going on. I get through a lot of eye drops.

Here’s the thing… Apart from my brother’s presents, I haven’t done any Xmas shopping yet. I tend to do it all online now. This coming week is probably when I’ll find a spare couple of hours and get it out the way. I sit on my laptop making up a list of all the things I want for Xmas, then with a click of a button, I send that list off to the digital elves of internet land (or Amazon, as some people call them.) Then several days later, a fat man with a beard and sack brings them to my house (be better if my postman’s beard was white, not ginger. Also, if he could be jolly, not grumpy, that to would boost my Xmas high greatly.) Plus if Santa was real, health-and-safety would probably make him wear high visibility, orange clothing these days, anyway, so that kind of works. They’d make him wear one of those fluorescent tops at the very least.

Thursday 29 November 2012

Shoot To Thrill.



If I was a superhero that fought crime with a gun that fired vibrators, my superhero name would be Buzz-Kill. Maybe I’d have a sidekick who fired a double-ended dildo crossbow, too. I imagine she’d be like Carrie Kelley out of Dark Knight Returns, and would have a name like Ass-2-Ass(assin) or something.

I could watch people shooting random things into ballistics gel in slow-mo all day long. It’s more calming than watching goldfish or listening to chill-out music.

Friday 23 November 2012

Dread Teds.


If you’ve been digging the sinister teddies, sadly, I think this is their last shot. I enjoyed drawing them more then I thought I would. It’s a good challenge to try and take something cute, and make it look a little bit evil. But this is where they bow-out. They belong to fan-fiction now… but hopefully not slash.

I’m trying to decide if I should have a bit of a theme for Xmas again this year. Last year, I just stockpiled Dario Argento movies to watch over the festive period. It was pretty awesome, until my DVD player died around New Year. It couldn’t take all that giallo action and choked like a pretty Italian lady, being strangled by an unseen man in a long overcoat, hat, and tight black gloves. This year I’m thinking maybe horror manga? I used last Xmas as an excuse to fill in my Argento blind-spot. Dead DVD player aside, I think it went pretty well. I think horror comics from Japan is the next blind-spot I want to work on. Been checking out this blog lately, and it’s made me realize there’s a lot of great stuff from there I’m missing out on. Tis the season to be putting that right. I just have to figure out now what’s been translated and available in this country. I kind of had a bit of a early start by reading the first volume of Tomie this week. That chick is scary. Like… really scary. She might be the scariest horror comic-book character of all time.

I need to make some horror pen-friends from around the world. Fellow horror lovers to swap what’s hot in horror in their country with me. Do some international Lovecraft style correspondence.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Cthulhu Breath Redux.


Had to scan a load of comic pages over the weekend, so while I had my good scanner out, I thought I’d scan Cthulhu Breath too. Then I found a spare half-an-hour to do a quick colour job on it on Sunday night. I spent way too long trying to get texture and shade on those tentacles, which you can’t really see unless you zoom in really close.

I maybe gave this sketch a bit more time-and-love then a doodle deserves… but I like it… it’s Lovecraft\body-horror… what’s not to love?

Speaking of sketching, what with finishing up Issue #4 I’ve not really had much time to go about setting up these online sketchbook sessions I’ve previously mentioned. I have brought it up with a couple of buddies of mine, but nothing more then that has really happened. So, in an attempt to try and give it a bit of a kick-start, anybody reading this that maybe wants to meet up online, here’s my G+H profile. I think you have to ’friend me’ first, or in Google+Hangout talk, invite me into your circle (which sounds a bit phallic, I know. Kind of sexy, too, though.) I was going to try and do them as a group session, but I’m quickly learning that getting a small group of people online all at once is like trying to sculpt smoke. I need to start using my Google+ account more, so if you’re a fellow artist looking to hangout (or maybe even a beautiful, bewitching brunette with a thing for comic-book horror artists?) Here’s me making the first move. Come say Hi!

Saturday 17 November 2012

Multiverse


I was going for a sexy Sergio Leone vibe with this panel. Instead of an extreme close-up of some cowboy’s craggy face, it’s a young girl’s face.

Was worried it was all gonna go a bit Final Destination, while walking home from work today. Could hear a weird engine noise which I thought was a car somewhere, but as I walked further down the street, I saw a guy in his sloped driveway standing on some kind of mini-hovercraft. The hovercraft was at the top of the drive with the body facing up towards the garage. All I could really see was this massive rotating fan (the owner was standing behind it, and they were pretty much the same height), the protective-cage had been taken off, so it was just these giant exposed blades going around. I just had this vision in my head of this thing suddenly coming loose as I walked past and coming down the driveway at me as I walked past. Needless to say, I quicken my pace and braced myself to pull an awesome dive-out-the-way jump, should one be needed. As you can tell by the fact I’m writing this, the thing stayed put. But sadly, no doubt, that means one of the me’s in a parallel universe met a tragic, but kind of awesome end today. That’s the rules, sadly. If you dodge it, a parallel you has to bite the bullet (or in this case take a runaway man sized fan front on…) I think about parallel universe me’s all the time. The ones that got the girls I didn’t, or took chances I didn’t take. I often wonder where I come compared to my other many alternative selves when it comes to happiness and success. I’m not even joking… I’ve lost sleep over it.

NOTE: I’m gonna file today’s post under ‘things about yourself you probably shouldn’t share with strangers.’

Sunday 11 November 2012

Cthulhu Breath.


Since we took last week off for Halloween, how about something out my sketchbook this week? I’m a little obsess with artist doing work set in the H.P. Lovecraft universe. From short Lovecraft stories being adapted for comics by amazing artist (The Picture In The House done by Mike McMahon is excellent. And that‘s my least favourite Lovecraft story. I hated that story until I saw the McMahon version.), to Alan Moore’s Neonomicon from last year.

Here’s a quick doodle by myself done in that spirit. I scanned it on my crappy A4 printer\scanner, not my awesome A3 one, but hopefully you can still feel the tentacle love ok?

I know some writers can get a bit bent-out-of-shape over fan-fiction, but I think it’s a massive compliment if writers\artists still want to play and expand your writing and characters long after your death. Means you must have done something very right to inspire that in people. I never count work done by people other than the original writer as canon, but who doesn’t like a good sub-genre of an artist work? It either a golden age for all things Lovecraft, right now, or an over crowed bandwagon, depending on how you look at it.

Thursday 8 November 2012

165 Years Young.


It’s not often you’d find me giving Google a shout out, but come on… today’s Bram Stoker 165th birthday logo is really cool. No word on who the artist is, sadly, but I think it’s an amazing piece of art. You can read more about this Logo here. If anyone knows who the artist is, I’d love to know?

I’d kind of like to celebrate this special day by watching Dracula 3D, but God knows when it’s coming out in the UK. I have been watching the two clips they put out yesterday. I know a lot of people have written this movie off, but it’s still high on my list of must see films of 2013. It’s got enough in the mix, that I’m still intrigued.

Got a real hankering myself to do some more Dracula themed art. Just got to get the other half of Issue #4 out the way, first. 2013 is gonna be the first year in a while where I don’t have an issue of this mini-series to do, so it’s all going to be very up-in-the-air next year. I can maybe be more of a slave to my whims in this coming year. Which is always fun.

Monday 5 November 2012

Extra Bait.


I know by now that Halloween is as dead as a Zombie with a bullet in its brain (takes a moment to wipe lone tear from eye…), but here’s one last hurrah for everybody’s favourite morbid holiday. Thought I’d put my three Halloween Ecards together, side-by-side, and post them all together. See all three efforts in one place, as it were. I hope you enjoyed this years one. I noticed, looking around Deviantart this year, that you don’t have to look very far online these days to find awesome Werewolf pics. So for anyone who showed it some love, a big thank you (disapproving head shakes and cold-shoulders to those that didn’t.)

Really enjoyed reading Guido Crepax’s Valentina And The Magic Lantern this weekend. I say ’read’, this books actually has no speech-bubbles. It’s an hundred-page silent story, but I still really enjoyed it. I’m debating whether I should hunt down the Italian 70’s movie or not? I’ve heard both good and bad things about the film. I’m not a 100% won over by the trailer.



I hear the release by Shameless Entertainment has a documentary on Crepax, but whenever I tend to buy DVD just for the extras, they’re nearly always too short, and a massive let down. How many DVD\Blu-rays have you bought just for the extras, only to end up with something like a cheap, five-minute talking-head documentary? I do much prefer Shameless’s trailer, though.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Happy Halloween.

 
I’m not a big fan of drawing traditional horror themes. Partly because I like to try and push things forward, or at least in different directions in my horror work (I’ll let you be the judge of how well I achieve that…) But also partly because there’s so many artist out there who do those kinds of things better than me. However, since I had a stab at Dracula earlier in the year, I’ve been harbouring a secret desire to do a Werewolf pic. A pin-up I did a few months ago called Godless, was meant to be my first go at doing one, but at that time I also had a massive body-horror itch, too, which won out in the end. I didn’t leave much room for the monster in that shot, so I went deformity, not hairy, swearing one day I’d do my take on Werewolves. Well… it’s Halloween, and today is that day. If you’ve ever wonder what my take on Werewolves, in my style, would look like… Pop them peepers skyward and enjoy. I don’t get much time to do Halloween Ecards (hence, why over six-years, there’s only been three. It’s an every other year kind of deal.), but I do enjoy doing them. I throw in a bikini goth-babe with pigtails this year, just to sweeten the pot, too. Your welcome. Deviantart copy here.

Anyway, hope you’re having an awesome Halloween and don’t eat too many sweets this year (this advice coming from the man who’s all ready eaten half his stash.)

P.S. Here’s an interesting fact. As you can see from my web-cam shot, this year’s Halloween Ecard is a actually a self-portrait. Yeah, I’m really a Were-wolf, so what? get over it. Hope this still means we can be friends? Unless you’re a little pig, or little red riding hood… in which case… I’ve been having this terrible toothache recently, and… I wondered if you’d do me a massive favour and just… that’s it… climb in… it’s the tooth right at the back, there… keep going… all the way in… ha, ha, ha, SUCKER!
 

Tuesday 30 October 2012

The Meat-Man Cometh.



Is this the longest gap in cinematic history between the first and second trailer being released? Pretty sure it’s been over a year since that first trailer. Anyhoo… it’s still the film I most want to see in 2013. Just finished reading This Book Is Full Of Spiders over the weekend. I gotta say I was expecting less from this book, but in many ways, I enjoyed it more than the first. It’s more of a story you can get a hold on, although I do get a kick out of the trippy nature of the first novel. It’s strange (in a good way), to live in an era where horror writers are as much inspired by video-games of the last twenty-years, as by books and films. There’s one scene where it all goes very Left-4-Dead meets REC. I guess one drawback to this book is that you really need to read the first, to get a lot of the stuff going on in the second. But then… why wouldn’t you want to read the first novel, anyway? It’s awesome.

I’m pretty much in Halloween mode at the moment. I’m gonna watch Horror Europa tonight with Mark Gatiss. Than maybe stick on a horror flick or two. Maybe tonight, is the night, I finally man-up and watch Teeth? … I doubt it.

Say what you like about Tumblr, one thing it does have on it side, is it’s great for looking up obscure comic-book artists. I’m a massive Guido Crepax fan, but it’s so hard to get a hold of his work. I currently only own two of his books, and getting a hold of them was a nightmare (although I see they’ve just put out a new Crepax book this very month, bringing my grand total now to three.) I’ve recently been taking a look at art of his that has been posted up on Tumblr. I still think his mark-making skills are second-to-none. Plus, no one draws sexy women like Crepax. I’d kill to see a piece of his original art. I hear they have museums of his work in Europe which I’d love to visit someday.

Friday 26 October 2012

Everyone’s Favourite Morbid Holiday.


Might not look like it, but this frame actually has a couple of Easter eggs in it, if you know where to look. Regular readers of this blog may spot one right off.

I know all I do is sit around watching horror movies and eating junk food anyway, so Halloween should really just be another day, but I do like to try and celebrate this holiday. Being British, maybe it’s the repressed druid in me. Where once we would have put someone in a Wicker-man and burnt them, now it’s a good horror movie on Blu-ray\DVD and a packet of Haribo Horror Mix. I think that’s the dark reason why we’re so fond of our bonfires down here in the south east. Centuries on, we’ve got human sacrifice withdrawal.

I think this year, my horror movie on the day will be I Saw The Devil, as I’ve been wanting to see this flick for ages. Last year I had to work on Halloween, so didn’t get in till late, then being very unoriginal, just throw on my copy of Halloween to watch. This year I can try and make more of a night of it. Wonder what other people are doing for this Halloween… if anything?

Got the Basket Case trilogy Blu-ray this week. Worth getting just for the short-film on Graham Humphreys. God, I love those 80’s horror posters he did for palace pictures. Some publisher really needs to put out an art-book of those.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Sinister Girls.


I think I’ve got pretty good at drawing sinister girls by doing this book. If you can’t draw sexy, go with sinister, that’s what I always say (even though I only just this second made that up… ok, well, I’ll start saying it from now on.)

I don’t want to give too much away, but I feel very confident that I’ll have a Halloween Ecard ready for this year (Hint, Hint, I’ve all ready done it.) Drew it at the start of the month. Did the font and computer re-jigging around the middle. Now just waiting for the end of the month to roll around so I can post it.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Zombie Aparkalypse 3D.

This short animation is amazing. It just reminds you why 3D can be awesome. Plus it's got Zombies in bumper-cars. I’d love to see this on a giant cinema-screen or something.

That said, if you’re one of those people that get a headache watching 3D, you may wanna give this vid a miss. If you’re someone that also gets shaky-cam sickness, you may also not wanna press play. I guess to sum up… just eat a load of ginger before watching (ironically, I hate the taste of ginger so much, it makes me a little sick when of think about it.)

Zombie Aparkalypse 3D from Daniel L Smith on Vimeo.

Saturday 13 October 2012

Plugging In.


New panel time, and I’m saying nothing about this shot. For such a small panel, I had a big debate in my head on if I should post it or not.

Can’t believe the movie adaptation of John Dies At The End has finally got a release date. Been a long, long time coming. Not sure if I’ll watch it VOD or just wait for the Blu-ray. I kind of hate watching movies online. No buffering on my dime, thank you. At least it gives me time to read the follow up novel, first.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Stray Teeth.


So I’m gonna post a finished lettered page fast, before I forget again. Let start with one of my favourites from the very first issue. Ok, there’s only a few speech-bubbles on this page, but the good thing about this page is it works pretty well on it’s own as a one-page story. So I thought it would be a good place to start. Plus, like I say, I think it’s one of my best pages, even if it is from late 2009. This short scene is from very early on in the book. It’s drawing this scene that really made me feel like I was doing a horror comic. I always think of this scene as a little nod to a certain famous scene out of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. As horror omens go, ownerless teeth appearing out-of-nowhere is usually a sign that things are about to turn very unpleasant. Plus it’s really fun drawing teeth.
    
I will try and post a wordier page or two in the coming future. I’m trying to find the perfect page that gives away a little, but not too much. But anyway, that’s how a finished lettered page of this graphic novel looks. That’s my attempt at comic-book lettering. Hope you enjoy. More to come.

Sunday 7 October 2012

Shall We Begin?


I’ve posted this image before as part of my ID montage on Deviantart, but here it is officially. I’ve also left the speech-bubble on, as I think it looks cool. I have a nasty feeling, previously, I’ve said I’d posted more artwork complete with lettering, so people can see the finished artwork… and then forgot I’d made this promise and never did. Whoops! What I may do in the coming weeks (if I don’t forget I’ve said this, too) is maybe post some fully lettered finished page at some point. I have unlettered ones up on my Deviantart page, considering I’m in the final stages of this mini-series, maybe it’s about time I started to leak more details about this book. I will try and keep this in mind as we plough through what’s left of 2012.

I do like this above panel. Not being able to post any gory (or just scenes of a macabre nature) spoiler heavy panels, it’s maybe sometimes hard to set the tone of this mini-series without giving too much away. But I’m hoping panels like the above one do set some kind of sinister atmosphere. The day when I can stop being all tease, no show, is happily not too far off in the distant now. This ain’t gonna be the sequential counterpart of the Blair Witch Project, there will be payoffs (although I do remember some publisher did a really good one-off Blair Witch comic back in the 90’s drawn by Guy Davis, which was actually very good. Way better than the awful studio sequel, that’s for sure.)

I have no idea how I’m gonna handle posting panels from Issue #4 yet. I think it’s fair to say I’ll be posting considerably less on account of every panel is pretty much a massive spoiler.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Girl On Tree Action.



Does the world really need an Evil Dead porn parody? All I know is my heart says… maybe.

Don’t get me wrong, I love drawing horror comics, but I’m very jealous of people who get to work in special-effects. That just looks like such a cool job.

Friday 28 September 2012

Silent Witness.


The teddy army rolls on in this latest panel. But what are they witnessing?

Been suffering from a nasty sinus infection this week. I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I’m over the worst of it, now. Nothing weirder then having infected eye-sockets. It’s been like I woke on Tuesday, and my skull had shrunk in my sleep. It’s becoming a yearly tradition, sadly, when the cold weather sets in (you could probably scroll back to my posts from this time last year, or the year before that, and find similar tales of woe.)

I plan to get my sickly hands on some hot chocolate, whip-cream and marshmallows in next 24-hours. Wrap up warm in a big blanket, and spend as much of this weekend as I can watching dvd boxsets of Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Tales From The Darkside, relaxing and keeping my fluid levels up.

I plan to fight nasal inflammation with cosiness.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

A Spoiler Is A Spoiler.

I’m just saying…

Just because you tart it up as a gif, or a meme, or some other bollocks, doesn’t mean you’re not ruining it like a regular blabber-mouth. Just because it’s animated or meant to be ironic, doesn’t mean you haven’t just blown the ending for other people just because you did it in a trendy way.

I’ve never been able to watch a season of Dexter without already knowing how the season ends. When a new series of Doctor Who comes around, I’m tried of having to go into tunnel-vision mode. I feel these days like I need to pay someone to go online just before me, and check the way for spoiler-mines that people just lay all over the web.

How feeble is your headspace, that the moment you see something you know other people haven’t, you have to make sure people know that you know, by plastering the net with your little, crappy homemade banners.

They reserve the lowest circle of hell for hipsters and their ironic, glittery memes, as far as I’m concerned.

NOTE: I think you’re meant to spell meme in capitals, but I have so little respect for them, I didn’t bother. I didn’t want to bring grammar into this war, but they started it.

I’m gonna pepper this bitter rant with something sweet, too. File this under every thing sounds better in 8-bit. Feels weird that it’s probably been about ten years since I went to see the Pixies reunion show in London in college. Still waiting for that new pixies album… been a long time coming. Really long. Like… really, really, really long.

Sunday 23 September 2012

Sisters Of (No) Mercy.


Something a bit sinister to end the week on. This shot is me trying to ’Bring It’ with the horror ambience. My best attempt to set a spooky tone, as it were. I’m 99% sure I haven’t posted this shot already. Hopefully this panel doesn’t look too familiar?

Been watching old episodes of Tales From The Darkside, this week. They go well with the dark, cold autumn nights that are setting in. They remind me of when I would watch these on late-night TV as a kid in the 90‘s. I still think the pilot Trick Or Treat, written by George Romero, still has a great chilling ending. Only downside is I’ve got the creepy intro theme-tune going around in my head, these last few days. Having that jingle playing in my head as I walk around at night, or trying to get to sleep, is an unwelcome side-effect. I still think it’s the creepiest opening to a horror TV show, ever.



Speaking of Halloween (which we kind of were… I mean, the episodes called Trick Or Treat, right?), I think I’ve figured out my game-plan for Halloween. I don’t think I’m going to be able to beat pumpkin-headed zombies from a couple of years ago. But I do at least this year have a design I can run with. I’ll see where it goes. And hopefully I’ve had this idea early enough in the year that I can get it done little-by-little, just in time for the big day. Fingers crossed.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

When Pale-Face Shatner Attacks.

Just been watching the Federico D’Alessandro Halloween pitch-reel that been doing the rounds online lately. Out of all the slasher movies, the Halloween sequels are the ones with the lowest batting-average for me. Part 2 is ok, if a little underwhelming, all the others are pretty forgettable (in that I watched them as a kid, and now I’ve forgotten all of them.) Most slasher flicks have at least one or two decent sequels, and Halloween is long overdue for one.

I have to say, even if it wasn’t a Halloween\Michael Myers movie, it would still be an incredibly strong opening scene for a horror movie. But saying that, I hope he does get the Halloween gig. I guess it’s just what he’d do with the other 81-minutes of the movie that really counts.



I’d like to see a Halloween sequel, where Michael Myers catches and skins William Shatners face, paints it white, and uses it through the whole movie as a mask as a giant in-joke.

Feeling a little bit disappointed that Doctor Sleep won’t be out for a whole year. Was hoping for an early 2013 release, maybe something in the next six months. Still… it’s the book I’m most looking forward to reading in 2013.

Saturday 15 September 2012

Teddy Army.


Considering this is a horror comic, I found myself drawing a lot of teddies in issue #3. They kind of became a motif in one particular scene. It wasn’t planned, they just kind of took over.

Look at their dead teddy-eyes. Nothing scarier than a care-bear. 

Friday 14 September 2012

Sharks, Nazis and Serial Killers.

In the last couple of years, I’ve found my thirst for documentaries has grown hugely. I’m not sure if it’s a guy thing, when you start to get a bit older, and it starts to get all about TV shows about Sharks, Nazis and Serial Killers. Maybe it’s the fact that with digital TV, there’s so many of these documentaries about now. But anyway, these days they’re my program\film of choice. I guess it might come from DVDs, too. I love a good DVD extra. I really love documentaries on horror movies (for obvious reasons.) This week I watched Corman’s World, which was good, but could have been longer and a bit more in-depth. It was a bit bare-bones, for me. Then watched Blood, Boobs And Beast off the Troma Youtube channel last night. Very low-budget doc, but I actually really enjoyed it. Had heart. And if that wasn’t enough for one week, for this coming weekend, I've managed to get my hands on a germen import Blu-ray of Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. Clocking in at 4-hours, it’s a mammoth documentary. I’ve already stocked up on drinks and twiglets. It’s gonna be a massive nerd slob-out.

Of course being a documentary fan can blow up in your face sometimes. I made the mistake of watching Paranormal Witness before going to bed last week. Every time a fat seagull landed on my roof during the night (I live by the coast, and they crash down on my roof a lot), I keep thinking “Eeekkkkkkk! What if it’s the Monkey Man of Oregon?”

Actually, if we’re talking awesome horror docs, might be a good excuse to post this.

 

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Trash Bag Bunch.



God, I used to love these as a kid. They seemed to appear, then disappear pretty quickly on the toy-market, but they were awesome. They never caught on as a craze, like other toys, like Boglins (or rather mini-boglins), but I think they were a pretty underrated toy. They only had two flaws in my eyes. (1) You couldn’t see which one you were buying, you just had to pick a bag at random, and hope it was one you needed when you dropped it in water. And they weren’t that cheap for something you’d be buying blindly. (2: which is more of a personal flaw, anyway.) I’d buy one of these hoping to get a cool little monster, and they always turned out to be a little space-guy. Sure… the little space-guys looked cool enough, but even back then I was a horror guy, and the monsters were the cool ones I wanted.

Is it weird, that I find it a little depressing that these guys don’t even have a wiki-entry? If I was one of those guys that won too much money on the lottery, and didn’t know what to do with it… I’d probably spend my days trying to hunt down and collect all the monsters from this franchise, off the internet and from collectors. Then I move onto mini-boglins. Then maybe Monster In My Pocket (that brand sounds a lot more phallic to my adult-ears.)

Friday 7 September 2012

Woolly Bully.


All I’ll say about the above panel is this… If you’re reading a horror comic, and someone pulls out a knitting-needle, it usually means bad things are going down. When does anybody use knitting-needles for knitting in horror comics? I can’t post the gory money-shots, for obvious reasons, but hopefully this panel sets the scene well enough.

On a weird side-note: turns out it’s really fun to draw balls of wool. I mean, as a comic book artist, there’s all kinds of stuff you dread drawing I.E. cars, crowd scenes, guns, tricky anatomy. But drawing balls of wool was just delightful. I always thought monsters were the most fun thing to draw in all the world, now I’m not so sure. My next graphic-novel will be called ‘Bikini-Babes In Wool-Shop Massacre.’ I know, sounds like a dodgy Troma movie or something, right?

Speak of which… I see recently Troma has put a lot of their back-catalogue up on youtube. This is very cool for me, as living in the UK, very few Troma movies have been put out on region 2. There’s a lot of Troma movies on there, I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. As well as ones I’ve been wanting to re-watch for years. I’ve got a lot of love for Troma (even if they’ve never technically ever made a really decent horror movie in nearly 40 years of film making.)
 
There’s a kind of trick-or-threat element when you watch a Troma movie. Some of them are rare little low-budget gems, while others are just god-awful. I remember recording one off late night TV back in the 90’s (I’m pretty sure it was this one), and watching it the next day was just painful. Even someone who has recently just had a lobotomy, couldn’t sit through this flick. I know people throw around the phase “worse movie of all time” so much it’s lost its bite. But even if this film wasn’t the worse movie of all time, it would be on the short-list. I think if you watch this movie all the way through, it officially counts as a cry for help.

Monday 3 September 2012

Why I Love The Internet.

I love that someone made the ‘save walt’ a real website. It looks the same, right down to the tiniest detail.

I feel a little better now, knowing The Doctor is as bad at bowler as me. Bowling is one of those things I thought I’d be good at, but tried it once, and really, really wasn’t. (Like the little nod to Big Bang Theory with the Wesley Crushers bowling shirt, too.)

 

Sunday 2 September 2012

All In.


I personally think the Sun-gods have been a little stingy with their love this weekend.

Issue #4 is chugging along nicely. Not being a fast artist, I still find it strange that I have a folder thick with sequential pages. I mean, I guess I should have, considering I’ve been scribbling away now for just over three years. But doing this mini-series, I’m suddenly very aware why a lot of comic-book artist don’t do their own graphic-novels. Unless you’re lucky enough to be a fast artist, it’s like chewing your way through cement. It’s so time-consuming. I try not to think about how many thousands of hours have gone into this book, because it kind of freaks me out a little.

Two good things about this being the forth and final issue is, (1) I’m in the homestretch, and therefore it should be all downhill from here (still recently been having some tricky moments, however.) And (2), every time I get those pesky doubts about this project (like am I doing the right thing? Is this mini-series any good?) at this point, I’m pretty much pot committed. Win or lose, I’ve invested too much not to see this through to the end, now, so I may as well enjoy the ride. All my chips are in the middle of table, and it’s just a case of waiting for that river-card. (Apologies to non-poker fans, if that just sounds like weird jargon to you.)

I’m trying to work out if I can free up some time this year, to do something for Halloween. I know it’s a couple of months off, but maybe if I get my shit together now, I can do something special this year. No promises, but I’m gonna try this year.

Friday 31 August 2012

Better Late, Than Never.



With the summer in its death-throes, it kind of sucks that only now do I find this year’s summer tune. Every summer has one new song that comes along and seems to sum up that summer. I really thought this year, I’d have to do without, until this song came along.

Rest assured, I will be playing this tune to death over the weekend, if the Sun-Gods keep smiling for the next 48-hours.

Tuesday 28 August 2012

No Eyebrows = Scary.


That is just terrifying… I don’t usually find kids in horror movies scary, but even I think that’s creepy. In fact, I’d go as far as to say, this one picture is scarier than the whole 88-minutes of the movie it’s based on. It’s so unnerving.

I blame\congratulate the parents.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Creep Cred.


A couple of weeks back, I talked about good, creepy smiling shots in horror comics (I on was on a massive Richard Corben buzz, at the time.) If I had to pick one shot from this mini-series, to come out and bat for my best creepy smiling shot, it would probably have to be this above panel. I had to crop this frame a little, so as not to give too much away, but hopefully it’s still unnerving enough. If any shot is gonna win me some creepy smile cred, hopefully it’ll be this one. It’s all about the creep cred at this point in the game.

I don’t know if, or how many other artists read this blog? but here’s my new favourite pod-cast to listen to while drawing. I only found it a few weeks ago, and I’ve already nearly worked my way through their whole back-catalogue. I love this pod-cast.

Monday 20 August 2012

Born Creeping.

I’ve come to peace with the fact I can’t dance many years ago. My soul has no rhythm to it, and I’m fine with that. Seems to bother other people, more than it bothers me. But here’s one dance move I can get behind. I’m pondering if I should share the fact, I’ve watched this now an unhealthy amount of times? 



Why is it, if you name something ‘Creep’, it’s always awesome? Think of every film, song, comic you ever seen\heard called Creep… bet it was awesome.

Went in the health-food shop today to pick up some Nuts and Banana Chips. I always feel guilty, because I always notices the girl working in there is pretty… robust. I don’t know if I’d have the guts to work in a health-food shop, if I was that out-of-shape. I’d be too self-conscious. Seems like the worse place to work, if you’re carrying a few extra pounds… then I feel incredibly guilty, and a little shitty for having such a thought in the first place, quietly buy my stuff and leave.

Friday 17 August 2012

Hugo Wait.


Drawing in this unforgiving heat is a nightmare. I’ve been getting stuff done in the day-time, before my room becomes too hot to work in. It’s nice to still be getting stuff done, but you lose those precious witching-hours. That’s the time-slot, I feel I get my best stuff done. I’m just getting warmed up in the day-time. I always feel my brain is sharpest at around 9pm, how true that is, I don’t know, but it feels that way. I’m just more of a night artist. Always have been.

I hated this above panel when I first saw it on the page. However, I quite like it, when I saw it blown up on a computer-screen. Works better in big, I think.

So ended a long quest, when a copy of this finally poked its way through my letterbox this morning. I’ve been waiting years for someone to put out a copy of Hugo Tate. I have no idea why such a good book has been out-of-print for so long. I’ve only ever got to read bits-and-bobs over the years, from this comic. It’s been well over ten years since I read my first Hugo Tate short comic-strip, in an old issue of Deadline. I had kind of given up hope of reading it all in one volume. It’s been a long time coming.

The only single piece of original artwork I own, is a Nick Abadzis Hugo Tate drawing I bought in London, while in college years ago (crappy photo below to prove it.) I have this crazy dream of buying up, and having my own personal gallery of great comic-book artist’s works one day. Have a studio with framed artwork pinned up all around the place. But for now, I have neither the funds, nor the wall-space. And now most artist work digitally, it’s kind of killing that dream. I guess you can always buy prints, but it’s not the same, really.

Anyway… I know what I’ll be reading this weekend.


Saturday 11 August 2012

Up In Yana’s Room.


Yana and friends entertain a young gentleman in this latest panel from Issue #3. Things are about to get very twisted.

Here’s one for the 3D lovers (since I started the week posting something for the 3D haters.) Bought a copy of this online in the week, and watched it the other day on my flat-screen TV. There’s something really cool about watching plasticine animation on a big screen. Plasticine Zombies are awesome. I’d love to see a full-length Zombie movie made out of plasticine one day. I’m guessing it would take years to make, and there’s a danger the novelty could wear off after about fifth-teen minutes… still, I’d watch it.

Monday 6 August 2012

Needs More Blood.


This one’s for all the 3D haters out there (of which there must be many by now.) Found a bit of spare-time over the weekend, and so decided to give my 3D zombie sketch, from a few posts ago, a bit of a quick colour job. Put a bit of undead colour in his cheeks, as it were. As much as I like 3D, when you take something into that third dimension, the brightness and colour does always seem to suffer a bit. So here’s something you don’t have to wear novelty glasses to enjoy.

Friday 3 August 2012

Dead Cartridges.


I’m taking it as a good sign, that I could no longer find a folder about town with enough clear-sleeves to house my forthcoming graphic-novel, and so had to order one especially off line, just so I can keep all my sequential pages in one place. This, on the same week I had order a shit-load of printer ink, as well. It might be a bit of a blow to the wallet, but at least it feels like it’s all moving in the right direction. The higher page count does guzzle up that printer ink, but it’s nice to see a longer story coming together, even if it is leaving me with a lot of empty ink cartridges, and a slimmer wallet. I could differently believe that urban legend, that printer ink is now the most expensive liquid on earth. Printer ink is like the new gold. With the banks and economy in such turmoil, I might convert all my savings into printer ink and then bury the bottles in the back-garden. It’s how the smart people are surviving these dark, bleak economic times. It doesn’t help that my drawing style uses so much black, either. Just look at the above panel for proof. Moody, yes. Cheap, no.


I’ve been racking my brains, trying to think of a good excuse for posting this Sora Aoi does female Ninja Warrior video, and I’ve come up with nothing. Even so, I’m gonna post it anyway. I like Ninja Warrior. I like Sora Aoi. Therefore I doubly like this video. I think she does really well for such a top-heavy ninja.

 

Thursday 2 August 2012

This Is Your Life Now.


I tend to spend my days now just trying to avoid spoilers. Nimbly trying to click my way around the web, without coming across something I wish I hadn’t. I spend my life now avoiding spoilers for Walking Dead (both comic and TV series), Dexter, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, and about a million others I can’t think of off the top of my head. Even though this new Doctor Who poster was put out by the BBC, it kind of feels a bit like a spoiler (sadly one I’ve heard a million times online by now.) I’m also guessing that since they put it on a poster, it means it probably won’t happen, unless it was some kind of amazing, ballsy double-bluff… which it probably isn’t. By that, I mean it’ll happen… it just won’t happen…

Major spoilers aside, it is a great poster. Everyone likes a fallen-damsel shot. I’m guessing this is going to become a lot of people’s desktop pic in the coming days. It’s like Dalek fan-service. You had me at imperial gunner Dalek.

How come TV has become soooooooooo good over the last ten years?

Sunday 29 July 2012

Have You Seen This Man?


It’s starting to get a bit tricky on what I can and can’t post from Issue #3, and it’s only gonna get trickier in the coming months. This latest shot, however, seems pretty non-spoiler friendly. It’s one of my sinister smile shots. If someone’s usually smiling in this story, you know something bad is about to happen. I think I’ve got a few good sinister smile shots in this graphic-novel. Creepy smiles are kind of stock-in-trade for horror artists. Even when I try and draw a real, non-sinister smile, they always look a little evil.

This latest find ain’t exactly helping me get over my Dracula craze from a couple of months ago. What Dracula would really look like via modern police sketch software. Kind of like a Caucasian Fu Manchu, I guess. I had a go at doing my own take on Dracula a short while ago, the result of which can be seen here. I think most people working in horror want to have a stab at Dracula at one point or another. It’s also really worth checking out the rest of The Composites tumblr. Other favourites of mine include Robert Vaughn and Randall Flagg.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s been four days, and I still haven’t had a chance to sit down and have a good flick through my copy of Creepy presents: Richard Corben. Now there’s a guy who really knows how to draw a sinister smile.

Thursday 26 July 2012

One Minute Zombie In 3D.


I don’t want to tempt fate, but after many, many hours of trying, I think I’ve finally overcome my new camera woes. I don’t want to jinx it, but hopefully I’ve finally come to the end of this long and grating road.

I thought I’d just try out the 3D mode quickly for a laugh, and so filmed myself doodling a Zombie. I tend to find lately if I am sketching, it’s usually a Zombie. They’re so easy to draw and involve little thought. They’re this generation’s ‘Killroy Was Here.’ Plus with this weather, it’s just too hot to do proper time-consuming artwork, and this seemed more fun. If you fancy giving it a watch, you’ll need some of the old style blue lens\red lens glasses. This video was about nearly six minutes long, but I sped it up, and got it down to one. This also wiped out the creepy heavy-breathing soundtrack, as I had to have the camera right next to my face to film, which made it sound like it had an audio-commentary from Michael Myers. Thankfully, that’s gone.

If you watch only one novelty 3D movie today that ends up giving you a headache, make it this one.

Got my copy of Creepy presents: Richard Corben through the post this morning, and now I feel a little giddy. I want to sit down and just do nothing but read all 348 pages of it, but I took yesterday off, so I really need to put pencil to Bristol-board today.

Saturday 21 July 2012

Only Alanis Morissette Understands.


I’m sad to say I think this miserable summer weather may be my fault. I kind of jinx it, when on the first day of decent sunshine last month, I went out and bought a new bottle of sun-tan lotion. It’s like buying a jumbo pack of condoms, and then the next day your girlfriend breaks up with you. This hardly used bottle of lotion now sits on my bookshelf, looking lonely and useless. The other day I had a depressing moment, when I looked out the window at all the rain and gloom, and thought “oh well… it’ll be summer in a couple of months…” It then dawn on me this was summer. My internal calendar had gone back to winter setting. At least the weather’s a bit better today.

The weather’s shitty this week… I chipped the back of a tooth… and I ordered a new camera online, and when it turned up, it didn’t work, which means I’ve gotta send it back. It’s been a rough week (in a ‘first world problems’ kind of way). If I was Bruce Banner, I’d be hulking out about now.

To tame my inner raging beast, I’ll quickly post this above shot. The only good thing about the shitty weather, is I’ve been able to catch up on doing artwork. Usually drawing in July is hell. This year, not so bad. No ice cream and sunburn, but at least I’ve been able to put some hours in at the drawing-board.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

Time-Lapse.

The one thing about the tenth Doctor is, it’s all about the hair. Never has a time-lord expressed them self so much through their hair-cut before. I think the hair should have had its own TV show spin off.

I always enjoy watching people draw. There’s something very calming about watching an image come together. Maybe it was too many hours, spent watching Rolf Harris on TV when I was growing up. Who knows? It’s even cooler if it’s someone drawing something Doctor Who related.


Friday 13 July 2012

Non-Smoking.


Issue #4 is now well underway. It’s maybe the worse time of year for drawing, as the moment the sun peeks out from behind the gloom, you want to go out and enjoy it, but I am differently out of the starting-block. My current plan is to get it off to a strong start in the Summer, then finish it up when those chilly Winter months come around. Winter tends to be the better months for getting work done anyway (or at least that‘s what I find.) I’ve noticed that recently, instead of counting how many pages I’d done in my head, I’ve started to count how many pages I’ve got left overall. It’s nice to be in that working position. I’m also a lot closer to drawing some nice, gruesome horror scenes, I’ve been working my way towards little-by-little for a while now. You usually save the big scares for the end, and not to give anything away, but this story is no different. Issue #4 is where the shit and fan become one.

But that’s the future, right now I’ll post this shot. There are certain shots in comics that are always fun to draw. I’m not a smoker, but for some reason I really like drawing people lighting up a cigarette. If you’re gonna have a character standing around monologuing, then it’s nice to have them working a prop or doing something. Although I’m starting to think this shot may age the story somewhat in years to come, as smoking will probably be non-existent in another ten\twenty years. I’m guessing pot-smokers will be about in the future, but plan, old, regular smokers, maybe not so much. Hmmmmm, is it too late to Photoshop that fag and lighter out? Have him playing Angry Birds on a iPad or something?

Thursday 12 July 2012

REC Series.



As is probably clear from my last post, I’ve got a soft-spot for tacky Zombie flicks. Not tacky movies, generally, but I am more forgiving when it comes to those lovable flesh eaters. That said, when someone makes a really good Zombie movie (I.E. good storyline, good CGI\special effects, well shot and acted.), I think it’s cause for celebration. Considering soooooo many people make Zombie pics these days, it’s surprising how very few are actually amazing. The genre is casting such a wide net, you’d think their hit-rate would be a little higher. I only caught up with the REC series recently, but I’d put them at the top with 28 Days\Weeks Later as examples of the best in modern Zombie movies. It’s hard to go into details on why the REC movies are so good, without giving away massive spoilers, but they do have a couple of twist in them I like. I’m not a huge fan of the found-footage genre, but I think the first REC film is the best of that genre. I’m really looking forward to REC 3, but think it sucks I won’t be able to see it on the big screen. I’ll have to settle for a Blu-ray copy, but would have love to have seen it in a cinema. I think it has already had a very limited release in the UK.

Click for trailers for REC and REC 2 also. If you haven’t seen the first two, they’re well worth hunting down. For once, the US remake Quarantine ain’t bad, either. Not as good as REC, but still worth a watch. I give it extra marks just for having Jennifer Carpenter in it. Sometimes when I’m watching it, I like to pretend I’m watching Zombies invade the Dexter universe, and it’s some kind of bizarre horror mash-up… ok, not really.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Lust For Gory.



I’m adding this with Zombie Ass and Zomboobies, on the list of weird, Japanese Zombie movies, I kind of wanna see. They remind me of the Troma movies of the 80’s. I like that Japan is going through a golden age of sleaze at the moment. I know exploitation cinema is very 'in' at the moment, but Japan seems to be the only country really running with it. With cheap (and some times downright tacky) CGI and special effects, and sexy weapon bearing babes, they make movies that please your inner teenage boy. If you’d seen these movies at fourteen, they would have blown your mind. They’re like perfect Saturday night movies, when you want to turn your brain off and relax. Just spend an hour-and-half abusing your mind with Zombie trash, and your body with nachos and dip.

It’s just a shame, I’m guessing very few, if any of these titles, are going make it over here. I get the feeling most of these flicks will be a stranger to Region 2\B2.

Sunday 8 July 2012

Here Comes The Narrative.


I think it’s safe to say, with all that empty space, this is going to be a dialogue heavy shot. I always try and avoid Info Dumping, and try and spread plot out, as best I can. Because I’m very aware of it, I think I’m ok at chopping up plot, and distributing it throughout. Writing a story, it’s an ongoing battle between getting the ratio of action and narrative just right.

There’s only one point in this story, so far, where it looks dangerously like I’ve just unloaded plot all over the page (it’s not this above scene.) I think I just about get away with it. Hopefully it comes across more as an exciting reveal.

I’m sure many writers would argue that Info Dumping is a necessary evil. You’ve gotta lay down that plot somehow? It’s like going over a speed-bump, and then you can carry on with your journey.

I just thank God I don’t write Sci-Fi. I love Sci-Fi, but with all the tech and techno-babble, it does generate, and require a lot of Info Dumping. It would drive me nuts (and that’s coming from a Doctor Who fan.)

Thursday 5 July 2012

Visual Crack.

Motion posters are scary but awesome. Not quite a poster, not quite a trailer (word to the wise, don’t have your volume turned up high, if you click this link.) Hope if they run with this idea though, they make them in landscape in the future. Maybe put out a 3D copy, too.

Just watched season six of The Office in three days. That’s 9-hours of TV in a 72-hour period. Really scary thing is I probably could have done it in two. There was a couple of points where I had to force myself to switch the DVD off. You get into that zone where it’s hard to say no to one more episode. To be fair, my funny-bone has been in need of some major stimulation recently.


EDIT: Whoops, that should have been ‘motion’ not ‘mention’. Spell much?

Saturday 30 June 2012

Freddie Mercury?


I’ve got a soft-spot for this above panel, but I can’t put my finger on why. There’s something about it I like, but I’m not sure what. If I did, I’d try and do it more often. But at least for once I like one of my shots, so that’s a bonus.
 
I’m a little behind on this gag\mime, as I only heard about it this week, but it made me laugh. Why wouldn’t you find Freddie Mercury, in a bush, in the middle of nowhere? I think this page is the start of some dubious Marvel cottaging crossover scene. Save it for the MAX series, Marvel. I can’t wait to see this page make it’s way into the mainstream Marvel universe (which undoubtedly it will.)

FULL STORY HERE.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Calming And Alarming.

I must have watched Inferno about two or three months ago, and I’ve still got the theme-tune going around in my head. That’s pretty good going for a theme I only heard once for a few seconds. Mother Of Darkness has the best theme-tune, but the Mother Of Tears looks a lot better slicking about naked wear nothing but a tunic. I’ve got to look up the Inferno soundtrack on iTunes at some point today.



Just started drawing Issue #4 this last week. It’s both claming and alarming, knowing I’ve got a shit-load of sequential pages ahead of me (I may be a little more open to pausing to do the odd pin-up, this time around, now I can see the end of the tunnel.) I’m both bummed out, and really excited at the same time, if that's even possible?

Quick update on Sketchbook Night (or whatever I end up calling it)… The summer’s too hot for sitting in your room, sketching down a webcam, so I’ll see if I can get something going around the later, chillier part of August. I signed up for Google+Hangout last night, so hopefully before then I’ll do a test night with someone to see if it works ok. I’m probably the worst guy to be putting this together, as my tech skills ain’t great, but if I can get it sorted, it could be a fun event. We’ll see.

P.S. Anyone else who’s on Google+Hangout, feel free to look me up. I’ve really gotta sign up to Skype soon, too, before the kids on the street start calling me a n00b.

Sunday 24 June 2012

Hands On.


Gonna end the week by posting this shot (seems like the thing to do.)

Thursday 21 June 2012

Add To Favourites.

Just been checking out the Joe Dante’s website Trailers From Hell. Cult movie trailers, with audio-commentary from famous directors. You could spend hours on this site, it’s an amazing archive.

My newest bugbear these days is when you go onto Youtube, or some other site to watch a movie\game trailer, and they make you watch another trailer or advert before your video starts. It’s weird to have to watch a whole other trailer you didn‘t want to, just to watch one you did. Or when they make you watch an advert, and it’s longer than the clip you wanted to see in the first place. So many times, I’ve clicked a trailer, seen there’s a massive, long advert before it, and clicked away from the page, and not bothered to watch the trailer I did want to see. Is that good advertising?