Godless.

It’s that horrible moment of having to return to drawing after a short period away. The first hour or two is just hell because your out-of-shape. I must have drawn the guy in the foreground countless times just to get him looking about right. The first hour of drawing after a break is pretty much worthless. Your just trying to get back into the swing of things, and anything you draw will probably be terrible. You just end up rubbing out must of your stuff from that first hour. Add to that I was breaking in new brushes. I hate using new brushes. You’d think that would be when they’re at their best, but I like a little bit of stiffness in the bristles of mine. So there was a lot of bullshit to cut through to get this image done, so I’m still not sure if it’s a winner or not. I just wanted to have a bit of a stab at doing something with a body-horror theme. Something that shouldn’t be, walking around taking bites out of the local wildlife. Really I just wanted it to be freaky and scary, an abomination on the rampage. I guess one of my biggest issues at the moment is it’s hard to gauge how frightening my work’s coming across. I’d like to think I’m hitting my marks, and freaking some people out with my artwork, but who the fuck knows, right? I like to think I’m adding to the genre that is horror. I guess time-and-tide will tell (or not.) All I want to do in life is give people horrific nightmares. Does that make me a bad person? Oh! I guess it kind of does? Ummm…

In other news… my inner eight-year old dies a little every time I watch one of those Yoda mobile-phone adverts. I mean, I’m only a mild Star Wars fan, so I can’t imagine what a kick-in-the-balls those ads are for proper hardcore fans. Also… are these adverts now canon? That would be a good way to kill off this kind of money making bullshit, and stop whoring out beloved characters. All work has to be canon and explained, no exceptions. That way, no more terrible crap like Yoda Mobile Ads, or Dimensions In Time. No stepping out of canon, or canon steps on YOU!!! (no, I don’t know what I meant by that either… sounded good, though.)

Sweet Shame.

How can I go back to eating sweets out of a dumb packet, after seeing this thing of beauty? All sweets well now taste like poison because they don’t come from this. Sweets are dead to me now.

I always see this Super Mario Pez Dispenser in the super-market when I’m shopping. I’ve always wanted to buy it, but fear the world will judge me harshly for being a grown man who likes to eat his sweets from the open jugular of a video-game plumber.

I won’t lie… I need me a novelty Pez Dispenser. If I was more handy, I’d make my own.

Last Orders.

From last weeks multicoloured covers, back to black-and-white. I’ve kind of fallen in love with black-and-white in the last couple of years. I doubt I’ll ever truly master it, but I’d like to think I’ve got a lot better at pushing those shadows around, and lining everything up.

It’s been a good week for horror, this week. Firstly I imported a Dylan Dog comic off Amazon. Can’t read the thing because it’s in Italian, but at least I can drool over the gorgeous European artwork. Then I went to see Cabin In The Woods with a friend. I hate to do that thing of slagging off one movie, to praise another, but this movie is everything I didn’t really get from the Scream movies. I always felt the Scream movies weren’t as clever as a lot of people would have you believe. For a start, I think New Nightmare was a far better movie and concept. I kind of think if there were better horror movies floating about in the 90’s, Scream wouldn’t have stood out so much. Whereas Cabin In The Woods is a proper little love-letter to the horror genre. A horror movie you can’t second-guess. I’ve been hearing a lot about this movie for a while now off certain websites and podcasts. This is one of those very rare occasions where a movie lived up to its hype (for me, anyway.) It reminded me why I loved the horror genre so much, and also that horror movies can be playful, too. I know this film has been so successful that the backlash must surely be brewing, but before it hits, I just wanna say I really liked this flick.

And just to keep the good horror-buzz going… why don’t we end on a game of Where’s Jason? (like Where’s Wally, but with Jason Voorhees.)

Now That’s A Dinner Party.

I vaguely remember a time when some bright-spark come up with the novel (and very cheap) idea of just putting interesting people in a room, and have them talk as a way to make late-night TV. Like you were eavesdropping on a really amazing get together or something. Watching this, it’s kind of a shame that idea died out.

I’m trying to think if there was a great millennium horror movie in the end? I tend to think of the 90’s as a bit of a wasteland for horror movies. I always think of 28 Days Later as the great modern horror movie that kicked things into gear after the millennium, and that wasn’t until 2002. Video-games had Silent Hill and Resident Evil. TV had the X-Files. I think horror movies were lacking on the turn of the century. Maybe Jurassic Park at a push… Is 93 close enough to the turn of the century to count?

Colour Job.

It’s been nothing but computer-screens for the last couple of weeks, as I’ve been lettering and colouring my little heart out. When I started out doing this four part mini-series, my hope was that along the way, I’d hook up with a colourist for the covers, and a letterer for the interior. It became clear pretty quickly that this was going to be a one man show from the start, however. I was going to have to be both Monkey and Organ-Grinder.

So lately I’ve been doing the part of the process that I’ve been putting off for a while now. Colouring the first three covers. The biggest compliment I’ll give myself is that I don’t hate my efforts (…yet.) This is actually my second stab at colouring these covers. I coloured all three last week using a style, that now looking back on it, was maybe a bit too experimental. These covers are very much a result of reacting to what I did wrong first time around. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent staring at these three covers in the last two weeks. However, I’m dangerously close to being pleased with the results this time around, so cannot grumble. The cover I dreaded colouring the most was issue #2, as this was an outdoors scene. Nothing harder than trying to recreate the great outdoors in digital. It was the cover that I felt had the best chance of going tits-up the worse. I tried to cover all my bases on this one, and think it came out looking ok (or tits-neutral, if you like.) Like I said, it’s weird trying to recreate nature on a computer-screen. It’s no John Constable, but hopefully it’s true enough to look natural. It’s also hard to draw a horror comic-cover set in the outdoors, without falling into cliché. No old, bare tree with scary face on the tree-trunk and evil looking owl on one of its dead branches, or anything like that. I wanted it to look quite pleasant until you come to the sting-in-the-tail. The first and third covers are set indoors, which was a bit easier. It was more of trying to suggest rot and mouldy walls. Again, it’s trying to make something look sinister, without falling into cliché. I tried to keep the colour-palette cold and unsettling. I’m very aware that it is all about the colour-palette when it comes to colouring horror comics. I just hope I don’t end up hating them in a week or two, and have to recolour them a third time (starts violently sobbing…)

I’m thinking of learning Italian just so I can import and read Dylan Dog comics, and watch Giallos in their native-tongue. Would that be the nerdiest reason anyone’s ever learnt another languages?

Stay Classy, Japan.

That‘s more like it. Better effects. Some kooky looking CGI. A trailer that doesn’t leave you dry-heaving after watching it. After yesterday, this movie looks like Citizen Kane to me, compared to Zombie Ass. Keep it out the toilet, Japan (said the guy who drew this a couple of months ago.) Scare not scar.

Reek Cheek Seekers.

I recently come up with the theory that Zombies are like the blow-jobs of the horror genre. In that there’s the joke that there is no such thing as a bad blow-job. Think of the worst blow-job you ever got… still pretty good, right? And that’s how I see Zombie movies. Even the worst ones are still enjoyable enough. I’ve watched Big Tits Zombies twice, and could happily watch it right now. Sure, the effects in some of these movies look awful, like they’ve just bought them from a joke shop or something. But most Zombie films usually have a couple of things going for them (I give Big Tits Zombies extra marks just for having Sola Aoi in it, because she’s cute-as-hell.) A scene or two that made it worth taking the DVD out its case, and popping it in the DVD player. I worry Zombie Ass may be the movie that breaks this theory. I don’t want to live in a world where there is a Zombie movie I hate. I get that it’s tongue-in-cheek, I just worry it’s the wrong kind of cheek. Sure… there’s very few movies that couldn’t be improved by having Japanese girl’s bottoms in them… but not like this… the horror… the horror. If this was tumblr, I’d post this next.


This post has been a little bit bluer than normal. Religious holidays bring it out in me. I apologies.

Back To The Bar.

The bar talk continues in this latest scene.

I didn’t talk much this week about The Thing prequel that I watch a weekend or two ago. It neither disappointed, nor impressed. Firstly it does kind of sync up, more or less, with the 80’s version, even if it does come dangerously close to looking more like a remake at times. I think the biggest hole I could pick in this film is that for a Norwegian research camp… there sure is a lot of Americans running around. I didn’t hate this movie. Like the remake of Dawn Of The Dead, you watch it more to see what modern effects can be done on these old classics, but lose a little of the story along the way. I would recommend it, if only for the nicely done body-horror scenes. I don’t think this film is a write-off. Like the remake of Dawn Of The Dead, it doesn’t beat the original, but I’d happily watch it again. And they did kind of work, watching them back-to-back. I also give the film extra marks for including this song. I’m starting to think of the remakes of Dawn Of The Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Thing as really, really big budget fan films. Something most people would have done in their back-garden with a camcorder and posted on youtube, but done with millions and millions of dollars.

Weirdly, I got to read the short story The Thing is based on this week. It wasn’t planned, I just bought The Mammoth Book Of Body-Horror and it was part of the line-up. I was surprised how much was actually in the original, considering it was written in the early 1930’s. I still think the John Carpenter movie improves on the original, though. I’ve said it before, that film is almost a perfect horror movie. You’ve got Body-horror. Isolated crew (probably the most isolated you can be, and still be on planet earth.) Amazing soundtrack. A lot of people fault it for being an all male cast, but I think it goes well with the basic theme that if you put a small group of man in the middle of nowhere on their own, sooner or later, they will kill each other. It’s got a hint of Lord Of The Flies about it. Nothing scarier than being part of a group, and the group turning on you. I think of The Descent as a female version of this genre, which is probably why a lot of people like it.

Everything’s Better In 16-Bit.

This Doctor Who as an 16-bit RPG (think Final Fantasy), was too funny not to post. I’m very aware watching this video, that Doctor Who probably would make the world’s greatest RPG. You got just shy of 50 years back-story for a start. Plus eleven playable main-characters. Plus an awesome back-catalogue of villains. As cool as this video is, don’t watch if you haven’t seen season 5 and 6 of Doctor Who. This video is basically massive spoiler, after massive spoiler.

Oncoming Demons.

I heard two rumours why Demons and Demons 2 were delayed on DVD and Blu-Ray from their Xmas release. One was that they found a better print of the film, and they had to start again working from this superior copy. The second was they were all ready to go and then their warehouse and stock was burnt down in the London riots last year. Either way, it’s been a long four months. I can’t wait till the end of the month when they’re finally out (providing there isn’t another riot and all stocks are wiped out again.) The fact they’ve commissioned two free Demons comics to come with the release really sweetens the deal, too.

I heard Sergio Stivaletti wanted to make a Zombies vs. Demons movie. I don’t know how that would work, but God, I’d want to see that movie.

Re:Covered.

As you can see, I decided to dump the previous cover to issue #3, and go with a totally new concept in the end. I thought the art on the first try was lacking, slightly. Also I made the very amateurish mistake of not leaving enough room for the titles. Plus I thought it was too humorous, considering this was the issue when things really start to get nasty. Also, I was going for a Lovecraft tentacle feel with my previous cover (because that’s very in vogue at the moment), but really there’s very little tentacle action going on in this mini-series. It’s maybe a misjudged moment to be jumping on that overcrowded Lovecraft bandwagon, with this cover.

So here is the cover I’m going with. I think cute girls with cattle-prods, and bought over the internet riot-gear is way cooler than tentacle-chic. Plus it sums up my comic better. The theme to both covers is pretty much the same. Certain character seconds away from big, big trouble. I realized, drawing this cover, it’s quite fun drawing chicks in riot-gear. It’s something I’d like to return to. The outfit was meant to look a little more thrown together, and I was going to go with an American-football helmet, but it’s hard enough to tell the attacker is a girl already. Also I like the contrast between riot-gear and polka-dot socks, panties. Tiny feminine clothing and big, bulky gear made for fighting. It’s a fun idea to play with.

DeviantArt copy HERE.